Widescreen Gaming Forum

Ok, so here's my question for you panel of geniuses!

A couple of years ago, I bought myself an MSI nVidia 7900 GTO, with every intention of later picking up another one, to SLI. When it came to 'later,' there were much better cards around, and I decided instead to pick up an XFX 9800GTX+ Black, with every intention of picking up another one later to SLI. Blah Blah Blah.

Now, I have a triplehead2go, and I'm monitoring ebay in order to acquire my third Samsung 226BW. I have serious doubts that my single 9800GTX+ will be capable of kicking out the monsterous 5040*1050 which I wake sweating about every night...

So, my question is this. Do I, A) Try to get hold of another 9800GTX+ (as per the original plan) and SLI the pair together, or B) Flog the GTX+ and spend many more hard earned pennies on a wogging new card like a GTX285 (or 295 [can you actually get those anywhere?]), or C) Keep the GTX+ and enjoy glorious 5040*1050 at a blistering 1 FPS?

I would like to stick to nVidia, as I can't seem to get on with ATI. Either way, I'm going to have to let go of my much loved Hyper powerplant, for a meatier beast.

Any advise is most welcome.

Cheers,

I'd say go for a 295 (or if you can wait check up on the G100 Fermi Card).

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System Core: | Intel Core i5-2500K + ASUS P8Z68-V + 16GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1333 MHz | Win7 x64 | MSI R7970 Lightning 3GB [1105/1400] |
Display: | 3 x Dell Ultrasharp 3007WFP-HC @ 7680x1600 | Dell u3011 |

5040x1050 is a VRAM hog. I'm not sure the 896MB of RAM that each half of the 205 has will allow you smooth gaming. Might be best to wait and see what happens with the new nVidia cards too (presuming they come out soon and aren't delayed again...)

I would have to say play the wait card aswell.

Less than a month away hopefully 3x faster than the GTX285

If you want something now, I'd go for a 2GB GTX285 vs. a GTX295.

Many Thanks for your advise guys. Much Appreciated.

3rd Monitor arrives tomorrow. It's gonna be hell of a difficult to wait a month to see what happens with the new cards!

I think I'll keep my eyes peeled for a 2gig 985 (as per reccommendations!), and if I'm still looking in a couple of weeks, I'll hold on and see what developes...

Thanks again.

Dear All,

3rd monitor has arrived, and after a lengthy battle with my Matrox, (solved only by the genius of other posts on this forum), I have now got it all working!

Fired it up last night, and much to my surprise, my venerable 9800GTX+ seemed to cope pretty well. Of course, I've had to kiss goodbye to my anti-aliasing to save the framerates, but on the whole, not bad!

Just thought I'd let anyone else out there with a 9800GTX+ that you have a hope!

Many Thanks for your advise guys. Much Appreciated.

3rd Monitor arrives tomorrow. It's gonna be hell of a difficult to wait a month to see what happens with the new cards!

I think I'll keep my eyes peeled for a 2gig 985 (as per reccommendations!), and if I'm still looking in a couple of weeks, I'll hold on and see what developes...

Thanks again.

I've been running 2x 285 2gb from EVGA. When dealing with games with adjustable view distances, that 4gb of VRam comes in handy. Still have issues with WoW though making 6gb buffer calls when flying high in the sky and being able to see quite a distance. Apparently not enough people run into the issue, because they haven't made any attempt to maximize in the size of the buffer calls.

Ok, so now to throw it back open again. The GTX 400s have been announced, and thus far, the meatiest one which has been revealed (at least here in the UK) is the GTX 480 1536MB. Somewhat less than the 2gigs recommended.

So what now? Take on of these 1.5gig ones, or wait and see if a 2gig appears? Any thoughts?

Cheers,