7300 GT SLI replacement

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bigbbass451

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I've been trying to put together a nice SLI gaming system with mid-high gaming performance. I originally bought 2 7300 GT's. I'm not really looking for INSANE performance but definaitly enough to play all the top games with high settings. After reading through a crap load of reviews I'm thinkin these little guys wont be able to pull this off even if they're overclocked. I'm giong to be playing FEAR, darkstar one, Doom 3, Oblivion, supreme commander (not too worried about maxing out these settings), and STALKER. I'm looking for maybe $200-$250 and I'm willing to buy used. What do you guys think. I was thinking of just spending it all on one card for now and then I can upgrade later without having to sell my old card. I guess the question really is....would the 7300's hold up? What card/cards would be the best option for SLI'ing? THANKS guys!!
 
Even a 7900gs is going to kill those two 7300gt's... go with a single good card.
 
Yeah, I'm definaitly thinking one card first but what card is capable of my needs (^^original post^^) and I can find it for $200ish new or used? THANKS guys.
 
THANKS guys, it definaitly looks like the 8800 GTS would be a great pick. The last thing I sill need to upgrade is my power supply. What kind of power supply specs should I look for to run that card? What about 2 of them in SLI? THANKS in advance guys
 
A month ago new egg had 7600gt's for 80 bucks after rebate I got two and it runs very nice HL2 full settings running perfectly.

But now they are back to like 110 so not really worth it anymore.
 
That link you gave me (RogueTrip) seems alot cheaper than other brands of the same card. Is there any difference in performance? or is this one just a steal?
 
I believe its at NVIDIA's reference clock of 500/1600 while others do have slightly higher oc like evga's 576/1700, As for build quality i can't speak anything about them, maybe google some reviews. But it looks like a steal especially if you can OC it!

As for power supplies the corsair hx620 or comparable should handle SLI 8800's
 
what about a single 8800 GTS? I don't think (from the sounds of the reviews) I'm going to have to upgrade to another one any time soon.
 
hossdaddy said:
OK one thing about psu's that needs to be said is to not go cheap. Do not worry about that $ as long as it protects your system. Here are a couple to consider.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171014 wow what a deal!

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1543967&CatId=1483

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2132071&CatId=1483

GL! :D
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Your newegg link doesn't work, and i wouldn't recommend the coolmax to anyone! The Ultra might be good, i'd have to see reviews though before i'd purchase one!
 
hmmm...what do you guys think about maybe running a 7950 GX2 instead of an 8800 GS? They can be had on e-bay for around $260.
 
Go for the Xclio its the most recommended PSU around here for a reason.
 
bigbbass451 said:
hmmm...what do you guys think about maybe running a 7950 GX2 instead of an 8800 GS? They can be had on e-bay for around $260.
Click to expand...

On some benchmarks a superclocked 8800GTS 320mb can still beat a 7950GX2 in some games. Also while i'm here, That pny doesn't have a lifetime warranty, that also might be some of the reason why it is cheaper where evga's is lifetime warranty, BFG has a transferable warranty to one person (kinda cool if your selling it.)
 
Thanks for the info on the warranty.

I guess what I was getting at with the 7950 is if it's almost the same price (used) are there any draw backs to using this card compared to an 8800? If you overclock the 7950 too wouldn't it outperform the 8800? With the huge amount of memory the 7950 has wouldn't you have to have a ton of RAM to run it SLI too?
 
You lose DX10, and any game that doesn't work with SLI you will lose a 7950 and then will be stuck at half of the potential of the card. The memory isn't as big of a deal when gaming is at 1280x1024, only in higher resolutions does more get taken up.

I'm sure a overclocked might have a chance against a 8800 but then again you can gain ground again with a o/cing the 8800.
 
My $0.02:

The 7950GX2 has issues--unless the game in question is well-optimized for SLI, performance will suffer. It's big, hot, and sucks a lot of power. It won't support DX10. If you're talking about big memory size because you're counting it as 1 Gig total, remember that the GX2 is "SLI-in-one-card," so it actually has 2 512MB memory pools that only count as one 512MB pool while running in SLI.

The 8800GTS 320 is a great card all around, but a little high for your price range.

The 8600GTS launches in 3 weeks, April 17th, and depending on where street prices end up, could be your best choice if you can wait.
 
Thanks for all the help guys. I think what I'm gonna do is just go with the 8800 GTS that RogueTrip put the link up for. Seems like a descent price and if it's not good enough I'll overclock it a bit. Plus that way I can upgrade later if I want to. THANKS again everyone.
 
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