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I have a GeForce 6800 w/ an ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe mobo, and I've been wondering about getting another card and linking them. This seems like a much less expensive option than getting a 3-4 hundred dollar newer card. I'm just wondering how much performance increase I could expect from the linked cards, and what kind of information I need before purchasing another card. Thanks!
You probably know you'll be disappointed, but rather give you the unsavory news. How about you see the facts for yourself.
http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NzkzLDEsLGhlbnRodXNpYXN0
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Y'know what? Go for the extra 6800 card and do SLI. With the new nVidia drivers you can mix and match vendors, clock speeds, memory sizes, etc. as long as the core is the same (e.g. 2x6800 GTs or 2x 6600s). Look online for the lowest possible prices and see what you can find.
Many people will tell you to just go for the gusto and get a 7800 GTX or something dumb like that. Don't bother. Unless you have absolutely top-o-da-line hardware the rest of your computer will be a huge bottleneck to your overpowered card. Two 6800s will give you quite a performance leap.
I have two 6600GTs in SLI, and my framerates are generally twice that of when I had a single 6600GT. Not to mention that my 3DMark05 score went from a crappy 3800 to a meaty 6900!
Oh yeah, and I got both cards on eBay for $50 Canadian each =)
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I've said this before and I'd say it again, unlike math, 1+1 doesn't equal 2 with SLI.
http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NzEyLDUsLGhlbnRodXNpYXN0
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1+1 does not equal 2 but in some cases comes darn close.
http://www.tomshardware.com/2004/12/22/vga_charts_v/page4.html
If you crank up your resolution, two 6800's is a MUCH better option than purchasing a new 7800GT! Two 6800GT's can outperform the 7800GT with settings maxed out.
http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/12/02/vga_charts_viii/page16.html
Its too bad these charts don't have the 6800 but I bet you'll get a similar boost in performance.
I say go for it!!
Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-SLI
AMD Athlon 64 FX-55
Corsair 512X4 2048mb
2X WD Raptor 74gb 10K
2X 256 6800 GT
Raid-0
WinXP Pro X64
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I have a GV-N68T256DH (http://www.tomshardware.com/2004/12/07/gigabyte/)
i cant seem to find anywhere that will sell this model anymore. Will either of the following work along side mine in SLI mode? Or can anyone find this model for sale??:
http://www.savastore.com/productinfo/product.aspx?catalog_name=Savastore&product_id=10281078&pid=44&rstrat=0
(i dont think this will work as im not sure it supports SLi?)
or
http://www.savastore.com/productinfo/product.aspx?catalog_name=Savastore&product_id=10281020&pid=44&rstrat=0
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See...i told you it was difficult to get my card:
http://uk.shopping.com/xGS-gigabyte_6800gt~NS-1~linkin_id-3068657
:(
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With nVidia's release of the 80. series drivers, you don't need to use two absolutely identical cards anymore. In fact, you can use cards from different manufacturers, different clocks, different memory sizes, as long as the core is the same (2x6800 GT or 2x 6600, etc.)
So you don't need to get two Gigabyte cards. (I know how hard they are to find... only one shop I've seen sells my Gigabyte 6600GT). In fact, I'm using a Gigabyte card and an XFX card in SLI, and both are at different clocks (but they assume the lowest clock automatically in SLI).
I know nVidia touts SLI as twice the power because you have two cards, and for the most part it's true. Most games will easily double your framerate or let you crank the settings way up and get very decent framerates. Sometimes it's less than that, and synthetic benchmarks hate SLI, but in all honesty it's sure worked for me!
And BTW a common misconseption about SLI is that the memory of the two cards is combined. 2x512 MB cards does NOT equal 1GB of video memory. It is still 512 MB, and every game out there will detect your system as having 512 MB of video memory. I can understand how people call this the major drawback of SLI, and it is. But whatever, if you have even a single 512MB card that's way more than necessary for today's games.
Even tomshardware.com was misleading with some of its recent articles (the one talking about the new 7800GTX 512, something to the effect of "1 GB of video memory?")
But all in all, SLI is a great option if you're in the right position for it to start, but be careful with what you're trying to achieve, or you could spend more money than what it's all worth.
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Well done skyfear. Thats exactly what i wanted to hear. I've not got the cash at the moment to buy another 6800GT so i've just gone for a RAM upgrade to 2GB. It's not just the graphics card i'll need, its probably a new PSU too as the 6800GT is very power hungry.
Now i just need to sort out my sata2 / bf2 conflict problems (im back on IDE) and i'm set :)
Thanks for ur help guys.
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