Cheapest setup for 2560x1600 gaming.

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Frostex

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I've been itching to upgrade my 8800GTX for ages now, and we've got the GTX280 reviews through and I have to say, I'm really not impressed at all.

I'm running 2560x1600 in a lot of my games and I'm really starting to feel the pinch with it now, I've had to gimp the AoC settings a fair bit and needless to say Crysis isn't playable at them settings. What I really want is something which will provide good frame rates in AoC and give a little future proof to other games in 2560x1600

So here's the deal...prices for the UK right now.

GTX 280 = £470
9800GX2 = £350
9800GTX = £400 (for 2)
8800GTX = £210

I have several options in my price range which ideally should not exceed £500.

I could get a single GTX 280 which costs the most by a good margin
I could get a single 9800GX2 which performs almost identically for £120 less
I could get SLI 9800GTX which performs the best in Crysis according to [H]
I could get a single 8800GTX and add it to my current one in SLI

Im not really sure what to do, apparantly the 9800GTX isn't really much faster than the 8800GTX, so Im guessing SLI 8800GTX isn't too far off GTX280 but for only £210

The only problem is I have a BFG 8800GTX and I can't find any other BFG models, would that matter? I can find leadtek and asus, I'm happy to have most models to be honest, as long as they work together.

People have mentioned for 2560x1600 gaming that having the 1Gb of memory on the GTX280 may help in future titles which gives me a bit of an aversion to the 9800GTX SLI and 9800GX2 setups which both have only 512mb, and sort of reinforces the SLI 8800GTX route in my mind (768mb cards)

Other than AMD cards, have I missed any other good obvious configs? I'd prefer not to wait too long or go over my £500 although I may do at a stretch. Right now im kinda leaning towards 8800GTX SLI as the performance is nearly that of a GTX 280 but costs only £210

Dollars for all these prices is basically 2x these values.
 
Using another brand will work.
SLI FAQ
Can I mix and match graphics cards?
In order to provide optimal symmetric scaling, SLI technology requires the NVIDIA GPUs to match. For example, a GeForce 7800 GTX must be paired with another GeForce 7800 GTX. Likewise, a GeForce 6600 GT must be paired with another GeForce 6600 GT. However, using the latest Release 80 or later graphics drivers, NVIDIA GPUs sold by different manufacturers can be used together in an SLI configuration. For example, a GeForce 7800 GT from vendor ABC can be matched with a GeForce 7800 GT from vendor XYZ.
Click to expand...
P.S. What motherboard are you running?
 
Well, all those options will give you around the same performance. The only real advantage you'll get from the GTX 280 would be future scalability (i.e, you could later get another), but then you might end up in exactly the same dilemma another generation down the road. Personally, I'd go for the second 8800gtx.
 
I dont have an SLI motherboard right now, however I plan to upgrade my E6600 to a Core 2 Quad Q9450 at the same time, which means a motherboard upgrade anyhow since I want to clock it to 3.2Ghz and that needs a 1600 FSB board, most of which support multi 16x speed PCI-e slots already.

The other problem is the PSU, I have a Antec modular 500W atm which has enough spare power cables for 8800GTX SLI but not any of the other setups since it doesn't have 8pin PCI-e power, so possibly saving me £150 on a decent 1000W PSU

A 2nd 8800GTX is extremley tempting right now and would save me a boat load of cash over the other upgrade paths, although one less thing to sell from my current system I suppose.
 
After including the price of a 780i or 790i in your math, you may find that the 280 looks a lot more reasonable.
 
You can get the GTX 280 for £400 from ebuyer.co.uk
The brand is 'Point of View'... there was one from Zotac for the same price but they just jacked up the price by £20 and it's sold out.

imo, it's worth a £50 price premium (vs. GX2 / 2x9800GTX) to have a single card solution. I think support for the 9 and 8 series will be winding down from now on, whereas the GTX 280 will only be getting better. That, and you will have room to expand to more than one GTX 280 in the future when prices come down... Something you will definitely be wanting to do with a 30" panel. If you buy a second 8800 GTX, you will have no more room for expansion and you will be left with two outdated cards with deminishing resale value.

Also, I notice a lot more stutter with two gfx cards than I do with one (I went from one 8800 GTX, to two 9800 GX2's, to two 9800 GTX's).

I have personally just ordered a GTX 280 for £400 plus £9 for tomorrow morning delivery. I will be selling my two 9800 GTX's, and potentially buying a second 280 when prices come down. That seems to me like the most sensible and future-proof route.
 
Another option not mentioned is waiting a week to see how ATI does. If your MB supports X-fire then they may have the soloution for you. We are seeing a few reports that X-fire will be scalling very well this time around so a 4870 now followed by a 4870x2 in the future may be a great path to follow of you already have the board to support it.
 
Hrm well I dont trust them brands of card at all to be quite honest, I'd prefer Asus, BFG, leadtek, and at a push XFX. I'm not certain they're going to sell at £400, none of the cards at that price are even in stock, it seems like a guestimate to me, can you update here if your order changes please?

I suppose that with the 9800GX2 and the GTX280 I could save on an SLI motherboard, and drop the PSU to be something a bit lower wattage like 600W-750W, and I also get to sell my 8800GTX which I hope to get £130-£150

Lets say a £400 for cheapest GTX280 minus £150 for my old card, minus £50 mobo saving minus £50 PSU saving, I suppose that puts the card at £200

I dunno, even if I went the single card route I'd probably still go for the £120 cheaper 9800GX2 which in every review site i've read so far out performs the GTX280 on average (except for [H])

Bit more thinking to do on this one i think, I sort of want to allow the window for SLI in the future also, which would mean losing the saving on an SLI mobo and PSU...sigh
 
My order has already dispatched, I have a tracking number and everything ;) It's guaranteed to arrive before noon tomorrow. Total amount paid was 400+9 for shipping. I also just checked ebuyer.co.uk again and while the Zotac is out of stock the 'Point of View' still has stock left (19, apparently). I'll post again tomorrow evening after I install it and let you know if I have any problems, but I doubt I will have any issues resulting from it being a less well-known brand... As far as I know, most of the GTX 280's probably come from the same factory anyway. There are no custom cards out yet that I have seen, except the evga water cooled one. They're basically all the same except for the packaging.

IMO you should get an SLi board even if you get a single GTX 280, because it will give you the flexibility to get a second GTX 280 when the time comes that your single 280 can't handle 2560x1600 in the latest games. If you get a non-sli board and you become unhappy with your framerates a few months from now, you won't be able to go sli without buying a whole new motherboard, or selling your 280 and getting crossfired Radeons. A 680i or 780i would be fine though, so that you can get the savings of DDR2 instead of DDR3.

Getting a 280 puts you in a better position for the future, I think. Plus, you won't have to deal with the quirks of sli inherent in a 9800 gx2. I play Age of Conan as well and subjectively I get the feeling that it doesn't like SLi too much. I look forward to trying it out though, and will let you know if a GTX 280 feels smoother in AoC than two 9800 GTX's imo...
 
Good points, thanks for the input.

Im starting to lean back towards the 280 now, it's just a bit lame to see it lose to the cheaper 9800GX2 in so many benchmarks :S
 
The G92 architecture is close to maxed out, driver-wise and as far as game optimizations go. It's still early days for the 280. Also once the cheaper variations get going, I bet the WIMTB program will ensure than new games show you just a little more oomph in the GT200 uarch. Here's a quote from the tech report review (emphasis mine):

"I went back and looked, and it turns out that when the GeForce 8800 GTX debuted, it was often slower than two GeForce 7900 GTX cards in SLI. No one cared much at the time because the G80 brought with it a whole boatload of new capabilities. One can't exactly say the same for the GT200, but then again, things like a double-size register file for more complex shaders or faster stream-out for geometry shaders may end up being fairly consequential in the long run. It's just terribly difficult to judge these things right now, when cheaper multi-GPU alternatives will run today's games faster."
 
Hey, no problems with the 'Point of View' brand. Only issue is that there is no sign of 'Assassin's Creed' in the box, even though ebuyer said it was bundled. I'm not too phased though, since I have the game already.

I haven't had the chance to play any games yet, but so far I'm pleased and do not feel any buyer's remorse. The GTX 280 sure has freed up a lot of space in my case compared to two 9800 GTX's! Feels much tidier now.
 
Hey, just finished a session of Team Fortress 2 and I can only say WOW... The 280 has vastly improved the 'smoothness' of gameplay compared to my two 9800 GTX's. I didn't even really realise how much barely perceptible stuttering there was until upgrading.

I haven't tried Conan yet, but I can't wait. My happiness with my purchase has just gone up considerably :D
I might keep one of my 9800 GTX's to use for physics, depending on how the drivers pan out.

My experience so far has confirmed in my mind that you should go for the gtx 280 ;)
 
I use 8800GTX SLI and am more then pleased with my performance. They can be had for around $200 here used, even new on a few occasions. The 8800GTX pulled ahead of the 9 series for 2560x1600 gaming last I knew. Im not up on the new launches but from the forum posts Ive seen much hasnt changed. The 280GTX might be faster but one card is going to run you the price of 3 8800GTXs. Ive been tempted to pick up a 3rd myself becuase of the pricing but dont see much of a need for it at this point.
 
I suppose the whole brand thing is a bit silly but I just naturally dont trust brands that are new to the market like that, I'd much prefer to go with Asus/Leadtek/BFG etc

We'll see how the prices drop after the 4870 hits, Im thinking the 4870 no matter how it performs is going to be beaten by Nvidia simply lowering the price of whatever card perfoms the closest, the same as 9800GTX price drop
 
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