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HELP!!!! 8800 GTS 640 mb SLI`d with a 8800 GTS 320 mb

Discussion in 'PC hardware help' started by mastr2142, Nov 18, 2007.

  1. mastr2142

    mastr2142 Member

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    hey
    i was wondering if anyone has any experience with an 8800 GTS 640 mb SLI`d with a 8800 GTS 320mb, if not do u think there will be a conflict doing soo
    thanks in advance if anyone has any ideas
     
  2. Waymon3X6

    Waymon3X6 Regular member

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    It wont work. For SLi or Crossfire, you need 2 of the exact same cards, a 320mb GTS and 640mb GTS will not work together.
     
  3. mastr2142

    mastr2142 Member

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    o well thanks alot for the info, ill figure something else for my rig
     
  4. sammorris

    sammorris Senior member

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    Sell the 8800GTS and buy an 8800GT. If you have enough money to do so, buy another.
     
  5. mastr2142

    mastr2142 Member

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    thnks, for the help
    i thnk im guna sell my card for some cash then buy the 8800 GT or might convert to ATI to win the battle wit the Radeon HD 3870...better and cheaper....only problem might be a bit to big then ill have to resort to the 8800 GT

    any sugestion Radeon HD 3870 or the Geforce 8800 GT??
     
  6. sammorris

    sammorris Senior member

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    The HD3870 isn't quite as fast as the 8800GT, but it's close, and it offers a much better graphical quality, not to mention it's more futureproof since it supports DX10.1.
    The size shouldn't be an issue in any normal PC.
     
  7. Waymon3X6

    Waymon3X6 Regular member

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    Agreed, the 8800GT is better than he 3870. In Crysis it eats it by 10fps, and in 3dmark06 it beats it by 1000 points.

    If you intend on going with the 8800G to do SLi, you will need a nforce 680i chipset, or SLi wont work.

    I was also looking into the 3870, most likely I'll do crossfire since the maximus SE has a intel chipset, and it only compatible with Crossfire, not SLi.
     
  8. sammorris

    sammorris Senior member

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    It's faster, but I wouldn't say it's better. Give the choice I'd pick the 3870.
     
  9. mastr2142

    mastr2142 Member

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    i dont really now
    http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=547&card2=544
    comparing the Radeon HD3870 vs the Geforce 8800 GT, not only does the Radeon beat it by price but also Core Clock, Memory bandwidth, Shader operation, and pixel fill rate...also the radeon has the 55nm processor, and it comes equiped with DDR4 memory....dont really know what to do wen comparing it to the 8800 GT i thnk theres no chance
     
  10. sammorris

    sammorris Senior member

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    The benchmark tests run by Tom's Hardware Guide show the 8800GT to be 20% superior in terms of performance. Given that it's around 20% more expensive in the US (only 10% in the UK) that works out about right. Plus of course, the HD3870 produces a far better quality image, and in reality, that's why you need graphics power, so you can turn the settings up and get a better image.
     
  11. Waymon3X6

    Waymon3X6 Regular member

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    Well for my upgrade around christmas, I think I will be going with 2 3870s in Crossfire. The 3870 is $50 cheaper to, and the cooler is better at cooling the GPU. Also, it is way quieter.

    Found this btw: [​IMG]

    Not bad, but a quadcore at 4GHz is probably the main reason why it passed 20k.

    What do you guys think Crysis will run like with 2 3870s in crossfire?
     
  12. sammorris

    sammorris Senior member

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    If it's like the majority of games out there, the same as with one HD3870. Even if it works properly you won't exactly be pushing huge numbers, but that's quite a big if.
     
  13. Waymon3X6

    Waymon3X6 Regular member

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    ^What do you mean by that sam?

    Also, when you say the 3870 has a better "picture quality", what do you mean? Couldnt you just tweak the 8800GT's settings to have the same picture quality as a 3870?
     
  14. sammorris

    sammorris Senior member

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    Not really, the HD3870 seems to render Crysis' advanced textures with more clarity. Different cards (and also drivers) affect how games get rendered, even on the same settings. Plus since the 3870 supports Directx10.1 it will support Anti-Aliasing in Directx10 games, which as of yet no card other than the 3800 series can achieve.

    This test needs to be taken with a pinch of salt, given that it's from IAXTech, one of those 'out of nowhere' sites, and there's no real pictorial proof other than these. However, I see the difference.
    http://iax-tech.com/video/3870/8800crysis5.jpg
    http://iax-tech.com/video/3870/8800crysis.jpg
    Unfortunately, the reason for this stems back to one of nvidia's old habits, Driver tweaking.
    The drivers for the 8800GT identify Crysis.exe and modify the card's rendering performancr for it to artifically get higher performance (but sacrificing image quality). if you rename the main Crysis exe to something else, the image quality becomes pretty much the same as the HD3870, but with an equal frame rate as well. I'm shocked to discover nvidia still do this (remember the Geforce FX 3dmark scandal?) and I had hoped I'd never see it again.

    As for my previous comment, look up some of the benchmarks for Crossfire. I personally wouldn't bother with it.
     
    Last edited: Nov 21, 2007
  15. Waymon3X6

    Waymon3X6 Regular member

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    wow sam, its late at night (or early morning) for you to be posting isnt it?

    Anyways, are you saying that SLi is better than crossfire?, because I found this:

    [​IMG]

    Also, I had heard about that crysis renaming thing on incrysis.com, but regarding the crossfire and sli with crysis, the game still isnt optomized to use it is it? I think the first patch will fix that up.
     
  16. sammorris

    sammorris Senior member

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    Because 3dmark is the standard benchmark for graphics, every technology is designed to work properly for it (or in nvidia's case, work better for it than anything else!). The problem with crossfire is not necessarily its yield (some games can experience a frame boost of 90% or so with crossfire), more it's reliability. There is such a vast number of games out there that see no benefit from crossfire, or worse crash if it's enabled, that makes Crossfire a rather flawed platform. When the technologies work, SLI and Crossfire are similar in their benefits as you see from that picture, but the chance of it happening with SLI is far greater (I mean look at the last sentence you wrote for Crysis). It's nowhere near 100% with either, which is why I rarely advise people to use multiple graphics card systems.

    It's 5:30am here, late indeed. I've been somewhat ill recently, which has set me in a terrible sleeping pattern. I got up at 4pm, so hey.
     
  17. Waymon3X6

    Waymon3X6 Regular member

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  18. sammorris

    sammorris Senior member

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    Again, it's 3dmark. Show me the frame rate changes in a selection of actual games.
     
  19. Waymon3X6

    Waymon3X6 Regular member

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    Crysis GPU benchmark. All settings on very high, vista 32bit dx10 1280x1024 no AA.

    3870:

    [​IMG]

    8800GT:

    [​IMG]
     
  20. sammorris

    sammorris Senior member

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    Yes, but did you read the rest of the article?
    For Crysis specifically, nvidia new they'd have to pull some impressive frame rate increases over ATi to appear the better GPU manufacturer, Crysis being a game known for low frame rates, so they did something clever, but so devious I refuse to buy an nvidia card of this generation. They put an identifier tag in the driver looking for Crysis.exe. If that application was running, the graphics cards were forced into a lower detail mode. End result, poorer graphics, but a higher frame rate, which is what they wanted. If you rename Crysis.exe to something else, the game will still work, but the 8800GT loses the extra 2fps it has over the 3870, but funnily enough it looks almost as good.
     

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