What is faster

[RDL]

OK, I'm just about to confirm my new pc.

This is the spec:

AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Winchester 90nm (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-112-AM)
£159.95 £159.95
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 Plus 200GB ST3200822AS SATA 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-016-SE)
£71.50 £143.00
Asus A8N-SLi Deluxe nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-087-AS)
£104.95 £104.95
Vantec Nexus NXP-201 Fan Controller - Black (OA-007-VT)
£12.50 £12.50
Tagan TG480-U01 480W ATX2.0 Silent PSU (CA-000-TG)
£57.50 £57.50
Delta 120mm Focussed Flow Fan (EHE) (FG-003-DE)
£14.95 £14.95
Corsair 1GB DDR XMS3200XL Platinum TwinX (2x512MB) CAS2 (MY-049-CS)
£149.95 £149.95
Plextor PX-716A Dual Layer 16x4x DVD±RW ReWriter - Retail (CD-024-PL)
£72.80 £72.80
Logitech MX1000 Laser Cordless Mouse (KB-039-LG)
£39.95 £39.95
XFX GeForce 6800 GT 256MB DDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) & DOOM 3 Bundle - Retail (PVT45GUDF7) (GX-025-XF)
£279.95 £279.95
Netgear WG311 54Mbps Wireless PCI Adapter (NW-011-NG)
£26.55 £26.55
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g) (AC-000-AC)
£5.75 £5.75
YS-TECH FD1238 120mm Fan - 4 Pin (FG-004-YS)
£9.95 £19.90
ThermalRight XP-120 (Socket 754/939/478) Heatsink (HS-017-TR)
£28.95 £28.95
Subtotal £1,116.65
VAT £195.42
Total £1,312.07

Basically, I'm wondering, are two Geforce 6600GT's (any brand, but preferably the fastest and best clockers) faster than one 6800GT? I could buy two, but adding on a monitor and a keyboard to this pc, it is going to cost a lot, so I would prefer sticking with one right now since all games will run perfect on the one.

I will be playing games at 1600x1200 with full AA and AF on. So what will give me the best, most playable frame rate?

[nvening]

Most people would agre that 2 6600GTs are faster but you must remenber that it only has 128bit ram insted of 256 on the 6800GT etc, personlly i would stick with the 6800gt, apparently the XFX are the best, (and they are pcie)

[RDL]

I'm not bothered about the price of the 6600's/6800's, but yeah, I was gona go for the XFX if I went for the 6800GT.

I just wondered that if you have two 6600GT's, aren't they still going to be slower than a single 6800GT at 1600x1200 with full AA and AF, as they don't like that high a resolution.

[Raggy]

Not with full AA and AF one. Maybe someone else can tell me if I'm right or not, but I'm not sure even with this setup if your'll happy with your frame rates. Many people are happy with about 25-35 fps, that's actually really playable, but you might have dips below that rang under system stress.

[Spunkey]

SLi 6600s capabilitys decrease comparative to a single 6800 GT as you increase res and details. So if you want to run 1600x1200 full AA and AF, you want a GT. You can then whack another one in in 6 months time should the mood take you.

Hexus 6600 SLi review - http://www.hexus.net/content/reviews...JsX3BhZ2U9NA==

[Detective]

So if you want to run 1600x1200 full AA and AF, you want a GT. You can then whack another one in in 6 months time should the mood take you.

I think I'm right in saying that both cards have to be EXACTLY the same, though, otherwise there are compatibilty problems.

[pudds]

id say 1 6800GT, most will overclock easily to ultra speeds 400/1100.
2 6600gt's win out on a few benchmarks with low quality settings but overall 6800gt's are better especially if your thinking long term. The extra power of the 6800gt will really show as new games are released.
if 2 6600gt's were cheaper then its an option but as they are more expensive id forget it.
The two cards do have to be identical but i don't see any reason why in 6 months time i couldn't buy a different 6800GT add it to my SLI system and just flash them both with the same bios.
Also id maybe go for the gigabyte,dfi or msi board. Ive had the asus and its a bit buggy. There have been about 11 bios updates since release and none of the major problems have been fixed (problems with sata drives,tccd memory,voltage options)

[Rod911]

I'd actually rather get a 6800GT. When in SLI mode, the system will only be able to access 128Mb, and not 256Mb. Also, if you Google up a few reviews, you'll find an SLI'ed 6600GT is only a tad bit quicker than a 6800GT, but once you crank up the resolution and AA and AF, the 6800GT pulls ahead.

[RDL]

I'd actually rather get a 6800GT. When in SLI mode, the system will only be able to access 128Mb, and not 256Mb. Also, if you Google up a few reviews, you'll find an SLI'ed 6600GT is only a tad bit quicker than a 6800GT, but once you crank up the resolution and AA and AF, the 6800GT pulls ahead.

That's exactly as I thought, I also read the hexus review which confirmed this.

Cheers guys.

[Thorsson]

I think I'm right in saying that both cards have to be EXACTLY the same, though, otherwise there are compatibilty problems.

No, you're not right. I've read of at least two systems with SLI'd 6800GTs from different manufacturers. What I suspect is true that some of the more esoteric versions may have difficulties, so you're probably better off going with something close to reference.

And it's a 6800GT all the way over two 6600GTs for games, even after they fix all the issues. As we know video is a different ball game.

[Detective]

I've read different reviews showing different cards - 6800s of different types - wouldn't work. Two companies who also build gaming rigs told me the same thing aswell. I'll stick with and X850PE until things are a bit more established I think.

[RoGuE|SaBeR]

Surely for the sake of upgradability go for the 6800 and then in the future SLI two of them?

Or isn't that possible and I've made an ass of myself...?

[Spunkey]

it is possible to SLi two different make cards, as Thorsson says, you need to get two similar cards.

Something like a Gainward and a no name Evesham job probably arent going to work, because they are opposite ends of the scale. the Evesham being pretty much identical to the reference design, and the Gainward having the nuts tweaked off it.

Where as something like an XFX and Saphire/Powercolor are most likely quite compatible and will handshake in SLi.

[Butcher]

The 6800GTs higher memory bandwidth makes it a better choice for high levels of AA/AF. also, fi you're serious about 1600x1200 full AA/AF you're looking at SLIed 6800GT/Us for high frame rates, 6600GTs just won't cut it.

As for different manufacturers card's SLIing, it's doable, but not easy - you'll have to flash one of them with the bios of the other. The drivers will refuse to SLI them if they don't have matching BIOSes, getting two of the same make is the easier option.

Dunno about XFX being the best - XFX support is virtually non-existant, but the cards run reasonably well (FWIW I have XFX cards).

[Thorsson]

This makes me wonder whether anyone has done a test of what differences there are in the BIOSes, outside flashing a different Logo on screen for a few secs. Could this be the next tweak?

[Butcher]

I flashed an eVGA (I think, might have been PNY) bios on to mine, didn't seem to make a lot of odds. Main reason for modding bioses currently is to alter the core voltage (you can bump them to 1.5V from the default 1.3V).