@sammorris i'm not the type of person who "brags" about having x,y,z component in my systems; i am pretty unbiased in terms of ACTUAL performance for whichever piece of equipment i have...i will agree with you that SLI is somewhat of an exaggeration as to what it can ACTUALLY achieve, nevertheless, i am running an SLI setup right now; but am not going to lie about it to say that it's "better" than a high end single card, because IT IS NOT (for my own purposes)... i have a 7900gtx as well, it will STILL run circles around my dual geforce 6800s ultras ANY DAY OF THE WEEK... my buddy i was talking about earlier, he has a Radeon X1900XTX, so i've seen the performance of THAT monster as well~ with that in mind, but sheer comparison on my buddy's Radeon X1900GT paired with a RadeonX1900 in Cross-fire mode, my nvidia SLI's "take him to school" (dual 7800gt, which i think is a RELATIVELY "fair" comparison in terms of higher end performance cards...between ati and nvidia) i appreciate BOTH companies cards, you know as well as i do that there will ALWAYS be supporters of EITHER ati or nvidia, and then you got people like me who have USED AND TESTED BOTH (mid to high end cards alike), it comes down to INDIVIDUAL user preference...much like intel vs amd, there will be STAUNCH supporters on each side, each with their relevant reviews/benchmarks to prove their point, but to say ONE "sucks" and just because you OWN a particular company's chip/gpu, it's "better" than the competitor's product, that is what gets under my skin... anyone can "prefer" one company over the others (i am guilty of this myself), but to say a particular product is "the best" for the simple fact that YOU own it or use it, is simply ludicrous. p.s. i'm not directing this AT YOU because you seem to be a fan of certain companies, much like i am with various different companies myself, but i have never ONCE claimed MY parts that i use/own were "better" than anyone else's, that kind of mentality is BS. this post wasn't meant to offend you AT ALL if it's perceived as such, just trying to give the original poster some OPTIONS to consider much like you have given him suggestions as to WHAT YOU WOULD BUY WITH THE BUDGET at hand~ docTY~
Indeed. I have no major objection to folks going with one company or another, but just from personal experience, unfortunately no-one can be 100% free from bias unless they've never been there. I've had an nVidia card too and had no problems with it.
Ok thanks for everyones opinions so: Ive finished with the whole sli thing its more trouble than its worth. So whats my best choice? P.s I dont really wanna go over around £120 not including vat.
with SLI being out of the picture at this point for you, i will have to agree with sammorris's suggestion 100% in terms of SINGLE card for your budget, you won't go wrong w/ that ATI offering docTY~
Ok cheers!! Well now i have another problem well because i was very into sli i was going to get this mobo because it had sli: http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?ASU-A8NSE Now im not going to be using sli. Can any one recommend a good overclockable mobo for same price or cheaper??
that mobo is a very good choice to begin with, i would stick with an ASUS board as your options/decisions may change in the future (regarding the SLI) you leave yourself room for upgrade and that is a very good board for OC' purposes as well, i happen to use the ASUS A8N32-SLI for MY own purposes, but for the price, i would stick with your current decision. i use this one here in the U.S. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131568 docTY~
Half the people who use A8N-SLi boards don't use SLi and have no intention of using it. It's a great board to start with, I'd stick with it.
Yep the Asus A8N range of mobo's are very good, i use the A8N-SLi deluxe with a single 7800GTX & have no intention of going SLi as i think the cost far outways the perfromance gain. Like Kivory666 said at least you'll have the option of going SLi at a later date if you still fancy it. Here's what i run : AMD Opteron 165 @ 295 x 9 = 2663mhz, 7800GTX 256mb @ 576core / 1360 mem on tweaksrus 84.37v2 XG driver, 2G G.Skill HZ , swiftech apex ultra H2O cooling
Nice!! So if you wanted to know heres my new upgrade thanks to you guys: My current Pc300u Ram Corsair My Proc: http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?AMD-64937S My Mobo: http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?ASU-A8NSE My new GPU!! http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/107033 So overall how would you rate that comp?? oo and id just like to say thanks to everyone!
If the X700's a standard I suppose the 850's maybe 80-100% faster. From Tom's Hardware (using both PCI-e models, there'll be very little difference between AGP and PCIe for a card like the X700) Performance increases: 3Dmark05: 121%, 150%, 318% (230% faster on average) UT 2004: 26%, 75%, 114%, 160%, 192% (113% faster on average) Half Life 2: 11%, 14%, 72%, 177%, 201% (95% faster on average) Doom 3: 134%, 172%, 179%, 203%, 219% (181% faster on average) Chronicles of Riddick: 136%, 152%, 173%, 180%, 185% (165% faster on average) Pacific Fighters: 53%, 122%, 161%, 181%, 206% (125% faster on average) The Sims 2: 2%, 82% (41% faster on average) Overall: 135% faster. I stand corrected!
Joni yer definatly im gonna try and get that proc upto 3.0Ghz sounds stupid but loom around seems quite possible. Wel have to wait and see!!
