How LONG can SLI setups last......

[rash219]

Ok to some this might seem an intelligent question to others a little lame......I have been planning of upgrading my system to the latest and HOTTEST card the 8800GTX/Ultra and WCing it and overclocking it. Now my question is how long can a SLI setup with one the most powerful cards last.....i mean how long can i play game without ever worrying that i have to change my card....because i am thinking with investing so much money to buy and Water Cool my card i expect it to last for 10 years if the card is well maintained.....what do you guys/gals think....

 

[Lithan]

Ten years ago the top of the line card was a 3dfx voodoo2.

What do you think?

 

[Jax Omen]

plus, the 8800GTX is a year and a half old already. It's not a good investment right now. If you really want to get a top-of-the-line dual-GPU setup to last as long as possible, jump on GT200/R770 when they come out this summer.

 

[Lithan]

Even top of the line, if a card lasts even five years PLAYABLE (not even @ good settings), you got a windfall. I'd say most people dropping $200+ on a card, who dont mind low--med settings can only HOPE for 2.5-3 yrs out of it, and that's freakin optimistic. $1000 SLI setup? I'd guess 4 yrs, tops before people tell you "You need an upgrade bad man". And since these cards are ~1-1.5 yrs old already...

 

[Jax Omen]

Yeah, pretty much. "As long as possible" has traditionally been "until you can afford to jump to the next architecture" (for example, jumping from the 7900 to the 8800, jumping from the X1950 to the HD2900/HD3870, etc).

Try running current games on SLI 7900s. Most new games don't even run as well as an 9600GT.

 

[Syntax Error]

Better to constantly upgrade rather than to splooge and get one uber setup NOW and be obsoleted in a few years anyways.

High end stuff isn't always that much better over the normal-priced stuff, as this generation would demonstrate. There's diminishing returns in performance as you spend more and more on the "uber gear"; and in 10 years? You'll be the Pentium 2, Voodoo 3 computer to our modern Penryn 8800GTS SLI rigs.

 

[TC91]

IMO with a high end SLI setup (get it at or near launch or its not really worth it, so getting 8800gtx atm isnt a great thing) you should be able to play most new games on max-high settings for ~2-2.5 years or so before driver support falls behind in favour of the new cards being released. But in most cases going with a good upper mainstream card and upgrading it in 2 years or so is a much better thing to do, as the new card in 2 years will likely be faster than the older SLI setup and will run cooler with better drivers.

 

[sandorski]

4 or 5 years tops, if you constantly get the latest games. If you kinda settle down with a few games that you play constantly and only dabble with some new games, you might get more life out of such a setup. That said, Video cards are, in my experience, not built for longevity. Even with uber cooling, it's possible they'll die within 5 years.

 

[woolfe9999]

Ten years ago I bought 2xVoodoo2 add-on cards (3D only, had to use a different card for 2D), and a PII 400 mhz. That was the fastest configuration for gaming on the planet. It was obsolete oh, say, 7 years ago at latest. And that's being charitable.

- woolfe

 

[Twsmit]

Typically it's 2 - 3 years to run current games on a high end card. Maybe at most 5 years with lowest settings and low resolution in new games. Technology moves very quickly and what is top of the line today will provide poor performance even a year or two later in many cases.

I think about four or five years ago I had a 9800Pro, great card but thinking about how that would perform in modern games makes me shudder, same thing will happen five years from now to a set of dual 8800GTXs. In 2013 they will be antiques!

 

[JPB]

As long as drivers support it for that particular set of cards.

 

[Skunkwourk]

I'd say 3.5 years to go from a card exceeds the recommended specs, to becoming the minimum or falling below. Given that SLI will probably give you an extra boost so maybe 4 or 4.5 max.

 

[ther00kie16]

4-5 years is reasonable. I can still play Call of Duty 4 and some new games (except Assassin's Creed because that requires Shader Model 3.0) at 1920x1200 on an ATi 9800pro.

 

[bryanW1995]

I can see something like that from an 8800gtx that was bought in 2006, but if you bought it now it would be a different story...

 

[tuteja1986]

As soon as older card sli profile support stop. Go see the state if 7950GX2 owner :!

 

[Tempered81]

the best sli purchases lately have been 9600gt's for 109 or 8800gt's for 150. people who bought sli gtx's in nov. for 1000 bucks and ran it for 1.5 yrs had a great deal as well.

 

[Grinja]

Originally posted by: Syntax Error
Better to constantly upgrade rather than to splooge and get one uber setup NOW and be obsoleted in a few years anyways.

High end stuff isn't always that much better over the normal-priced stuff, as this generation would demonstrate. There's diminishing returns in performance as you spend more and more on the "uber gear"; and in 10 years? You'll be the Pentium 2, Voodoo 3 computer to our modern Penryn 8800GTS SLI rigs.

:thumbsup:
You'll be better off upgrading in smaller increments and staying away from Uber top end...

 

[jfunk]

You'll get better performance on average over the years by buying a single $200-250 video card every 2 years than by spending all that cash at once up front.

10 years ago gaming PCs had Riva TNT or Voodoo2 in them, and that was only for the hardcore. EVERYTHING still had software rendering as an option.

 

[OmegaShadow]

I see something becomming obsolete once it is 3 generations old.

So once the geforce 8 series comes out the geforce 5 becomes obsolete

Once geforce 9 comes out geforce 6 becomes obsolete

geforce 10 obsoletes geforce 7

and so on