Video Card Dilemma (need a very high performance card: 6800 gt-sli/ultra? x850 xt?)

[Nubius]

But overall, do you see plenty of potential and value in the 6800 GT as a single card system?

Yeah, I'm stepping up from the 6600GT to the 6800GT using eVGAs step program myself infact. The 6600GT is good no doubt, but I got greedy and decided 'ehh what the hell' and went ahead, used their step up program and decided to KICK IT UP A NOTCH BAM!

By the same token you could get an x800 xl because is it really worth 5 fps of difference between the x800 xl and 6800 gt to warrant the extra $100?

This is true if he were looking for a single card solution, but I think his main arguement here is to later on add another 6800GT...sooo yeah I don't know, that's kind of up to him......the X800XL would be like getting one 6800GT and having to stick with it, where as with the 6800GT he could add another.

BTW, when I say SLI is buggy don't think like....you'll have all tons of errors and problems and whatnot like that constantly...for all you know it could be plop plop and boom it works fine, but I've seen quite a few people who have to go through some troubleshooting and various drivers to get it to work smoothly in their system.

Also I think it is pointless getting that high RAM and then having to overclock to catch up to it

Well it kind of makes sense, makes it so you don't have to OC the RAM which IMO is harder than the CPU and graphics card to OC, but with RAM sticks like G.Skill LAs and OCZ Platinum Rev2's that'll hit those high speeds with tighter timings it's just worth it to get awesome PC3200 sticks.

The x850 xt can already beat 2 6800 gt's in SLI on games like half life

Well, all those benches are generally with regular GT's, if he OC's them to and beyond Ultras it could be a whole other story, but like I've said a dozen times, frankly I don't like SLI, and it's ridiculous ATI is following suite and creating their own version....they should just whooped nvidia with a single card solution, then I really woulda given them mad props so hopefully nvidia would go back to single card.

Overall Cal it's a pretty hard decision. The 6800GT should last atleast a year if not towards 2 IMO

 

[Qwert]

From what I've seen, the X850 XT is a bit better but insanely higher priced... 6800 GT is MUCH cheaper and not much worse...

 

[Nubius]

Cost effective? Getting this high ram again is considered an investment. There is not much sense in buying for instance a $120 set of 3200 ram now and then throwing it for 4400 when I need to get a whole overall on the system.

That's why you don't buy $120 PC3200 ValueRAM...you get $250+ OCZ Platinum Rev2's or G.Skill LA's that'll OC up to those 4400 speeds

 

[dale5605]

Well don't argue with me if you made up your mind already. I was under the impression you were still undecided. Clearly you are not.

 

[Nubius]

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-146-890&depa=1

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-231-008&depa=1

Don't get much better than those dude. It's hard to say which does better because both are awesome performers. The GSkills might want to hit higher FSB's with less voltage and tigher timings though, that'd justify the extra $50 compared to the OCZ's

 

[beedubaya]

From what I've seen, the X850 XT is a bit better but insanely higher priced... 6800 GT is MUCH cheaper and not much worse...

So true, and the 6800 GT came out last May! I kick myself in the face everyday for getting an ATI instead of the 6800 GT. As far as price/performance ratio, there is absolutely no competition between Nvidia and ATI unless we are talking about the X800XL.

There is no need for a 6850 GT right now because Nvidia did it perfectly the first time. I know I will never again get anything but Nvidia cards unless they make a total screwup like they did with the GeForce FX 5900. Its highly unlikely because of the type of architecture they have now. And ATI is still using its same old outdated architecture based on the 9800 Pro and is charging a royal fortune for it. Thats not value to me. Go NVIDIA!

 

[Calzinger]

A few years looks good to me. I think adding an additional card may even perhaps extend that time IF (boy do I hate saying IF) nVidia continues with SLI. As a single card solution, given the potential and performance as a single card or dual card, it has won me over.

As far as memory goes, I have heard that the motherboards are only reccommended at the maximum of 3200 but they can actually perform higher.

 

[Nubius]

As far as memory goes, I have heard that the motherboards are only reccommended at the maximum of 3200 but they can actually perform higher.

Any motherboard can put in memory that exceeds its max. Doesn't mean it won't work, you'll simply need to work to get it to that speed, and on older systems it meant adequately cooling the north bridge.

If you have a 2000HTT board then your HTT link speed multi will be 5x 200x5 = 1000 and because it's 64 bit then it's 1000x2, if the board is 1600 then the link speed is 4x

Obviously if you raised your HTT from 200 to 300 to match that of what the RAMs capable of you wouldn't want to leave it at 5x link speed 300x5 = 1500x2 = 3000...no 64 board will handle that, I think the current world record is like 2400

So in that case even 4x would be too much and you'd have to lower it down to 3x for 3x300= 900x2 = 1800, yes it's a little bit below 2000 but you'll have a huge increase in performance thanks to the CPU and RAM working way faster

 

[Calzinger]

Like said, I am very very new to this computer building era. Can you possibly reword that into dummy terms?

 

[DJ-CHRIS]

My hyper transport was at 255 x 5 stable and 2.65 x 5 unstable