FYI. Be careful buying an 8800. If you have a Gateway computer (probably a Dell or HP too) this thing won't fit, due to how the motherboards are set inside the case. The 8800 and most of the high-end, next-gen GPUs are two slotters. My mom learned this the hard way, when she tried to upgrade to a two-slot ATI video card. When it was being installed, the card couldn't fit. The 8800 had similar issues.
sadly there are worlds performance wise between a 8800 and a 8600, nvidia uses only 3/4 of the stream processors on the chip when you compare it to a top of the line cores 8800 Ultra, 8800GTX, 8800GTS 512MB (not the 640 which has another core). so depending on clock rate the 8600 will have between 20 and 30% the processing power of a 8800 card.
also the memory interface is slower with only 128 bit interface, which means that most likely you will notice an additional slowdown in higher resolutions.
with current prices the 8800 gt and 8800 gts 512mb are allready quite cheadp so my suggestion is to anyone that wants to buy a new card don't cripple your self artificially by getting the value line (8600) get the full 8800, you will defiintely notice the difference in power as soon as they add directx 10.
But my final suggestion is don't buy a gfx card now if you can run 2-3 more months with your old card. both nvidia and ati are supposed to present ther next gen gfx cards in june and these are supposed to bring a lot more power. even if current gen is good enough for you prices for current gen will drop as soon as next gen cards come to market.
Comments
FYI. Be careful buying an 8800. If you have a Gateway computer (probably a Dell or HP too) this thing won't fit, due to how the motherboards are set inside the case. The 8800 and most of the high-end, next-gen GPUs are two slotters. My mom learned this the hard way, when she tried to upgrade to a two-slot ATI video card. When it was being installed, the card couldn't fit. The 8800 had similar issues.
sadly there are worlds performance wise between a 8800 and a 8600, nvidia uses only 3/4 of the stream processors on the chip when you compare it to a top of the line cores 8800 Ultra, 8800GTX, 8800GTS 512MB (not the 640 which has another core). so depending on clock rate the 8600 will have between 20 and 30% the processing power of a 8800 card.
also the memory interface is slower with only 128 bit interface, which means that most likely you will notice an additional slowdown in higher resolutions.
with current prices the 8800 gt and 8800 gts 512mb are allready quite cheadp so my suggestion is to anyone that wants to buy a new card don't cripple your self artificially by getting the value line (8600) get the full 8800, you will defiintely notice the difference in power as soon as they add directx 10.
But my final suggestion is don't buy a gfx card now if you can run 2-3 more months with your old card. both nvidia and ati are supposed to present ther next gen gfx cards in june and these are supposed to bring a lot more power. even if current gen is good enough for you prices for current gen will drop as soon as next gen cards come to market.
How much of a difference does SLI make? Would it double the performance?
Would 2x 8800 GT's be superior or inferior to 9800GTX, for instance?