Looking at upgrading GFX this year, need some thoughts

Neo said:
I have 2 GTX280's and a seperate 9800GT for PhysX....do I notice a difference between a single GTX280 and 2 of them? It all depends on the game and the drivers, and in some games like Crysis and Modern Warfare the answer is an absolute YES. Would I pay R6000 per card? NOPE...I got them at R3000 per card and at that price it was a fantastic deal.

One thing I'm starting to really believe in MORE than SLi is to have a dedicated PhysX card like a small 9800GT or something. I've seen a massive improvement in Batman: AA and it proved to me that the technology still has a lot to offer.
Click to expand...

mmm. The ATi cards unfortunately dont have PhysX. But can you have 2 separate cards like the GTX280 and the 9800 in SLI?
 
Rob-Dynamix said:
mmm. The ATi cards unfortunately dont have PhysX. But can you have 2 separate cards like the GTX280 and the 9800 in SLI?
Click to expand...

Nope. SLi means you need to have the same cards to work in a Scalable Link Interface (write that down). In the beginning of SLi you even had to have the same brand of card too...but they've eased up on that a bit now.

It's been proven time and again that SLi is a bit of a white elephant. When it works, it works like an absolute BOMB....but most of the time you end up not using it to its full potential and that means you're not getting your money's worth.
 
Neo said:
Nope. SLi means you need to have the same cards to work in a Scalable Link Interface (write that down). In the beginning of SLi you even had to have the same brand of card too...but they've eased up on that a bit now.

It's been proven time and again that SLi is a bit of a white elephant. When it works, it works like an absolute BOMB....but most of the time you end up not using it to its full potential and that means you're not getting your money's worth.
Click to expand...

Ok, I didnt know that. Ive got it. But that is what I was kinda saying you spend all this cash and end up not using it. I still reckon you better off getting a monster of a graphics card and stick that in. If you have cash by an additional one in Xfire or SLi. Or I suppose 2 cheaper cards into Xfire. GTX280 is not cheap
 
The drivers for SLI/X-Fire are getting better. It isn't as much of a white elephant as it used to be. 2 lower cards can be cheaper and more powerful than 1 higher card. In some cases it's a very smart choice. i.e. 2x5770s will xfire to give better performance than a 5870 for less money.
 
Oh....just remembered another critical issue with big-boy SLi setups. POWER...omw...don't forget that you need monster of a PSU to run it.
 
ok guys minor res here...

Serious advice needed.

all i need is best frames and detail levels at 1920x1080 from my gfx solution, preferably something that'll work with my current setup. and sli if possible, any advice shoot.

this is purely for gaming. no benching, oc'ing or any of that silliness

CPU: AMD Phenom 2 955 Black Edition @ 3.2ghz

Mobo: Asus Crosshair 2 Formula nForce 780a Bios revision 2402

RAM: 4x 1gig Kingston Hyper-X ram DDR2 800

GFX: 1x Force3D HD4850 512MB

HDD:1x Seagate 120gb Sata
1x 250gb Seagate Sata
1x Maxtor 250gb Sata

PSU: Coolermaster Realpower PRO 850watt

Case: Coolermaster HAF 922
Fans: Front 200mm intake
Top 200mm Extraction
Rear 120mm Extraction
Side 2x 120mm Intake

DVD/RW: Asus DRW2014L1T

Keyboard: Logitech g15

Mouse: Logitech MX518

Speakers: Logitech X-530 5.1

Monitor: 23" Samsung 2333SW wide

O/S: Windows 7 32-bit
Click to expand...
 
Tank said:
ok guys minor res here...

Serious advice needed.

all i need is best frames and detail levels at 1920x1080 from my gfx solution, preferably something that'll work with my current setup. and sli if possible, any advice shoot.

this is purely for gaming. no benching, oc'ing or any of that silliness
Click to expand...

Honest opinion, sell your 4850 and buy a 5770 i think you can get 1 for around R1800 if I'm not mistaken. Then you'll be waxed for quite some time:)
Crossfire isn't an option unless you wanna spend quite a bit of cash upgrading too 2x 5770's Not viable if you only wanna game.
 
How much cash do you have to spend? You get what you pay for, that's all. Cards these days work on a pretty simple price/performance ratio. There isn't this great jumping off point in the past where if you wanted the high end stuff you had to pay a disproportionate amount more.
 
Tank just make sure which one you buy as some of themm the fan control does not work, A buddy of mine had 2 XFX's and both the fan controls did not work and after following the BIOS flash posts he bricked both cards.
 
so ja unless someone can come up with a damn good reason why i shouldn't buy the 5970 it's a done deal :)
 
indescision has killed me :(

can't make up my mind. gonna hold off til i can make a clear choice :(
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top