What would you do if you had $1500 to spend on Video cards?

DarkSideImmy said:
I am the OP lol.

Quad SLI would def make someone a "gaming geek". With dual SLI I'd prefer to be known as "an enthusiast".
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Correction:

With quad SLI you would become best friends with the CEO of your electricity provider. With dual SLI you would just be a good person.

:D:D:D
 
With the risk of a flame war, the ATI quad Xfire solution is about scaling out instead of up. AMD is going back to their roots and competing on value, not performance. You take 4 entry level cards for $200 each and a quad core Phenom to scale up to the performance of SLI GTX cards and a single OC'd C2D quad. First option costs you about $1300 and the second, oh, about $1300. Of course, when AMD did the comparison numbers, they used 1 x GTX , an X38 motherboard, and the C2D quad Extreme processor to set you back about $1800 versus 3 x 3870 cards, a 790 board and a Phenom quad for $1000.

The big limit for quad SLI is DX9. The big limit for DX 10 is frame buffers. So, quad SLI or XFire with 256 bit, 512 MB cards makes no sense. And, the memory limit on cards like the GT is not overstated in DX10 games, especially at higher resolutions.

If you are playing only DX9 games, even at high resolutions, 8800 GT SLI will work awesome. If you are looking to play games in DX10, 8800 GT SLI will not fair so well. You will have to look to the GTX cards to get playable frame rates.
 
DarkSideImmy said:
Let's say you just built a new gaming rig. It's an overclocked Q6600 on a 680i chipset with 4GB of memory and you want to use a 24" Dell display @ 1920 x 1200. You love Crysis and other graphic intensive games. But you can't use your new setup until you get some video cards! (It's rough)

All you need left to get is two video cards for your SLI setup. You are willing to spend quite a bit to get the best and want it soon.

You are willing to get a pair of 8800GT's OC'd now and wait until the biggest and baddest cards are released next year from Nvidia and use the EVGA step-up program to upgrade (if they are released within 90 days) or just suck it up and buy two 8800GTX's and overclock them right away.

What would you do?
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$1500 to spend? Want SLI, and the best performance possible at high resolutions on a large display? All settings maxed? DX10? If you went all out and bought 2x 8800 Ultras, you would still actually have some money left. They can be found new for as low as $600 online. Possibly a bit less.
As good as the new GT's are, two Ultras would still provide the best possible performance under all conditions. Get 'em and enjoy the experience:cool:
 
DarkSideImmy said:
A hooker with unused coke that she would supply to a client? Riight. While I'm at it, anyone want to give me two GTX's?
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Well it's not like she could just blow the powder back out her nose, could she? :p

That's where the $500 for the hooker comes in. It's included in the fee. :D
 
DarkSideImmy said:
lol. That thought doesn't leave my mind.

But all other builds I've done involved sacrificing/skimping on my video cards to save a buck, so this time I'm serious about spending some money to get something that I'm happy with for at least 2 months at which point I'll consider the newer SLI chipset motherboard, possibly DDR3, a good LSI RAID controller, and a video upgrade.

But still, forking out the dough for a pair of GTX's is hard, especially when the GT"s are performing well.

I guess I just need a convincing argument either way.
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Given that much money,I'd wait a few months to see what the Spirng brings forth from both camps.

I really like the look of the 3870 X2's,and I am very,very curious to see what
Nvidia does to counter it at the high end.

Two cooler running A3 G92's on the same pcb (in black perferably),with 512Mb of fast GDDR4 each,seems like it would kick all kinds of ass.
 
Manny Calavera said:
Given that much money,I'd wait a few months to see what the Spirng brings forth from both camps.

I really like the look of the 3870 X2's,and I am very,very curious to see what
Nvidia does to counter it at the high end.

Two cooler running A3 G92's on the same pcb (in black perferably),with 512Mb of fast GDDR4 each,seems like it would kick all kinds of ass.
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Yeah, I'd wait except all I have right now is the laptop and it isn't exactly game friendly. I need something within days or weeks not months.
 
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