GeForce 6800 GT or Sapphire X800 GTO2 mod to X850 XT?

[sumasage]

I am planning on building a new computer and having trouble making up my mind about which video card to buy. The motherboard will be DFI LANParty UT nF4 SLi-D. If i buy the 6800 (~$260) then i can buy another 6800 latter down the road to run SLI. On the other hand i can get the Sapphire X800 GTO2 (~$260 too) and mod it to X850 XT. I think the X850 XT will out performance the 6800 but i am unable to find any review to confirm this.

CrossFire motherboards are still new and expensive plus the CF technology is not perfect yet. I am not sure what to decide....going crazy debating my self. Hopefully you guys can give me some good advises. What should i do? which video card to get???

Thanks in advance.


P.S all cards are PCIe

 

[Poisonsnak]

If you are seriously thinking SLI then I would go with the 6800GT, its performance is pretty close to the X850XT. But if you're not then I would get the X850.

With SLI/crossfire, I've always thought a 2nd card would make a good upgrade, but take my situation:

I bought an X850XT-PE in July. If I wanted to upgrade right now, I could either get a master card for about $400 canadian, or just sell my X850XT-PE (let's say I can get $200 for it) and buy an X1800XT for $600 canadian. It works about the same either way, the dual X850s are slightly faster, like 5-10 FPS in something like Doom 3 1600x1200 but also would heat up my case more.

So really it's a tough call. I don't think I would ever do SLI/CF unless I was buying both cards at the same time.

 

[gerrynicol]

I have dual 6800GTs in my rig, the heat off of them is outrageous, even with Zalman coolers on them( because the arctic silencers don't fit.) I would say if you can save up and go for a single card solution X1800(whatever the top card is) or the 7800GTX would be a better idea.

Oh by the way you can save yourself a few buck and get the DFI LP NF4 ultra d, then mod it to an sli board. I saved myself £50 GBP by doing this.

Gerry.