8800 GTX or dual 8800 GT?

Lanfear

Which graphics card would be faster for running games/3d graphics software - a single 768MB 8800 GTX or Dual 512MB 8800 GT ?
I had assumed that the dual card meant you get 2 of them which would be double the capacity but having read reviews on the net I am not sure anymore! Intend to buy an XPS from Dell - Quad-Core Q6600 processor, 4GB RAM etc and would like to get the best card from the two named above.

Sqaull20

Dual 8800gt is better by a distance,but neither are good value....

http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/view.php?cid=3&id=2408&pg=3

Better off getting a single 8800gt dell xps420 system for 800 imo...

Though you can get one with a 8800gtx,blu ray,1tb hd for 1250 if your interested in movies.....

RoyalMarine

2 cards = twice the price.

but not twice the performance.

you might get 25 - 30% increase but thats it.

get the 8800gt or the 8800gts 512mb.

uberpixie

Lanfear wrote: »

Which graphics card would be faster for running games/3d graphics software - a single 768MB 8800 GTX or Dual 512MB 8800 GT ?
I had assumed that the dual card meant you get 2 of them which would be double the capacity but having read reviews on the net I am not sure anymore! Intend to buy an XPS from Dell - Quad-Core Q6600 processor, 4GB RAM etc and would like to get the best card from the two named above.

What size is you screen? less than 22" get a GTX or a GT. GT is a nice bit cheaper and gives the bulk of the performance of a GTX. If you have a screen 24" and up Get at least a GTX. Or consider SLI. SLI is a waste unless you have a huge screen and want to play games at a crazy resolution.

stephenmarr

ive an XPS 710 with an 8800gtx playing on a Dell 24"07WFP-HC screen at res of 1920x1200 plays most game no problems at that res
Call of Duty 4 with everything maxed looks savage with no slow down at all i will probally get a second card when the prices come down.

Sqaull20

stephenmarr wrote: »

ive an XPS 710 with an 8800gtx playing on a Dell 24"07WFP-HC screen at res of 1920x1200 plays most game no problems at that res
Call of Duty 4 with everything maxed looks savage with no slow down at all i will probally get a second card when the prices come down.

I have that same system too,did you overclock the cpu or graphics?

Lovely system....

Thinking about getting rid of raid though very risky and I dont see any difference in speed

Lanfear

uberpixie wrote: »

What size is you screen? less than 22" get a GTX or a GT. GT is a nice bit cheaper and gives the bulk of the performance of a GTX. If you have a screen 24" and up Get at least a GTX. Or consider SLI. SLI is a waste unless you have a huge screen and want to play games at a crazy resolution.

Buying the whole system from dell so will probably go for a 22" screen, still not sure whether a single 8800 gtx 768MB is better than (a) dual 8800 GT 512MB????

uberpixie

Lanfear wrote: »

Buying the whole system from dell so will probably go for a 22" screen, still not sure whether a single 8800 gtx 768MB is better than (a) dual 8800 GT 512MB????

Ok the main disadvantages of SLI are:

1) Not supported by every game
(i.e. half the time your second card does nothing if it doesn't slow down the performance of the game which can sometimes happen!)

2) The extra noise,heat and power requirements for having a second card.

3) you only see the benefits at extreme resolutions with high levels of anti aliasing and anisotropic filtering enabled.

Having the extra card in the machine is not double the performance: granted it can make a difference of about 30% but it really depends on the game.

The problem you will have is that some games your performance will be great others it will be weaker. A GTX at least gives you uniform performance in all games.

One 8800GT/880GTS 512mb on it's own is very good value and will give you a very good solid year of high end gaming.
(as suggested already by Sqaull)

You could save the money of a 2nd card to buy a new one in the future when your graphics starts to drag in games in a year or so.
(a new card in a year will probably beat x2 GTs in SLI with a nice margin of performance on top)

If you really want to go SLI and you have the money go for it.

What is important is that you feel confident in what you are buying and get exactly what you want, just be aware of the pitfalls of SLI.

stephenmarr

@Sqaull20 i have it clocked to 3.2ghz the card is still the same and i also put in 4gb of crucial ballistix tracer pc 8500 (probaly overkill but was cheap enough)
my windows experience index score is 5.3

Sqaull20

stephenmarr wrote: »

@Sqaull20 i have it clocked to 3.2ghz the card is still the same and i also put in 4gb of crucial ballistix tracer pc 8500 (probaly overkill but was cheap enough)
my windows experience index score is 5.3

Thats a good overclock....

I have mine running at a bit under 3.0ghz,found it tricky enough to get it that high (prickly bios didnt help,reseted alot),graphics went up a bit 630/2040,very happy with it to be fair.....€914 for 12700 3dmarks

stephenmarr

i managed about 13900 on benchmark 06 with clocking pc has being stable for about 2 months noproblems yet.
my card is running
core 576 memory 900
factory settings what could iget it to?

Sqaull20

stephenmarr wrote: »

i managed about 13900 on benchmark 06 with clocking pc has being stable for about 2 months noproblems yet.
my card is running
core 576 memory 900
factory settings what could iget it to?

1200 more marks :eek:

Suppose the much higher quality ram and extra 200mhz,would do it....still I have the 8800gtx clocked 10% higher than you....

Card came at clock speeds of 575/900 with mine too,I have it a 630/1020 now,dont think it will go much higher.....10% isnt bad though...

stephenmarr

must try that clock see what it gives me.

heffo9

Hi Lanfear, i have dual 768MB 8800 GTX in my machine. For a while i had a problem with the computer only using 1 of the cards when playing directx 10 games like Crysis. My point is, i played the game up to roughly halfway on full res, the card was able for most of it, apart from some frame rate drops in certain parts of the game where there was alot going on. Patched to use the SLI mode of the system, the game looks amazing. So in my opinion you'd be better with the GTX and can always add to it in the future when needed, rather than having to upgrade from a SLI rig of 2xGTs.

Ladder22

Interesting thread on the 8800.

I'm getting an XPS 420. I want to watch HD/edit video/work on the pc etc. on a 22" monitor in one room and at the same time watch tv from the pc on a telly in another room (well my partner and kids do).

The nice man at Dell tells me the 8800GT will do the job. rRading this thread I'm not so sure, particularly if we replace our old analogue telly with a big HD.

Any thoughts?

Davin

Sqaull20

The 8800gt is a brillant card,it has more than enough power for what to do with..more than enough...

Ladder22

Cheers Sqaull20

bretttp1

Don't bother with sli, I bought into the whole sli thing, you know the story bought one high end card and bought another when the price dropped and to be honest the gain wasn't worth it.
Also by the time I put in the second card you could get even better performance with the one newer card for the same price! and the noise produced by the two cards makes watching a movie annoying

toco123

Generally one card is better than SLI. SLI is a gimmick and 3 way SLI even more so. Buy the 8800GTX and be happy.

RoyalMarine

toco123 wrote: »

Generally one card is better than SLI. SLI is a gimmick and 3 way SLI even more so. Buy the 8800GTX and be happy.

its only bcos there isnt a decent motherboard that can support sli properly.
and driver's arent great for it either.

im sure in a few months down the line there will be a board that can give 100% increase with sli.

PogMoThoin

RoyalMarineComm wrote: »

im sure in a few months down the line there will be a board that can give 100% increase with sli.

We're saying that about 4 years Not all games support Sli yet either.

RoyalMarine

PogMoThoin wrote: »

We're saying that about 4 years Not all games support Sli yet either.

ah yeah but after 4 years maybe this might be the year!


and on the matter of 8800gt, bought a new 8800gt 512mb and have to admit i love it to bits.
just waiting to get a decent monitor now...

duridian

RoyalMarineComm wrote:

im sure in a few months down the line there will be a board that can give 100% increase with sli

PogMoThoin wrote: »

We're saying that about 4 years Not all games support Sli yet either.

Duke Nukem Forever will be the first game to get 100% performance boost from SLi.