Looking to get a new gaming pc

[drothgery]

obDisclaimer: I'm not a harcore PC gamer; the most powerful video card in my apartment is in my Xbox 360, and that's by a very large margin. But I spend way too much time poking around on hardware review sites.

Having said that... pretty much everything in the $150US-$250US range among recent cards (GeForce 8/9 series, Radeon 3800 series) right now is very good from a price/performance standpoint. But there's just not that much drop-off from the 8800GTS (or GTX or the single-GPU 9800 lines) to the 8800GT (and its close cousins, the 8800GTS 512MB and the 9600) except at ultra-high resolutions (above the 1920x1200 you usually see on 24"-27" widescreen LCDs), and that's also about the only place SLI (or CrossFire) is useful.

 

[Aus_Snow]

I'm also in the process of upgrading my computer, and it was recommended to me to get 2x Galaxy 8800 GT 512mb cards instead of a single 8800 GTS, citing that this would be just below par performance for a 9 series NVidia. My own research seems to suggest that this kind of rigging can be equivalent to a 9600, with only a slight drop in comparative performance.

Price wise, a single 8800 GTS would cost about $50AUD more.

So, anyone able to give me some input on whether or not this is a good idea, and why?

Well, I'll have a go. Given the AUD price there, I'll assume you're also in Australia (seems a safe bet, I guess.)

A 512MB 8800GT goes for $235 (so, $470 for two), last I checked. 8800GTS, $335. So that's a difference of $135, but the other way around.

Haven't checked the 9xxx series' pricing yet.

hth.

 

[Sugarmouse]

Thanks for the help, guys.