Hey guys. I just ordered a Evga 8800Ultra from Newegg. My question is should I return it and get 2 HD2900 Pro's with water blocks insted of the Ultra? What would be faster over all? I just saw on Xtremesystems that a guy flashed his 2900 Pro with a XT bios and ran almost 14k in 3dmark06 on stock air with a quad @ 3.6Ghz. That's pritty good. My motherboard is a P5B so no SLI for me. What would you do? Thanks for the help.
![[H]ard|Forum](/styles/hardforum/xenforo/logo_dark.png){kind=logo}
2 HD2900 Pro's vs. 1 8800Ultra?
- Thread starter DBZ33
- Start date
I have a Silverstone 850w PS. Are there alot of problems with CF? The only thing turning me off is the 1 year warranty on the ATI cards. The EVGA is lifetime and has a 90 day step up program.
SuperKeijo
Gawd
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2007
- Messages
- 705
Let me see now.. The only reasons I can see to do this is:
1. The temperature in your house/room is too low and you need something to heat things up abit.
2. You're worried that your power company isn't doing too well and feel the need to support them a little more.
3. Running a single card is too hassle free for you. You want to really fight your way into playing games at decent frame rates.
4. You hate the fact that your current card is great at antialiasing and want (a) card(s) that'll really suck balls at it.
5. Damn I think that was it. Someone may continue..
1. The temperature in your house/room is too low and you need something to heat things up abit.
2. You're worried that your power company isn't doing too well and feel the need to support them a little more.
3. Running a single card is too hassle free for you. You want to really fight your way into playing games at decent frame rates.
4. You hate the fact that your current card is great at antialiasing and want (a) card(s) that'll really suck balls at it.
5. Damn I think that was it. Someone may continue..
Not too many, a lot less then SLI with Vista. I run both my 2900XTs off of a 1000W silverstone, you should be fine with the 850. I wouldn't worry about the one year warranty, if you're buying 2 video cards or an ultra, you're probably upgrading atleast every year. I know I do, more like every 6 months.
This was a funny post. LOL!!! I just dont want to make a bad purchase for the money im spending. I can have two 2900pro's for the price of one Ultra. As for heat im ok. I have two PC's and a multi TB media server running in this room. And im ok with that. I just want to make sure that CF would be faster than a very high overclocked water cooled ULTRA.
GoldenTiger
Fully [H]
- Joined
- Dec 2, 2004
- Messages
- 29,646
3dmark is not too meaningful for cross-system comparisons like this. That said, 2x 2900Pro's overclocked will outperform a single Ultra by a good bit. However, newegg has a non-refundable policy now on the 8800's mostly, due to the new series coming out soon, so it may not be returnable
.3dmark is not too meaningful for cross-system comparisons like this. That said, 2x 2900Pro's overclocked will outperform a single Ultra by a good bit. However, newegg has a non-refundable policy now on the 8800's mostly, due to the new series coming out soon, so it may not be returnable
I will call them tomorrow. I didn't even get the card yet. Im sure they will let me exchange it for two 2900Pro's and two water blocks. If not I iwll sell it unopened on EBay and buy the two 2900Pro's I just don't know what to do yet?
stoney_titan
[H]ard|Gawd
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2007
- Messages
- 2,018
Just simmer in the ultras greatness.
chrisewaters
Limp Gawd
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2006
- Messages
- 131
the 2900's ara abit of a gamble really, some games they perform really well other they just suck balls. The 8800 performes well all round. 3D mark is just a benchmark, if you actualy play games the it isn't a very good benchmark for how your card will perform in actual games, expecialy if you benchmarking 2900's. Why don;t you get a 8800 GTX with a waterblock? the ultra is just an overclocked GTX because Nvidia like everyone else though the 2900 was gonna own.
Nenu
[H]ardened
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2007
- Messages
- 20,315
I think thats sensible until ATI can write drivers that deliver the true power of the 2xxx series cards and not just specifically for a few games.
This of course may never happen so for sure the 8800 Ultra is the better bet.
This of course may never happen so for sure the 8800 Ultra is the better bet.
2 2900's probably run great.the ultra will last longer and you're able to usr aa and af to its fullest potenial.using water to cool can probably get a few more mhz out of it,and there is sli.
Yeah...SLI is for nVidia, wouldn't imagine it would work. Now if your talking about crossfire, I haven't had any problems with my 2900s.
Sorry my bad, I meant crossfire. I can't argue about it because I've never run crossfire myself, it's just what I've seen in reviews.
ND40oz may I know what games are you playing with what res/settings ?
Lately, Supreme Commander and Company of Heroes, 1920x1200 on the highest settings with AA at 2-4x. Currently backed by an E6600 @ 3.0 with 4 gigs of ballistix and Vista 32 SP1 beta. Haven't been able to get ahold of a crysis beta key yet, so I guess I'll be waiting for the demo.
Why do people say this? It simply isn't true. I run my ultra at speeds of 701 for the core, 1671 shader clock, and 2352 memory, running at 58 degrees full load on AIR! Can your GTX do that? I doubt it.
9 times out of ten the Ultra will overclock much better (while staying cooler) than a GTX. To a lot of people that does make a difference.