Second video card or replace?

[JOSHSKORN]

I'm thinking I could get a second 8800 GTS 320MB card off Ebay. I've seen them. Then do a SLI configuration.

I've also seen an 8800 GT 512 MB card for roughly the same price. My question is, which would perform better, the two 8800 GTS cards in SLI or the single 8800 GT 512 MB card? I was doing ok until I tried to run the demo for Crysis 2 multiplayer. It worked, but it ran slow.

I don't want to spend a lot of money on an upgrade now, but just enough to get me through the next year or 1 1/2 years.

Other games I'm interested in later on this year are Duke Nukem Forever and Battlefield 3. Not sure what kind of minimal graphics power I will be able to get away with on those games.

 

[saedrin]

What processor do you have and what resolution do you play at?

 

[random305867]

An sli config with your GTS 8800 would be faster in most games. May I ask how much you would be paying for this second card? I know you don't want to spend a lot on an upgrade but there may be better options in the same price range.

 

[mannyman]

if you have to pay more than i would say like 60-70$ just upgrade to a new card, the gts 320 is an old but awesome card, i would just save and buy a gtx460 so you can be ok with all up coming games

 

[JOSHSKORN]

if you have to pay more than i would say like 60-70$ just upgrade to a new card, the gts 320 is an old but awesome card, i would just save and buy a gtx460 so you can be ok with all up coming games

I've been looking at a GTX460 actually, so it's funny you mention that. Those run from what I've seen about $200. I really don't want to spend that kind of money on a new graphics card, yet. Maybe keep it in the $50 range. I'm eying two things that are coming up within the next year: LGA 2011 which has PCI-E 3.0 and then following that, Ivy Bridge. I just want to barely get by the next year.

I've been playing around with game-debate.com which allows you to input your 'rig' and tells you how yours compares with a specific game's system requirements. I'm not sure I agree with that website. According to game-debate, I shouldn't be able to run Battlefield Bad Company 2, yet I can. I've been able to run Call of Duty Black Ops as well, but only on a fresh boot of my system. In fact, the only game I've experienced problems in, is really the multiplayer demo for Crysis 2. Granted, I do not own Metro 2033, which is another resource intensive game. Using this site, I'm at least able to figure out though where my system chokes at, if it's CPU or GPU related, or both.

 

[Warrior]

you can pick up a 4890 for like 80 bucks now, and it will stomp anything you wanna play.

 

[ADRENALIN_2099]

you can pick up a 4890 for like 80 bucks now, and it will stomp anything you wanna play.

+1 to that

ive seen the 4890 and gtx270 for ~$80 in the Sales forum

 

[JOSHSKORN]

+1 to that

ive seen the 4890 and gtx270 for ~$80 in the Sales forum

My motherboard is an ASUS P5N-E and I've seen others in an ASUS support forum post that they've had problems installing AMD/ATI graphics cards. Is the GTX270 comparable to the ATI 4890?

 

[ADRENALIN_2099]

my bad i meant GTX275*

Yes the GTX275 and HD4890 and neck and neck
i had two in sli but one went to my gf's pc and i now just have one

 

[cannondale06]

OP, why did you ignore the request to list your cpu and res? please list ALL your specs.

 

[JOSHSKORN]

OP, why did you ignore the request to list your cpu and res? please list ALL your specs.

Sorry, didn't see it. DONE.

 

[cannondale06]

Sorry, didn't see it. DONE.

ty. you have an older dual core cpu and play at a super low res so there is really no need for anything much more than your current 8800gts. maybe get a gtx460 since those can sometimes found just as cheap as a gts450. at just 1152x864 though you will only get about half of what a card like that can do in most games with your older cpu.