[Dapman02]

I may have accedentally fried my beloved P35, so it looks like I'm in the market for a new motherboard. I want to go nvidia this time so I can SLI. What is the difference between them. It's going to be overclocking a wolfdale, and I'm going to sli 2x8800GT's.

[meionm]

There are some other differences but that's what I noticed
650i; sli 8x 8x
680i: sli 16x 16x 8x
evga 750i; sli 16x 16x, other 750i sli 8x 8x
780i: sli 16x 16x 16x

[Dapman02]

How well do they overclock.

[Wai_Wai]

Well did you read the reviews of HD4850/4870? They have high-end performance at mid-range prices.

HD4850 has a performance close to GTX260 while HD4870 close to GTX280.
GT2xx series is twice expensive than its rival. It should be less since nVidia are forced to have some price cuts but the difference will remain.
ATI has done an excellent job for HD4xxx series. The price-to-performance ratio is very hard to beat. nVidia has to create a more cost effective card but it can't.

SLI isn't great (nor CF). You don't get double performance by running dual graphic cards. It's usually much less than 40%. It can be a few % more in the worst cases.

Get the best single video card first. If you have so much money to burn, go for CF.

PS:
HD4850 is as cheap as US$159.
HD4870 is as cheap as US$289.
Seriously I don't advise you to switch over nVidia at the moment. Go for a good P35 motherboard.

[Dapman02]

P35 is what I had last time, but if that will get me the best value than what about this motherboard

[Dapman02]

I decided to pick up a P5N-D. I like my 8800GT, and I always wanted to try SLI/Crossfire

[Wai_Wai]

Originally Posted by Dapman02

I decided to pick up a P5N-D. I like my 8800GT, and I always wanted to try SLI/Crossfire

It sounds like you have one 8800GT already. Now you want to buy one 8800GT more.

Just keep in mind that a single HD4850 may actually defeat two 8800GT SLI, even by large. But you need to do some research to see the exact difference. SLI/CF is hardly effective. I'm not interested in it at all. But if you want to try SLI/CF anyway, go for it. Good luck.

[Dapman02]

Originally Posted by Wai_Wai

It sounds like you have one 8800GT already. Now you want to buy one 8800GT more.

Just keep in mind that a single HD4850 may actually defeat two 8800GT SLI, even by large. But you need to do some research to see the exact difference. SLI/CF is hardly effective. I'm not interested in it at all. But if you want to try SLI/CF anyway, go for it. Good luck.

Thanks, do you know how well the 750i ASUS's usually overclock.

[Painsorrow]

from what ive heard aboutthe p5n is it can be a little bit of trouble. so if i was you i would g et the evga 750i for the little extra in price you get a big performance gain. i was trying to decide between those two boards myself and just about everybody was telling me to get the evga 750i because evga completely remade it with all new capacitors and everything so it performs hella better i will hopefully be getting my 750i in the next week or two tax refunds are awesome

[||Console||]

Originally Posted by Wai_Wai

Well did you read the reviews of HD4850/4870? They have high-end performance at mid-range prices.

HD4850 has a performance close to GTX260 while HD4870 close to GTX280.
GT2xx series is twice expensive than its rival. It should be less since nVidia are forced to have some price cuts but the difference will remain.
ATI has done an excellent job for HD4xxx series. The price-to-performance ratio is very hard to beat. nVidia has to create a more cost effective card but it can't.

SLI isn't great (nor CF). You don't get double performance by running dual graphic cards. It's usually much less than 40%. It can be a few % more in the worst cases.

Get the best single video card first. If you have so much money to burn, go for CF.

PS:
HD4850 is as cheap as US$159.
HD4870 is as cheap as US$289.
Seriously I don't advise you to switch over nVidia at the moment. Go for a good P35 motherboard.

I dont see how a 4850 would be a better choice than a second 8800gt .

Top 06 score on HWbot for CF 4850 = 26939
top 06 score of Hwbot for SLI 8800gt = 25344

Single card 4850 scores 12992 in mark 06 (with a quad ) i just did a quick run with my system @ 3.2 (dual) (on non tweaked vista ) and card @ 740/1800/1000 and scored 11.5k

So for him with a card that is half the price (8800gt) sli seams a better and cheeper way to go .

If some one has scores that prove me worng please post .