Upgrading my PC's GFX.

[Kenny83]

Hello, it's been a while coming now, but I need some help on finding some SLI compatible cards for my computer. I am currently running twin 6600 GT cards. I'm not sure what information people may need to help, but I'll answer anything I can.

Here is what I know so far:

* Twin 6600 GT cards (128 memory each)
* 1 Gig of ram (Looking to get 2 gigs soon)
* AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3700+
* I believe I have a socket 939 motherboard.

Here's the catch: I wish to upgrade but I am only willing to spend ~$250-$300 in total for both cards. To be honest, I don't even know if I can upgrade to something with such a little amount of money. Any help would be appreciated guys. I don't want to think whoever is willing to help that I am lazy, as I'm looking around on my own too.

Something else I just thought of: If you can't find a good deal with that, maybe a single SLI compatible card that is around the price stated above. One that is better than the two 6600's that I have right now. That way I could purchase the second one later.

So far, I think this is what I'm going to go with here. However, I was told that for about 20 dollars more I could get the 560 core clock version... but I have no idea what the guy was talking about.

Any help, suggestions, or advice is welcome guys, thanks for your time.

 

[frsrblch]

That 8800GTS will blow your two 6600s out of the water (see attached image for benchmark comparison). The step up to the OC'ed version is definitely worth it too. It's only a little slower than the 640 MB version, and it's way cheaper. You're better off to buy the best single card you can afford now, so that it's cheaper to upgrade in the future. I'm not a big advocate of SLI, but if you've got it already, you may as well use it (even if using it means not using it now).

I've got one, and it's pretty killer. I can run CS: S at astounding 240 FPS (according to their stress test). Not that the monitor can refresh all that fast, but it's still fairly impressive. You'll have DX10 support for when that starts to take off, but don't get your hopes up for today's DX10, there really isn't all that much to see. CoH's DX10 offers a minor (read: barely noticeable) improvement in graphics at the cost of ~20 FPS, and that's really the only DX10 game worth playing ATM. I expect I'll be playing Crysis in DX9 mode too, simply because it will run smoother, but that's yet to be seen.

I'm not sure how much power those 6600s need, but nVidia recommends at least 450W of power if you're going to run one of these, and it's usually a good idea to overshoot the recommendation by a bit. 500W would be a safe bet, but PSUs aren't free, so be aware that you may have to upgrade from the one you have if it doesn't have enough juice.

The rest of your computer looks to be fine, especially if you are upgrading that RAM sometime in the future.

 

[Kenny83]

Thanks. I have but one question though, do you know where I can find the overclocked version? The guy said there was one, and you seem to know what he is talking about.. but I looked around and couldn't find it.

Nevermind, I think this is it here. Thanks for the help.

 

[Spunky]

Are they AGP or PCI-E?

 

[Kenny83]

PCI-E x16.

 

[frsrblch]

Are they AGP or PCI-E?

It's SLI...

 

[Spunky]

Okay, I'll look for a good PCI-E card which you can buy two of.

 

[Kenny83]

Hey guys, I ran into something very interesting if you ask me.. besides the OC'd 8800 that I posted, I found this card here. The card's speeds alone seem to be much higher than the 8800, is this a misprint or is there something that makes the 8800 significantly better? I mean, with that price unless I am misunderstanding something, I could purchase two of the smaller cards and they would stomp that 8800.. Ideas?

 

[Spunky]

Hey guys, I ran into something very interesting if you ask me.. besides the OC'd 8800 that I posted, I found this card here. The card's speeds alone seem to be much higher than the 8800, is this a misprint or is there something that makes the 8800 significantly better? I mean, with that price unless I am misunderstanding something, I could purchase two of the smaller cards and they would stomp that 8800.. Ideas?

That's a great deal for a great card, but I wouldn't recommend running two of those, at least not in a small case. If you've got a case with plenty of room and circulation (with fresh, cool air), and you want to take the risk, then go ahead, but they run kinda hot from what I hear.

 

[Kenny83]

I'm sure they run hot.. they are overclocked quite a bit. But what makes them different than the 8800? There has to be a reason for the price difference between these two cards if this one is faster..

 

[Smith]

The 8600 series have a fourth of the stream processors, a fourth of the memory bandwidth, a third of the memory size, and less than half the performance (which is actually impressive considering how neutered they are) compared to the 8800GTX. They are not a great buy by far.

An 8800GTS would be tremendous for you and would allow you to play even Crysis at Ultra (although not highest) settings (assuming you have the RAM and CPU power to go with it).

 

[Kenny83]

Hmm, but statistic for statistic in the specifications, the 8600 seems to come out on top. What am I missing here..?

I mean.. here:

8800: 576 Core clock, 1700 MHz Memory Clock, and 400 MHz RAMDAC.
8600: 700 Core clock, 2100 MHz Memory Clock, and still 400 MHz RAMDAC.

So based on speed, isn't the 8600 better? Forgive me, as I'm just having trouble understanding what is going on.

 

[Smith]

Hmm, but statistic for statistic in the specifications, the 8600 seems to come out on top. What am I missing here..?

You're missing logic. Clock speed means nothing when it can't do nearly as much per clock as the 8800 can.

 

[Kenny83]

I think I'm missing knowledge more so than logic, I have no idea how graphics cards works - just how PCs parts work together. Mind explaining a little bit further please? Sorry to be annoying. :scared:

 

[Smith]

I think I'm missing knowledge more so than logic, I have no idea how graphics cards works - just how PCs parts work together. Mind explaining a little bit further please? Sorry to be annoying. :scared:

The before-edit sounded kind've mean. I feel bad, <s>so I'm going to explain why the 8800s >>>> the 8600s just for you in the next edit.</s>

 

[Kenny83]

Thanks for the rudeness. Person asks for help and you get pissed, yeah, that's cool. I'll talk to some other people I know who work with computing rather than here.

Just noticed you scratched it out with editing, so in-turn I'm going to apologize as well. But let me get this straight, even with SLI, you guys would rather suggest that I get the 8800GTS card by itself, than the two 8600's? Last question, promise.

 

[Smith]

Oh, wow. You're the original poster, ek! I thought you were derailing the OP's thread, that's why I was being rude. That'll teach me to read X_X.

 

[Kenny83]

No, it's cool, can't say I blame you I get agitated easily as well regaurdles of the reason. But you didn't say, you suggest the 8800GTS, correct?

 

[Smith]

I still don't feel like typing up a long post about it, though. I will, however, tell you that an 8800GTS (even 320MB) is better than two 8600GTSs in SLI mode. For one, SLI (especially in Vista) is not a great alternative. Drivers are not mature, you're not assured to always get a beneficial performance change, vsync issues (I don't know if that's resolved), etc. For two, even though you'll have twice the amount of cards, you'll still be limited by just one of the two cards' memory buffer (256MB in the case of the 8600GTS); it doesn't double the amount of space they can use. Not only that, but you're even more so limited by the fact that the bus width of the memory on the 8600GTS is only 128bits, compared to the 8800GTS's 320bits. That means that per memory clock, the 8800GTS will get almost three times the amount of bandwidth that the 8600GTS gets. To be comparable, the 8600GTS's memory would have to be clocked at 4 thousand MHz (4GHz).

That's just giving some brief information on just the memory. There's so much more information that could be said about it, and even more so about the core of the G80 series, so just look around on google or wikipedia for information on the G80 architecture, mainly detailing stream processors.

 

[Spunky]

Smith knows more about it than I do, and I've trusted him in the past to great benefit, so listen to whatever he has to say and I'll back it up.