2X 7900GTX in SLi: Yes, there are other threads but this is about me!

[Jofaba]

I'm tempted, but I'm reading conflicting reviews. At the very least, I am upgrading to two 7900GT's for FREE, however, an upgrade to two 7900GTX cards (512mb) will cost me $280 total. I paid $350 for my current 7800GT but it came with a free motherboard (via Newegg) which has a retail value of $120. I just bought a second 7800GT from someone on THIS SITE for $250 including shipping. So, some quick math says that I've only spent $480 on these two videocards. I can either upgrade to the 7900GT (CO or CO/SC) for FREE. Or, I can upgrade to the standard clock 7900GTX pair and have spent a total of $760 for two 7800GTX cards.

Now, while I understand that buying them outright at $500+ a pop is a bit rediculous, I'm sure you see my dilemma! I've already got my $1,210 tax return planned for upgrading my computer and haven't spent a dime of it yet (hasn't cleared at my bank yet).

Some more things that come into play with this decision:

1) You cannot run two monitors when using SLi. I didn't realize this and had planned on buying a second monitor. It was mostly just going to be for teamspeak and monitoring temps and stuff, so it's not a huge loss. But it IS a savings from what I had planned on spending. This is neutral however, since I was going SLi anyway.

2) With beasts like these, I can't continue pumping every last mhz out of this Venice core 3200+, so I'll definately be upgrading to a higher end Opteron, though I haven't decided on single or double core yet. This is a minus, since I had planned on keeping my processor as is, and watercooling and overclocking it... However:

3) I see no reason to overclock these videocards, and they appear very well cooled. I don't care how loud they are. And in getting an Opteron, I also doubt that I'll really have to overclock that either. At least not yet. So, I have no necessity in buying liquid cooling right now (which was going to cost at least $400 to cool both videocards and the processor efficiently).

I'm not looking for advice. I just want to know if I'm crazy, or if I'm taking advantage of a situation that works in my favor given the circumstances surrounding my purchase costs. Also, what do you think the actual lifeline of this computer will be? This will be the completion of a project.After these cards and a new processor, I'll be saving up for a DX10 system to build in about a year's time, and I'm sure it'll last at least that long, but possibly longer? By last, I mean play any given game at full specs and at least 1280x1024 (preferably 1600x1200).

Thanks for your comments and, please, don't hate me because I'm beautiful.

[Sir. MatDef]

Re: 2X 7900GTX in SLi: Yes, there are other threads but this is about me!

1. Not really a problem, just disable sli when you're not playing.

2. At this point, I will recommend a opteron 170. Oc's like mad, plus with water cooling 2.6 min. should be easy.

3. Don't worry about sound,these cards are way quieter than most people think, and much quieter than a x1900xtx. As for playing everything on high at 1600x1200 a year from now, who knows? But should do fine.

Also, you're not being crazy, just smart with your money.

[LoD]

Re: 2X 7900GTX in SLi: Yes, there are other threads but this is about me!

2x 7900GT = Yes


Getting a single core opteron is a negative, go dual core or keep your 3200+ venice. Hell my 3200+ venice is fine at 2.7ghz on air, so you could even try that for a bit. An opteron is an A64 by another name, no reason to get one unless its a dual core and you plan on overclocking it.

Water cooling = big negative. Waste of your time and money.. bottom line, period, end of story.

One must remember that CPU's have stalled, the only thing to come about in the last 2 years has been dual core, otherwise we have had the same stuff avaliable with incemental clock speed increases. A year from now your "dream system" will likely be a 3ghz variation of an Athlon 64.... oh joy, a couple hundred mhz increase over last year. CPU's have totally stagnated, Conroe may or may not bring some life to the party, but otherwise there isnt anything "better" out there in AMD land and honestly in general until at least mid to late 2007 (this is where roadmaps and publically released knowledge get hazy, and we could possibly see the K8L or some other newer designs)

As for video cards you have a beast of a system, and dual 7900GT will give you life for well over a year. Sure you will lack DX10 shader 4.0 support but unless your deing for play Far Cry 2 or Unreal 3 your not going to miss much until 2008.


I would hold onto your CPU until you need a dual core jump, and after that you should be good for a while. Try not to get caught up in the rapid technology upgrade cycle. I'm already reading about people complaining that their brand new 7900GTX are not that faster than their older 6800's... and its true. For CPU's its absolutely true, we hit "good enough" (even for gaming) speeds maybe a year or so ago, and video cards are getting there. Video still has room to push, but even then we run into CPU bottlenecks... look at the $300 cards compared to the $500+ cards.... very little difference, and its actually quite sad to see people dropping money into new technology expecting the 50-100% speed increases they were used to seeing 3 years ago.