Upgrade question regarding 6600 GT

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pfclassic

New Member
I was thinking about upgrading my video card, I will probably go with a 7800 GTX. My question is, that i dont really have that kind of cash floating around right now, and my local futureshop has the BFG 6600 GT on sale (im in canada and they are 169.99 canadian, i checked its even cheaper than newegg, which has them for 185 american).

I currently have the same vcard in my system, so if i pick one up i can go the sli route, and while it will definately not perform anywhere NEAR a 7800 GTX, is the GTX really necessary right now? So my bottom line:

Spend the 700ish dollars on a GTX

OR

Spend 170 and I will have 2x BFG 6600 GT OC in sli mode....

i guess im hoping that for at least the next little while 2 6600 GTs will be enough power? any thoughts? thanks in advance, i hope that is somewhat clear.
 
I would get the second 6600GT, while it won't match a 7800GTX, it'll still do very well at a much cheaper price. This is from Australian PC User, September 2005, talking about the 6600GT SLI in high resolution gaming:

"The 6600GT SLI performance levels held so well that they outperformed both the GeForce 6800 Ultra and Radeon X850 XT."

The 6600GT SLI cards work best in higher resolutions, so if you intend to run games at 1024 * 768 or lower it may not be worth it. At 1600 * 1200 though, the Doom 3 results are as follows:

Single 6600GT : 50.2
2 * 6600GT SLI : 76.5
Single 7800GTX : 87.6
Single 6800 Ultra : 75.9
Single X850 XT : 57.7

I am a bit of a cheapskate when it comes to buying computer parts (Just look at my sig - one 6600GT), but I would imagine that the 6600GT cards would hold their value better than the 7800GTX. Personally, I would buy the second 6600GT now, and upgrade later, even though you won't get close to the 7800GTX performance, $530 is a lot to spend on the difference IMO.
 
thanks, i was hoping that would be my answer :D if anybody else has other opinions feel free to post them, but if not, tomorrow ill go grab a second card.

merry christmas to all
 
I'd wait for a few more opinions, as I somehow doubt that mine will be popular. For some reason every test I see comparing SLI'd cards to single cards seems to come out differently. According to this, you should expect performance similar to one 6800GT, which drops off when AA is turned up.

I'd be willing to pay $170 for this kind of upgrade, but that's here in Australia, where prices are MUCH higher.

I'm not sure if you can buy off newegg in Canada, but something like this 7800GT for $279 is only $100 more, much of which you could recoup by selling your current 6600GT. Definitely better performance, and probably better value IMO

I'm terribly sorry if i've confused you or given you bad advice, it's because i'm used to Australian prices (a 7800GT is hard to find for under $600)

You may want to read some of these articles:
Pro SLI:
http://www.sysopt.com/features/graphics/article.php/12026_3563731_1

Anti-SLI:
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=991126
http://www.amdzone.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=printpage&artid=191
http://www.bleedinedge.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16072
 
Well, the comparing of a X850XT's performance in Doom 3 isn't really fair, cause ATi don't have as good support for OpenGL as nVidia does so that explains the X850XT's performance.
 
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