Dual 8800 GT 512MB VS Single 8800 Ultra XFX

[bandieramonte]

Man, that's really cool. My favorite games are included in this list. Well, now I'm more inclined on acquiring 8800GT SLI than the 3870 Crossfire. Yes, the later is cheaper, what the support is important, and the additional money payed goes for this nice NVidia support. It's fair business for me. I don't want to acquire the 3870 Crossfire to then disappoint myself when I realize that my favorite game can't be played on Crossfire mode.

The only set back to the 8800GT SLI is their high temperatures; some have reported above the 100 degrees...

[Methious]

I agree with Apop Nvidia has better support due to better budget, when I run into problems with ATI they can be a real headache some times with no real solution, with nVidia it's usually just a driver update/hotfix issue.

Most of my customers headaches from compatibility issues lies in the old driver area. Non-computer people usually have no idea about updating drivers, some thing doesn't want to run (usually a video game or high end sound app) so I spend a couple of hours updating drivers/bios and every thing falls into place.

As for heat issues, on the few machines I've had hot video cards running, short of water cooling or expensive solutions, they have expansion slot coolers, some push air from inside the case outside, some pull in cool air from the outside and blow it inside. It stinks using an expansion port for a cooler but it's a $20 dollar range solution.

Put a good air flow in your case with high CFM low noise fans, front fan pulling cool air into the case, rear fan pushing hot air out, keeping the ambient temp inside your case down using good fans, and good cabling drastically reduces heat problems. Then XFX,BFG, and EGA have lifetime guarantees so run that puppy til it pants like a retriever on a hot day. If your planning on over clocking the card two of the manufactures even cover that.

[bandieramonte]

I'm about to acquire 8800GT SLI Xtreme Edition on a FORCERECONNXE-CONFIG-051509803 rig with the following ventilation system (from vigorgaming)

Vigor ALPHA FORCE Screwless Chassis w/TyphoonTM Air Ventilation System
Metal Mesh Side Window for Improved Ventilation
Vigor MonsoonTM II LITE TEC Active CPU Cooling System

This is all the ventilation that would come within the rig. Is this enough to ensure proper levels of temperature, even after hours of game play of the most graphical game, with overclocking and all ?

[Apoptosis]

depends really... I reviewed the Vigor Gaming LIte TEC cooler already and it was okay... used a bit more power and was louder than I usually like coolers to be.

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/472/1/

[bandieramonte]

I saw the review on the cooler, and considering the elevated power requirements of this cooler, I'm now I'm concerned about my power supply.
My system will have the following:

Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E6850 at 3.00GHz, 1333MHz FSB, 4M Cache
Vigor MonsoonTM II LITE TEC Active CPU Cooling System
Asus P5N-E-SLI NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI Intel Quad Core Ready
4GB Mushkin HP2-6400 996576 CL4-5-4-11 X 2 DDR2 800MHz Memory (4 X 1024MB)
500GB S-ATA II 7200 RPM Hard Drive
Vigor Surf Hard Drive Cooler w/dual fans
nVidia GeForce 8800 GT 512MB Xtreme Edition @660MHz, DVI and TV Out
nVidia GeForce 8800 GT 512MB Xtreme Edition @660MHz, DVI and TV Out
ASUS Internal SATA 2014BLT 20X LIGHTSCRIBE DVD+/- RW + CDRW Rewritable Drive
Internal DVD+CD Rewritable Combo Drive 16X52X32X52
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Retail Edition
Onboard Gigabit (10/100/1000Mbps) PCI Network Card
Logitech X530 5.1 6-Channel Speakers w/Subwoofer
Logitech MX3200 RF Wireless Keyboard & Matching Mouse
1.44MB 3.5QuoteMark Floppy Drive

Is the
Tagan TG800-U25 EasyCon XL nVidia-SLI Certified 800Watt Power Supply
enough to power all of this? I'm not planing to do much overclocking.

And also, I would like to know if this Monsoon cooler only cools the processor. Does it also try to cool the entire CPU, including both video cards?

[Apoptosis]

the TEC cooler does just the CPU. The Tagan 800W power supply should be plenty, so no worries at all on that. Just make sure it has the connections you need.

[bandieramonte]

Okay I see. So I suppose the 8800GT should come with their own fans to control its temperature. Should I worry anyway about its temperature? Because I don't know if the rest of the ventilation solutions that will come with my rig:
Vigor ALPHA FORCE Screwless Chassis w/TyphoonTM Air Ventilation
Metal Mesh Side Window for Improved Ventilation
will suffice to control these cards' temperatures. I don't even know if these ventilations will reach the cards.

Should I be concerned of this?

[Apoptosis]

nope, you'll be fine

[bandieramonte]

Ok OK thanks for your help, and the rest of all of you who posted on this topic.
You really helped me decide to choose the components for my rig. I subconsciously transformed into a gaming enthusiast after doing so much research on the web.
Legitreview was the site that helped me the most, I must admit. When I finally get the CPU, I will post here the 3DMark2006 benchmark result, to see what score I will receive on the rig you helped me choose.

[vicaphit]

I would go the same direction. Ultras are a little bit expensive for me!

[bandieramonte]

Hello;
With the release of the new 8800 GTS 512MB, I'm now considereing this against the 8800 GT SLI.
My question is simple:
Is the average SLI performance gain of 8800 GTS 512MB SLI higher than the 8800 GT 512MB's SLI?

I'm addressing here whether if SLI works better on dual 8800 GTS 512MB or in dual 8800 GT 512MB.
Thanks.

[DMB2000uk]

The 8800GTS being the better card of the two, and SLI scaling fairly linearly as you move up the card range, yeah, 8800GTS SLI will be even better than 8800GT SLI.

But is that still cheaper than an ultra?

Dan

[bandieramonte]

The 8800GTS being the better card of the two, and SLI scaling fairly linearly as you move up the card range, yeah, 8800GTS SLI will be even better than 8800GT SLI.

But is that still cheaper than an ultra?

Dan

It's muuuuuuuuuch cheaper than an ultra! In fact, an ultra almost costs 100% more, while it performs an average of only 15% better...Imagine that price/performance ratio. Here you can see my backup information: http://www.legitreviews.com/article/610/1/

So, for the price of an ultra, one can almost buy SLI 8800 GTS 512MB (maybe paying only an additional 50 bucks or something), performing incredibly better than an ultra. What do you think? It's awesome.

[bandieramonte]

Has legitreview done any benchmark tests comparing 8800 GT 512 SLI and the 8800 GTS 512 MB SLI without overclocking?

I'm surfing all over the web trying to find this and till now have only found tests with the GT's overclocked, which is unfair for the GTS (which wasn't overclocked).

If anyone one of you happens to have links or images to this results, please reply me.
Thanks.

[FB_au]

I have a set of cards (Gainward 8800GT 512MB X2 SLi), based on the new i680 board.

Pros: Large performance increase in high res, max AA/AF
(tested on NFS: Pro street, COD4, Crysis, Bioshock)

Cons: Too much heat.. and causes the games to crash when the fans are run at stock speed.
Countering the heat by Increasing the fan speed on the cards created alot of fan noise.

BUT having the cooling required (good air circulation in the case, increasing the gfx fan speeds) proved the system to be stable.
I'm quite used to my system being noisy, so it doesn't bother me.... as long as my games run without a crash

Substantial difference from a single 8800Ultra

[FB_au]

But with the prices falling like no tommorow, I'd settle for the 2 x 8800GTS 512MB.

[maj0r_pawnage]

do cards which are dual cards like 3870x2 have the same problem as sli? or do games see them as one card, so will their performance be stable in all games even though they are two cards but are attached, just another thought, will companies like HIS release a 3870x2 with aftermarket cooling to get rid of the enormous heat they produce