Lord Van Matre

I have 2 8800gts ACS3 running in SLi and 2 weeks left to step up (an offer for EVGA customers to upgrade a new card at cost in 90days). I have no plans on upgrading for the next 2-3 years except for a new monitor to act like a tv for my appartment, along with Vista after they release a SP for it. Price wise 2 of the 640 cards come out to $100 vrs $500 for GTX. Are the extra pixel and mem bits worth the $400 more? I am looking at geting a 27" wide screen or 30" down the road. Would the 640 cards in SLI handle FSAA and AF on high res? Or for that matter would the GTX cards handle it and if so where are their limits? I would rather buy the step up now then buy new card(s) later along with a high priced flat panel. I am leaning towards the 640 cards, but what I have now is faster and I dont have to OC them, except they just dont have the memory. Being a noob to this I am just trying to figure out how much the pixels and mem bits are worth. Thanks for your help. Just FYI i can only upgade to stock models no oc stuff and ultra no thanks.




core 2 QE6600
680i A1 board
2x 8800gts 320 ACS3 in SLI
2 GB DDR2 800
19 flat screen
300 sata HD
Antec 900 case
X-Fi Xtream Gamer (cant fit because heat sinks)
Coolmaster 700w PSU

=Sarc=

I think you'd be better off with a single card that has lots of video memory to get better FPS with AA and AF. AA and AF require more memory for the GPU to perform the calculations. It also leaves it open to add another video card in case one isn't enough.

I don't think SLI is worth it unless you have that 27" screen. Although, using GTS 320MB cards aren't really that powerful. If SLI is being used, the best has to be used. Otherwise, a single card can be better and cheaper.

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Lord Van Matre

Thanks for the answer. I have two cards to step up so I will just go with the 640. More memory but not as fast as my 320 cards. No choice but go SLI because the choice was already made 3 months ago.

=Sarc=

Two 640 cards doesn't mean that much more memory. Depending on the resolution you'll be running with the 27" screen, a GTX would be a better performer at higher resolutions.

With SLI, each card is rendering one frame. One 640 card might not have enough memory to render a high resolution screen (> 1600x1200) so memory swapping will probably occur, which will slow framerates.

But I suppose it all comes down to being able to afford the step-up to GTX cards.

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jaymind

The 640 will be as fast, or faster in memory bottlenecked areas, than your 320's.

The 640MB cards have more than enough memory to render anything at the highest resolutions - the GTX is overkill in that aspect right now. Hell, there isn't much out there now that will fill up the 640MB even at 2550x1660.

I wouldn't pay the price premium of the GTX ( I have the 640 GTS); however, if you are going to keep these for 2-3 years than get the GTX.

My 640MB is coming out of my system this fall just because I want a quieter, cooler and less power hungery chip than the GTS - not to mention a hell of a lot faster.

SheerSonicBlue

Didn't do much research myself, just went right at the GTX and I love this thing.

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beep

So what are you thinking of getting? I ask because I'm in the market for an upgrade and have been thinking the 640GTS was what I needed (Dell 24" monitor, 1900x1200). The improved drivers for the ATI 2900XT have put that on my radar, albeit at a higher street price. My main concern (after basic "capacity") is for quiet operation. My current ATI card sounds like a airplane on the runway spooling up for takeoff when the fan kicks in.

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Zoopy

2-3 years? I can barley run Lost Planet in DX10 at max with one GTX.

Lord Van Matre

Playing Max in 3 years time would just be a crazy dream. I would settle for mostly high settings in that time frame.

I have read many issues with the 8800 cards and have seen some of them first hand. But after the DX10 games start really coming out in full force I bet the next NVIDIA cards will kick some ass. I just got stuck with these. And for the investment I have spent on this build I just can't justify upgrading till I can't play any longer with these items. I think the 640 cards in SLI will be enough to kill them all for the next 2-3 years.

But if I knew then what I know now I would wait to see NVIDIA’s answer to the new ATI cards coming out soon and just had gotten a better AGP card. So I would not have built this system quite yet. I still love it though.

[CNH]Rapture

I am using the 8800 EVGA GTX and I have no issues, I mostly play CS:Source and BF 2142 though so I cannot speak to your sepcific game. I am on Win XP with an AMD Chipset.

I highly recommend the 8800 GTX..