8800GT SLi

[matty-hodgson]

this is my first post..
does anyone here have any retailers 8800GT in an SLi config?
i just want to know whether it is worth doing as i currently have 1 8800GT and want to know if the performance increase is really noticeable or worth the ecxtra £180

any help will be greatly appreciated

[Webby]

Well on the whole SLI will tend to give a 1.3 - 1.5x increase in frame rates but it is very dependent on which games are being played some will provide negligible boosts while others will fly, oh and you can get a 8800 GT 512MB for as little as £155 currently.

[matty-hodgson]

on these games where the performance will suffer, are these older games that will get amazing performance even when the setup is slightly slower or are some of these games newer games?

and wouldn't i need to get another XFX 8800GT XXX Aplha Dog edition?
or could i get any 8800GT from any vendor?

[matty-hodgson]

Bump

[Lanky123]

You can use any 8800gt you like:

Introducing ForceWare Release 80 Graphics Driver for SLI

As for whether SLI is advisable in your case, I cant say a lot since Ive never used it. It does tend to be newer games that support SLI well, but there are probably exceptions. This list may help if there are any particular games you're interested in, though it doesnt seem too detailed in how well each game scales with an extra card:

Supported Games

Hope this helps.

[NightshadowUK]

Most importantly - what resolution do you game at?

[And as for another XFX 8800GT XXX Aplha Dog, you could just get any GT and overclock it to match your current card's core/memory frequencies.]

[matty-hodgson]

so i don't even need another exact card?
just so long as they're both running the same speeds and both have 512MB of memory?

i game at 1280 x 1024, my monitors max
the vertical resolution won't go high enough on it..
i can get 1920 x 1080 on it, but it won't go to the 1920 x 1200 reso. so 1280 x 1024 is the highest i can get..

also can't get 1600 x 1200

need a new monitor i think.

[matty-hodgson]

thanks for the list, a lot of games have SLi capabilities!
but then again.. for the price of the extra 8800GT i could probably get myself a pretty awesome LCD monitor, got 2 CRTs atm, both 17"..

[NightshadowUK]

Yeah at 1280x1024 SLi is pretty pointless I'm afraid.

[s_kinton]

I agree with Nightshadow. 1280x1024 is not a high resolution these days and most games can be run easily with all eye candy on at that res using a previous gen card. Your current card should run anything maxed out at that res.

SLi would be largely wasted for you and I wouldn't recommend it unless you game at 1680x1050 upwards.

[sawyen]

I have SLI for 8800GT and yes it is rather pointless having SLI for that 1280x1024 resolution..

There's ONE and ONLY ONE exception, which is Crysis..

[matty-hodgson]

thanks for all the help guys
much appreciated..

i've decided i'm going to treat myself to a nice (hopefully 19") LCD monitor.

would preferably like 1 with a high resolution.

[s_kinton]

thanks for all the help guys
much appreciated..

i've decided i'm going to treat myself to a nice (hopefully 19") LCD monitor.

would preferably like 1 with a high resolution.

If you can push a little further, 22" is a great sweet spot for size/price/resolution. It would compliment your 8800GT much better than a 19" with a lower res

[Webby]

22" also all seem to be TN panels which (if i understand correctly) means the colour depth is lower meaning your picture quality is lower in terms of colour reproduction.

Now I have a 22" and I find its fine (especially since its a budget model and I dont use it for anything that colour reproduction is really important) but compared to some other monitors I use I can tell the difference, my partners monitor she uses for Photoshop etc. The main problem comes with trying to find out what panel a monitor uses as not all list it in the specs. You can also get 20" panels which support 1680*1050 so they may be a better place to look if colour depth is important.

Monitor Specifications

Link goes to a page which explains about the different panel types, benefits etc.