2 sli cards or 1 better card?

2 sli cards or 1 better card?

Original Message

Name: andyb
Date: October 14, 2006 at 15:21:47 Pacific
Subject: 2 sli cards or 1 better card?
OS: winxp
CPU/Ram: athlon64 x2 3800 1 gig m

Comment:

What would be the best choice for a pc used for gaming?
Two NVIDIA Geforce 7900 GS 256MB 16X PCI Express Video Cards (SLI)
Or a single faster graphics card with 512 megs?
I wondered if games actually made use of two cards or if they're more hassle. (compatibility wise/patching etc)
Cheers for any advice..
Andy.
Basics of system:
Processor: Athlon 64 X2 3800
MOTHERBOARD: (Socket AM2)MSI K9N SLI-2F nForce 570 SLI MCP Chipset DDR2/800 SATA-II RAID MBoard w/ Dual 16x PCI-Express
MEMORY: 1GB PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel

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Response Number 1

Name: andyb
Date: October 14, 2006 at 15:44:59 Pacific
Subject: 2 sli cards or 1 better card?

Reply: (edit)

Forgot to say one Radeon X1900XTX PCI-E x16 512MB card would cost me £10 less than two of the above cards. Which would be the better option? (power supply is 500w)

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Response Number 2

Name: Comper
Date: October 14, 2006 at 16:25:29 Pacific
Subject: 2 sli cards or 1 better card?

Reply: (edit)

A 7900GS SLI setup will score close to a 7900GTX/X1900XTX but as you said, will cost a little more and, you'll need a lot more powerfull PSU for SLI then for single...
So i suggest you just get a nice 512MB single or better yet, wait for DirectX 10 cards, From what i've heard nVidia is planning to release it's new "G80" cards this November...
AMD64 X2 4400+ @ 2,5GHz
Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe
2GB OCZ GOLD DDR500
Asus EN7900GTX 512MB @ 710/1750
Maxtor 250GB 16MB SATAII
WD 160GB 8MB IDE
Thermaltake Kandalf STEEL

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Response Number 3

Name: jam
Date: October 14, 2006 at 16:34:52 Pacific
Subject: 2 sli cards or 1 better card?

Reply: (edit)

There's no point running SLi. For the most part, it's a waste of money, but in your case, you're weak CPU will bottleneck the card(s) anyway. Get one decent card & don't go overboard. 512MB?? I doubt it's necessary.

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Response Number 4

Name: Sabertooth
Date: October 14, 2006 at 16:35:07 Pacific
Subject: 2 sli cards or 1 better card?

Reply: (edit)

You'll get more bench scores in 3DMark06 with the 2 x 7900GS (256MB) SLI than you would using a single X1900XTX (512MB).
However, when it comes to the most credible test (real-world gaming) - the X1900XTX outperforms the SLI'd 7900GS cards period!
SLI = Tacky Scheme ;-(
The Secret Letter From Iraq

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Response Number 5

Name: Cobra_R
Date: October 14, 2006 at 21:05:51 Pacific
Subject: 2 sli cards or 1 better card?

Reply: (edit)

SLI setup imo is a waste a money until games can take a full advantage of dual cards then just stick with a single.
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ OC 2.7ghz
2GB Dual Channel DDR 3200
Nvidia 7900GT
SATA II 2x 300gig 7200rpm 16mb cache RAID-0
Gigabyte Nforce 4 SLI

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(2) 8600 GTS or (1) 8800 Ultra BattleField 2 - Graphics Card The Sims 2-graphics card Battlefield 2 - Graphics Card, etc? Dual DVI display with 2 vid cards?	wat 2 video cards switching to amd for gaming integrated graphics upgrade? Verdict on new rig Gaming Problems

Response Number 6

Name: andyb
Date: October 15, 2006 at 01:25:41 Pacific
Subject: 2 sli cards or 1 better card?

Reply: (edit)

Tnx for the posts & advice. I'll go for a single better card for now then. Appreciate the guidance..tnx again...Andy

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