Upgrade: Is it worth it?

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zbobet2012

n00b
Joined
Nov 3, 2007
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Hello all, I currently have the following system:
Motherboard: DFI Lanparty SLI-D
Memory: 2gb (4x512mb) Geil DDR
Video Card: PNY Verto GeForce 6800gs
Processor: AMD Athlong 64x2 4200+


I recently found another 6800gs for 79$, and I was wondering if I would see a substantial performance gain, enough so to justify the 79$.
 
zbobet2012 said:
Hello all, I currently have the following system:
Motherboard: DFI Lanparty SLI-D
Memory: 2gb (4x512mb) Geil DDR
Video Card: PNY Verto GeForce 6800gs
Processor: AMD Athlong 64x2 4200+


I recently found another 6800gs for 79$, and I was wondering if I would see a substantial performance gain, enough so to justify the 79$.
Click to expand...

You'd probably do better spending a couple of bucks more and picking up a 7900GS or X1900.
 
A single 7900gs is slower than two 6800gs in SLI. My source is here. The real question was whether my hardware would be the limiting factor.
 
i think you will find this is not the case. i have had both setups with that exact same hardware config cept the cpu and the 7900 is faster.
 
It's generally better to sell the existing card and get a newer one than to SLI. SLI'ing is a pain and it often doesn't work as well as one card. I'd hold off for a while until you're unsatisfied with the settings you can play, then get something like an 8800 GT. You generally won't see a "wow" difference if you only go up one generation of cards, unless you're easily impressed or can't stand the idea of playing at medium settings.
 
zbobet2012 said:
A single 7900gs is slower than two 6800gs in SLI. My source is here. The real question was whether my hardware would be the limiting factor.
Click to expand...

Your source shows the 6800gs SLI getting 37.6 FPS for Battlefield 2142 @ 1024x768 (LINK1). It then shows the 7900gs getting 52.2 FPS for the same settings (LINK2).

Even if we ignore all the issues with SLI and focus on performance, it is still not justified to spend $79 on an old card like the 6800gs. Sell your existing card and upgrade for a real performance increase.
 
Spending even $79, is spending good money on a poor solution.

$79 is good money that could go towards something like a $250 8800GT which offers a crap load more performance and future proofing than two 6800Gs's in SLi. You may also be able to hock off your old card for $30-40, hence maybe $130 difference to get a great upgrade.

I am never a fan of these minimal already obsolete upgrades. If you can't afford $250 now, save up and buy a real upgrade in a few months and you 100% won't regret it.
 
My thoughts exactly. My suggestion to you is to sacrifice lunch for a few weeks and just get a 8800GT :D
 
Battleneter2 said:
Spending even $79, is spending good money on a poor solution.

$79 is good money that could go towards something like a $250 8800GT which offers a crap load more performance and future proofing than two 6800Gs's in SLi. You may also be able to hock off your old card for $30-40, hence maybe $130 difference to get a great upgrade.

I am never a fan of these minimal already obsolete upgrades. If you can't afford $250 now, save up and buy a real upgrade in a few months and you 100% won't regret it.
Click to expand...



Good advice,instead of throwing away more money on old tech,sell now,and save for a few weeks/month...and grab a a bog standard 8800GT.
 
Or a more constructive question... what games do you play or plan on playing? What games aren't you getting the fps you would like? What resolution do you play at?
 
He mentioned Crysis, but not the res. By the way, Crysis doesn't currently support SLI, so that's another reason not to go with another 6800 GS.
 
Thanks a bunch guys, but in that case I will probably just wait till the 9x nVidia cards come out so I can get the 8800gt on the price drop.
 
I'd say wait. There's no sense of dumping money into old tech. I learned the hard way.

system specs are as follows:
P4 2.8b
ASUS P4S533
Sapphire x1950pro
2gb PC3200 ram

Upgraded from a 2.53ghz to 2.8ghz a year and half ago. $125

Video card upgrade path
TI4600 > BFG 6600GT OC > Sapphire x1950pro $130 for the 6600gt then $150 for the x1950pro

Upgraded from 1gb PC2700 ram to 2gb PC3200 - $100
New PSU to run the x1950pro - $75

Thats $580 in upgrades. The only logical upgrades I should have done were to stick with the 6600gt and the extra ram. The rest was a waste. Yes the x1950pro helped out but with all these newer games coming out my mobo/cpu is a severe bottleneck for this card and the cpu upgrade didnt do much of anything. I wish I saved my money.
 
SLI and Crossfire are only good for people that have too much money to spend on video cards (Example: buying 2x8800Ultras to get the performance needed to run their 30" LCD monitors at 2560x1600) Most of us just can't justify spending that kind of money on video games. You're almost always better off selling your old card for a few bucks and buying a new model video card. Not only do you avoid SLI and Crossfire issues, but you usually get better or the same performance for a lower cost and newly added video card features.

My suggestion, spend the $130 ($90 + $40 for selling your 6800gs) towards a new video card; a 1950pro($120), 8600GTS($130), 7950GT($160), or 2900GT($170).
 
Just to correct your misconception, the 8600GT is slower than two 6800GS in SLI (same source as above)...

Oh and its 80$ plus 40$ selling the old one, 120$. Which I would have to spend at least 160$ to beat.

Like I said I will wait.
 
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