Replacing my 8800GTX sli set-up

Cmar-Ireland · 16-07-2009 8:54pm #1

I'm replacing my two 8800gtx cards with a single card. Looking at the HD4890 1gb or maybe the 2gb version.
What improvements would I expect to see?

TerrorFirmer · 16-07-2009 9:24pm

8800GTX Sli is still a formidable setup. Going an Ati single card route (the 4890 being their most powerful current solution) simply wouldn't give you any gain at all really - though of course not all games support Sli.

My advice would be to hang onto those cards for another while - or if you're intent on going single card/pcb in terms of performance increase, look towards something like the 4870X2, which can be gotten sub 300 euro these days.

Cmar-Ireland · 17-07-2009 2:49pm

I'm not a heavy gamer by any means, but I do enjoy GTA IV. So I was thinking that more video memory would help there. The 4890 2gb is about €250 so it's not too expensive.

TerrorFirmer · 18-07-2009 11:06am

2Gb is also a waste really, GTA IV is incredibly CPU intensive. The more cores, the better. What's your CPU? Spending 180-190 on something like a Q9550 is guaranteed to see your frames dramatically increase; going from 8800GTX Sli to any 4890 variant won't do wonders really.

Cmar-Ireland · 18-07-2009 6:31pm

The cpu is a QX6850 2.66 factory overclocked to 3.47

Cmar-Ireland · 18-07-2009 7:10pm

I have an offer of €150 for the 8800's so just another 100 for the 2gb 4890.
Is there a better option I should look at?

PogMoThoin · 18-07-2009 7:26pm

If this is the only game You play then I'd say its a worthwhile upgrade for €100 as the game doesn't support Sli at all and at the moment is running on a single gpu. You'll not see a huge increase in the game tho as its cpu limited.

TerrorFirmer · 18-07-2009 8:57pm

Again, the 2GB is a waste. It won't be any faster then a 1GB 4890 really and at worst, it may even be slower as countless reviews of cards equipped with ram beyond their means of utilization have proved.

8800GTX Sli is as fast if not faster then 4890, so while it might offer a bit of an improvement in certain games like GTA, in others it'll offer very little if anything.

If I was you I would be aiming for the 4870X2 2GB, it's under 300 a few places. Selling dual 8800GTX's and then adding cash for a card that's going to be frequently similar or slower doesn't make any sense.

Cmar-Ireland · 19-07-2009 6:13pm

Thanks for the replies! What about the nvidia cards? The gtx285 maybe?

Cmar-Ireland · 19-07-2009 6:52pm

Forgot to mention. The mobo is a Dell 680i SLI

Replacing my 8800GTX sli set-up

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