another one: 9800pro vs 6600GT

[shiato storm]

i'm wondering; do any 6600gt's come as is (without games bundle etc) and thus be cheaper or are most of them bundled...?

[mr_anderson187]

Go into the tray tools options

lol, what?

im using the latest from the nvidia site atm just downloaded them yesterday, but see no option


@shiato: mine came without the bundle, but it wasnt the cheapest, ive gatherd your not a hardcore gamer, so this would be a good bet for you

[Purple]

http://www.planetmicro.co.uk/product...ource=dealtime

You can get SLI on AGP cards - i wasnt aware upgrade time

[Olly1234]

Think thats probably an error with the advert as you need 2 pcx 16 slots for SLi and the agp standard only has 1 so I wouldn;t expect Sli to migrate to AGP

[shiato storm]

i doubt theyd slap two agp slots on a mobo either...especially since pci is clocking faster speeds.

right, so I can get a 9800 pro for £125 (Lowestonweb) which may be the r360 core, or just r350 - bit of a toss up gamble as to which one you get, either way its the 256bit version and apparently on that hynix ram or what ever.
sapphire 9800pro for £135 at komplett, 256bit version, does what it says on the tin and made by a decent enough manufacturer. komplett are a decent on-line retailer too so not a bad deal.
OR
XFX 6600gt for 145 at planet micro...[bog standard 6600gt as discussed at length previously...
or the MSI version at Komplett for £150 all in. my mobo is an nForce MSI...would these two get along in that case?
(all prices are inc. vat and post)
I'd not want to spend more than £150 on a gfx card EVER (!) so these all come quite high or to my limit, i originally was planning on less than £100 but some how got convinced otherwise

[Olly1234]

Well i'd still say maybe go with the Galaxy as it's clocked higher out of the box..However...You should still really go for the newer 6600GT's rather than the 9800 Pro's, I have one and they are very good but the 6600 is technically better, minus the 128bit memory, but that isn;t really an issue unless your looking to do above 1280 x 1024 with AA & AF as then the memory bandwith plays an issue, anything below that and it's core speed and mem speed and it's incredibly fast for the bucks.

As i said I had doom 3 running at 88 fps last night on the Sli with a single 6600GT, get about 50 on the 9800 pro..

[Betty_Swallocks]

iI'd not want to spend more than £150 on a gfx card EVER (!)

That's what I always said until I was viciously attacked by a £300 6800GT which demanded to come home from the shops with me

[mike_w]

The 6600GT seems to beat the 9800 Pro, except when the resolution and AA are turned up.

[Purple]

i doubt theyd slap two agp slots on a mobo either...especially since pci is clocking faster speeds.

2 AGPs prob not. What if you had a mobo that had an AGP and PCI-Express. Insert a PCI-E SLI card and an AGP SLI card and link em together, no?

[Olly1234]

Would be interesting but the buses work in an entirely different manner so I don;t belive it'd be possible

[Purple]

Would it not be the job of the SLI implemenation to sync the bus? i mean AGP is half the speed so why not do a third of the calculations?

[mike_w]

Would it not be the job of the SLI implemenation to sync the bus? i mean AGP is half the speed so why not do a third of the calculations?

The AGP bus may only be half the speed of PCI Express, but even the latest and greatest cards don't use all the speed of AGP. A 6600GT on AGP will be the same speed as a 6600GT on PCI Express (assuming that clocks are all the same).

[Purple]

The AGP bus may only be half the speed of PCI Express, but even the latest and greatest cards don't use all the speed of AGP. A 6600GT on AGP will be the same speed as a 6600GT on PCI Express (assuming that clocks are all the same).

very true, so 1:1 , the AGP pipe line is asynchronus with PCI, the PCI-E is synchronus with itself so timing issues may be present but its just a case of allocating the work load correctly (by the drivers)

has anyone actually seen an AGP SLI card??

[Olly1234]

I can see where your going but I fear it's impossible as either AGP or PCIE has to have it's own dedicated channel to the CPU/Memory and I don;t think you could have two on the same board

[Purple]

what about dual processor

ok i accept it is a mistake. I really want it to be so though as i cant afford to upgrade my whole system to get PCI-E for SLI and i aint getting an AGP card just so that when i do upgrade to PCI-E it either wont have an AGP slot or it wont be SLIable

[Olly1234]

I know it's a pain in the behind..Thing is an SLi board isn't that much really

Keep your exisitng memory and psu and case and get a amd64 3200 with an Sli board and it won't be that much