Vista - 8800 GTS 640mb or 8800 GT 512mb SLI?

Hi

I run a single BFG 8800 GTS 640mb OC2 in my PC at the minute due to using an EVGA 650i Ultra board - which has a single PCI slot - but have just bought a Asus 680i SLI board, so i'm wondering if it may be time to upgrade from my single card to dual cards?

The 8800 GTS i have is fantastic and i don't really see any problems with it: apart from Crysis and the snow levels that is, but i think everyone has problems with that anyway. I know the 8800 GT cards are the next GPU die (G92) and are cheap enough to justify SLI, but will i see a massive increase over what i'm playing with at the minute? I only usually play at 1280x1024 anyway due to burning out my Gainward Golden Sample 7800 GTX whilst running HL2 at 1600x1200 and so it's better to be safe than sorry (and out of pocket £300!).

Also, i'm wondering about power consumption with 2 cards and also the extra heat due to the single slot designs. Any advice would be helpful.

Come on - anyone give me some advice please?!

Well, you shouldn't buy the 8800 GTs with the standard single-slot cooling system. During the holidays it was madness here in Romania, you couldn't find ONE 8800GT in stock. The only ones available were Palit standard-frequency 8800GT. After a lot of thinking I bought one and I can say I am super happy. It has a double-slot cooling system, HUGE cooler over the chipset and a HUGE radiator over the VRAM. Even this way, it's super silent. The case fan runs louder.

I recommend you buy 2x8800GT Palit Sonic(factory overclocked). Nice, sturdy and quiet cooling system plus amazing performance. One Sonic GT beats a stock GTX, no questions asked(I mean this from a price point of view). Imagine two...

The resolution wasn't the reason your video card malfunctioned. If you would of used 1280x1024 it would still of malfunctioned. It was doomed from the beggining. Maybe it was OCed too much? Use 1600x1200.

As for the PSU. I reccomend you get a 650W power supply unit. If you think it's to expensive, I recommend an expanding PSU. This should do the trick.

I hope I helped you.

Well i made the decision and bought a BFG 8800 GTS 512mb OC to replace my BFG 8800 GTS 640mb OC2 card and even though i had reservations due to dropping 128mb of video RAM, i can honestly say it's the best decision i've made. Seeing this new card running Crysis is a great improvement over the 640mb card, especially when the snow levels come due to the higher pixel pipelines and i've also been able to raise my resolution in all my games - COD4, Oblivion, STALKER, BF2 & Crysis - from 1280 x 1024 to 1600 x 1200.
To anyone thinking about the upgrade - don't think, just do it! I'm saving now for my 2nd 8800 GTS 512mb to go SLI...

Good decision. Though I would of bought a Palit for the better cooling system.

You're going to hate yourself soon; the 9 Series GeForces have been annouced and the 9800 cards are set for release in March :P

I was going to buy a 8800GT for myself (approx. 33000 Yen or $330 USD), but I'm holding off till the new cards come out

That's just natural. I think you will hate yourself to when the 10 series appears

That would be in a month or two, seeing how fast the GFX cards are released =D

Although I'm not complaining, good time to be young

I just bought an 8800GT about a month ago. It had to be done though, I couldn't wait. My motherboard fried and it was impossible to find good to better specs with the current 939 socket I was running. Rebuilt the entire system.

I have the evga's 8800 GTS SSC 640Mb playing Crysis...and I'm amazed, well...that's about to change ...ordered BFG's 8800 GTX OC2 768MB card...savin up for SLi combo...wohoohoo
Just get what ever makes you happy