7900 GTX SLI or G80?

L31mr0d

Ok i'm in a pickle.

I had plans on moving my sig rig over to a HTPC in about a month and religatiing it to a DVD/MP3/Picture player as well as the odd PC game that uses a game controller (car, 3rd person and sports games... etc)

BUT i've hit a snag, currently I have my sig rig hooked up to my TV which is set at a resolution of 1920×1080. This seems to work fine for most games at high settings at this resolution but recently i've been noticing a drop in framerates with newer games.

With Need for Speed: Carbon, I can have most of the options on high except for AA, AF and full screen effects which are set at medium, but I installed Spider Man 3 yesterday and set it to the screens native res and the whole game has slowed down. In wide open areas of the city or scenes with more than a handful of baddies it crawls right down to <15 fps, almost stopping entirely in some scenes... and this is with the overclocked setting for my CPU, RAM and GFX in my sig

So my question is. Should I dump the 7900 GTX and invest in a G80, or would it make more sense to find another 7900 GTX and SLI them?

Also it is worth noting that this setup is going to be going in this Lian Li case. So heat and size will have to be a consideration.

Anti

You know yourself at higher resolutions the cpu plays a huge part. So you could upgrade to a c2d. I have upgraded my opty rig from a x1950pro to a 8800gtx and the performance boost is huge. bf2 1680*1050 all effects maxed out and 8AA 16af. Looks stunning. So its really a decission between new cpu/mobo/ram or new 8800gtx. Which will probably work out around the same price as ddr2 is dirt cheap at the moment.

L31mr0d

hmm.. this is slowly getting further and further away from my aim for the HTPC. I want to keep my Opty and RAM because i'll never get back the money I spent on them. The 7900 GTX hasn't really struggled with anything so far, but that was at resolutions of 1280x1024. The 1080p res is really pushing it.

The majority of my budget is going into my new sig rig (C2QX, 4GB RAM, 8800GTX...etc) so the HTPC was always a side thought. I had plans to begin religating hardware from my main PC into my HTPC as I upgraded, so doing a completely new build of it negates the point.

I really only want to spend another €150 on it to get the graphics up to scratch. I could probably find another 7900 GTX from the states for that price or I could sell my current one for around €200 on ebay and get a 8800GTS for €350.

Upgrading the cpu and ram isn't an option atm. So what i'm asking is would SLI G70's be better at high resolutions than 1xG80? DX10 isn't really a consideration at the moment either for the HTPC

Anti

For higher resolutions, id say sli would be better.

L31mr0d

Ok well had a look on Toms Hardware, and for BF2 at 1920x1200 at full settings a 8800 GTS 640MB gets 37.3 fps, whereas SLI 7900 GTX's gets 53.6 fps. So I guess that answers my question. Looks like i'm on the lookout for a mATX 939 SLI mobo... those should be easy to find :rolleyes:

8T8

mATX S939 SLI is very rare one did exist at one time from Epox I think but getting one now wont be easy.

If you don't find one you are better off selling the 7900GTX and getting a GTS 320 if you can live without AA.

Anti

Or if you want i have a matx 478mobo with a 2.6ghz northwood. No sli either though.

stevejazzx

man hold on a minute...a matx mobo running sli 7900 gtx's? That's not sensible.

1. Room in the case will exhausted
2. Heat generated from the cards will heat other components, overall heat will be highish at best
3. The power supply will need to around 600watt or thereabouts
4. More case fans for heat = a noisier htpc
5. Your matx ram will probably not run as fast as it does in your case
6. You could lower the res of your tv and play with everything on high i do this and its great

If you want a real gaming option for your htpc option
I'd ditch the 7900 and buy an 8800gts 640mb as with a gentle overclock you can bring up near to 2 x 7900gtx's and of course its directly compatible with dx10 and also drivers are still being improved for it. The problem is that 8800 is quite big and probably will not fit in any htpc except some of the larger silverstones and zalmans.

L31mr0d

stevejazzx wrote:

man hold on a minute...a matx mobo running sli 7900 gtx's? That's not sensible...

I'm pretty much trying to emulate exactly the build this guy did

Project: SLISFF

He seemed to have some good success with the setup. With 2 front 12cm fans and a side and back 8cm fan for exhaust.

Although i've since scrapped the idea of going SLI, as I can't find any 939 SLI mATX boards in stock anywhere (probably for all of the reasons you listed) Also if I where to sell my current 7900GTX and buy a 8800GTS 640MB, it would work out a lot cheaper than buying another 7900GTX for SLI.

I might just do what you said and get a 8800GTS and give it a slight overclock if my temps allow for it.

stevejazzx

squeezing those large cards in past all those transitors is a tricky enough on a regular mobo! imagine 2 7900 gtx's in a sff mobo..theres a good chane that they just wouldn't fit..but the guy in the link seemed to pull it off.. just!
yeah what can i say about 8800 gts fantastic card...oblivion on my 37 inch tv is just jaw dropping

L31mr0d

what res are you playing oblivion at? 1920x1080?

unklerosco

U could get a xbox360 for the price of a 8800gts.... runs media center, play ur games with no lag in frame rates etc etc..

L31mr0d

unklerosco wrote:

U could get a xbox360 for the price of a 8800gts.... runs media center, play ur games with no lag in frame rates etc etc..

where's the fun in that? Plus, this is going to be my secondary rig, only being used for games on the PC that require a controller, or as a HTPC.

The rest of the time its going to be the missus's machine. She likes to play nostalgic old Snes Roms and platformers like Tomb Raider and PoP. So this machine will be hers for the majority.

I don't think she would be happy if I just unwrapped a Xbox 360 for her :rolleyes:

Anti

well since the 7900's just fit in, there is no chance of a 8800 going in there. unless you dremel out a fair bit.

But good luck with this one. Would look good with sff watercooling too

unklerosco

What about this case??

http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_1034.html

L31mr0d

i've already bought the case. Managed to get the last display model from peats at a discounted price. Just fits into my HT unit. The side drive bays might be a bugger but then I rarely play DVD's. Its usually AVI's

I received my 8800 GTX for my main rig there yesterday so i'm going to size it up inside the case and see how it fits. As the GTS is shorter than the GTX it will be a good way to gauge how much room I have to play with.

stevejazzx

L31mr0d wrote:

what res are you playing oblivion at? 1920x1080?

Yes its beautiful...

L31mr0d

just installed my new 8800 GTX in my main rig last night. Spiderman 3 at 1080p runs like a dream now. HD gaming FTW