Is it really worth it to Upgrade the Video Card?

[OPUS1]

Being of the [H]arder persuasion, I find myself in a quandary.
I must and will have the latest greatest stuff (with the little Mrs. approval of course )
But having had somewhat of a letdown when I moved from a 5900 Ultra to the 6800GT
I'm not sure the time is right to move up.
Ok the frame rates are faster,but the image quality isn't $400.00 better.
Aside from the benefits of a CPU / MB upgrade,
would a dual SLI rig really give me $1000.00 worth of better visuals?

 

[oVerCaffeinated]

If going from a 5900 Ultra to a 6800GT didn't impress you then I can't see SLI impressing you either.

 

[trinibwoy]

Aaaargh!!!! A graphics card cannot magically give you CG quality. It is up to developers and artists to do that. All the card can do is clean up the image a bit and give you faster performance. Aaaaargh!!!!

Having said that, there is a very noticeable difference in many titles when going from low resolution, low texture and shadow settings, no AA and AF to max settings with AA/AF. But there is a point of diminishing returns - 16x12 4x16x isn't a lot better than 12x9 4x16x. So if that is all SLI is giving you over a single card, then no you won't appreciate it. There will probably be bigger jumps in IQ with next generation games as HDR becomes mainstream.

 

[DandyBear]

Unless you have a monitor with very high refresh rates, for example my CRT with a 100hz refresh rate at 1600x1200, the latest graphics cards should become much less attractive to everyone. We are still bottlenecked by processors and this will not change until game manufacturers start building games around dual core technology. What good is a "Blazzing Fast" graphics card if youre monitor cannot make all those extra fps viewable. Im sticking with my X800xt pe for a while, which is an AGP version.

 

[OPUS1]

Aaaargh!!!! A graphics card cannot magically give you CG quality. It is up to developers and artists to do that. All the card can do is clean up the image a bit and give you faster performance. Aaaaargh!!!!

.

Sorry oll bean mean't image quality

 

[peacetilence]

I went from a 9500Pro to a 6800GT, I can't say that I was all that impressed with the upgrade either. I'd say wait another gen and see what happens. SLI at this point is sort of a throwaway luxery that isn't worth the cost unless you're a true enthusiast and simply have a lot of cash for that sort of thing. I believe adding 2 cards in SLI nets about a 40% improvement over just a single card so it's not really that big of an upgrade, especially when in 6-12 months a cheaper single card solution will most likely trounce all over it. (or next gen consoles that will cost 4 times less...) Though I'm starting to think that spending 1000 or so a year for PC upgrades isn't worth it for the 2-3 games that can truly take advantage of it, so maybe someone else would have a better opinion...

 

[trinibwoy]

Sorry oll bean mean't image quality

Haha, my bad. It's just a pet peeve of mine that irks me when people expect hardware to take fixed game assets and work miracles with it. Hopefully the next generation of games will be more impressive as developers become more comfortable with the power of DX9.

 

[kick@ss]

If you have to ask if SLI is worth it it's not worth it for you. It's only worth it if you have plenty of money to spend.

 

[OPUS1]

If you have to ask if SLI is worth it it's not worth it for you. It's only worth it if you have plenty of money to spend.

Not really true
The jump from my old 5900 Ultra to the GT just wasn't that impressive.
My son is runnin the 5900 U now on an XP64 rig and I can't really see a reason to upgrade the card !
Just cause you have it don't mean ya should waste it

 

[Lord Nassirbannipal]

I'll be skipping this current generation, thank you.

My X800XL serves my needs just fine by giving me good, solid frame rates and an al around hiccup free gaming experience. There's absolutely no need to upgrade to a $600 video card, let alone 2 of them for SLI. There aren't many games that take advantage of SLI, nevermind that fact that I'd have to upgrade my motherboard that I've had for less than a few weeks, as well as get a new monitor, on top of spending $1200 for two video cards, and the performance increase isn't anywhere near enough to justify spending that kind of money.

I could build a whole new gaming box for that price.

 

[YOHAN14344]

The 7800GTX is equal to the performance of TWO 6800Ultras in SLI mode. And it's cheaper than buying 2 Ultras.

 

[fodder0]

Since you already got a 6800gt, wait till the next generation cards, or just wait till after they release the R520 and get that or what Nvidia releases to battle that back.

 

[Dan_D]

If going from a 5900 Ultra to a 6800GT didn't impress you then I can't see SLI impressing you either.

Yeah I am with you on this. If you ask me smoother gameplay and better visuals are something not everyone is as sensitive to. If you didn't notice the difference between a 5900 and a 6800GT I don't think anything can impress you.

The 7800GTX is equal to the performance of TWO 6800Ultras in SLI mode. And it's cheaper than buying 2 Ultras.

Agreed. I noticed a nice little improvement in many games going from 2 6800GT's@Ultra speeds to one 7800GTX OC@stock. Not all games got an improvement, but I sure didn't lose anything either.

I can't wait to add a second one for SLi goodness.