Need some peoples opinions...

**NyghtEntreri** · 10-14-07, 05:30 PM

Ok guys... A friend of mine recently bought an 8800 GTS (320mb) version.... After about 2 days of having it he wants to buy a 8800 GTX Ultra... lol... He tells me that he would sell me his GTS for only 200 bucks... ( What a good friend

)

Anyways Right now I have an 8800 GTS 320mb.. version and getting a second one would let me put it in SLI... Which would be sexy as hell...

But I am not sure if it is better for me to go SLI... or just save up and get an 8800 GTX ultra as well...

Pros and Cons... would be nice as well

I have never gone SLI so need someone to spread some light here :P

**rock_lobster** · 10-14-07, 05:34 PM

2 of those in sli would be sweet, but would it make that much of a difference to justify $200? I say just play with what you have, since it's already more than enough.

**MotoZ** · 10-14-07, 05:35 PM

To go SLI the cards need to be identical.

**NyghtEntreri** · 10-14-07, 05:35 PM

Lol true.. But I mean its like 70 bucks cheaper... Lol its like on Sale... haha..

And He has the Same exact 8800 GTS version i do... 320mb evGA Superclocked

**HeavyG** · 10-14-07, 05:38 PM

Eh, for $200, why not?? Seems like a good price, but I dont know if you will notice a real performance bump. Maybe with Crysis using DX10, but not for BF and Source games.

**scuba_steve** · 10-14-07, 05:39 PM

pay the 200 and mail it to me imo

**QuickLightning** · 10-14-07, 05:40 PM

If you're not playing anything requiring that much power there really isn't any real point to buying it. I'd wait.

**NyghtEntreri** · 10-14-07, 05:41 PM

Ahh... I guess i might as well save it and wait and save for any new Nvidia video cards that may come out :P

**SapiensErus** · 10-14-07, 05:41 PM

I have SLI 8800 GTS 640's.

The fact is, DX 9 has a small frame buffer (4 frames I believe). So the overhead in distributing the frames between the cards doesnt pay off unless you are running pretty high resolution (like greater than 1280x1024 for sure).

DX 10 is supposed to support a larger frame buffer and has physics processing for eye candy it can distribute between the GPU's. As it stands right now though, DX 10 wont be useful until DX 10.1 comes around which will require different hardware anyway <grumble>. So with Vista, SLI 8800's, and a DX 10 game you may get benefits in the less than 1280x1024 world.

I did extensive testing and I get better performance (by about 10 FPS) in ALL my games when using ONE GPU. That is "Single GPU rendering mode." I have a 1280x1024 display. If you have a larger display you will get a benefit from SLI. Also, I had to upgrade my power supply when I went SLI 8800 because they require a good bit of juice.

Right now, I wish I had saved myself 392 bucks and had only one 8800. I may buy a bigger display later this year just so I can feel good about having SLI.

But if your display is less than 1600xwhatever, dont bother with SLI for now. I wouldnt suggest upgrading to a GTX either. It is more powerful but it is comparable enough to the GTS that my roomate using an 8800 Ultra and my GTS produce very similar results at the same display size. Wait until the DX 10.1 9 series stuff comes out. Alternatively, SLI gives you big spender bragging rights

My 2 cents as an 8800 GTS SLI user.

**SapiensErus** · 10-14-07, 05:42 PM

Originally Posted by ebaconjr

To go SLI the cards need to be identical.

Not true for the 8 series video cards. But they will be limited to as much memory as whichever is smallest.

EDIT: to be precise they do need to be the same chipset type 8800 with another 8800, etc. But they could be an 8800 GTS 640 and an 8800 GTS 320 one from eVGA and the other from BFG. But for earlier cards they need to be identical down the manufacturer and model.