What To Do GPU Wise.

g4m3rof1337

Active Member
I want to upgrade my Graphic Card setup, and was wondering if I should SLI 8800GT's. I would need an SLI mobo, a friend can sell me a 680i, but should I get something else?

I want to be somewhat future proof, be able to play current and future games on decent settings.

I may also consider a CPU upgrade, or would I be fine overclocking?





Thanks.
 

fade2green514

Active Member
whats your budget? ati cards are actually crushing nvidia cards by a lot at high res and AA/AF... so basically just crushing them at processing power.
 
Last edited:

hermeslyre

VIP Member
Ocing should be fine for now IMO.

The 8800gt setup is still impressive though, It equals or beats a single GTX260 i believe. It certainly is the cheapest higher end option seeing as you can another for around $100.
 

g4m3rof1337

Active Member
Yeah, it just seems a lot of new high end stuff is coming out at once, and fast.

So would it be wise to just SLI the 8800GT, sit back, and wait a while?


I will be using a 20'' LCD at 1680x1050 or a 32'' at 1360x768.




Thanks.
 

hermeslyre

VIP Member
It's what I would do.

Plus, it's always better to let things cool after a flood of new, competitive items are released. You get both a better view of the situation and hopefully, a nice deal on an otherwise expensive card.
 

omechengineeru

New Member
or buy a 280 from BFG then as soon as the new gen of cards come out you can use their upgrade option and only pay the difference in price to get the most recent card. thats what im doing.
 

RRA_Incognito

New Member
or buy a 280 from BFG then as soon as the new gen of cards come out you can use their upgrade option and only pay the difference in price to get the most recent card. thats what im doing.
The GTX280 is an overpriced piece of poop.

As long as it's over 525W, your PSU should be fine. I'd probably suggest 650.
 

g4m3rof1337

Active Member
Thats the thing, I have a 700 Watt, and people are saying it may not handle both cards, and I don't want to take the chance, so I'll just add one of my backup power supplies.
 

Kornowski

VIP Member
You complete bastard! I'm ordering that MOBO too, in about a week when I'm back. I'm also going SLI with my GTS(s). Anyway, Andy to the rescue again, eh. He always comes out with some pretty good advice, the majority of the time, I'd listen to him. ;)

Anyway, enjoy it man! You can let me know how it is, and post pictures up? :)
 

g4m3rof1337

Active Member
Alright, so when I turn the computer on for the first time, after installing Vista, I install the Mobo drivers, then 1 of the Gpu drivers, and then does the NVIDIA
control panel recognize SLI and activate it?




Thanks.
 

hermeslyre

VIP Member
I've heard that SLI should be enabled manually, even when the CP recognizes and asks for it to be enabled, as it doesn't always do a spot on job (plus it's nice to choose a rendering method yourself).

As it is (as I know it on an older driver version), there should be the enabling of SLI (somewhere in the NCP), and then you should be able to choose the preferred rendering method. Alternate frame rendering (AFR) I've heard is most stable in more games, but you might want to do the individual research if seeking to eek the most out of certain games. Last you should enable multiple GPU setup in the game profile under the global settings, I hear this might be automatic more often than not though.

Edit: I said I've heard and derivatives three times in this post! I'm turning into PCeye! :eek:
 
Last edited:
Top