Ok so I've got my 7800 GT/OC's , got my hd2600xt's now with the new tri sli and crossfireX stuff I'm ready to buy again my question is what is gonna net me the biggest gains. I have a strict limit of $600 , not one penny more ( orders from wifey )

My wants - I want at least two cards now and they must be able to run in either Tri sli or 4x crossfire. I will have another $600 in about two months so that will either go for one or two more cards depending on which way I go.

So far I'm leaning toward the 3870's ( 320 stream process/ gddr4 ) cuz I can get 3 right now, but I wanna here from some folks that know more about video cards than me.

Bang for buck is what I'm after

Well if you want to do tri sli you'll have to get the 9 series cards as the 8800GTS doesn't have the dual connectors. You can get two 9800GTX's for about $600 and according to anand's review of them 2 GTX's will outperform even 4 3870's which is a pretty nice deal.


Hope that helps some

Quote: Originally Posted by eascarface Well if you want to do tri sli you'll have to get the 9 series cards as the 8800GTS doesn't have the dual connectors. You can get two 9800GTX's for about $600 and according to anand's review of them 2 GTX's will outperform even 4 3870's which is a pretty nice deal. Hope that helps some

I'd have to go with eascarface on this one ... I'm also told the 38xx's don't scale nearly as well as the nVidia cards, so the performance boost you get from tri and quad crossfire isn't as good as the gain you get from SLI.

-godling

CrossFire scales better than SLi up until you go for four GPUs, and then it gets a bit shoddy. Some people are reporting good results with 1x HD3870X2 and 1x HD3870, in tri-CrossFire.

Tri SLi is a bit of a waste of space....three 8800 Ultras give only a slight performance boost over two. It's a marketing gimmick. If I were you I'd just get a 9800GX2 and be done with it.

Well I was thinking about buying another 8800GTX to try Tri-SLI but for the price of the 9800GTX I'll be selling my 8800GTX's. I have (2) XFX 8800GTX's I'll sell for $500. That will leave you more cash to spend on other stuff with the next $600 you get. Plus they both have Thermaltake Duo-Orbs on them and I have the stock heatsinks to go with them. And the warranty is suppose to be transferable :-)

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MSI RX3870-T2D512E OC Radeon HD 3870 512MB Price after rebate(s):$159.99
MSI RX3870-T2D512E OC Radeon HD 3870 512MB Price after rebate(s):$159.99
MSI RX3870-T2D512E OC Radeon HD 3870 512MB Price after rebate(s):$159.99
MSI RX3870-T2D512E OC Radeon HD 3870 512MB Price after rebate(s):$159.99

Total $640

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GECUBE HD3870X2-F3 Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB 512-bit Price after rebate(s):$359.99
GECUBE HD3870X2-F3 Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB 512-bit Price after rebate(s):$359.99

Total $720


TRI-SLI
EVGA 768-P2-N831-AR GeForce 8800GTX 768MB 384-bit Price after rebate(s):$289.99
EVGA 768-P2-N831-AR GeForce 8800GTX 768MB 384-bit Price after rebate(s):$289.99
EVGA 768-P2-N831-AR GeForce 8800GTX 768MB 384-bit Price after rebate(s):$289.99

PALiT NE/98GTX+T352 GeForce 9800 GTX(G92) 512MB 256-bit Price after rebate(s):$295.99
PALiT NE/98GTX+T352 GeForce 9800 GTX(G92) 512MB 256-bit Price after rebate(s):$295.99
PALiT NE/98GTX+T352 GeForce 9800 GTX(G92) 512MB 256-bit Price after rebate(s):$295.99

Total $900

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PALiT NE/98GX2+H305 GeForce 9800 GX2 1GB (512MB per GPU) 512-bit Price after rebate(s):$529.99
PALiT NE/98GX2+H305 GeForce 9800 GX2 1GB (512MB per GPU) 512-bit Price after rebate(s):$529.99

Total $1060

CHA-CHING!!!!

I would go with the 9800GTX or GX2. But then I'm a big nVidia fan so what do I know.