Dual video cards? or a single new card?

I currently have an EVGA 8800 GTS 512mb card

just to show what that is..

http://www.eworldsale.com/evga-512-p3-n8…



I have been looking at the Geforce GTX 200 series cards, and i've been thinking about the 275, but like all new cards, it would cost me a great deal more than an older video card. I believe newegg has the 275 for around $250+



on the other hand i could get another geforce 8800 gts 512 and sli it for about $170 max....





What are your suggestions?

I don't know how well sli really works, but if it does work i want it to be like running 2 cards at once not one card with the other one kind of helping... i hope that makes sense.

Because if thats the case maybe i should just get the 275 card.





Suggestions?|||The Geforce 275 gtx would be way better than putting another of your cards into SLI. SLI and crossfire don't double the performance of a single card, but do give it a significant boost. The workload is divided over the two cards, but combining into one output signal, dividing the workload etc would still have to be done by a single master card. The geforce 200 series also uses a completely different chip architecture and just work faster and better than geforce 8 series chips. Imho $170 to SLI that card just isnt worth it. Hell, you can get a single Radeon 4870 that will outperform that SLI for less.



Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying SLI isn't worth it.....it CAN be a cost effective way to boost existing hardware....but in this case it doesn't pay off.|||dual are way better. more vram.|||For the time being, and seeing as you will most likley need to upgrade your PSU to do either option you are going to choose, I'd choose a good 260GTX and get out cheaper than with the 275GTX. Besides if you SLI a 260GTX you will have more performance for the buck than with the 275GTX without doubling your 275GTX price. If you upgrade your PSU you need to go ahead and think about the SLI thing. For either the 260GTX or a 275GTX you are looking at needing 40amps on the +12Volt rail or rails. For SLI you need about 70-80amps with the GTX series. While paying for a PSU, might as well go the extra bit and buy the one that will work for any upgrades down the road... You will be paying double later...

Another reason it isn't such a good deal to go with another 8800 is that your card only has 512mb of vram. Just because you put another card with it, doesn't mean you will have 1gig, you will still only have 512mb... Crysis using all high settings uses about 932mb of vram during benchmark tool. Crysis is a dated game compared to the newer ones out now...

As far as the Passmark chart the other girl gave you a link to, I am skeptical of their comparison. For some odd reason they showed a 285GTX near the top of the list. No mention of being an SLI or not, but 1 285GTX insn't more powerful than a 295GTX, and the 285GTX wasn't mentioned anywhere else on the list. It also showed a 5770 being as powerful as a 295GTX, which they didn't say that was a multiple card set up either, but that card wasn't mentioned on the list anywhere else as well. There is no way a $159 card is going to outperform a 295GTX single handedly... Kinda got to be skeptical of some of these benchmarks anyways. If you want good benchmarks and scores, visit tomshardware.com and compare benches to the closest resolution your monitor can dish out, that will give you a better rule of thumb.

Not all resolutions treat graphics cards the same way. Many bench marks will prove a 4850 will outperform a 4870 in low resolution, needless to say a 4870 will unload a wad on a 4850 in higher resolutions... Same thing with Nvidia cards, some do better with lower resolutions than other.