Chanur

Im looking at buying a new computer. Im thinking of going with Dell again because the last one I bought from them is still trucking along with out ever having a problem 3 years later.

Im looking at getting one of thier dual core pentium D systems. What im wondering is are dual video cards really worth the extra hundreds of dollars? I had read some things saying they wernt really all that much better at all.

Btw im not dead set on the Dell, as I have that AMD 64 from monarch that i still absolutely love, and has been awsome.

Gandaar

What do you use the computer for? Is your use or intended use going to justify the cost of the high dollar video card? Do you use any applications that can make use of the technology?

Chanur

I mostly game, if i was going to be doing more editing or rendering id go with an apple. Mostly play WoW and EQ, and some newer RTS and FPS games.

Chanur

bumpity.

Eliot

Somebody linked me this today about dual cores. (Take with a grain of salt, I can't vouch for the source)

http://www.pugetsystems.com/articles.php?id=23

As for dual vidcards, I'm still running an X850XT PCIe which can be had now for 160.00 and am completely happy. I remember when 3dfx pulled this SLI stuff before and it seemed to fade away when more inexpensive, more powerful, less power-hungry, smaller footprint, hardware came out. I'll let history dictate until proven otherwise. Oh, and I'm a cheap bastard too. I upgrade my video card once every year (or so) for 150-180.00 to stay with the curve and with directx 10 incoming with Vista sometime this winter, I'll wait I guess. Your milage may vary.

_eliot

fildien

I'm partial nVidia myself and I am still getting some bang from a 6800 with 256MB of RAM they are cheaper than the 7800s and I haven't found a game yet that doesn't look great on my system

But on to your question... I play with a friend who has 7800s in SLI on a 32 inch wide screen (yeah he has no kids) I see no huge differences over my setup and his. And sometimes when he switches to windowed mode his screen gets very funky and he has to restart the game.

But the bottom line is, if you have that kind of cash and want to spend it do it.

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Nurta <Shark Baby>
Mind Trick - Empire

Xregg

I LOVE my 7800gtx and am looking foward to the 7900gtx. If you wanna enjoy Prey, Oblivion eq2, Vanguard and games of that kind its the only way to go.


With stuff like the unreal 3 engine and this new crytech engine coming soon I cant imagine playing these games on anything less than a 7800.

Moglor

For People in the Realistic world who cant afford a 500 dollar card, im pretty happy with my ATI 1300 card but I am probably gonna be heading back to Nvidia cards soon.

Chanur

Im not hearing anyone praise the glory that is dual video cards, plus I know some games have problems with SLI. So I think im gonna stick with a nice single card.

giena

Not being able to afford to drop $500 every year on a new vid card, I stick to a similar path that Fil appears to be following. I've got a 6800 GT with 256, that still looks gorgeous. I'll likely be upgrading the card this winter when I build a new system. But until then, I just dont see anything worth dropping a huge amount of bank out there.

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Shibbie
Gnomer Mage
Stormrage Server


Giena Mountainstorm
Ayonae Ro Server
Retired