SLI or single ?

littlebigpuff

im running 2 6600gts atm and i think its time for a change .
i have the choice of 2 9800gtx or 1 GTX280
heres the specs

GTX280:
GPU Speed: 602 MHZ
Memory: 1GB
Memory Bit Rate: 512 Bit
Memory Type: GDDR3
Memory Speed: 2214 MHz
Cores: 240

OR

9800 GTX:
GPU Speed: 720 MHz
Memory: 512MB
Memory Bit Rate: 256 Bit
Memory Type: GDDR3
Memory Speed: 2200 MHZ
Cores: 128


current system specs are :
asus p5n-d
Q6600(new heatsink coming soon
2gb crossair @800mhz 4-4-4-12 (2 more gigs comingsoon)
2x 6600gt
300gb hdd sata II
antec 900 coming soon

my question is with new upgrades to my heatsink ,ram and case
should i got for the sli set up or just 1 single GTX280
thanks inadvance!

SacredTbag

either of those cards would do perfectly fine in a single card environment. the sli is going to be faster, but you're going to need one hell of a power supply to feed those things.

the only real reason i could justify sli with the current top dog cards would be if i had a massive monitor (24"+).

Nicholas.Sexton

Benchmark from anandtech, full article here http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3354&p=5


2x 9800GTX+ should be pretty fun


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130376

furball zen

Dont forget, that Crysis doesnt really like SLi, and sometimes even X-Fire :(
Too many sites saying that it (and a few other games too) runs slower, unless of course they made new drivers since the review came out etc.

littlebigpuff

hey everyone thanks for the helpfull posts i have a 32" widescreen monitor and a second 19"widescreen so id proberly go for the gtx 280 ,for the better framerate on higher res ,tho my psu is only 625w would this do for my set up ?

NIGHTHUNT3R

If you are just going for the 1 graphics card, you should be perfectly fine.

If your going with SLI, most likely, no.

SacredTbag

625w is probably not going to be enough for SLI. and, with SLI you can't use dual monitors (not without changing your settings every time you start a game).

obobskivich

unless he's got a ton of junk in the box, or its a junk PSU, 625W will run SLI quite nicely, at least on 8800GT's, and 9800GTX isn't much different

honestly, I wouldn't get 9800GTX, its too expensive, get 2x9800GTX+ (there is a difference, namely, the + is cheaper and faster)

OR
the GTX 280

now, the GTX 280 will use less power, and will use almost no power when it idles (ain't engineering awesome), and will probably be the "easier" solution because its not going to have the same rules as SLI (i.e: code needs to be capable of utilizing multi-processing)

price-wise, a pair of 9800GTX+'s is around $400, a GTX 280 is around $500, I'd take the GTX 280, even with the extra cash, OR, get a 9800GX2 ($299 atm) which is roughly the same performance as the GTX 280, and not quite as bound to the conventional rules of SLI (I have no idea how to explain this, other than voodoo)

rahl07

If you have an obscene amount of money to fling at video, wait for the 4870 X2's. As well as a single 4870 does, one can only imagine.

solidjake

get one gtx280 for now. later you can always get a bigger psu and another gtx280 when the price drops

obobskivich

they've already released benchmarks, they're about 2-8% faster than GTX 280 when they "work", but when it fails its about the same as a 4870, it isn't really worth the initial release MSRP, basically

I'd go with jake's idea honestly, but when you get that second GTX 280 (if), you'll be replacing PSU and stuff too, but it wouldn't be for ~4-8 months, theoretically, so thats not a bad deal

Fenrir

is it wrong that i refuse to buy an ati?

obobskivich

no, just a personal choice, but its technically AMD now

Fenrir

so im still confused on wether or not AMD or nVidia is better any more

obobskivich

well, since the release of the HD 4800 series, they're competitive again, like it was before Radeon HD 2900 flopped

neither is really *better*, the HD 4850 competes with the cards in its price segment (9800GTX/9800GTX+), the 4870 competes with the card in its price segment (GTX 260), and the HD 4870 X2 will compete with the card in its price segment (GTX 280)

nVidia might launch a GX2 board, just to stick it to AMD, but I haven't heard anything supporting that currently (because 4870 X2 isn't publicly released yet, and while the pre-launch benchmarks show it slapping GTX 280 around a little bit, its probably going to a cost a fortune)

so honestly, there isn't a *better* between the two, they offer competitive products at highly competitive prices, and we'll see the fanboy debates start coming back into fullswing (you seem like a younger member, so you probably don't remember what it was like in 2000-2003, when you'd have very fierce debates between Radeon and GeForce, and its really down to personal preference)

Fenrir

not really only got into the Custom rig sceen in the last 3 years (read as 2005-2008)

so ive really just faithfully followed nVidia because tey seem to be the oldest contender in the market (read as most vetren) and their products seem to be really good and then i hear that they are talking smack to intel who at this point seems like their most likly alli. when i orignaly was picing out my rig i was gona go with an AMD but Intell released the Core 2 duo out and that was the last time i ever thought about puting an amd in to a rig. But now that AMD pickd up ATI im not so sure any more.

obobskivich

nVidia isn't the oldest, ATi is, founded in the mid 1980's, nVidia is actually the new-comer, and one of the last discrete graphics companies founded, they just have a really aggressive corporate structure focused on marketing and R&D, they pose a legitimate threat to anyone who competes with them seriously (see: 3dfx, 3DLabs, ULi, Quantum 3D, GigaPixel, etc (did I mention they own basically all of those companies now?, tell you anything?))

nVidia are masters of image, while ATi would constantly be in the shadow, due to having a much less aggressive corporate structure, with the purchase by AMD, AMD is trying to bolster its position in the semiconductor industry, by getting the leg-up on Intel with GPU/CPU integration, and the leg up on nVidia with mobile technology and chipsets (neither of which they've really accomplished, but that was their goal, and they are getting there)

nVidia is becoming more and more, outwardly aggressive, because of the talk on Intel's part involving creating their own discrete GPU, and then integrating that technology into their CPUs, which is a move by Intel to push everyone out of the market (if Intel provides everything, Intel makes the money), AMD wants to do the same, so basically AMD bought its GPU solution, Intel bought a lot of patents and IP, and a ton of engineers, to try and build its GPU solution, and nVidia is working towards a CPU solution

there are a number of people who speculate that Intel will, or has (behind closed doors) made a bid for nVidia (kind of along the lines of Microsoft's bid for Nintendo), to buy their GPU technology, but nVidia is too different to feesably work in that situation (see: HP/Compaq, Ford Premier Automotive Group, etc))

basically they're competitive companies, nVidia just knows how to dress up for the press

Fenrir

well it seams that i was misinformed thank you for clearing that up, so do ou think the AMD/ATI merger will push Intel and nVidia to work closer together? and whats this CPU sulotion that you said nVidia is working on do you mean a whole new competitor to Intell and AMD

obobskivich

nVidia doesn't like working closely with other companies, unless they own the other company, like ULi for example

at least, thats been the story since their creation in the mid 90's

as far as nVidia's CPU solution, they're talking about making their own CPU to compete with Intel and AMD, however there is no written proof of such an occurance (at least afaik)

and the AMD/ATI merger hasn't really pushed anyone so far, because AMD is having massive financial problems, and nobody is really sure if the company is going to stay afloat, especially with speculation that one of the huge Korean or Japanese firms (Samsung or NEC) has made an offer, or at least speculated at making an offer, to buy AMD outright

and both of those companies have the money and resources to do it, so does IBM, which is another theory, and AMD isn't really on the block for its technology, but for its foundaries, which are some of the better ones in the world, honestly I don't see this happening, because Samsung and NEC aren't known for making stupid financial decisions, and IBM isn't that bad either (they all learned from HP and Dell, basically), and given that AMD is bleeding money and running over budget every quarter, it isn't really an appealing buy (you'd lose money on the buy, it isn't worth the few billion dollars of loss just to get a few foundaries, when you can just spend a few billion to build a few foundaries)

littlebigpuff

thanks very much for everyones input ,the 280 gtx will be coming soon :) .

ati(amd) will never win the gpu war as most of there gpus are built more for apps like photoshop/and such programs ,as most Nvidia cards are built for gaming from the get go.
another factor in this matter is the driver support , with Nvidia getting a little slack in this field it still kicks the crap out of ati(amd) and always will .
tho as obobskivich said amd might blow nvidia out of the water with this new gpu/cpu but for now and the next wee while ill stick to nvidia