AMD + PCI-Express 2.0 + SLI

[Poizen22]

the ati cards also have better image quality.

 

[Kjølen]

Well, since I'd want to play my games on the highest settings, Anti-Aliasing and Antisotrophy WOULD be maxed out, ideally.

Well done, everyone. I was fairly certain that I was going to get an 8800GTS (G92) and add another one down the road when they are cheaper, but now you have me placed right in the middle ground of choices. I'm not usually partial to either ATi or NVIDIA, since my card before the 7950GX2 was an X800XT Platinum.

Thanks for all your help. Keep up with the suggestions, I'm taking it all into serious consideration.

I suppose I'll also add in some other details to make my situation more clear:

20.1" Samsung SyncMastet 204B (Max 1600x1200)
Sound Blaster Audigy 4
Rosewill 750W PSU with 4 +12V Rails (20mA each, claims Dual-8800GTX support)

 

[Wildside]

crossfire 3870 are better and cheaper than 8800gt SLI.
though crossfire/ATI boards are hard to find for some reason
all the ones i found won't specify dual x16
what one is APOK using?

the MSI K9A2 Platinum, like me ^_^.

im gonna post pics up today of my build set, im just waiting for my OS n HDD to come in; most likely around 2pm or so.

 

[Invisible]

AnandTech is a pro-Nvidia/Intel party, big time. Take that in consideration when you look at their postings.

The 38xx are behind the 8800's in AA, but do great everywhere else. I am hoping to move to one myself.

its expreview isn't it?
the chart

 

[Kjølen]

Of course, if NVIDIA comes out with their "9" series of cards soon, maybe I'll wait until then. February, was it? The rumors are always so misleading.

 

[Apokalipse]

I'm not entirely sure I want to go with ATi, though. Lately, it seems that they've been having a lot of heat and power-consumption issues, but I could be mistaken.

That might have been true for R600, but RV670 is massively improved in those areas.
The 3870's use less power than 8800 GT's, and run cooler.
In fact, two of them in crossfire use less power on idle than a single 8800 GT.

crossfire 3870 are better and cheaper than 8800gt SLI.
though crossfire/ATI boards are hard to find for some reason
all the ones i found won't specify dual x16
what one is APOK using?

MSI K9A2 Platinum, using BIOS version 113 (beta)

the 3870's in crossfire have scored over 20k in 3dmark 06, there a huge step up from the 3850, more unified shaders, and what not, higher clock rate, higher memory bandwith gddr4 not 3 512mb of it. the highest ive seen 2 8800gt's score was 19k and thats by vdub on our forums, the 3870's are very cool aswell and use lower level of power as there 55nm. any x38 mobo will do 16x 16

the 3850's and 3870's both use the full 320 stream processors in the RV670.
the difference between them is the 3850 is clocked lower, and uses 256MB GDDR3, instead of 512MB GDDR4
though there is a 512MB (GDDR3) version of the 3850

Any money you save on the HD 3870s you make up for with ridiculously expensive motherboards, it seems.

Most of the AM2+ boards are more expensive.
But there is the MSI K9A2 CF board, using the 790X chipset (not 790FX), and it's pretty cheap.

 

[Kjølen]

Does the 790X chipset have PCI-Express 2.0? I would want to make full use of the bus the card was made for, be it the ATi or NVIDIA choice. Aslo, can someone clear up the fog on Crossfire? I've heard that the earlier implementations gave you barely enough performance to make it worth two cards, and that the newer versions have greatly improved upon that problem. Still, SLI has always seemed more solid, so to speak. Twice the cards, close to twice the speed (1.9x). The number 1.2x for Crossfire still sticks heavily in my mind.

 

[veg1992]

^ yes go check the specs.. it says "PCI-e 2.0 Ports"

 

[Apokalipse]

Does the 790X chipset have PCI-Express 2.0?

Yes. But even if it didn't, it wouldn't make much difference.

One of the biggest reasons the K9A2-CF board is significantly less expensive, is because it has "only" two PCI-E 16X slots.

Aslo, can someone clear up the fog on Crossfire? I've heard that the earlier implementations gave you barely enough performance to make it worth two cards, and that the newer versions have greatly improved upon that problem.

Crossfire has improved a lot since it was first introduced. It scales better than SLI does on average.

Still, SLI has always seemed more solid, so to speak. Twice the cards, close to twice the speed (1.9x). The number 1.2x for Crossfire still sticks heavily in my mind.

On average, SLI does not get 90% performance increase. In fact, it's closer to 40%
whereas, Crossfire gives an average of approximately 60-65%, provided the cards aren't bottlenecked.

 

[Invisible]

go crossfire, its worth it
65% :0 i had no idea