6800GT SLI or X850XT?

[Gamingphreek]

OK you seem to have decided that without any of our help. So far it makes no sense right now. Asus A8N-SLI= $168; 6800GT from Monarch is $425. Which equals $588 which is still $102 below the X850XTPE.

I see on their website no mention of Sales Tax and shipping is free.

That is $102 towards something else you might want or even another 6800GT which by SLIing will give you 90% more performance than the X850XTPE. For 588 you get 90% of the performance of the X850XTPE with money left over.

A8N-SLI

And then the link from above.

-Kevin

 

[my sons father]

I also had to think this one out, because I'm a big Nvidia fan. But the answer came with a $499 x850 xt pci-e from Newegg. I have a 21" Dell LCD with native 1600x1200, and I need everything I can get. The 6800 ultra single just doesn't have the power to turn on AA and AF at that setting, but the 850 does. I would have needed 2 GT's, but I figure that by late summer the new generation of cards will be out, and I'll only have to worry about selling one video card, and not be stuck with what could be a dead-end motherboard design. Also, the money I saved will go towards a better CPU, which will close the gap in performance somewhat.
Now granted if I didn't have kids to feed, I might be running off to buy 2 ultras, but the smart thing is to get the best bang for your buck and keep an eye on the future.
P.S. When you do get your LCD, watch out for the refresh rate. It should be under 16ms or you'll get ghosts.

 

[RobotOfHatred]

Canadian Prices.

I have found an SLI mobo for 229 (cheapest, even from American sights, 186 American). Plus, even if they dont charge tax there, the Canada gov't will charge me my 15%.

Its cheaper for me to get an X850XT.


And Yes I took your help, If you seem to recall, other people thought that getting a X850XT might be a smarter idea.

Ill just stick to it.

http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041222/vga_charts-09.html

A 6800Ultra SLI only gives about a 10 FPS boost in HL2 (Which is what Ill be playing 90%). And a 6800GT gives something of a 6 FPS boost. Not worht the $600

 

[my sons father]

I think Half life2 is being capped by the CPU. I play Farcry, and SLI would help me out more, but it just isn't worth the cost right now, at least for me. If I was playing online, perhaps it would make more sense.

 

[zakee00]

http://hardocp.com/article.html?art=Njk2LDQ=
scroll down to the last test; SLi has alot more to offer then the x800xt pe. i mean, its almost twice the card
what it really NEEDS is more memory; this card is actually limited by the 256MB at 16x12 8xsaa 16x af. in the future you will see much greater performance differences between the x800xt pe rig and the 6800GT sli rig. (btw you can prolly overclock those gt's to ultras easliy, but if you dont want to i see why )
nick

 

[Gamingphreek]

Originally posted by: my sons father
I also had to think this one out, because I'm a big Nvidia fan. But the answer came with a $499 x850 xt pci-e from Newegg. I have a 21" Dell LCD with native 1600x1200, and I need everything I can get. The 6800 ultra single just doesn't have the power to turn on AA and AF at that setting, but the 850 does. I would have needed 2 GT's, but I figure that by late summer the new generation of cards will be out, and I'll only have to worry about selling one video card, and not be stuck with what could be a dead-end motherboard design. Also, the money I saved will go towards a better CPU, which will close the gap in performance somewhat.
Now granted if I didn't have kids to feed, I might be running off to buy 2 ultras, but the smart thing is to get the best bang for your buck and keep an eye on the future.
P.S. When you do get your LCD, watch out for the refresh rate. It should be under 16ms or you'll get ghosts.

What 6800U are you running??

I understand canadian prices. This is an American sight that ships to Canada therefore the price is $168 plus any tax which i HIGHLY doubt will be anywhere near $102.

A 6800Ultra SLI only gives about a 10 FPS boost in HL2 (Which is what Ill be playing 90%). And a 6800GT gives something of a 6 FPS boost. Not worht the $600

Evidently SLI isn't properly enabled plus that test, at the beginning, is simply CPU bound because in no way is 2 GPU going full speed only going to give you +-5FPS.

-Kevin

 

[Tiamat]

I hate to be the odd ball, but why not just settle for a X800XL. Much cheaper than the others, nad you probably can overclock it. No disabled pipelines.

Hmm... 400US$? I thought it was 300US$ :frown:

 

[Gamingphreek]

Well the $300 is MSRP, however it is struggling to get below 400 at the moment.

*Sigh* i miss the days when Top o' the Line Graphics cards retailed for $400, the times when Graphics cards, M/Bs and CPU's weren't paper launched (for the most part they were on schedule) THOSE were the days :beer:.

-Kevin

 

[RobotOfHatred]

Originally posted by: zakee00
http://hardocp.com/article.html?art=Njk2LDQ=
scroll down to the last test; SLi has alot more to offer then the x800xt pe. i mean, its almost twice the card
what it really NEEDS is more memory; this card is actually limited by the 256MB at 16x12 8xsaa 16x af. in the future you will see much greater performance differences between the x800xt pe rig and the 6800GT sli rig. (btw you can prolly overclock those gt's to ultras easliy, but if you dont want to i see why )
nick

Trust me. If I could afford the $1500 (CDN) needed for 2 Ultras. I'd be camping infront of a store right now.

 

[Pete]

No, you'd have paid some poorer shlub to do the camping (and installing) for you. ;D

 

[Corporate Thug]

i would go for the x850xt

 

[Patrick Wolf]

Why doesn't anyone mention ebay for X850's? Good prices.

Hold your breath before you click here.

 

[caz67]

6800GT without a doubt.. Why buy old rehashed ATI crap...

 

[my sons father]

I scanned ebay before I bought, and there really wasn't much of a price break, and some of the sellers were questionable. I prefer buying from a place I can rely on, but I made an exception and bought from Newegg.
This will probably turn into an ATI vs. Nvidia arguement instead of best bang for the buck. Perhaps if you asked if a single ultra would make more sense over 2 GT's, then subsituted the ultra for the x850 xt, you would have your answer.

 

[TheDude20165]

Is there any difference between OEM and non?

 

[Gamingphreek]

OEM is only the card. Retail comes in a special manf package with all the accessories and generally a better warranty.

-Kevin

 

[Avalon]

Originally posted by: humey
In 2 years u will have no DX as its known now, it will be called Avalon and is on test now and will ship when Dx10 was to be released.

Avalon is going to be avail for xp but will be in longhorn.

I did a double take when I saw my name. That's cool. lol.

 

[my sons father]

Anybody got some old voodoo sli's for sale? Man, those were so great, weren't they? Until people realized they were just a gimmic to get you to buy 2 video cards! And so is this. Gigabyte has shown the future of sli if there is one by combining 2 GPU's on one card. When that gets refined into dual core GPU's with 512 or even 1 gig ram, no one will care about dual video cards. So use what you saved to get a nice LCD and be happy!

 

[Ackmed]

Ugh, default was 6800GT's. I tried to check the X850, but hit submit instead. :sigh: Swing one vote the other direction.

 

[sparkyclarky]

Depends on how much bucks you have. If money isn't a concern, the SLI setup would be bleeding edge tech, and faster in many cases than the xt. However, it will have drawbacks such as power, heat, noise, etc. The XT will be slower, but a bit quieter, cooler, and will certainly cost much less. But the SLI setup would also allow you to run SLI in the future if you so desire, which could be really interesting once the bugs are worked out. You could also simply buy one gt and add a second down the road if you feel the single card is too slow (in many ways this might be the best for you).

 

[sparkyclarky]

Originally posted by: my sons father
Anybody got some old voodoo sli's for sale? Man, those were so great, weren't they? Until people realized they were just a gimmic to get you to buy 2 video cards! And so is this. Gigabyte has shown the future of sli if there is one by combining 2 GPU's on one card. When that gets refined into dual core GPU's with 512 or even 1 gig ram, no one will care about dual video cards. So use what you saved to get a nice LCD and be happy!

Haha, man you are trying really hard with this one, aren't you? Sure, the V2 SLI was a gimmick.... Not that every gamer lusted after them or anything.... Not that they were the only way to get XGA resolutions in games at the time.... Not that a dual V2 setup didn't smack the crap out of a single V2.... You sir are over your head.

 

[Pete]

Dual Voodoo 2s let you game at 10x7 at the same framerate as a single V2 at 8x6, and adding the extra one did just about double performance. It was a clearer win back then, especially because you didn't have to think about power supplies and MBs.

 

[vinayb]

I think it depends on what type, or which engine based games you like to play. If you like the D3 engine, DEFINITELY GT. If you like HL2, the maybe the 850XT. Bear in mind that D3 is a more GPU limited game. HL2 shares 50-50 between CPU and GPU. So if you have a fast CPU, HL@ will run better. In D3, the GPU is tested to the limits and hence, I feel NVIDIA is better.
P.S.... The D3 engine will definitely be used by more developers than HL2, thats for sure

 

[trayton]

I'm so confused after reading all of this!! I don't know what I want to get now

 

[nRollo]

You miss out on having the ultimate gaming experience if you get the X850 XT PE. Fastest fps by far on new games, SM3.

You miss out on slightly better performance on old games that run at 100fps at 16X12 anyway if you buy the 6800GT SLI.

Pretty hard choice.