Help with 8800 Gts 512mb sli vs. Gtx 460 SE

[lokistar09]

Hey, I've been trying to do some research on my current 8800 GTS 512 SLI vs. a GTX 460 SE. Been researching that the SE (sucky edition) isn't super great, but it's on sale for like $100 and was wondering if it's worth replacing my 8800 GTS 512 in SLI for several reasons:

1. Current setup is having limitation. I don't think I should have dropped frame-rates in League of Legends with it, but it is. (I have an EVGA i750 w/ e8400 and 8 gb of ram, 650 Corsair PSU w/ Windows 7 x64.) If you have any suggestions on this problem, it will be appreciated as well.

2. The second card is actually blocking and bending my SATA cables for harddrive connects.

3. Reduce power consumption (as well as heat and noise, the second card is so close to the first that it seems there isn't sufficient airflow). Since I no longer play so much games on the comp and don't really need the SLI performance it might be better to reduce all the unneeded power consumption. Although I watch blu-rays, but don't believe SLI helps that from the research I did a year ago.

I also heard that 8800 gts 512 sli is comparable to the specs of a gtx 280 (not so sure about that either). Since I can't find any direct comparison of my set up, I was comparing the gtx 280 to the gtx 460 se on hwcompare.com and the 460 se gets somewhat blown out by the 280. If that's true, maybe I should just save my $100 and wait for something better next year.

Would like some direct input from the gurus on this forum; thanks.

Sorry if this is already somewhere on the forum/google. I've checked but didn't see anything from my search.

 

[Jetster]

Two 8800gts is not comparable to a 280. Although the two 8800s does use more power.

IMO The 460 would be a nice upgrade. Quieter and less power, look better and be faster. But check Toms lists At Toms hardware

Which GTX460SE?

 

[lokistar09]

Thanks for the quick reply.

I'm looking to get this Evga Gtx 460 Se Superclocked 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express 2.0 Graphics Card Video Card 01G-P3-1367-TR:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004GHNEME/?tag=tec06d-20

Yea, I was doubtful that 8800 gts 512 in sli is comparable to a gtx 280 as well, but couldn't find anything to confirm it other than someone else's post somewhere.

I've only bought EVGAs and have had nice experiences with their warranty/replacement and step-up programs. Plus it's the EVGAs on sale right now.

I prefer to stay within budget, but I might end up splurging to get a GTX 560ti if its on a good sale (found some on amazon to be just above $200)

 

[lokistar09]

Thanks for the quick reply.

I'm looking to get this Evga Gtx 460 Se Superclocked 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express 2.0 Graphics Card Video Card 01G-P3-1367-TR:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004GHNEME/?tag=tec06d-20

Yea, I was doubtful that 8800 gts 512 in sli is comparable to a gtx 280 as well, but couldn't find anything to confirm it other than someone else's post somewhere.

I've only bought EVGAs and have had nice experiences with their warranty/replacement and step-up programs. Plus it's the EVGAs on sale right now.

I prefer to stay within budget, but I might end up splurging to get a GTX 560ti if its on a good sale (found some on amazon to be just above $200)

 

[HossHuge]

Welcome to TPU lokistar09....

Filling out your system spec in User CP^^^ up there can help guys help you make your decision .

Also what res do you game at?

 

[Red_Machine]

I have a friend who has an 8800GT and she went from an Athlon 64 X2 2.4GHz to a core i5 and she decided not to bother upgrading her GPU because the performance gain on it was amazing. She can play everything (including Crysis!) maxxed out at 1680x1050 at decent framerates.

So, provided you have a recent-gen Intel CPU and don't mind the lack of DX11, you may as well stick with your 8800GTS's.

 

[lokistar09]

Welcome to TPU lokistar09....

Filling out your system spec in User CP^^^ up there can help guys help you make your decision .

Also what res do you game at?

Cool, just populated my specs in my profile, hope it shows properly.

My max screen res is 1680 x 1050. Running dual screens. I like to have my game settings on that running max settings if possible. However, I'm not a hardcore gamer, currently only playing League of Legends. Waiting for Diablo 3.

 

[lokistar09]

Two 8800gts is not comparable to a 280. Although the two 8800s does use more power.

IMO The 460 would be a nice upgrade. Quieter and less power, look better and be faster. But check Toms lists At Toms hardware

Which GTX460SE?

hope this isn't going to triple post because the other posts didn't get posted by moderater yet, but getting the following tentatively:

Evga Gtx 460 Se Superclocked 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express 2.0 Graphics Card Video Card 01G-P3-1367-TR:

 

[HossHuge]

It could be that League of Legends doesn't utilize SLI properly. Some other people have had problems as well.

I know this is not of top priority, but still, after reading an old thread posted roughly a year ago (http://www.leagueoflegends.com/board...ad.php?t=11337) I was wondering if the issue with multiple GPU scaling has been fixed. I changed from a single GTX 275 to two HD Radeon 6850 in crossfire, but the result has been less than optimal. I was getting around 100fps on the 275, but now with the new crossfire setting it's only around 110 fps. What's worse is that the fonts in the game has become really blurry, and it was really sharp when I was on the old card. The crossfire works on other games, Black Ops, Battlefield, Metro 2033, etc etc, but on LoL I am not getting the result I was expecting. So my question to Riot is, has the issue been fixed? And if it has been fixed, is it just the problem with the newer graphics cards?

Apparently the game has been having problems with SLI graphic card users. In particular, the Nvidia 8800 GTS. Mine is an 8800 ultra...

 

[Tatty_Two]

TBH, you would probably be as well off going for the HD 6770 1GB card if only for the low power consumption and DX11 option, you can get them from newegg for $109 after rebate, otherwise unless you want to spend a bit more, maybe sell the 2 cards add the few extra dollars and get yourself either a GTX 285 or perhaps a HD 5850 or the like.

 

[HossHuge]

I just found this as well. But it says

This version of the NVIDIA profile update should be used with v191.07 WHQL display driver.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/nvidia_multigpu_SLI_profile_update_v3.html

 

[lokistar09]

TBH, you would probably be as well off going for the HD 6770 1GB card if only for the low power consumption and DX11 option, you can get them from newegg for $109 after rebate, otherwise unless you want to spend a bit more, maybe sell the 2 cards add the few extra dollars and get yourself either a GTX 285 or perhaps a HD 5850 or the like.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm not too much of an ATI fan anymore and haven't kept up to date with them in a long time. I'm open to ATI, but my current i750 is SLI only. And i'm not sure if I would even be updating my system for another 2 years and would like to be able to take advantage of SLI if something comes my way to want to SLI again on this system in the next 2 years or so.

I just did a quick compare on hwcompare with 6770 1 gb and 460 se, and it seems the 460 se is better than that, and same price. If i sell the two cards and splurge on another more expensive card, which I am seriously considering, I was also looking at the GTX 560 TI.

 

[Red_Machine]

I'd seriously consider upgrading that E4800 before you upgrade your GPUs.

 

[lokistar09]

I'd seriously consider upgrading that E4800 before you upgrade your GPUs.

Yea, I know it's kind of outdated. But I'm not ready to change my motherboard, cpu, and ram. Don't have the budget for that quite yet.

 

[Red_Machine]

You don't really need to change the mobo and RAM. Just look at getting a Q9xxx quad-core or something. It's the same socket as your E4800.

 

[BarbaricSoul]

you can't get a second hand core2quad? The e8400 is a great dual core, but this just it, it's just a dual core.

Oh, and btw, EVGA never made a P5N-d motherboard. The P5N-d is a ASUS 750i chipset motherboard. You have either a 750i FTW SLI board or a 750i SLI board if it's a EVGA 750i chipset board.


Also, have you gave any consideration to OC'ing that e8400. Pushing it to 3.8ghz should be real easy and 4 ghz should be very possible aswell(I had a e8400 in a EVGA 750i FTW board that could do 4.25ghz).

 

[lokistar09]

you can't get a second hand core2quad? The e8400 is a great dual core, but this just it, it's just a dual core.

Oh, and btw, EVGA never made a P5N-d motherboard. The P5N-d is a ASUS 750i chipset motherboard. You have either a 750i FTW SLI board or a 750i SLI board if it's a EVGA 750i chipset board.

Oh you're right, it's asus... I was just looking at EVGA vid cards and I accidentally typed it. Good catch.

 

[lokistar09]

you can't get a second hand core2quad? The e8400 is a great dual core, but this just it, it's just a dual core.

Oh, and btw, EVGA never made a P5N-d motherboard. The P5N-d is a ASUS 750i chipset motherboard. You have either a 750i FTW SLI board or a 750i SLI board if it's a EVGA 750i chipset board.

Oh and you're right, maybe I will look for a used quad core. Didn't know there was that much of a difference between dual-core and quad-core right now for the programs I use. Mostly for work, some gaming, and watching blu-rays. I'll look more into it

 

[lokistar09]

Oh and you're right, maybe I will look for a used quad core. Didn't know there was that much of a difference between dual-core and quad-core right now for the programs I use. Mostly for work, some gaming, and watching blu-rays. I'll look more into it

whoops, i keep seeing more in your post to reply to after i reply.

But I have tried overclocking my e8400 to 1600 fsb (for a 1:1 ratio) on this board, but it won't work. I can't get any of the right settings to do it. Also a big problem I can't get around is when I push it to 1500 fsb, it no longer sleeps/hybrid sleep/hibernates properly anymore. Everything works fine, it sleeps fine, but it won't wake up. Blank screen. However, if i press the reset button, it goes back to windows as if it woke up normally, but all the oc'd settings are gone and back to stock.

Sorry if this is off-topic from my thread post as well.

 

[BarbaricSoul]

Well speaking from experience, if you do replace the e8400, I highly suggest getting a q9450, q9550 or q9650. Anything less, because of the amount of cache per core the e8400 has and the q9*50 have, will feel slower than the e8400. I originally replace my e8400 with a q6600 and my system didn't seem to be as quick as it was with the e8400. When I got my q9650, I got that quickness back that I had with the e8400.

 

[BarbaricSoul]

whoops, i keep seeing more in your post to reply to after i reply.

But I have tried overclocking my e8400 to 1600 fsb (for a 1:1 ratio) on this board, but it won't work. I can't get any of the right settings to do it. Also a big problem I can't get around is when I push it to 1500 fsb, it no longer sleeps/hybrid sleep/hibernates properly anymore. Everything works fine, it sleeps fine, but it won't wake up. Blank screen. However, if i press the reset button, it goes back to windows as if it woke up normally, but all the oc'd settings are gone and back to stock.

Sorry if this is off-topic from my thread post as well.

IIRC, I ran a 1:2 ratio so my RAM would run at its' stock speeds(DDR2 800 with 4/4/4/12 timings). Damn, I just took my 750 board down last week and replaced it with this Gigabyte board. I'd be alot more help to you if I hadn't just done that.

 

[Tatty_Two]

Please try and keep the thread tidy and use the Edit or multiquote buttons! Triple posting just don't keep the drawers tidy!

 

[neatfeatguy]

Two 8800gts is not comparable to a 280. Although the two 8800s does use more power.

IMO The 460 would be a nice upgrade. Quieter and less power, look better and be faster. But check Toms lists At Toms hardware

Which GTX460SE?

I thought comparing one of my GTX 280s to my older dual 8800GTS 512 cards was pretty comparable. Some games, such as Crysis, ran a touch better on a single GTX 280 over the 8800s in SLI, but for the most part they traded blows.

Dual GTX 280s in SLI, in certain games, can run better then a stock clocked GTX 570....so they are comparable.

To say a GTX 280 is as good as a GTX 460 (especially the 1GB version) is stretching things a tad, but it's a decent place to provide an idea of what to expect out of the newer generation GPUs when folks are upgrading from the 8xxx, 9xxx and GTX 2xx series.

So, if the TC was to grab a GTX 460 (even the SE) version, he'd be running roughly on par with a dual 8800GTS 512 setup or a single GTX 280. In the end, it would produce similar (if not slightly better at times) performance, less heat and use less power.

I see nothing wrong in going this route if you don't really game much anymore and you're looking to trim your PC down. Just my two cents.

 

[ViperXTR]

Well, they maybe on par, but a decent single card still uses less power, less space and less potential issues on games (games that has problem on sli/crossfire/dual gpus).
The GTX 460 SE also has amuch higher overclocking potential as well (i OC mine, but i guess you wont OC anyway).
For games that can utilize more than 512MB of vram, the equivalent 1GB might have some advantages as well, since SLI'd or crossfired or dual GPUs vram are not additive.

 

[lokistar09]

thanks for all the input guys. much appreciated. I had actually already bought the gtx 460 se just in case it sold out and it's sitting in my lap still boxed and unsealed.

Not sure if i really want to use it or return it. I put my 8800s on craigslist to see if there are any bites. If i can sell, i guess i'll keep the gtx 460 se for sure since the upgrade cost is negligible and most likely get at least the same performance (if not more) and less power consumption/heat etc.

I've been messing w/ overclocking the 8800s; don't know why i never considered doing this before and it kind of fixed my issue with the ONE game I play, League of Legends.

So I think this is my game plan: 1. If i can sell the 8800s, i will keep the 460 se. 2. If I can't sell 8800s and the overclocking meet all my current needs; I'll return the 460 se and wait for the 560 ti/570 to be on sale.