Author Topic: Video Card Advice? (Read 382 times)

Dace · « **on:** March 19, 2006, 08:35:56 PM »

I currently have a GeForce 6600GT 128mb PCI-E. Was wantin opinions about which upgrade option to go with.

Buy another 6600GT and link it with the one I already have or buy a 6800GS. So I guess what I'm asking is: Is the price jump worth it, or will 2 x 6600GTs work as good as 1 6800GS?

Brooke · « **Reply #1 on:** March 20, 2006, 02:56:22 AM »

Assuming your motherboard supports nVidia SLI, I think two 6600 GT's will be faster than one 6800 GS. According to this review

http://techreport.com/reviews/2005q1/geforce6600gt-sli/index.x?pg=1

it looks to be about 20-40% faster than a single 6800GT (which is about as fast as a single 6800GS). Power consumption and heat generation will be twice as high as with a single 6600GT, so you'll need a good power supply (my guess is 500W or higher) and keep an eye on cooling (might want to use RivaTuner to make sure your GPU's at least don't overheat).

I don't know if there is any issue with two SLI cards not being exactly the same (such as if you have one that is from one manufacturer and one is from another manufacturer who has the GPU clock set slightly differently, or whatever). I suppose you could use RivaTuner to make the settings for the two cards to be the least common denominator.

Since all the newer 6800GS cards are decently overclocked from the factory, a current 6800GS is probably faster than the 6800GT's or 6800GS's used in reviews that are a year or more old (as those are probably not overclocked).

As for price, 6600GT's seem to be about $140-$150 and 6800GS's seem to be about $180-$200 (at least from newegg.com). I've had good luck with an XFX card and back luck with several eVGA cards, in case you are interested in which brands to try.

eagl · « **Reply #2 on:** March 20, 2006, 04:53:00 AM »

In the reviews I've read, a single card of the newer generation seems to at least keep up with the previous generation in SLI.

So I'd get a 7800 or 7900 series, single card, skipping anything else in the 6xxx series.

Dace · « **Reply #3 on:** March 20, 2006, 04:16:50 PM »

I dont have that much $ to spend. So I think I'm gonna go with another 6600GT. eVga is the brand I have now, and I saw a brand new one for $91 on E-bay. Suks to hear "bad luck with eVga", but I guess I'll take my chances.

Also, about SLI: Is there anything special I have to do to the MOBO or drivers?, or do I just install the card and put the bridge on?

eagl · « **Reply #4 on:** March 20, 2006, 04:50:42 PM »

You should probably do some google browsing on SLI setup. According to various reviews I've read, sometimes there's a trick with the drivers but I have never done it myself so I don't really know. You may have to flip a little card dingus between the pci-e slots on your mobo, you may need to change a bios setting, I dunno because it depends on what mobo you have. Check the mobo manual and start reading some sli setup articles online before you do anything.

At least that's what I'd do.

Brooke · « **Reply #5 on:** March 21, 2006, 01:53:22 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Dace
Suks to hear "bad luck with eVga", but I guess I'll take my chances.

My bad luck with eVGA cards was due entirely to their packaging and not due to design or performance of the card. The two eVGA cards I got shipped to me in a row both had broken off capacitors. This was a result of eVGA packaging them so that the cards could bang around loose inside the box with the card wrapped only in a thin sheet of bubble wrap.

If you buy an eVGA card (or any other card) that is packaged that way, closely examine the parts on the card to make sure none are broken off.

eagl · « **Reply #6 on:** March 21, 2006, 02:29:02 AM »

I had a "bad" eVGA card. It started off great then died over a period of 3 months. RMA'd it for a PNY card and have had no problems at all.

I'd originally gotten the eVGA card specifically because everyone said it was a great overclocker even though the price was near or at the bottom of the pile, but by the time I RMA'd it I couldn't get it to run stable with a 10% underclock.

But YMMV

38ruk · « **Reply #7 on:** March 21, 2006, 07:35:26 AM »

http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/05/24/vga_charts_vi/page3.html

Above is a link that compares a 6600gt sli setup most pcie cards . Their wasnt a 6800gs in the list , but i would assume that its between a 6800gt and a 6800ultra . From the looks of it, SLI does good in synthetic benchmarks and doom , but other than that it doesnt seem to perform that great , but take a look and decide for yourself . It could be that their wasnt a proflie for the other games in which it performed badly .

I have a EVGA 7800GT, it clocks great , and ive never had any trouble with any of my EVGA products . I think you can find bad stories from any manufacturer. 38