Will SLi bottleneck my system?

[Corrosion]

A second 8800GTS for SLi, what kind of inprovement will i see in my games? i run 1680 x 1050 on all games. will my cpu bottleneck? if so ill wait for the new batch of phenoms.

[ShadowFold]

Well with SLi not that much. Maybe like 5~10fps if a game doesnt support it.

[farlex85]

I don't know too much about it, but I think in most cases its largely a waste to get sli or crossfire these days. Running a second in sli might not give you as much of a performance increase as the upcoming 9800gtx. So you could sell your gts and get that, and it would be a better choice I think. Also, depending on launch prices of the 9800 gx2, which basically is 2 gts, that will most likely even be a better choice after selling the gts. Does your board support 2 16x pci-e or is one 8x or 4x? If so, maybe worth thinking about, if not, don't even consider it.

[Corrosion]

it supports x16 both slots. So best bet would be sell my gts and get a 9800 when it comes out?

[ShadowFold]

Thats what I would do. Crossfire is worth it if you have like a 3850 or 3870 but the nvidia cards scale like crap.

[farlex85]

Thats what I am planning on doing. I am gonna try to step-up to a 9800 gtx. From what I have seen on this forums as well as through some research, it just doesn't seem like dual gpus work all that well yet. Every dual gpu card put out by either nvidia or ati has done fairly poorly (with x2 doing well right now I think), and dual card set-ups cost lots of money, and generate tons of heat and require lots of power. All for a less than 50% gain in most cases. Until they figure out how to give me 70-80% performance gain and have the second one cost at least 50% less (or I win the lottery) I will probably be selling whatever current card I have for a later one.

[tkpenalty]

Thats what I am planning on doing. I am gonna try to step-up to a 9800 gtx. From what I have seen on this forums as well as through some research, it just doesn't seem like dual gpus work all that well yet. Every dual gpu card put out by either nvidia or ati has done fairly poorly (with x2 doing well right now I think), and dual card set-ups cost lots of money, and generate tons of heat and require lots of power. All for a less than 50% gain in most cases. Until they figure out how to give me 70-80% performance gain and have the second one cost at least 50% less (or I win the lottery) I will probably be selling whatever current card I have for a later one.

9800GTX is the SAME thing as the 8800GTS 512MB...

[wolf]

is that a guess or have you got some sources ;p

my guess was it was a clocked up GTS, MAYBE with the 384-bit memory, and MAYBE some more ROPS and a handfull of SP's

[farlex85]

9800GTX is the SAME thing as the 8800GTS 512MB...

I very much doubt that. The same tech will be used for sure, but you can bet it will have some unlocked features. I would guess much more shader power and faster clocks, possibly a 512-bit bandwith, but probably not that. At any rate, I would expect it will at least be 25-30% faster than the gts. ;)

[Tatty_One]

It's NOT the same thing........it is an improved upon development of the G92 but is NOT the G92, in fact it is codenamed G100.....OK so what does that mean then?.................. what improvements................... well firstly it will be 55nm as opposed to 65nm on the G92, also the G92 has 16 ROP's (and thats the important bit), the G100 will have 32 ROP's (there were 24 on the 8800GTX/Ultra) with 384 shader processors! (more than double that of the G92) It will also have 96 TMU's (64 in the G92) , on top of that it will have a 512bit memory bus and stock clocks should be 650mhz on the core, 2000mhz on the shaders and memory will run at 1000mhz.

To give some real indication of VaVa voom, the 8800GTX had 681 million transistors.....this monster will have 1,800 million!

This info is based on quite a lot of fact but I am not suggesting for definate it will be released as that but I would think pretty close to it.

[erocker]

A second 8800GTS for SLi, what kind of inprovement will i see in my games? i run 1680 x 1050 on all games. will my cpu bottleneck? if so ill wait for the new batch of phenoms.

Please make your thread titles a little more descriptive in the future.;) My opinion on the subject is, keep your GTS, and upgrade your CPU and motherboard to a processor that can harness your GPU's capabilities. I'm not sure if it's going to make too much difference adding another card to your current system.

[farlex85]

It's NOT the same thing........it is an improved upon development of the G92 but is NOT the G92, in fact it is codenamed G100.....OK so what does that mean then?.................. what improvements................... well firstly it will be 55nm as opposed to 65nm on the G92, also the G92 has 16 ROP's (and thats the important bit), the G100 will have 32 ROP's (there were 24 on the 8800GTX/Ultra) with 384 shader processors! (more than double that of the G92) It will also have 96 TMU's (64 in the G92) , on top of that it will have a 512bit memory bus and stock clocks should be 650mhz on the core, 2000mhz on the shaders and memory will run at 1000mhz.

To give some real indication of VaVa voom, the 8800GTX had 681 million transistors.....this monster will have 1,800 million!

This info is based on quite a lot of fact but I am not suggesting for definate it will be released as that but I would think pretty close to it.

Well there you go. That looks quite nice indeed. Certainly worth going through the step-up process if that is all there.:D

[Corrosion]

Please make your thread titles a little more descriptive in the future.;) My opinion on the subject is, keep your GTS, and upgrade your CPU and motherboard to a processor that can harness your GPU's capabilities. I'm not sure if it's going to make too much difference adding another card to your current system.

I just bought this mobo processor and ram last week. dont think im upgrading for a while. and anyway this is the fastest amd out at the moment correct? i dont think the quad cores are as fast in games.

[[I.R.A]_FBi]

proc is going to choke feeding those cards ... when teh new phenoms come out grab a BE

[Corrosion]

ok, sounds good thanks for all the help guys.

[wolf]

It's NOT the same thing........it is an improved upon development of the G92 but is NOT the G92, in fact it is codenamed G100.....OK so what does that mean then?.................. what improvements................... well firstly it will be 55nm as opposed to 65nm on the G92, also the G92 has 16 ROP's (and thats the important bit), the G100 will have 32 ROP's (there were 24 on the 8800GTX/Ultra) with 384 shader processors! (more than double that of the G92) It will also have 96 TMU's (64 in the G92) , on top of that it will have a 512bit memory bus and stock clocks should be 650mhz on the core, 2000mhz on the shaders and memory will run at 1000mhz.

To give some real indication of VaVa voom, the 8800GTX had 681 million transistors.....this monster will have 1,800 million!

This info is based on quite a lot of fact but I am not suggesting for definate it will be released as that but I would think pretty close to it.

i had read these specs somewhere too, and i really really hope thats what the new GTX is, but im not sure wif they need to go that far against ATi ....they might save it for next gen.

[Tatty_One]

i had read these specs somewhere too, and i really really hope thats what the new GTX is, but im not sure wif they need to go that far against ATi ....they might save it for next gen.

Good point but isnt the HD4000 series due out May/June? By the time the 9800GTX get on any shelves in REAL numbers I am sure it will be almost April, you never know, ATi may have to delay release again to tweak in order to compete......that would suit NVidia very nicely as it gives them even more time to develop their next offering leaving the reds in the catchup chair again.

TBH I cannot keep up with all these cards, I would mutch prefer 3 cards from each manufacturer, a low, mid and high ranged offering each with the option of 256......512.....or 1GB of GDDR...........I am a simple kind of guy really. :confused:

[wolf]

to be honest from what ive seen/heard of the HD4000 series it doesn't inspire me in the slightest.

sounds like it might have 50% more performance than a HD 38xx at best, still with the 256 bit memory bus too. which will bring it to par with a G92GTS OC

and Nvidia has had all the time since they released the G80 to come up with a new high end product, for all we know the G92 is only there because of the market, and they've got something truly inspiring ready. heres hoping.

[Wile E]

Thats what I would do. Crossfire is worth it if you have like a 3850 or 3870 but the nvidia cards scale like crap.

The percentage of scaling doesn't really mater compared to the 3870 (as an example), as 2 8800GT(S)'s are still faster, despite a lower percentage of gain.

[wolf]

thats what ive been saying, more efficient or not, they still lose out to 8800GT's