SLI tests at anand

No but if I am going to plan on 18 months that I need 2 or 3 things line up, I would rather spend the extra money now and be ASSURED what I bought.

 

All,

Why do people always include the ebay sell price? Not everyone sells video cards. I also find if funny that Jawed thinks that someone wouldn't give more than $50 for 2 6600GTs in two years time. Who said they are going to sell it, and GeForce Ti4200s 128MB are still going for $60 (new though). Some people talk about 2 year’s time, what about those that upgrade motherboards in like 5 years?

There are setups that SLI is a good solution (if they pull off trouble free +87%) and there are setups that it makes more since to not go SLI. I used SLI for my Voodoos (budget) and I was quite happy. Why do people feel necessary to call others idiots just?

I don't get some people,
Dr. Ffreeze

 

I was being deliberately conservative on the new price and quite realistic on the Xmas 2005 price. By Xmas 2005 the 6800GT will be one refresh and one generation out of date. Don't forget the 6800GT is almost 6 months old now.

Where in my scenarios does the user spend $400? I suggested that they buy a $200 6600GT, then in 1 year's time sell it for $80 on EBay and buy a $200 6800GT.

And, amazingly, so will the 6600GT replaced by a 6800GT. At less aggregate cost.

Jawed

 

jb,

Are you so sure about that?

http://www.penstarsys.com/previews/chipset/nvidia/nf4/nf4_2.htm

Dr. Ffreeze

 

NVIDIA's FAQ states that the both the manufacturer and the model needs to be the same. That may change, but thats what the FAQ currently states.

 

But u will have to change the mobo .


So while it can technicly be called socket 939 you will have to upgrade for ddr 2 support .



Just like while it was still technicly socket a , you had to upgrade for 200fsb support or for higher cpu speed support

 

Where are you getting these prices? The 9600XT was $199 on launch one year ago. The cheapest on pricewatch now is $135. The 9500PRO is still $150!! I'd love to know how you came up with your $200 and $80 estimates for the 6600/6800GT.

 

Yea those aren't very good .

IF anything the higher chips will drop faster .

The 9800pro was 500$ a year and a half ago and now its 200-240 for the 256 meg version.

Mean while the 9600pro launched at the same time at 200$ and is now still around 130$ ish

 

My original point is high end cards fall in price MUCH faster than mainstream cards.

128MB 9800 Pro is one refresh and one generation out of date + ~6 months, just like the 6800GT will be in 13 months' time. $200 seems highly likely for the 6800GT at that time.

Jawed

 

Pay attention, $80 is the price you'd get (using your example) for a 9600XT on EBay when selling it (I was being conservative!!!) to trade for the high-end card that's now mainstream-priced.

I said that the 6600GT would sell, new, for $125. Again, using your example, you're asserting $135. So that's $10 in favour of SLI - so the SLIdiot is only down $40 and a chunk of performance and a huge chunk of residual value using your figures.

If you weren't so eager to dismiss the figures I posted, you might embarrass yourself less.

Jawed

 

The main problem with this logic is that no one really knows what the performance and feature set of cards in 1 years time will be, and they also don't know what price will be available for older high end cards. For instance, one year after the 9700 Pro was released, the price of these cards were still generally well above $200.

Of course, you can use hindsight to pick a pathological case where it wouldn't make sense to SLI a $200 card, but then again this is not realistic given the fact that people who are SLI ready will face an uncertain future, and SLI capability will help buffer them from this uncertainty.

 

If we base the product cycle to be 1 year (6 months for introduction and distribution, and 6 months for improvements), then it might be better to just buy the 6800 GT now, and forget about SLI permenantly.

What would be better, pay $500 now for 6800 GT, or pay $300 for a 6600 GT now plus a specific motherboard and power supply, and then wait 1-2 years for the price to drop, just to pay $200 for a 6600 GT?

I can see this being possible only for people that are building an entire rig from scratch, and who plan to be watchful for clearances of 6600 GT's 1-2 years from now, but if I take a look at cards from last generation, isn't the 9800 Pro still around $300?

 

Clearly you do not realize that 256MB RAM tends to significantly boost performance at 1600x1200 in many games vs 128MB variants. A quick look at some of the 6800NU 128MB reviews vs some other 256MB cards will show just that.

 

You don't need to buy the motherboard now. Or, alternatively, if said person was planning to upgrade his/her motherboard now, depending upon the price of dual SLI boards, it may make sense to spend $20-$50 more for the extra option.

 

And let's also not forget that there is definitely potential for dual 6600GT's in SLI config to outperform a single 6800GT in certain games and at certain settings. 6600GT in SLI will have the same number of vertex shading units as the 6800GT, however it will run them at a much higher core clock frequency (500Mhz vs 350Mhz), so it will effectively have more theoretical vertex processing power. Also, fillrate of 6600GT in SLI will be theoretically higher than a single 6800GT. This would all apply even at 80% SLI efficiency!

This could be one reason why we see 6600GT in SLI significantly outperform a single 6800GT in 3dmark05. Also, I'd expect that 6600GT in SLI would outperform a single 6800GT in FarCry with HDR enabled. And of course, in other games that push the level of playability at higher resolutions with AF and without AA such as Halo, the 6600GT would be expected to be on top. In games run at 1600x1200 with 4xAA, the 6800GT would be expected to be on top, especially against the 128MB 6600GT variant.

 

well if they don't buy a new mobo now then they can't buy a 6600gt thats sli capable.

Not only that but the 20-50$ for the extra option . That would put u at 250$ for an option of sli .



as for the 6600gts mabye out performing a 6800gt that might happen but then again the 6800gt will out perform the 2 6600gts just as much if not more often.

 

In games that are playable at 1600x1200 with 4xAA, naturally we would expect a 6800GT to significantly outperform 128MB 6600GT in SLI. However, in games that are relatively fillrate intensive, in games that make relatively heavy use of vertex processing power, and in games that are playable at higher resolutions with AF but without AA, the 6600GT in SLI would be expected to significantly outperform a single 6800GT.

 

I was almost certain that Nvidias implementation SLI didnt increase geometry power, Just fillrate and in some cases bandwith due to the way it renders anyway.

 

NV's SLI tech does scale geometry performance. See the FAQ here:

http://www.nvidia.com/page/pg_20040624928832.html

 

I'd like to see some vertex scaling tests myself. I personally dont buy it.