Minor Upgrading Questions

[masteroc]

So I built my main gaming comp a while ago when my last one died on me. I went pretty much all out at the time, specs are:

Q6600 G0
4GB DDR2
8800 GT
Evga 780i MoBo

As fas as upgrading, i've been hearing about the new DX11 cards that are coming out later this year and at the beginning of 2010, so im not really planning on spending a ton of money. However I still want a slight bump up in performance for some of the newer games.

My questions are as follows. For video cards I was either looking at buying a 2nd 8800GT for about $100 for an SLI setup. Secondly I could get a GTX 260 (core 216) for about $150. Will the dual 8800GTs be close to or even better than a single GTX 260 (and by how much either way)?

My second question is whether or not my CPU has now become a bottleneck in my system. I have not yet overclocked it, but (making sure I got the G0 version) im sure I could push the clock up a bit. Is it worth it to buy any of the better quad cores at the moment?

I will most likely be building a completely new comp mid next year for the DX11 cards and anything else that makes its way into the market.

Thanks for reading all that and any opinions that you have!

 

[aaronkupen]

Wow, first of all you do realize your system is extremely powerful. Your CPU being a bottleneck? This is a joke right? Your CPU is still one of the best out there, just because something new came out does not suddenly decrease the performance of what you currently have -- the most powerful DX11 cards that will ever come out will unlikely be bottlenecked by your cpu.

Since you seem eager to spend money on a temporary increase in performance before you completely get a new build ..... I would recommend a GTX 260 core 216. I'm still not a fan of SLI, and I would prefer to have more consistency in my performance throughout a wide range of games.

 

[masteroc]

Well, first of all, the only reason I mentioned my CPU was because I had heard from some friends that after they went to i7 they saw an increase in gaming performance. Since you have so candidly informed me, I will no longer entertain the notion of upgrading my CPU. Secondly, I am not eager to throw my money at a temporary solution or not I would buy three GTX 295's to tri sli....hence my shopping around for maybe using an older 880GT to sli and get similar performance for a cheaper price. Also, I hope that you do not respond to everyone in such a sarcastic and slanderous tone...some might take it as an offense. Either way, thank you for the response!

 

[Hefemeister]

well from what I see 2 8800gt's in sli are just a bit better than a single 8800gtx.

The gtx is far superior to the 8800gtx so if you had the cash I would go that route.

Then you should be set up for a while until it is time for a complete new build.

 

[masteroc]

well from what I see 2 8800gt's in sli are just a bit better than a single 8800gtx.

The gtx is far superior to the 8800gtx so if you had the cash I would go that route.

Then you should be set up for a while until it is time for a complete new build.

Thanks, thats what I was looking for. Does anyone know if the GTX 260s will go below 150 any time soon. To me that seems to be about as low as they can go.

 

[Muffin Man]

AnandTech: NVIDIA's 1.4 Billion Transistor GPU: GT200 Arrives as the GeForce GTX 280 & 260

i guess if youre looking for a cheaper upgrade option to hold you off until you build again, another 8800gt in sli seems like a good option.

 

[Hefemeister]

Most likely when the 300's come out towards the end of the year.

 

[masteroc]

Wow, the link that Muffin Man posted seems to show that the 8800 gt SLI would perform better. Something seems wrong about this...

 

[Hefemeister]

Yeah I am trying to find some back up to that.

Yeah finding some stuff showing the 8800gt at 1920 x 1200 at 20fps single and 33 in sli.

Seems for the price the sli may be a better option assuming you have enough power and the heat does not hurt too much.

I still prefer a single card solution when possible.

 

[philbar71]

seems like yall have forgotten how well G92 scales. 8800GT's are still able to max out almost every game out there. so my vote is if you can find a 8800GT for under $80 then go for it.

and yes the q6600 is a bit dated but it's not going to bottleneck 2 8800GT's. 2 GTX 295's maybe.