Dual 8800 GT 512MB VS Single 8800 Ultra XFX

[bandieramonte]

Hello,

I have been long googling for this info and I can't find it anywhere.

See, I'm trying to decide what provides more FPS between:

1) Two 8800 GT's 512 MB working at 600 Mhz core clock speed each one

OR

2) One 8800 Ultra 768MB Xtreme Edition working at 650MHz core clock.

And also, how much power supply is required for a dual 8800 GT configuration? Is this one enough:?

600W OCZ StealthXStream™ Quiet 12cm BB Fan PowerWhisper™ UL

Thanks for your anticipated help on this issue.

Best regards;

Gian Piero Bandieramonte

[kishin]

hello,

my friend just tested it and still 8800 Ultra is the winner... y?
because most game now require more memory, because of its "eye candy" environment. 8800 Ultra gives more memory 768mb then 8800GT which only 512mb.

from the power consumption side you also get lower wattage if you're using 8800 Ultra ^^

sorry the link was dead already so I cant give you the reference, but trust me I saw it my self 8800 Ultra beats 2x 8800GT SLI.

[bandieramonte]

hello,

my friend just tested it and still 8800 Ultra is the winner... y?
because most game now require more memory, because of its "eye candy" environment. 8800 Ultra gives more memory 768mb then 8800GT which only 512mb.

Sure a 8800 ultra has more memory than a single 8800 GT, but two 8800 GT's (512MB x 2 = 1 GB) have more memory than a single 8800 Ultra.

There must be some kind of benchmark results somewhere comparing two 8800 GTs and an 8800 Ultra.

[HONkUS]

It would depend on the title, some games would run faster on two 8800GT 512 in SLI some would run better on a single 8800 Ultra. I would personally take the two GT's over the ultra, it would be alot cheaper and the performance would be similar.

[Apoptosis]

what about one GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB card? and split the difference?

[bandieramonte]

I have attached an image that shows the 3DMark 2006 results of the major ultimate gaming cards, posted by legitreviews in http://www.legitreviews.com/article/605/10/

See, on the 1st place we have the Radeon 3870 crossfire, followed by the 3850 crossfire, then comes the 8800 ultra on 3rd place with a 14537 score, and finally we have the 8800 GT on 6th place with 12348 score.
I have researched on similar forums, that adding an identical additional card on SLI configuration, grants 30-35% of increased power and FPS's in every games. So, this would mean that a dual 8800 GT SLI configuration would reach 12348 x 1.30 = 16052 points under the DMark 2006. This leaves the SLI in 1st place, surpassing the powerful 3870 Crossfire's 15930 score, meaning that its performance would be unmatched within the cards depicted in the attached image.

But of course, all this is just my hypothesis, I'm theoretically speaking here because I don't have all the necessary tools to test this cards, just as legitreviews does.

[kenc51]

You can't go by 3DMark scores alone. The real test will be benching with real games!

[bandieramonte]

You can't go by 3DMark scores alone. The real test will be benching with real games!

Exactly! But I don't have the tools to do all of this tests! I need every cards and the testing softwares and hardwares and a lab and all that legitreviews has!

I don't know if I can ask the legitreviews testers to do me a favor to test the dual SLI 8800 GT or something like that, or maybe the test are already done.... bu I can't fin it anywhere in this case.

[DMB2000uk]

I stumbled upon some SLI reviews today, so here are some choice quotes, and links to the whole SLI articles. I'm afraid that none of the reviews seem to have the Ultra, but based on LR's own figures, on average the Ultra is roughly 17% faster than the GTX, so do some quick maths in your head (or grab you calculator).

Nvidia's GeForce 8800 GT is a truly stunning product and is a refreshing change to the rather dull graphics card market we've been subjected to ever since the high that was the launch of Nvidia's GeForce 8800 GTX. It's not a GeForce 8800 GTX killer and if you were making the choice between GeForce 8800 GTX and a pair of GeForce 8800 GTs, I would still opt for the former, but as a single card solution for just over £150 (inc. VAT), it's an almost unmissable proposition.

Source: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2007/1 ... _8800_gt/1

So is SLI with the GeForce 8800 GT a viable choice? From a purely performance (read: frame rates) point of view, it delivers the goods. However, at this moment, the drivers from NVIDIA don't seem up to the mark, with our 3D games experiencing horizontal flickering bands that seriously disrupted game play. We have seen this before and believe it to be a driver issue that hopefully will get addressed along with proper SLI support for Crysis. Although the SLI performance looks enticing, the various related issues, from the heat/power consumption to possible screen artifacts mean it's not as convincing as the scores suggest. For now, our advice is simply this: caveat emptor.

Source: http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/vi ... cid=3&pg=1

SLI was working mediocre for us, we had a couple of titles not willing to work in SLI, the somewhat more known titles all worked in SLI yet we experienced a good number of crashes. After inspecting we noticed that the BFG card has a broken resistor (I found it literally in the wrapping bag). So whether the crashes where related to that or driver instability is not something I can say at this point. Check some other reviews. SLI performance in general however is just really good. I'd prefer two cards for 400-500 USD in total rather than one GTX or Ultra for that matter.

Source: http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/468/1


What resolution are you planning on gaming at then?

Based on the general consensus, I think the Ultra would be the better choice, due to SLI not working in all games, and it still being buggy in others.

Dan

[bandieramonte]

The information you just posted did more than suit my needs. Now, I'm completely clear with this topic.

My conclusion is that on lower resolutions an Ultra performs better than SLI 8800 GT, but in the highest resolutions the inverse happens. Since I'm planning to play games in the highest resolutions, the SLI 8800 GT would suit me better.

But, what has me worried is that many games can't even be played in SLI mode, while there are games experiencing problems under this config. Also, I found that two 8800 GTs are cheaper than a single 8800 Ultra.

I'm now inclined on the SLI 8800 GT, having my fingers crossed hoping that Nvidia will improve the drivers that would fix this SLI bugs, as well as enable SLI on games that right now can't be played on SLI.

But now, there is something that popped in my mind. What about the 3870 on Crossfire mode? If you take a look at the legitreviews starting from http://www.legitreviews.com/article/605/1/ and wipe up all these pages, one can conclude that the 3870 Crossfire has better performance on lower and higher resolutions than the 8800 ultra. And also, shopping for this 3870 Crossfire, I found out that this is cheaper than the SLI 8800 GT.

So, I have a final question: Does the Crossfire has the same issues that are being experienced by the SLI? Can every game be played under Crossfire config? Are some games experiencing crashes or bugs under Crossfire?
What do you say?

[DMB2000uk]

Reading through all of the benchmarks, you can see that there are also games that don't work with crossfire too, and in those cases the cards are just listed as the single card performance. In those situations I'd want a faster single card than slightly slower unusable (for some games) dual card setup. I don't know if there are as many problems making crossfire work, so can't comment there.

Hopefully with the 3870's ATI will be able to squeeze more performance from them with the next few driver updates, so some of the low scores could get better.

Unfortunately there isn't a clear cut winner here, so its down to personal preference to what you think you should get.

Have fun deciding, ask away if you have more questions.

Dan

[bandieramonte]

Combining all the info of all of the posts of this topic, I found that the SLI 8800 GT has an average of 4% of better performance than the 8800 Ultra on games that can be played on SLI mode.

Now, combining all of the pieces of the http://www.legitreviews.com/article/605/1/ reviews, and making my math, I found that the 3870 Crossfire has a 3.3% average gain over the 8800 Ultra on games that can be played under Crossfire mode.

Now, the 8800 Ultra hugely beats the SLI 8800GT on games that can't be played on SLI mode. The same happens with the 3870 Crossfire. If I only played games that can be played on SLI mode, then SLI 8800GT would be the winner here, beating 3870 Crossfire by 0.7% of difference gain over the 8800 Ultra.

But, the 3870 Crossfire costs an average of 8% less than the SLI 8800GT, having only an average of 0.3% of better performance over the former.
The 3870 Crossfire already has directX10.1 support, which is an advantage over the 8800 cards. Also, the 3870 Crossfire is the one who reaches the lowest temperature levels between the cards being studied. I read on other forums that the 8800GT reaches above the 100 degrees, which is critical for the CPU system overall temperature.

So the BIG conclusion here is, well at least for me, that the 3870 Crossfire is the winner here, having the best price/performance ratio. The only setback here goes with the games with deficient support under the Crossfire mode. But, this is an easily solvable problem. ATI just has to release better drivers and patches.

Well, if anyone has anything to add, or to correct, you are welcome.

[stopthekilling77]

keep in mind that driver support will gradually improve over any of the new cards from either nVidia or ATI, dont forget to post pics once you get this all up and in your machine :D

[bandieramonte]

keep in mind that driver support will gradually improve over any of the new cards from either nVidia or ATI, dont forget to post pics once you get this all up and in your machine :D

Better for my conclusion then. This means that the 3870 Crossfire will be performing even better over the 8800 Ultra as ATI releases better drivers, no matter if NVidia also releases better drivers, because in this case it is the Crossfire which is improving, which means improving two cards instead of improving a single card. Then we have a "double improvement" here for 3870 Crossfire, I don't know if you get my point.

[stopthekilling77]

i do, either way you go you'll be getting great performance!

[Apoptosis]

or wait and get an 8800 GTS 512MB and overclock it....

[Zertz]

keep in mind that driver support will gradually improve over any of the new cards from either nVidia or ATI, dont forget to post pics once you get this all up and in your machine :D

I would tend to agree, but how long has Crossfire and SLI been out now? Yeah...

[bandieramonte]

Which historically does better support: ATI to the Crossfire or NVidia to the SLI?

Are all of the older games like Gothic 3, NeverWinterNight 2, Age of EMpires 3, FarCry, GTA San Andreas, and the like, supported by SLI and Crossfire? I can't find anywhere on the net some sort of list which specifies all of the games completely supported by SLI, as well as by Crossfire.

[bandieramonte]

Anyone here?

[Apoptosis]

NVIDIA will always have better native driver support because of the way it's meant to be played program... they pay developers for that and the game is optimized for them. They paid millions to be the GPU for crysis... So from a driver standing NVIDIA will always be in the lead as they have the bigger budget.

You want a link... you got a link!

NVIDIA Games - http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_twimt ... slist.html
SLI Optimized - http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone2_game.html