8800GTS SLI, OR SINGLE GTX?

Putting together new conroe/680i system, keeping my sony E500 that's been serving me sence 2001 and at least 1 more year. May go 22 or 24" wide screen when I feel technology is worth spending $800 or whatever ( seems every other month there is a new TFT, or response time , or somthing ) Single gtx seems to be enough for my needs (games ) but Ill spring for two gts if it will kick ass. My ps is 750 scilencer w/ 2pci-e.Havent seen much on GTS SLI so input/opinion apreciated !

well if you tend to upgrade at the whiff of every new product, get a single 8800GTX, easier to sell down the line, otherwise, get the dual 8800GTS, because it will be faster for longer.

Im thinking long term,my current set up is an xp 1800 w/ asus av266 2001 set up. Im defintly not able to impulse purchase the hottest new stuff while its still warm from the factory, but Im pretty excited about a new system at the moment, and with the thumbs up from the other financial authority persons in the household (i.e. window of oppertunity )I want to make the best use of what will keep me , I guess on par with my hobby, for a few years anyway.I was almost going to wait untill ddr3 surfaced, but frankly, Im sick of friggin waiting .

I have yet to see a decent GTS SLI overclocked review. The gts @ stock speed is nice but it gains SOOOOO much from o/c. I cant imagine it would be that much slower t han a couple GTX in sli.

Pritty much the feelin Im gettin. Im just trying to figure out the shder unit thing....is 2 x 96 =192 shader units , or is there some cross cancelation going on and its no better than 128 on single GTX ? same w/ bit interface, is 320 x 2 more bits in-yur-face or not? Oy.

Well, you also need a little cpu horse power to get the most out of an 8800 SLI setup.. that's not to say it's not worth it unless you have a highly OC'd c2d, but just something to think about.. I am finding a single 8800GTX is facilitating my needs quite nicely for 1920x1200 gaming with high IQ.. but to use your words, two GTS cards would kick some ass.. it's just that we're not seeing the fairly large % gains in pairing cards up in SLI that we did with other gen SLI'd cards unless you have like 4ghz+ c2d or a kentsfield. Anyways.. two of these cards would leave you sitting pretty for many games which are coming out in 2007.. so if you have the funds and want the ass kicking power, then go for SLI I say... either way it's very easy to add another 8800GTX later if you go that route also.

I game @ 1920x1200 on a 24" dell lcd. I dont plan on that changing this upgrade path.

Basically i play battlefield2142... pretty much it. Ill play some games just to see how they look/run but single player games cant hold my attention anymore.

With my current setup (sig) running beef2142 @ 1920x1200 with all ingame settings maxed 4xaa, im gettin a steady 70fps, but sometimes with arty etc i get drops into 40's.

When i ran this game at 1600x1200 I would get a solid 90 with drops into the 60's.

From what ive gathered since im gettin a great o/c on my gts i wouldnt gain that much with a stock gtx, and the gtx o/c isnt as dramatic.

At the same time i dont think sli is doin very much for this gen, maybe a driver thing.

Hmm......

SLI "isn't doing much" because of cpu power limitations.. once we see some quad cores get more into the SLI rig population I think we'll see some serious numbers turned in from them.. as much as the previous generations I am going to speculate.. anyways.. the GTS is a great card and I think their cores are so OCable because of the masked out ROP and stream processing units... same as the other gen nvidia cards.. in general, the gpus of same gen with less "pipes" tend to OC better.. but an OC'd GTX still has the leg up.. but then again the GTS is $150 less in most cases.. so it boils down to if you have the disposable cash for the more powerful card and want that extra power.

For now get one GTX and clock it.
When you need more power get another one.

I didnt actualy state it but gtx sli is not an option not only is it potentialy 350 or so bux more, but I only have 2 pci-e power conectors on my 750slcr. ( witch I purchased a couple of weeks ago,they released a 750 quad pci-e today,Its all good). and want any head room on my rails for OCing. D U C? Besides I think 900+ is enough for a vidio card set up, I realy doo.

oh - totally.. also, you should be able to get away with two 8800GTX's if you really wanted to.. they come with the 4pin molex to 6pin pci-e power adapters.. and your psu should handle it.. but two GTS cards is paaaaalenty of power.

lol get one GTS and get a second when you need to
Thats likely to be when games with enhanced physics appear.

Maybee Nvidia should introduce the " Nvidia Mastercard " Earn double points on every purchase of a vidio card to put towards the purchase of a physics card !

I say get the 8800GTX for the sole purpose of upgradability. If it is enough, then leave it. If not, get another one later. It makes the most logical sense.

Considering that there are numerous issues with crackling and popping sound while SLi is enabled on some motherboards and sound card combinations, I'd avoid SLi right now.

Right now due to that very issue, I can not run my system in SLi. Therefore my secondary 8800GTX is just sitting in my machine looking pretty.

Dan_D said:

Considering that there are numerous issues with crackling and popping sound while SLi is enabled on some motherboards and sound card combinations, I'd avoid SLi right now.

Right now due to that very issue, I can not run my system in SLi. Therefore my secondary 8800GTX is just sitting in my machine looking pretty.

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when do you think a SLi motherboard will be available that wont have those issues? or is it an issue with the video cards themselves?

is the new asus 680i having the same thing?

do the sound problems occur with a real sound setup like a RME, M-Audio, etc or just with onboard and creative crap?

Its lookin like single GTX so far....

SLI has never been a good upgrade path. It's great for people who want the baddest thing on the block, but the "get one card now, add another later" idea never works out, because you have to spend more on an SLI mobo and have a beefy enough PSU for 2 video cards, yet when you start to need the second card it always ends up cheaper and better to just sell the existing one toward the price of a newer card.

arthur_tuxedo said:

SLI has never been a good upgrade path. It's great for people who want the baddest thing on the block, but the "get one card now, add another later" idea never works out, because you have to spend more on an SLI mobo and have a beefy enough PSU for 2 video cards, yet when you start to need the second card it always ends up cheaper and better to just sell the existing one toward the price of a newer card.

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QFT. "Get one now get one later"? Avoid the potential pitfalls and do some good single-card planning.

arthur_tuxedo said:

SLI has never been a good upgrade path. It's great for people who want the baddest thing on the block, but the "get one card now, add another later" idea never works out, because you have to spend more on an SLI mobo and have a beefy enough PSU for 2 video cards, yet when you start to need the second card it always ends up cheaper and better to just sell the existing one toward the price of a newer card.

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I see your argument but I respectfully disagree with the "never works out" part. There -are- issues with planning for the power needs.. that's true, but lots of SLI motherboard are about the same price as non SLI boards.. seems like all Nforce chipset boards from now on will be SLI capable, so that will become even less of a problem if you're wanting to run with the latest Nforce chipset.. The power thing is an issue, but it doesn't deter all people.. and more powerful PSUs are becoming less expensive and more common in peoples rigs... anyways, I have read numerous posts about people who had one card and were finally upgrading to SLI after running with one card for a while and it was as easy as adding the new card, installing the drivers again, and all of that.

I think Dan D has a good point tho, about the sound issues people are having with SLI on the 680i boards.. The temp fix for that is to run the video cards in pci-e slots 1 & 2, rather than 1 & 3... you do sacrifice some cooler temps as the cards are pretty close together, but it appears to be a decent workaround until other better fixes (bios) come out. So there's that.

When I said it never works out, I mean that selling and upgrading to a newer single card has always been faster and cheaper. Getting a 6800 GT and then another one later seemed like a no-brainer at the time, yet by the time one 6800 was straining, you could have spent the same money upgrading to a 7800 series that was faster than two 6800's in SLI. Then more recently, I'm sure a lot of people got a 7 series planning to add another, only to discover that the 8 series destroys 2 of them in SLI. That's why I say that SLI is great for ultra performance, but it's not a viable upgrade path.

Dan_D said:

Considering that there are numerous issues with crackling and popping sound while SLi is enabled on some motherboards and sound card combinations, I'd avoid SLi right now.

Right now due to that very issue, I can not run my system in SLi. Therefore my secondary 8800GTX is just sitting in my machine looking pretty.

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Not to highjack but i disabled onboard and went to my Audigy Zs and no more crackling

revenant said:

I see your argument but I respectfully disagree with the "never works out" part. There -are- issues with planning for the power needs.. that's true, but lots of SLI motherboard are about the same price as non SLI boards.. seems like all Nforce chipset boards from now on will be SLI capable, so that will become even less of a problem if you're wanting to run with the latest Nforce chipset.. The power thing is an issue, but it doesn't deter all people.. and more powerful PSUs are becoming less expensive and more common in peoples rigs... anyways, I have read numerous posts about people who had one card and were finally upgrading to SLI after running with one card for a while and it was as easy as adding the new card, installing the drivers again, and all of that.

I think Dan D has a good point tho, about the sound issues people are having with SLI on the 680i boards.. The temp fix for that is to run the video cards in pci-e slots 1 & 2, rather than 1 & 3... you do sacrifice some cooler temps as the cards are pretty close together, but it appears to be a decent workaround until other better fixes (bios) come out. So there's that.

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I think the argument below is the MOST important one:

"yet when you start to need the second card it always ends up cheaper and better to just sell the existing one toward the price of a newer card"

This is assuming you wait for a refresh or for one generation to pass. (7800->8800 or 6800->7800). Under those situations, it's never worth it to go SLI. Don't forget the added premium of the SLI board. You say there's none. I say that's false. Back in the day when I got my AMD system, where the SLI board was $220, the equivalent non-SLI board was $170 (this is comparing DFI nf4 SLI-D to DFI nf4 Ultra-D -- all prices in Canadian dollars).

Single 8800 GTX. Put thar 200/250 $ into the monitor, you said you wanted a 24", dell 2407 is around 700-800 $. If you put that extra 200/250 $ you have 950-1050, enough for a Westinghouse 37w3 (999$).

Cyrilix said:

I think the argument below is the MOST important one:

"yet when you start to need the second card it always ends up cheaper and better to just sell the existing one toward the price of a newer card"

This is assuming you wait for a refresh or for one generation to pass. (7800->8800 or 6800->7800). Under those situations, it's never worth it to go SLI. Don't forget the added premium of the SLI board. You say there's none. I say that's false. Back in the day when I got my AMD system, where the SLI board was $220, the equivalent non-SLI board was $170 (this is comparing DFI nf4 SLI-D to DFI nf4 Ultra-D -- all prices in Canadian dollars).

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When the first SLI boards came out, there was a small premium, but that (imo) is not nearly as much of a factor now days and has not been for a while so it seems to me.. Also, people hacked SLI out of non-SLI boards (DFI) so there were ways to get SLI out of less expensive boards... Anyways, the new nforce boards are all SLI capable now.. er, well, I don't know of one which is not.. so the past is the past.. we're in the now..

The obsolescense rate for video card hardware -does- impose a bit of a crunch of the time to upgrade, "should I sell this card and get the next gen or should I get another of this gen??" until the 8800 series 2x of the old gen was > than one of the new gen.. anyways.. and that's only if you wait that long. I saw quite a few people grab a 2nd 7800GT before the 7900 series came out... same with 7900GTs and before the 8800 came out.. etc.. and so forth..

anyways.. I think this all boils down to certain upgrade paths are not for everyone.. a lot of folks like to discount the SLI upgrade path because of the factors you guys point out, and it's not to say those are not valid in some cases, but they're not absolutes... it depends on when you buy things, how fast your need/want for more power hits you, your disposable $$ supply.. anyways.. I will say that it doesn't work out as much as Nvidia had hyped it to be, like this awesome upgrade path.. it's decent if you plan well and buy at the right times.. gah. ok, well, I think we prolly see each others point by now.. nuff said.

don't get either, wait until march and see what ATI pushes out and then the refresh from Nvidia. THEN make your choice or you'll be kicking yourself for rushing

I've had SLI since there was SLI. Sure the boards(MB) were a bit pricey at the start, but Ive got one right now (P5N-SLI) that was 100 dollars and is like a rock......it runs 2 7600 GT KOs and can game nearly everything on a 2005 Dell widescreen.
My other system is a 7900 GTX SLI that can run anything at 1900x1200 on a 2405 widescreen.

In my small opinion, if you want to play at the extremes.......thats what you have to be willing to do.

That being said......I think SLI is an excellent path for upgrades......games are always challenging the graphics and physics and will continue to do so. Adding a second graphics card allows one to enjoy most games and anticipate doing so longer. The second card is usually much cheaper than a single new generation card.
You just have to think ahead and purchase a SLI MB.
I'm looking forward to a P5N32-E SLI board next week, initially with a single 8800 GTX.
Once the new games come along in the summer, I'm sure I'll need to add the second GTX.

magoo said:

I've had SLI since there was SLI. Sure the boards(MB) were a bit pricey at the start, but Ive got one right now (P5N-SLI) that was 100 dollars and is like a rock......it runs 2 7600 GT KOs and can game nearly everything on a 2005 Dell widescreen.
My other system is a 7900 GTX SLI that can run anything at 1900x1200 on a 2405 widescreen.

In my small opinion, if you want to play at the extremes.......thats what you have to be willing to do.

That being said......I think SLI is an excellent path for upgrades......games are always challenging the graphics and physics and will continue to do so. Adding a second graphics card allows one to enjoy most games and anticipate doing so longer. The second card is usually much cheaper than a single new generation card.
You just have to think ahead and purchase a SLI MB.
I'm looking forward to a P5N32-E SLI board next week, initially with a single 8800 GTX.
Once the new games come along in the summer, I'm sure I'll need to add the second GTX.

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Just one note about your argument..."the second card is usually much cheaper than a single new generation card". You're right there, but how much cheaper is it compared to a single new generation card AFTER you've sold your current card. You have to factor in the money you get from that.

And to revenant: Yes, I wholeheartedly agree with your last sentence.

so with new games w/ dx10 around the corner ( witch is why we are all buying new vid cards....right?...right. )like crisis, ect. from what Ive seen look prity realistic with shadows and what not, and Im in no position to spend 1300 bux, nor do I want to rely shell out that,( considerind next gen cards, whatever they may be...) perhaps GTS SLI set up will keep me " sittin pritty " for a while . Consideration being the demand of new games on 1 GTX

p-n-p said:

so with new games w/ dx10 around the corner ( witch is why we are all buying new vid cards....right?...right. )like crisis, ect. from what Ive seen look prity realistic with shadows and what not, and Im in no position to spend 1300 bux, nor do I want to rely shell out that,( considerind next gen cards, whatever they may be...) perhaps GTS SLI set up will keep me " sittin pritty " for a while . Consideration being the demand of new games on 1 GTX

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To answer your question in brackets.
I dont think very many people will be buying a new graphics card only because DX10 is round the corner. If that is the reason, they are better of waiting for DX10 games to be released.

Its more likely they are buying a DX10 part because they need more power AND DX10 is round the corner so its not worth buying another card that doesnt support DX10.

lee0539 said:

when do you think a SLi motherboard will be available that wont have those issues? or is it an issue with the video cards themselves?

is the new asus 680i having the same thing?

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It clearly seems like a driver issue, and I don't think it's specific to the eVGA motherboard or the 680i chipset specifically. (Hardware wise)