Which GPU setup would be the wisest choice?

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Bop

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With the approaching release of the 9800GX2 I have decided to sell my 8800GTX to a friend and acquire a new GPU. He needs a new GPU and I tire for something new to run my games more smoothly at 1920x1200.

However, after the announcement that the 9800GX2 may cost as much as $600 I've become disenchanted with the GX2 and am considering other options. My budget is $450.

My motherboard is a Maximus Formula so SLi is not a viable option. I've considered either the 3870 x2 or two cheaper 3870s in CF. The 9800GTX is not shaping up to be an amazing card in accordance with "leaked information". I cannot seem to find many 3870 CF benchmarks at the moment.

I'm aware that the best choice would be to wait and verify that the cost of the GX2 is indeed $600 but it would be not unlike nvidia to price it that high.

Any input would be much appreciated.
 
Playing at that resolution I think you should've stuck with the GTX. It trades punches with the 3870x2 in every game.

I'd say the 3870x2. It should beat the GTX when the drivers get more refined.
 
With that mobo, might as well just pick up the 3870x2 and if all else fails, just go crossfireX in a month or 2 when the drivers are mature and get a 2nd card. Thats actually the path i'm looking at going when my 680i burns up again.
 
That route would be too expensive. By the time I would want or could afford to add in a second I would simply be tempted by a new model of a single card solution. (HD 4x series, whatever nvidia may offer) I learned my lesson quite well after several SLi setups over the years. (6800 Ultras, 7800, 7900, 7950s... received the last two setups for free though)

Perhaps the 9800GTX may be best if it will certainly outperform the X2 at a similar price.

My friend will not be purchasing my card until May so I have quite a bit of time to make a final decision. If the 3870x2 simply trades blows with my current GPU maybe ATi isn't a good option at this moment...

I'll look through the speculative threads on the upcoming ATi offerings in the meantime.
 
the ATI drives will get refined in future, as perviously mentioned, and the 3850X2 will beat the GTX. That's an important factor to consider.
 
I would wait for the 9800GTX. It WILL beat out the 8800GTX, ultra, and 3870X2. There's NO way it wouldn't. Yeh, there have been rumors of it sucking and much bad speculation. But, Nvidia wouldn't release something with a new name if it's not going to be better, IMO. No one knows FOR SURE the exact specs yet. To me, from what I hear (have never used it), any dual card set up isn't worth the hassle. 9800GTX will rock, just depends on the price. $350-$400 seems like a fair price, given all the price reductions on all Nvidia's other stuff.
 
The 3850X2 would be slower than the 3870X2. If the 9800GTX would be faster than 3870X2 then how'd you think 3850X2 would be faster?
 
young boy said:
the ATI drives will get refined in future, as perviously mentioned, and the 3850X2 will beat the GTX. That's an important factor to consider.
Click to expand...

Yes, the 3850X2 "could" beat the 8800GTX, but a lot has to happen for that. I've been watching reviews on going from driver a to driver b and the respective performance differences. Some drivers give AT MOST a what, 5% gain? Some give 5% losses too. 1 3850, heck even a 3870, is what, 25% behind an 8800GTX? Driver modifications still depend on the hardware using that driver. If the hardware is crap, you can revise the driver as much as you want, and still have crap. For a dual card set up to work properly, you have to have the driver right, and every application that is going to be using that dual set up. And, to me, for that driver to work properly with every program out there, you have to go and optimize it for every program out there, which won't happen because there are too many programs that act differently with different drivers. They go and optimize it for a broad range of applications.
 
I love how people always say "The future driver will fix it" or "Just wait until the next driver! It'll be great!" when thats been said since time began for ATi. I wouldn't count on them fixing every or almost all issues with their drivers in any decent time frame. Sure, you can call me a fanboi or whatever but really, if you look around, thats all people say about ATi's driver support. If you can, wait for the 9800 series to roll out as the GTX shouldn't be more than $450. Otherwise, you could just grab a lower end 8800 for the time being if you REALLY need it and upgrade later.
 
This is a very good question OP. I returned my 3870x2 after the announcement of 4870x2 coming out in 4 months. Will they fix all the issues with 3870x2 ..absolutely. However, by then 4870x2 will be out and there is no guarantee it will work with the R670-80s (for Crossfire).

Something to think about: AMD releases new drivers every month so therefore you can logically assume that about 2-3 more driver revisions + the new 4870x2 = optimized catalyst/crossfireX drivers to play with for AMD's next generation card.
 
I'm not sure about ATI so probably you're right, they will not fix their drivers.

On the Nvidia side: what chipset are they going to produce? Will it become a CPU bottleneck for games as a result of bad chipsets? Sure, they may have a great GPU and software but with a slow CPU chugging away, I doubt it will beat quad ATI+high FSB cpus.
 
I think with all the information surfacing on the net I will just purchase a 9800GTX at the end of the month for $350. I'll then see how high I can take it on stock cooling.

I was considering extending my budget for a GX2 but the games I play do not warrant the extra power of a GX2 anyways. I only play QW, TF2, and CoD4 at the moment. Neither certainly won't play Crysis on high at 1920x1200 with 30+fps minimum and now that I've beaten the game I could care less about minimal gains from 2 GPUs.
 
Well, according to these specs, it would seem most logical to get two 8800GTS G92's in SLi or two 8800GT's in SLi. Then again, take into account that those GX2 benchmarks were taken with pre-release beta drivers. However, in the long run you can still expect performance of two of the above mentioned cards to outperform it.

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Source: http://www.computerbase.de/news/hard...orce_9800_gx2/
 
After seeing the substantial GX2 results I figured it was worth the premium over the 3870X2 so I picked one up. No regrets, this thing OCs well too. (700/1100 right now)
 
Should've kept the GTX and bought another used for ~$300. That'd kill 8800 GTS 512MBs in SLI, and the 9800GX2 as well... for the same price as the 9800GX2 if you consider current market values on used parts.
 
silent-circuit said:
Should've kept the GTX and bought another used for ~$300. That'd kill 8800 GTS 512MBs in SLI, and the 9800GX2 as well... for the same price as the 9800GX2 if you consider current market values on used parts.
Click to expand...

I don't have an SLi board. I heavily dislike nVidia chipsets.
 
Given you cant have SLI, the only upgrades from the 8800GTX are the 8800 Ultra, 9800GTX (probably a bit quicker - wait for [H]s review) and the GX2.
 
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