New Graphics Cards?

[aowen416]

Okay, we now have the 9800GTX, the 9800 GX2, and the HD3870 X2 as the graphics card beasts.

Here are my options:

Tri-SLI 9800GTXs (This is what I want to go with)

Quad SLI 9800 GX2s (2x 9800 GX2)

Crossfire HD3870 X2

What do you guys think :S?

Lets keep all other hardware out of this for now, and assume that I'd have the best motherboard for each card.

I have a $2,500 budget, so instead of tri-sli 9800GTXs, I might just go with SLI, as the extra card is that much of a boost quite yet, but in SLI, there is a beastly performance increase.

 

[cwharms]

Crossfire......

 

[aowen416]

Crossfire......

Sure? Hmm...I have to find a mid-size tower that fits 2 13" cards :S

 

[Celegorm]

Honestly, one 9800GTX will do wonders for now... not need to go quad.

 

[Cabbs]

They are cheap too, at around $329.

 

[worshipme]

TBH, I think a single 9800GX2 is the best option, it's not really worth spending so much money on two cards when one is more than sufficient. But if you really want more, I'd say CrossfireX. It really is way ahead of SLI in games that scale well in multi-GPU configurations, AMD need to get some new CrossfireX drivers out for a few games, but once they do, I think two HD 3870X2s would be the best option: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/geforce9800-gx2.html

 

[NeciFiX]

3 GPU's? Madness! Waste of money. Like the above poster said, 1 9800GX2 would be best.

 

[aowen416]

Hmm.. Well the GX2 is $600...

The 9800GTX is $330...would SLI-9800GTXs perform better than a single GX2?

 

[worshipme]

The 9800GTX is $330...would SLI-9800GTXs perform better than a single GX2?

Yes. The 9800GX2 is two G92 cores with 128 SPs on two PCBs running at 8800GT speeds.
The 9800GTX is much higher clocked and can overclock much further.