7800GTX 512MB or 7800GT SLI

[OC-Sith]

first of all, hi everyone. i'm a new member in this forum. so hello again. i'm from austria so english is not my first language, so sorry if i make some mistakes :-D

building new rig and no clue about the video card(s)

like the title says: whats better cause they are about the same price.

and another one: the stock cooling for the 512mb, is it better than the arctic cooler nv5 rev3? cause if the stock is better i would go with the xfx (stock oc) and i do not intend to use anything but air cooling. ???

[eskimochaos]

dual 7800gt's definatley, you get 2 copies of call of duty 2 so you can mail me one, i will give you the addresss

[night8jim]

I would get a 7800GTX 512MB, there isn't that much berifit having SLI at the moment.

Plus there is no games that a single card of that class couldn't run.
I think you could always add a second at a later date.

[RedDragonXXX]

When questions like these come up you guys need to clarify if you are solely after performance at the moment or not cause everyone will give you the same answer. Get the single more powerful vid card and add second one down the road.

Well my answer to you is if you want better performance then 2x7800GT's is what you want.

[Ad Rock]

SLI IMO is never worth it unless you can afford to run two of the most expensive cards out at the moment.

Buying one 7800GTX with the plan to upgrade to a second 7800GTX later on seems silly to me as by the time you can afford to upgrade there will be the next generation of GPU's out, and that next generation will be able to perform better with one card than a SLI'd version of the old generation.

Also buying two cheaper cards just to run in SLI really makes no sense as all it does is add heat and drains more power from your PSU.

Unless of course you want to be able to say you have SLI then go for it, but from a performance standpoint it really makes no sense.

[Nexus Realized]

Buying one 7800GTX with the plan to upgrade to a second 7800GTX later on seems silly to me as by the time you can afford to upgrade there will be the next generation of GPU's out, and that next generation will be able to perform better with one card than a SLI'd version of the old generation.


:welcome: to the forums!!

[OC-Sith]

Buying one 7800GTX with the plan to upgrade to a second 7800GTX later on seems silly to me as by the time you can afford to upgrade there will be the next generation of GPU's out, and that next generation will be able to perform better with one card than a SLI'd version of the old generation.
thats what i was thinking...

dual 7800gt's definatley, you get 2 copies of call of duty 2 so you can mail me one, i will give you the addresss
thats a reason for me... :-D ^^ good one, i might do it, but sending it to new york (sorry if thats wrong) would be kinda expensive ^^

performance is more important to mee. so the sli setup would be better? i would play games in 1280x1024 with aa and af. is that still not "good" enough for a 512mb card, to show some better results compare to a 256mb card?

[noxqzs]

It really depends on your preference. Some games benefit from SLI, especially at higher resolutions. Granted not all games see the same improvements, in some it makes a big difference. That one game might turn out to be one of your favorites. Some people argue on this day and night. In both cases they both might be right depending on what they play. One of my favorites that I have been LAN'ing with my brother in Chicago is 'Falcon4 Allied Force'. Its an updated version of the fighter sim, and it benefits from multi-core cpu's and SLI. For us it makes a huge difference while we play. As far as value, you would be better served with a 512 GTX. I personally would/will get the 512(s).

[fuzzba11]

I'd rather have a single card that's the absolute top of the line, than deal with the heat of two video cards that might require troubleshooting.

[madcow235]

for 1280x1024 you dont need 2 7800gts you need one 7800gtx for maxed everything. Hell a 7800gt would do in 95% of games and a gtx would be icing on the cake for those extra 5%. I don't know of any games that don't get 60+fps with everything maxed on a 7800gt or gtx at 1280x1024.

[darksparkz]

I'd say the 7800GTs in SLi would perform better. But then of course the 7800GTX 512MB allows for future upgrade and put you at the top.

BF2
1600x1200 No AA
7800GTX 512MB- 85.6
7800GT SLI- 101.8

1600x1200 4X AA
7800GTX 512MB- 66.2
7800GT SLI- 88.7

Source:
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2607&p=3
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2496&p=3

Compare those, they have scores of the 7800GTX 512MB and 7800GT in SLi.

[BrutalDrew]

SLI is a complete waste of money IMO. Even if you are buying two of the most expensive cards at the moment. A single 7800GTX 512MB is plenty and the performance increase does not justify the price of going with SLI.

If it were me I wouldn't even buy anything over a 7800GT. It seems to be the only one reasonably priced.

[Ad Rock]

SLI is a complete waste of money IMO. Even if you are buying two of the most expensive cards at the moment. A single 7800GTX 512MB is plenty and the performance increase does not justify the price of going with SLI.

If it were me I wouldn't even buy anything over a 7800GT. It seems to be the only one reasonably priced.

The only way I would ever be able to justify SLI was if I was a competitive bencher (which I am not). Otherwise I agree with that statement.

[Burninate]

I have a 7800GT SLI set up. I have a middle of the line case with 3 80mm fans on the side and a 120mm on the front and back of the PC. The heat is not that bad and i get excellent performance and I don't have an uber-powersupply. I have no stability issues or overheating from lack of power. My CPU runs 46C max under load and my video cards run 61 C max under load after 2 hours of playing FEAR at 1600x1200 4 AA and 4 AF. I have no hiccups or stuttering what so ever playing FEAR at these settings. I got both of my cards from newegg on sale at $339 with a $40 mail-in rebate for each making it $299 (I have no idea how much that is in Austrian money) and I got a free copy of COD2. I think spending $600 on 2 cards was a better decision than spending 600 on one, but that's me. Its up to you whats better for you. Oh, and i have never crashed with these settings from heat or lack of power after using it for about 3 hours a day for a month. I am running the following:

2.2 Ghz AMD 3700 San Diego core 939 OCed to 2.85 GHZ (300 x 9.5) at 1.525v

2 GB (2x1GB) OCZ Performance ram PC3200 (3-3-3-5_1T @ 2.9v) running a 5/6 divider

ASUS A8N-SLI MB

1 Seagate 80GB Hard drive
1 Raptor 10k RPM 36 GB hard drive

2 DVD drives (One regular and one Writer)

500 w Antec Truepower 2.0 PSU

2x XFX 7800GT's Factory oc (450 core and 1050 mem i think? and I have those OCed to 480 core and 1.15 mem) I can go higher. I had one card at 490 and 1.2 before i went SLI, but i toned them down a bit after i got SLI.

3dMark05 score: 12901 at these settings.

Only thing i will maybe change in the future is getting a PC Power and cooling PSU 510 watt SLI. and a dual core processor when their price becomes justified for gaming.

[T'wolves]

your other option is get the sli gt's now but get evga, if you dislike them or price drops on the 512, you use evga's 90-day step up program and upgrade to a 512 later and sell the second one to make up the differnce