7800GTX, go SLI or Upgrade?

[sevise]

I bought a 7800gtx a while back, witch the intention of picking up a second at some point and going SLI. However now that I'm looking for a second acrad I find they are somewhat hard to find.

Just curious what you experts thinks, should I try finding a second and go SLI or upgrade the 7800gtx to somethingmore more power?

[jivetrky]

If you can afford it you should try to get a better card. Like you said, they are a little hard to find, so they might cost more than they are worth. And a single 7900GT can often outperform SLI 7800GTX's anyway

But if you can afford it, I'd consider Nvidia's new 8800's The 8800GTS would be a major upgrade from the 7800. Or if you can spare ~$625, the 8800GTX is a M-O-N-S-T-E-R :)

[rdrash]

Which version of the 7800GTX do you have? 256mb or 512mb?
My two BFG 7800GTX OC (512mb ea.) cards do really well together. I had to give up all my PCI slots except one (sandwiched between the two cards). I scored 9419 in 3DMark06 with these two cards in SLi...but yea they were hard to find (now probably more hard than before).

I think you would do well (price and performance) to go with two 7900GT cards these days. Ofcourse if you have $$$ then just go for an 8800GTX:beer:

[rainless]

Two 7900GTOs would be even better. The EVGAs are gone, but you can (or at least *I* can...) still find the MSIs.

[Wastrel]

As other people said dont go SLI with another 7800GTX but also dont upgrade to any 256MB card. A 512MB card is the way to go now, there are more than enough games out there already that take advantage of bigger VRam size coupled with a fast GPU. IMO if youre not willing to fork out the amount needed for a 8800GTX you could always resort to a 8800GTS. With a good overclock GTS cards pay for themselves pretty well.


And a single 7900GT can often outperform SLI 7800GTX's anyway


I guess you made a typo there. Just to clear it a bit for anyone reading.

A single 7900GT at stock speeds is almost always just a few frames faster than a 7800GTX256 at stock speeds. (http://techreport.com/reviews/2006q1/geforce-7600-7900/index.x?pg=10)

7800GTX256 in SLI is faster than a 7900GT but it has lost its edge anyway no reason to upgarde to dual 7800GTX256s with sweet eight series at reach.

The advantage of 7900GT over 7800GTX 256 is in its overclock headroom and the fact that its a much cooler running card.

I myself am fighting the urge to buy 8800GTX right now because I dont want to miss out on speedbumped G80 coupled with GDDR4. Have to wait a few months I guess.

[jivetrky]

My mistake. What Wastrel says is correct. I hastily looked at a few benchmarks comparing 7900GT and 7800GTX SLI. And a few of them showed the GT being faster. After actually reading the print and not just the bench pics, I see that those games didn't take advantage or SLI or were in low resolutions, making it more CPU bound.




But still, I'd say don't buy another 7800GTX. Either go 7900GT or GTO, or spring for an 8800 GTS (or GTX if you can afford it)