sli-ing 8800 gtx vs sli-ing 8800 ultra

[clement71]

well..... i went to a local comp shop today and asked a guy about computers that play flight sim x.... well... he said a guy came in one time and got 1400$ of just graphic cards, hew got dual ultras for that game... and he had 3 20" widescreen lcds, 2 to act as side views... i am not gonna go to he extreme of getting three monitors, and i will only be using a 19 inch widescreen.... and i have now decided to get 2 cards going as well.... but i cant decide how much better the ultra is and is it really worth the 400 more(together)... any ideas??

and which mo bo shgould i be using??

and just to give an example of what i want from my graphic cards... able to run 60+ fps even in highly detailed cities..

thanks

 

[Kage]

Hey, and welcome

Hmm... well the Ultra is just basically an overclocked GTX, so no, its not really worth it.

I'm sure someone else can help with the motherboard picking
Whats the rest of your system specs?

 

[Celegorm]

No point in SLI'ing them. One will do the job just fine. However, last I heard, you can't run more than one monitor when running SLI.

 

[clement71]

hmm thanks... but are you sure that 1 is fine?? you guys are aware that this game has extreme graphics right??

and according to this chart...
http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_2007.html?modelx=33&model1=706&model2=853&chart=292
1 gtx is definatley not enough...

 

[THEpiGUY]

I second Kage's view, it's not worth $400 more for the Ultras.

Just to inform you, from the informal tests I've run, Flight Sim X seems to be more processor- than video card-intensive. This was with my 4000+... I ran FSX (demo) maxed with RivaTuner in the background, and my 8800GTS hit 57ºC load. Then I did some other tests which brought it up much higher, implying that it doesn't have to work so hard for FSX. Here's the picture, edited with MS Paint.



Also, my FPS didn't jump any when I upgraded the 7800GT to the 8800GTS. Just something you probably want to keep in mind. You need a really good processor to run this game. Also, notice that the graphics scores in the Tomshardware chart are all relatively close together: a sign that the game is processor-limited.

 

[Rudster8161]

No point in SLI'ing them. One will do the job just fine. However, last I heard, you can't run more than one monitor when running SLI.

no you cant run monitors from the second graphics card, you have to use the s video output as the 3rd port i think, i just know you can use the DVI ports from the second card in sli

for a motherboard get an eVGA 680i SLi board. and a SINGLE 8800GTX that will be enough to play any game on any settings on a 19in. LCD

 

[clement71]

I second Kage's view, it's not worth $400 more for the Ultras.

Just to inform you, from the informal tests I've run, Flight Sim X seems to be more processor- than video card-intensive. This was with my 4000+... I ran FSX (demo) maxed with RivaTuner in the background, and my 8800GTS hit 57ºC load. Then I did some other tests which brought it up much higher, implying that it doesn't have to work so hard for FSX. Here's the picture, edited with MS Paint.



Also, my FPS didn't jump any when I upgraded the 7800GT to the 8800GTS. Just something you probably want to keep in mind. You need a really good processor to run this game. Also, notice that the graphics scores in the Tomshardware chart are all relatively close together: a sign that the game is processor-limited.

i dont exactly get what your saying except that processor is important... which i believe is true cuz ive also heard something like that before... which processor did you use and how did it run??

would a quad core q6600 be enough??

 

[Ð88]

would a quad core q6600 be enough??

damn, it better be. That's pretty much the best you can get atm.

 

[Kage]

Yep, though you'd be surprised. I believe even that CPU bottle necks the graphics card. Its really that powerful.
You'd be best off getting the q6600 G0 step edition, getting a good CPU cooler, and overclocking it for what its worth.
You should reach 3.0 or more hopefully, from the original 2.4

 

[Cabbs]

It would bottleneck the card because most games are single threaded, so the load is spread out to all 4 cores running around 25%.