X1900XT Crossfire setup or 8800GTX

[silentvois]

I'm stuck deciding what to get as I've come across some decent deals with an X1900XT Crossfire setup or a single 8800GTX.

X1900XT Crossfire setup = $295
8800GTX = $395

Or even just get a single X1900XT for now for $140.

I'd want it to handle the upcoming games like Crysis and all recent games at 1680x1050 or 1920x1080 with quality settings turned up.

I thought perhaps the X1900XT crossfire setup would be nice to hold until the dx10 refreshes get released and then sell them. But getting a 8800GTX saves the trouble upgrading.

What do you guys think?

 

[Keysplayr]

Well if you're buying a card(s) to play Crysis, you'd be better off waiting for the DX10 card refresh. Because the X1900XT is a DX9 card. 140 bux for one of those is a pretty nice deal though. powerful card in it's own right for that money.

 

[silentvois]

Yeah man, another thing is that I'm running a P5B Deluxe and the 2nd PCI-E slot is only 4x... I don't think it'll be too bad though with the crossfire optimizations and from what I've seen.

 

[s44]

Crossfire = more expensive PSU

 

[thilanliyan]

Don't buy any card assuming it will run Crysis at high settings. The game isn't even out yet so you don't really know how it will perform on ANY card...let alone a DX10 card. If you can save $100 now...go for the Crossfire and then when the refreshes come get that. Although I admit $395 for a GTX is tempting.

EDIT: Like s44 said if you ALSO have to upgrade your PSU then it's not worth it for Crossfire. Which PSU do you have anyway?

 

[silentvois]

I got a Silverstone Strider 560W. I've seen a few reviews running a x1900 crossfire setup with an Enermax 535W fine, which was a fine psu I used to own before this Silverstone.

 

[thilanliyan]

You should probably be alright. What are the specs of the rest of your system?

 

[silentvois]

E6400 @ 3.6
P5B Deluxe
4GB Ballistix
4 x HDs
2 x DVDRW
5 x 120mm Fans
2 x 92mm Fans

 

[silentvois]

Performance wise, between a single X1900XT 512mb and a 8800GTX I seem some fluctuating results. Some games show an 8800GTX at twice as fast or almost twice as fast compared to a single X1900XT 512mb. Is this really the case or just a driver issue with ATI?

 

[Matt2]

8800GTX is about 2x the performance of a single X1900XTX. It's a little less than 2x the performance of X1950XTX performance.

I would go with the GTX if I were you. I toyed with the CF idea myself, but after having 7800GT SLi, I avoid dual card setups as much as possible.

 

[bryanW1995]

it's only about 50 % faster in overal games fps, but it depends on your resolution. If you're gaming at 1440x900 like me then you're probably not going to see huge improvements with the 8800 gtx. If you're going 1920x1200 or higher then you would probably see more than 100% improvement with the 8800gtx.

http://www23.tomshardware.com/...8&model2=706&chart=318

 

[silentvois]

I appreciate the feedback from everyone. Right now I'm thinking of just a single X1900XT 512 for now and wait another 6 months to a year. With that 4x lower pci-e slot I have, it'll probably bottleneck the CF setup in anything requiring high output.

 

[lopri]

Where can you get an X1900 XT for $140?!

 

[mtl]

GTX superior image quality, cooler faster.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

for me, experience says that the single card will give you the overall better experience. i tried SLI, yeah the power was great.... but going back to a single card just seemed more pleasant. for one most games actually felt smoother.

 

[LittleNemoNES]

Originally posted by: mtl
GTX superior image quality, cooler faster.

Exactly
::looks at sig::

 

[BoboKatt]

Well to let you know I have those two exact setups... though it's actually an ATI x1950XTX Crossfire card with a 1900XT as the secondary card. On my other comp the 8800GTX resides.

Personally I am satisfied with both systems performance wise -- no shock there. However trust me on this one... go for one card 8800GTX Solution. It runs quieter, cooler (2 cards will always be louder and hotter in the case than 1)... and honestly the 8800GTX kicks the crap out of my crossfire setup. Also it took a long time to get my CCC drivers working well on the ATI Setup. In fact it was not till I installed WindowsXP fresh again and use the Admin login by default that my issues went away.

Anyhow at the end of the day I prefer the one card solution thus far. Quality wise I can work a bit harder and get the ATI system to look marginally better but in all honestly not that much better.

I still love my 8800GTX... it's so "effortless" in every game... it's hard to describe. The crossfire at times I really need to check my drivers from time to time to make sure it's actually running in crossfire mode as my performance at times is lacking. Some games scale well with it... others nothing so essentially you have two massive cards and one really is doing very little.

I totally agree the ATI x19xx series are great. In fact when I was running the x1900xt or the x1950XTX alone... I played with their voltages and speeds and fan speeds using ATItool etc and I really could get them to run cooler, faster and quieter. Great cards!! However in Crossfire no amount of playing around has allowed me to work on those cards independently. I know there must be some work arounds but at the end of the day I simply gave up and run them stock.

 

[Polish3d]

I just upgraded from an x1900xtx to an 8800gtx and it is exceedingly fast. An overclocked 8800GTX will be double++ an x1950xtx, which is pretty amazing.

To give some examples, at 1680x1050 res, I'm getting:


150fps in Battlfield 2 with 16xAA,TSAA,16AF (CPU limited! at those settings)

45-60fps in Oblivion with 8xAA,MSAA,16AF with a variety of the highest quality texture packs


+100fps in Insurgency at 16xAA/16AF

 

[Polish3d]

PS though, if you do decide to get an X1900xt, I'll be selling my Sapphire x1900xtx for around 110 shipped