Name: 02coled Date: February 11, 2008 at 07:44:47 Pacific Subject: Quad Sli?? OS: vista CPU/Ram: --- Model/Manufacturer: ----
Comment:
Hey Everyone After selling my g-card to a gaming friend in need of a g-card in desperation before he went of to a LAN game. Im left without my loved BFG 8800gts OC :(. Anyhow so now i have to look for a new vga card and iv been keeping up with all the new ati and nvidia cards that seem to be released quicker than they can produce new ones. Anyhow so now the question where do i go, what do i buy. BUT iv been looking around and seen some 7950 GX2's selling reasonably cheaply for £80-100 slightly cheaper than my proposed 8800GT. My question what is the Sli support like for 7950's on looking it seems ok, but i have one large thought on my mind which i wished to share with people. When the 9850 GX2's are released will the nvidia drivers better support quad Sli and will games then become more Quad Sli comptiable or will they make it so 7950s arnt but 9850 are? As if so id anticipate that the 7950 GX2's would be a better buy, although obviously the older tech and not supporting new techs such as dx10, but it has been shown with "crysis" that dx9 patches are being made! So whats the general thoughts and ideas? Its been a puzzle for me, any ideas are fully welcome? Many thanks 02coled
C2D Quad Q6600 @"soon OC" 1:1 Ram : CPU 4gb Elipedia @ 850mhz EVGA 680i BFG 8800 GTS 512mb - in post! 680w Thermaltake Purepower 2 x 250gb Sata2 Vista Home Premium 32bit X
"seen some 7950 GX2's selling reasonably cheaply for £80-100 slightly cheaper than my proposed 8800GT"
Maybe so, but the 7950 GX2 isn't as good as the 8800GT, not to mention it doesn't support DX10. And if you put any stock in the VGA charts at Tom's Hardware, a single 8800GT OC puts up better numbers than two 7950 GX2 (quad SLi).
Yeah iv seen this and understood it! And it was where the question starts, will support improve? with the new cards coming out with drivers support it better and so fourth and so games will be better ?? And dx10 :( i dunno if to take the loss of it and bite my teeth hoping i did correct?
C2D-E6600ES-8x425-@3.4ghz 1:1 Ram : CPU 2gb Elipedia @ 850mhz EVGA 680i BFG8800GTS-OC 320mb @630-2010 680w Thermaltake Purepower 2 x 250gb Sata2 Vista Home Premium32
I'm of the opinion that Crossfire & SLi configurations are a huge waste of money. Unless you pair up two high end cards, there's almost always a single card solution that's equal or better. If gaming is so important that you're willing to spend $500+ on two video cards for a few extra FPS, that's on you.
I understand this jam, but my question throughout has been the idea of greater compatibility and support with drivers as the new range of quad sli cards come out?
C2D Quad Q6600 @"soon OC" 1:1 Ram : CPU 4gb Elipedia @ 850mhz EVGA 680i BFG 8800 GTS 512mb - in post! 680w Thermaltake Purepower 2 x 250gb Sata2 Vista Home Premium 32bit X
"my question throughout has been the idea of greater compatibility and support with drivers as the new range of quad sli cards come out?"
My crystal ball hasn't been working all that well lately, so any predictions about the future of gaming hardware & drivers will probably be better answered by someone else...lol
Admittedly yes i may be going a bit crazy trying to guess the future "jam", but you must sort of understand my thinking? To that games shall become more optimized or do we think/feel that like the 7950gx2 Quad Sli driver support they will soon be abolished and pushed to the side to die with the great vga cards such as the 6600gt/Ultra :( I'm only asking for some and to if i can get them cheap do you feel it would be better than buying a Mediocre 8800gt? 02coled
C2D Quad Q6600 @"soon OC" 1:1 Ram : CPU 4gb Elipedia @ 850mhz EVGA 680i BFG 8800 GTS 512mb - in post! 680w Thermaltake Purepower 2 x 250gb Sata2 Vista Home Premium 32bit X
Here's my advice. Buy the mediocre 8800GT, overclock it to the speed of a slightly less mediocre G92-based 8800GTS, and forget all about the insanely mediocre quad-7950.
Driver support was a pain in the neck for the dual 7950GX2, and power consumption is significantly higher than that of an 8800GT. You care about the planet, don't you? :P
Support may improve with the release of nVidia's 9850GX2 (or whatever it's called), but an overclocked 8800GT would still be at least as fast as the quad 7950, and consume less power. Plus, with the 8800GT, you get goodies such as DX10 and fully hardware-decoded Blu-Ray movies.
Really, you'd only want two 7950GX2s in your system if you're the type of person who brags about owning a Voodoo 5 6000. :P
The lean, mean, movie playing P3 machine P3-S 1400 @ 1.66GHz, 158MHz FSB 2GB PC2700 DDR 7950GT AGP Optoma 1280x720 projector JBL 5.1 amp and speakers Now storing 114 HD movies
Its mediocre considering the 9xxx cards on the horizon, next question is that, do i wait for the 9xxx series, hoping prices are low, or that there release reduces 8 series cards by a high margin. Thanks again everyone 02coled
C2D Quad Q6600 @"soon OC" 1:1 Ram : CPU 4gb Elipedia @ 850mhz EVGA 680i BFG 8800 GTS 512mb - in post! 680w Thermaltake Purepower 2 x 250gb Sata2 Vista Home Premium 32bit X
You seem to be fishing for an answer that will back the decision that you want to make. Like I alluded to...we can't predict the future. We can guess that the 88xx series cards will drop in price once the 98xx series is released...by how much? Can't tell you that.
IMO, your idea about the 7950 SLi config is a poor one. You already know the driver support is bad & that the performance isn't as good as a single 8800GT. You're obviously the type of person who has no problem spending money on bleeding edge technology, why would you suddenly wanna take a step (or two) backwards?
Ow i really am the type of person who doesn't have money :(, and when it comes its very small and far between, sadly. Still being a student and all :(, i don't know if to look forward to a "real" job or to put it off knowing that then ill have to spend the money i earn on ridiculous tax's etc! But yeah i think I'm going to wait for the next gen cards to come out, cause i have my laptop until then and i don't have allot of time at the moment with exams and other school related tasks. I'm just hoping it will be a wise decision?
C2D Quad Q6600 @"soon OC" 1:1 Ram : CPU 4gb Elipedia @ 850mhz EVGA 680i BFG 8800 GTS 512mb - in post! 680w Thermaltake Purepower 2 x 250gb Sata2 Vista Home Premium 32bit X
i really am the type of person who doesn't have money 1. So your not Monarchy an MP's son or related to Branson tough luck old son join the rest of us.
2. Still being a student enjoy your freedom while it lasts, you can drink as much as you want thro the week and not have to get up to go to work. your final bill for being a student is estimated that 4 years of your life to pay it back. they just dont tell you its the bit where life got interesting but you cant afford f a.
3. i don't know if to look forward to a "real" job tough luck old son no nobody does, hmmm define 'real' i hope to Xog your not an art student. ah ha! exams ! therefore Not!
4 . spend the money i earn on ridiculous tax's. tough luck old son, wait till your in the 40% band. pay petrol tax, poll tax, congestion charge VAT, tax is endless even when your dead yours are taxed on inhertance.
I'm going to wait for the next gen cards to come out. you will be too old, oh at least you can play manhunt3.
heres 3 options with the next Student Grant cheque.
the 9 series nvidia will be smoking hot but reassuringly expensive so you can either 1 go the pub for the rest of the year. 2 stay in and keep warm by the heat of your new shiny gpu if you can afford the eleccy. 3 go to Vegas, try your luck. 4 sell your laptop http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...
Hmm i'm not a University student :S, i'm still in 6th form (17yr old). So yeah and in England its a little different. Yeah what jobs i do now earn me little or no money :(. Sadly i'm not an art student, could never do it, im a math, physics, product design and chemistry student :). Anyhow yeah, i don't have a clue what to do. I'm considering just holding out and waiting a few months and simply playing CSS on the laptop :( seems the only god dam game that plays on this thing well :(. 02coled
C2D Quad Q6600 @"soon OC" 1:1 Ram : CPU 4gb Elipedia @ 850mhz EVGA 680i BFG 8800 GTS 512mb - in post! 680w Thermaltake Purepower 2 x 250gb Sata2 Vista Home Premium 32bit X
"in England its a little different", yeah North South divide m8 tell me about it lol, Diito UK here ok option 1,3, 4 are out. Forget quads & sli waste of space & £££'s play today with what you got.
Btw any Computer fairs near you? they can be very good on price. im off to one tommorow so let you know street prices if there worth mentioning.
http://www.dabs.com/productview.asp... best i can find so your stuck in 8600 land with that budget for now. Might be worth hanging on till April cant see the Economy geting better till after April once new budgets are finalised.
my 10p worth Your subjects are an intelligent choice, Degree then 1 year in a research lab,, Not chem lab unless it rocks your world. then move out pronto into management, get some biz skills on your CV like IT& Accounts/Business studies, boring but doors Open, pay scales can be higher telling some one what to do than being told. One eye on the economy and one on your pay check if it hasnt moved up, move on.
Funnily enough i did go to, two fairs near me and to say the least they was a let down :(. If i wanted any Pentium 3 cpu's and original Pentium 4's it was fine but anything newer that that and the guys had blank faces. Although i swear everyone in my town in Pc illiterate anyhow so it doesn't help, but hey its not there fault. Anyhow yeah my plan is SAVE SAVE SAVE £££ and wait for for everything to balance out and prices of 8 series to lower and then ill go in for the kill! Thanks again everyone, and a nice bit of career advice there "1stepbeyond" 02coled
C2D Quad Q6600 @"soon OC" 1:1 Ram : CPU 4gb Elipedia @ 850mhz EVGA 680i BFG 8800 GTS 512mb - in post! 680w Thermaltake Purepower 2 x 250gb Sata2 Vista Home Premium 32bit X
PC Fair update went to 2 this week end 1 a washout, 1 suprising lack of anything even the outside yo hoho were having a bad day :D freezing hehe. in side all intel pcs based on 6600's or 6750 , phenoms & asrock mobos plenty but no buyers.
few 8800's the reason... too expensive,, retailers are not holding the stock , also ppl are buying vista based pcs pre built therefore already have upto 8600 built in. Theres an obvious gap in the graphics market at present approx up to £60 gets a 8600 then about £170 upwards for a 8800 so nothing inbetween £100 mark. ati just dont even appear.
old 7900's still doing well tho lol nvidia has underestimated how much ppl will spend on a graphics.
Yeah iv been keeping a very close eye on all the new 9 series cards and it think i'm still going to hold of, i'm not to fussed about waiting to save money :) 02coled
C2D Quad Q6600 @"soon OC" 1:1 Ram : CPU 4gb Elipedia @ 850mhz EVGA 680i BFG 8800 GTS 512mb - in post! 680w Thermaltake Purepower 2 x 250gb Sata2 Vista Home Premium 32bit X
