Posted: 2/14/2009 11:35:01 PM EDT
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So I just finished building my new PC after my alienware laptop crapped out on me. (three and a half years plus 18 months in Iraq)
I ordered a gigabyte mobo from newegg and I just noticed that one of the PCIe ports runs at 16x the other PCIe port runs at 8x. Right now I have one Nvidia 9500GT and I had hoped to run SLI with two of them when budget allows. Question is: Will it be worth running SLI on this mobo or will the 8x port slow it down or screw it up? I picked the 9500 because it has 1GB ram and is cheap, I can buy two for the price of one better card. If SLI will not pan out I will sell this budget card and spend the money on a single fast card. Any help or hints will be appreciated. Here is the PC build if anyone is interested. Quadcore for $1000 Antec 900 case Gigabyte motherboard Intel Q9550 CPU Artic 7 CPU cooler EVGA Nvidia 1Gb 9500GT 4GB OCZ 1066 DDR2 Ram Rosewill 630w power supply 320GB Western Digital Caviar HDD DVD Burner Vista x64 |
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There are mixed reviews out there whether SLI is worth it, budget-wise... Prices and the available cards change too much for a universal answer. Do yourself some googling for SLI setup benchmarks. The additional cost for a better mobo and power supply can negate the savings of two better cards.
FYI I am contemplating this big-time, a Gigabyte Core i7 board and 6 GB PC1333 RAM for $224 shipped AR. Downside is that it does not support SLI, but it does support Crossfire. If the processor price didn't just jump I'd have pulled the trigger already. Combo deal |
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Tomshardware or Anandtech are great resources for this type of info.
From what I have read only having 8x bandwidth on the second card has no noticeable disadvantage with current hardware. I read an article with an SLI setup on one of the new X58 boards and there benchmarks yielded no difference with the second slot only being 8x. From my experience SLI yields usually around a 50% gain. It definitely doesn't double your fps as one might expect. I just sold my 8800GT SC SLI setup on ebay. If you look at the charts on Tomshardware these are about as good as the 9800 cards IIRC. Nvidias naming scheme is kind of messed up, a bigger number isn't always better. Anyway, with my 8800GTs I ran COD4 at 1680x1050 with all AA and texture settings at the max, and rarely dipped below 90 fps. I have a GTX 285 that I just installed and on COD5 it stays maxed a 60 fps, which I believe is the most the game will produce. This is using fraps. When I have a grenade go off or there is lots of smoke it sometimes flashes 59 for a second, but that's as low as I've seen it go. Definitely go to Tomshardware before you buy another card. With the new line you might be better off selling your current card and getting a single newer card, rather than getting two of what you have now. They advance so rapidly it's hard to keep up. Tomshardware has articles about getting the best bang for your buck, and when to upgrade. If you do get another card, I would go EVGA again, check into their warranty and step up program and you'll see why. ETA: HERE is a link to show how different cards perform. Check out all of the charts and different benchmarks at this website. |
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Tomshardware or Anandtech are great resources for this type of info. From what I have read only having 8x bandwidth on the second card has no noticeable disadvantage with current hardware. I read an article with an SLI setup on one of the new X58 boards and there benchmarks yielded no difference with the second slot only being 8x. From my experience SLI yields usually around a 50% gain. It definitely doesn't double your fps as one might expect. I just sold my 8800GT SC SLI setup on ebay. If you look at the charts on Tomshardware these are about as good as the 9800 cards IIRC. Nvidias naming scheme is kind of messed up, a bigger number isn't always better. Anyway, with my 8800GTs I ran COD4 at 1680x1050 with all AA and texture settings at the max, and rarely dipped below 90 fps. I have a GTX 285 that I just installed and on COD5 it stays maxed a 60 fps, which I believe is the most the game will produce. This is using fraps. When I have a grenade go off or there is lots of smoke it sometimes flashes 59 for a second, but that's as low as I've seen it go. Definitely go to Tomshardware before you buy another card. With the new line you might be better off selling your current card and getting a single newer card, rather than getting two of what you have now. They advance so rapidly it's hard to keep up. Tomshardware has articles about getting the best bang for your buck, and when to upgrade. If you do get another card, I would go EVGA again, check into their warranty and step up program and you'll see why. ETA: HERE is a link to show how different cards perform. Check out all of the charts and different benchmarks at this website. Thanks for the info and link. That is a great site. Right now with FRAPS I am running about 60 FPS on Stalker clear sky with setting on High, But I can't use any dynamic lighting or the game becomes unplayable. Nvidia's naming scheme kind of makes me mad, I figured the 9550 would be faster than the 8800 for the same price, but it is not. |
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1 better card is always better than 2 entry level cards (which is what a 9500GT is). the memory is less important than the GPU. an 8800GT (or 9800gt) will blow away BOTH those 9500GTs in SLI. SLI is only advantageous when running BIG resolutions, such as gaming with widescreen (3 monitors). most SLI (using a mid-upper level card -not entry level card) using 1 monitor nets usually a 10-20 percent increase in FPS, hardly worth the $$$.
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Question is: Will it be worth running SLI on this mobo or will the 8x port slow it down or screw it up? I picked the 9500 because it has 1GB ram and is cheap, I can buy two for the price of one better card. If SLI will not pan out I will sell this budget card and spend the money on a single fast card. 4 |
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Tomshardware or Anandtech are great resources for this type of info. From what I have read only having 8x bandwidth on the second card has no noticeable disadvantage with current hardware. I read an article with an SLI setup on one of the new X58 boards and there benchmarks yielded no difference with the second slot only being 8x. From my experience SLI yields usually around a 50% gain. It definitely doesn't double your fps as one might expect. I just sold my 8800GT SC SLI setup on ebay. If you look at the charts on Tomshardware these are about as good as the 9800 cards IIRC. Nvidias naming scheme is kind of messed up, a bigger number isn't always better. Anyway, with my 8800GTs I ran COD4 at 1680x1050 with all AA and texture settings at the max, and rarely dipped below 90 fps. I have a GTX 285 that I just installed and on COD5 it stays maxed a 60 fps, which I believe is the most the game will produce. This is using fraps. When I have a grenade go off or there is lots of smoke it sometimes flashes 59 for a second, but that's as low as I've seen it go. Definitely go to Tomshardware before you buy another card. With the new line you might be better off selling your current card and getting a single newer card, rather than getting two of what you have now. They advance so rapidly it's hard to keep up. Tomshardware has articles about getting the best bang for your buck, and when to upgrade. If you do get another card, I would go EVGA again, check into their warranty and step up program and you'll see why. ETA: HERE is a link to show how different cards perform. Check out all of the charts and different benchmarks at this website. Thanks for the info and link. That is a great site. Right now with FRAPS I am running about 60 FPS on Stalker clear sky with setting on High, But I can't use any dynamic lighting or the game becomes unplayable. Nvidia's naming scheme kind of makes me mad, I figured the 9550 would be faster than the 8800 for the same price, but it is not. If you register that card with EVGA and have the receipt they will give you what you paid towards any of their other cards within 90 days. Something you should definitely check out if you find that card lacking. Good luck. |
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Tomshardware or Anandtech are great resources for this type of info. From what I have read only having 8x bandwidth on the second card has no noticeable disadvantage with current hardware. I read an article with an SLI setup on one of the new X58 boards and there benchmarks yielded no difference with the second slot only being 8x. From my experience SLI yields usually around a 50% gain. It definitely doesn't double your fps as one might expect. I just sold my 8800GT SC SLI setup on ebay. If you look at the charts on Tomshardware these are about as good as the 9800 cards IIRC. Nvidias naming scheme is kind of messed up, a bigger number isn't always better. Anyway, with my 8800GTs I ran COD4 at 1680x1050 with all AA and texture settings at the max, and rarely dipped below 90 fps. I have a GTX 285 that I just installed and on COD5 it stays maxed a 60 fps, which I believe is the most the game will produce. This is using fraps. When I have a grenade go off or there is lots of smoke it sometimes flashes 59 for a second, but that's as low as I've seen it go. Definitely go to Tomshardware before you buy another card. With the new line you might be better off selling your current card and getting a single newer card, rather than getting two of what you have now. They advance so rapidly it's hard to keep up. Tomshardware has articles about getting the best bang for your buck, and when to upgrade. If you do get another card, I would go EVGA again, check into their warranty and step up program and you'll see why. ETA: HERE is a link to show how different cards perform. Check out all of the charts and different benchmarks at this website. Thanks for the info and link. That is a great site. Right now with FRAPS I am running about 60 FPS on Stalker clear sky with setting on High, But I can't use any dynamic lighting or the game becomes unplayable. Nvidia's naming scheme kind of makes me mad, I figured the 9550 would be faster than the 8800 for the same price, but it is not. If you register that card with EVGA and have the receipt they will give you what you paid towards any of their other cards within 90 days. Something you should definitely check out if you find that card lacking. Good luck. Wow, thanks for passing on that information. I am going to look into that immediately. This card is not what I expected at all, it seems to run at the same speed as the 7800GTX in my alienware laptop did. |
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Thanks for the replies everyone. I ended up sending to old card back to Newegg.com for a refund and bought a 9800 GT for $40 more than the original card.
I will post the new 3dmark score when it gets here. |
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Whatever you do, stick with EVGA. Their warranty and customer service is top notch. I did not know about their 90 day upgrade policy.
The card in your build seems a little small. Buy 1 powerful card and be done with it. AS others have said, tomshardware and Anandtech are the best places to look for info on performance. |
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Just thought I would add: You can't SLI with that board. Xfire, yes, but no SLI. Are you sure? It says in the description " EVGA 512-P3-N975-RX GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card " The video card supports SLI, but your motherboard does not is what he is saying. |
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Just thought I would add: You can't SLI with that board. Xfire, yes, but no SLI. Are you sure? It says in the description " EVGA 512-P3-N975-RX GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card " Sorry the board I am referring to is the motherboard. P45 chipset will not SLI. You need an nForce chipset or one of the new X58 Intel chipsets. |
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Just thought I would add: You can't SLI with that board. Xfire, yes, but no SLI. Are you sure? It says in the description " EVGA 512-P3-N975-RX GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card " Sorry the board I am referring to is the motherboard. P45 chipset will not SLI. You need an nForce chipset or one of the new X58 Intel chipsets. I misunderstood, thanks for clarifying. Thanks for the heads-up, I didn't notice when I was comparing the different mobos to figure out which one to buy. Anyway, I ended up buying a better card, should be here tonight. Don't think I will bother with the SLI/crossfire anymore. |