Hardware question

Mistra

Mistra

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Have been considering going SLI now that the 8800's are a good bit cheaper than they were when I bought my 8800 320MB.

I've been looking around, and the 320's are no longer around really, only the 640's. My question is, can the 320mb go SLI with the 640? I've read both yes, and no, so I thought I'd ask. Thanks!

Forgot to include, they are the EVGA brand, that's why I can't find the 320mb.
 
hmm. good question. my theory is, they should SLI. at that point, your combining them together for prcessing power only. obvioulsy, you would use the better card for the actual input to the monitor. but they should SLI. dont take my word on that because my other theory is that they wont work for the simple fact they are different models and/or brands.but again, you would only be combining for processing and ram. i would imagine that compatibility between the two is where it comes in. best thing to do is call the manufacturer and ask them unless someone in the boards have personally done it
 
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Ok here goes, as along as they are both 8800's.

Your system will make the 640 drop to equal the 340's memory. You really wont see a huge difference. I'd save your money, unless you can buy two 640's.
 
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Thanks much, was curious. I'm not too concerned about the drop on the other 320mb of RAM, I just wanted the increased processing power. After comparative results between the 320mb's sli'd and the 640's, the 640 only showed a marginally higher increase on games I won't be playing anyways.

As long as they will work together I'll be happy! :) Thank you both, much appreciated.
 
Actually, you concerned me enough to really dig into it... apparently, and this is via the Nvidia forums, absolutely no one, even with the structured fix out there, can SLI the different RAM sized cards. None of them can get the mobo to recognize the sli mode.

So, you're right. I'm just going to buy two 640's. No point in not doing it. Plus they both have a $60 rebate.

Edit - Actually, found higher-clocked, better quality 8800 GT's for exact same price, plus they're PCI-Ex16 2.0. Good deal. It's funny to me slower, older cards were the same price.
 
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Mistra said:
Actually, you concerned me enough to really dig into it... apparently, and this is via the Nvidia forums, absolutely no one, even with the structured fix out there, can SLI the different RAM sized cards. None of them can get the mobo to recognize the sli mode.

So, you're right. I'm just going to buy two 640's. No point in not doing it. Plus they both have a $60 rebate.

Edit - Actually, found higher-clocked, better quality 8800 GT's for exact same price, plus they're PCI-Ex16 2.0. Good deal. It's funny to me slower, older cards were the same price.
Click to expand...


Yeah old hardware like that doesn't always drop in price.

I saw where some people couldn't even get it to recognize, but a few who could. Really though, I used to SLI and only saw marginal upgrade, that wasn't worth the price. Doing two cheaper older cards is probably better, like you're doing with the 8800's.

Usually the game will run pretty smooth both ways, but using two video cards will definitely make the game run smoother at a much higher resolution.
 
even the most intense game out there right now, just one 8800 will work for it. its going to be a while for anything out there to be pushing the limits of that card. now that you have the ability to SLI it, its more bang for the buck just to do that than to get a new card. its not needed to get a new top of the line at this time.

personally, i have a 7600 gt. i would rather SLI that than to get a brand new card.
 
And that's why I prefer my xfire. =)
 
well it already "pushes the limits" of the card, 1 8800gt has problems running crysis on high at a resolution over about 1400x1280

can't run very high very well at all.
 
I don't know the exact outline of SLI systems but most people I sold SLI solution noticed like 5-10% boost of the overall performance for the graphics. Is that true? God knows. I usually don't really check on graphics and I don't pay attention to it when I build systems too.

The only games I play on my pc are FFXI and SimCity 4 so it would be hard to test based on this lol. I would probably notice a difference when I would compile a video but I'm satisfied with my single 9600gt so far.

But yeah 2x cheaper card > 1 high-end card, for the simple fact you're going to pay less for 2 cards and usually have best performance for the price than a single ubber-dupper-shiny-lookatmeimpimpandrich-card.
 
Tymon said:
well it already "pushes the limits" of the card, 1 8800gt has problems running crysis on high at a resolution over about 1400x1280

can't run very high very well at all.
Click to expand...

it shouldnt. maybe something else causing said problems on your computer?

crysis
Recommended System Requirements
OS - Windows XP / Vista
Processor - Intel Core 2 DUO @ 2.2GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ <---- (if it were having issues and you have the rec. vid card, this is what i would start looking at.)
Memory - 2.0 GB RAM <----(and this)
GPU - NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS/640 or similar
 
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Well, got my EVGA 8800gt's with the Akimbo cooler attached. After some SLI config and some updated drivers, I must say, I'm pretty impressed.

Oblivion was really my only test base. WoW I guess too, but considering WoW won't be SLI supported until the expansion, it doesn't really count.

System specs that matter:

2x EVGA 8800GT (Overclocked to 750mhz, running in split-frame rendering)
4GB of Corsair RAM
AMD 3.4ghz dual core (2mb L2)

Cards are the only things I have overclocked. Every part except for the new cards were a purchase from last year's new line of equipment. Oblivion saw some impressive results with rendering. Where 30fps was common on the older 320MB 8800gts (which surprisingly, was only 520mhz), I'm seeing a pretty consistent 70 frames.

WoW, after some tweeking for the game specifically, now works a bit better with the cards (Blizz has made an official statement the current framework on the game doesn't really support the 8800 line of Nvidia cards too well... apparently a fix in the expansion/next patch) hit about 140fps in certain areas, typically stays around 90-100 (disabled vsync, naturally. Doesn't make a huge difference but higher numbers is always gratifying to see).

Other than that, I'm impressed and finally glad I completed my build from last year. I don't delve too heavily into the new stuff, but when I finally go Vista it will be nice to have the hardware to support some nice DX10 stuff if I ever get into newer games. So, for a minimal price, I had a pretty significant upgrade.

I even sold the old 8800GTS for about 70 bucks, which, including the rebate, brought the new cards to about $80 total. Hell of a price for performance ratio. SLI couldn't have been easier to enable, either. Thanks for all the feedback everyone.
 
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