dual vid cards?

[Biggs]

hey guys.

i was looking into a new comp and checked out some with dual vid cards (like 2 256mb). whats up with that? why dont they just throw in the new 512 geforce thats coming out?

[LA_MERC_LaTech]

With 2 video cards, you can put them in SLi mode and have 2 GPU's versus 1 GPU. 1 GPU with 512MB RAM feeding it info is going to work slower than 2 GPU's feeding each of them 256MB of data.

That's my take on it, anyway.

[LA_MERC_YellowDog]

Maybe more stable also?? your not asking as much out of the hardware.. and it may run cooler... Maybe ??

[LA_MERC_T4rg3T]

Then again, you have to look at most SLI motherboards. 1 pci-e slot is 16x bus where as 2 pci-e slots in SLI equals 8x bus x2 instead of 16x for both slots. A newer nvidia chipset will probably fix this.

For now, you are better off getting a good motherboard and a good video card. Get a high end video card which will last you a year and then if you want SLI in a year, buy a new motherboard and an extra video card. You would only be saving yourself about 50-60 bucks by getting an SLI board now and 2 video cards will not gain you that much of an advantage in the games that are presently out.

You basically have to take everything as a whole and analize it. You get 2 good high end video cards and your bottle neck will be bus controllers on the mobo, processor, ram or hard drives. You get a high end processor and the bottle necks could be ram, hard drives, video card, mobo chipset. Basically, don't go high end on one thing and not the rest or you are just waisting money.

Try to build a good system, but get a price range and keep all of your components compairable in that price range.

[Biggs]

my head hurts

[SgtJeff]

man, i was just about to do all that too. hehe. I was just about to get on newegg and start buyin my new comp...Im scared..

[|Team Moped| Kripto]

I don’t remember what the performance frame rates are with single vs Dual... but the theory of one card taking care of the top half of the screen, and the other the bottom is a great idea. It can really improve performance, especially down the road! (if it’s worth the cost right now depends how much cutting edge you are willing to pay for)

I posted this when it first came out you guys ripped it apart then.. at least your consistent. :bash :work4

[SgtJeff]

Doh...well just did it...got the geforce 7800 enr..Athlon 64 3700+ processor..ASUS mobo that supports the dual core..200 gig HD..2 gigs ram..and my verizon internet just doubled in speed..w00t..shud be ready with the new comp in a week...or less..w00t

[Biggs]

woot. nice comp. u betta play bf2 more with that machine!

[LA_MERC_eX1|eS' ch1|d]

That sounds badash Jeff!

[LA_MERC_LaTech]

w00t...you're gonna have a killer rig, Sgt! /me is jealous!!!

[LA_MERC_Andyconda]

Hack. I just upgarded 1 week ago and now I'm second again. Jeff I have the MSI K8N Neo4 SLI Platinum mobo with a GeForce 7800GT . I have downgraded to 2 gigs per toby's comments as he's right you don't gain much after 2 gigs and I wanted to make sure a new HD and other periphreals matched my high end mobo and vid card. My 2 cents right now is that an SLI mobo is something you can use for a long time coming. I plan on holding steady and then getting another 7800GT when games need it. I'm very happy with the performance thus far. Ask Biggs. He and I got into a BF2 round where he was piloting the cobra helicopter while I gunned. Anyone who's played this game knows that the cobra gun is crap. Well with the graphics on hi rez and the frame rate to match I was cutting through guys like a hot knife thru butter. I was putting the laser guided missle in the pickle barrel. I was killing guys at super long range with the gun in seconds. In Biggs's words. It was sick. Damn that was fun. I could track the enemy with the gun as if it were locked on. I was grabbing gold medals frm Biggs and he's a gold medal machine. Woot. The Biggs Conda Combo was owning tonight. Any way. You got me Jeff. I have the AMD 64 3500+ Claw Hammer. Do you have a 939 or a new 940 pin cpu.

[LA_MERC_MadMAX]

y'all are depressing me...lmao!

I'm planning to really upgrade in the next year, I just want some of this new stuff to stabalize so to speak.

still chugging along on my 2400+ and 9550 ati :)

[LA_MERC_eX1|eS' ch1|d]

Serious Jayson, I'm running a 2500 Barton OC'd to 2800, 2x512 RAM, and an ATI 9600XT. I feel so old school.

Hopefully I can upgrade next spring but work is kinda crazy right now, gonna be laid off for 6 weeks between now and Christmas, and we are scheduled for 13 to 18 down weeks for 2006. Hopefully I can work with my uncle and make some extra loot but only time will tell.

[Biggs]

bah, andy's a hac. but he is bad arse with the hunk o' turd cobra chain gun. it was truy amazing and hactastic to see him light up those targets at those far ranges.

[-=C.O.P.S=-KOrruptED]

ATI is coming out with the Crossifre, that doesn't require the 2 cards to be exactly the same

[LA_MERC_Andyconda]

I feel so good, Brent called me the hack. A man that went 62 and 0 last night calling me a hack. Gives me a tingle woohoo. Also, Krypto, fro, what I read about nVidia's new SLI tchnology it works by letting one card do even lines and the other do odds instead of the original voodoo 2 technique of splitting the screen. The theory which sounds good is that if something is happening on the top half of the screen the top video card would work hard and you would kind lose the advantage of two cards where now if one does even and the other does odd they are both doing the entire screen in halves and more evenly distributing the work load. I also read up that ATI's crossfire won't be able to perform like the nVidia SLI.

[Biggs]

woot, the nvidia is bad arse!

[|Team Moped| Kripto]

I'm a big ATI guy but they are about 3 steps behind... people are getting worried that unless ATI spits out a new major advancement to match NVIDIA then they are going to have serious financial problems. I think their competition (ATI and NViDIA) has led to some great advances in a short amount of time.

Thanks Andy, I was curious how it was different then the original concept...

[LA_MERC_Andyconda]

No problem, I too started out as an ATI guy but they have really suffered as of late keeping up with NVidia.

[LA_MERC_MadMAX]

i have flipped flopped back and forth - i had a VooDoo 5, 5500, then a GeForce 3 ti500, then a ATI 8500, then a Geforce ti4200, and now a ATI 9550, and I'd been out of the loop so long it took me a while to decide on that one...

I've decided to build a new killer machine, but i'm waiting on some of this new stuff to stabilize first.

[SgtJeff]

Andy, mine is the 939 pin. Got most of the stuff in yesterday. Vid card shud be here by Oct 3..w00t...gotta start building...I can't wait..

[LA_MERC_Andyconda]

Oh Ok, so you don't have it yet.

Please let the record reflect that Andy did in fact have his machine built and running as of mid september. Therefore his reign as Uber Noob with Uber Machine will stand for another week, woohoo!