So, I guess you can read my system specs below. I'm not wanting to seriously upgrade for awhile. At least not an expensive one. I've been thinking about upgrading my two 8800 GTX's to a new single graphics card, but I'm wondering how much of a performance gain I'll get without doing the whole thing (i.e. motherboard, cpu and such). I have been shying away since newer cards are 2.0 PCI Express, and my motherboard is only 1.0, so I figured I might not be getting much of a boost. Any comments would be appreciated.

PCIe 2.1/2.0 Cards are backwards compatible with PCIe 1.0/1.1 Slots,

The only difference between 1.x and 2.x slots is Bus Bandwidth and Bus voltages w/ a few extra features.

I know plenty of people that have 58xx Series ATI cards on PCe1.x Slots. You lose 1-3% Performance off the cards overall performance due to some PCIe2 Interface features being disabled.
I doubt any single Chip Card maxes out the 2.0 Bus Bandwidth and maybe the 1.1 Bus Bandwidth.

A Single 560 ti Would add 128 more Cuda Cores, 384 Cores vs your 128x2 8800GTX, The 5xx Series Fermi core is also tons more efficient.
Add 256MB of memory (well you’d technically lose 512mb since you got 2 8800GTXs in SLI), But the New Memory is GDDR5 vs GDDR3 So 4000 Mhz vs 1800MHz x2 (3600MHz effective)
Subtract one 8800GTX Running at 60^C and Taking up 2-3 Slots.
Subtract the Power Draw of 2 Cards and Add the power Draw of one ( I think 2 8800GTX Cards use more power than a Single 560 ti, I’ll have to double check).
Subtract an SLI Incompatibilities and SLI Scaling issues.
Remove Support for Windows 95, 98, ME, 2k.

The 8800 was superceded by the 280. That was passed by the 480. That was passed and they now have the 580 which has been out for about a year now. So, your cards are due for Medicare and SS checks at this point.

The important thing is your PSU. How powerful is it? If you go to Newegg and look at the cards' descriptions there is usually under specs a line about "minimum 500W/550W/600W power supply recommended" in there. I know when I got my GTX260 I had to get a new PSU because my old one couldn't cut it. Of course having SLI means you were using more than I was with my 8800GTS.


The Jedi Master

I agree with SZ. It's not absolutely necessary, but it wouldn't hurt either if you want more performance w/ less

My 112 Shader G80 640mb 8800 GTS still plows along just fine at Med.-High Settings

In what? At what resolution? That's a bit of a nebulous statement.
My 5850 handles my 1280x1024 max resolution great in most games w/4x FSAA, but some I have to lower to 2x. Also when I get my 1920x1080 monitor I expect to see a performance degradation in most games less than 3 yrs old...and Crysis!


The Jedi Master

My ACER LCD is 1680x1050.

I Run 2XFSAA Max, some games have it disabled for compatibility reasons.

At Stock Firmware Settings of 576 / 900 / 1350,

Of the More recent games: (Im not gonna count old games or games on Xbox 360)
Thirdwire's Strike Fighters 2 Series – Max Details
Thirdwire's Strike Fighters 1 Series – Max Details
Crysis (Windows XP/DX9 - MAX)
Cities XL 2011 – Max Details
America's Army 2.8.5 – Max Details
America's Army 3.5 (Beta) – Max Details
BattleField Play4Free – Max Details
LO:MAC – Max Details (I think I turned a few things off)
DCS Black Shark – Custom Settings (around Med-High)
DCS A:10 – Same, Some things are maxed while others are Med or OFF

My Brothers 5830 chews through everything.....

lol! I actually gave my old one to one of my roommates (he just pieced together a pc just to get by). I was actually surprised at how well it did with a few current games (mostly console ports).

Thanks for the replies. That's just the kind of information I was looking for. I hadn't done too much research myself, but just had this feeling that if I wanted a new card, I should upgrade the motherboard first, but I guess that's not completely true. My PSU should be able to take it, it's an 850w Thermaltake modular one. I'll have to look around and see what kind of deals I might be able to get.

I think you would get a nice performance increase, even going to a 480 which are pretty cheap today.

Looking online, it seems I could get two GTX 460 1GB's for the same price as one GTX 560 TI 1 GB. Trying to decide which to go with now.

I see the 560 going for around 230. The 768Mb 460 is not as good as the 1Gb. I have seen some 1Gb 460 cards for as low as 150, which would make two of them 300. But at 300, you are getting into 570 territory as I've seen them for about 340.

Don't be fooled and get a GTX 460 SE 1Gb as it's crippled compared to the regular GTX 460 1Gb.

Ah, an 8800 will indeed still work fine IF you're just using XP/DX9. If you go DX10 or want to use DX11 in Vista/7, though, that's where the 8800's age will show as its shader power is lower.



The Jedi Master

I can Run DX10 games fine actually and Med/High Settings. its DX 11 Games that give my card fits.

if like me you don't have unlimited money for your passion... the ATI 6850 seems to be the best choice price for quality... if not the sky's the limit...

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

The 6850 is slightly less powerful than the 5850 it replaces. The 6870 is between the 5850 and 5870. The 69xx is the new top end that replaces the 58xx line.



The Jedi Master

The chart I saw was different

6850 -> 5770
6870 -> 5830
6950 -> 5850
6970 -> 5870

I still think the 5870 has an advantage over the 6970...

The 6950 does replace the 5850, but it's a good deal faster.

I mean the 6850, which SOUNDS like the 5850's replacement, is slower and in fact probably should've been given a 67xx number. However, marketing people have no interest in logic or accuracy, so this is what we get.



The Jedi Master

Still using 8800GTX (DX11) and it runs Bad company2 on high, it has been a great card for the last 3 or 4 years. Battlefield 3 will bring it to it's knees me thinks, buy a new card or get PS3 lol.

My 8800 GTS Runs Console Ports at max details with no problems, DX9, 10, or 11, it don't matter, since the entire game's engine is built to run around a old RV500 Chip.

The only game I have that can dip the Games Graphics below 10 Frames/sec is Strike Fighters 2 (Since my CVN Model isnt optimized for realtime shadowing, it takes my Fr/PS from 60+ to 9 with no problems.

In pure number crunching (and tessellation I think) it's got the edge, but in most circumstances the 6970 wins.

im still waitin for the 7000 Series,... im gonna have 6 months worth of paychecks saved just for a new AMD Bulldozer Rig, from the ground up.

I want to see how the 7xxx series (probably 79xx) compares to nvidia's 6xx series before I decide. I have zero loyalty to any company, the last I was loyal to was 3DFx and that worked out so well...

After them I went nvidia for a bit (GF4), then ATI for awhile (9800 thru X1800), then back to nvidia for a time (GF 8800 thru 260), and now back to ATI/AMD (58580). Likewise I had Intel CPUs from my 386 days thru the Pentium 3 550 I think, then I went to Athlon at 1.2 GHz and stayed with them thru the Athlon 64 until I got my C2D 3.0 a few years back, and now I'm on an i7.
When I'm ready to buy, I go for the best value I can find and don't give a damn whose name is on the label. Those who never buy Intel or hate nvidia or think AMD is worthless are just laughable to me. Whatever your reason is, the fact remains that all of them have large customer bases and are still around so they can't be pure crap! If they were, well, look at Oldsmobile or Saturn and you'll see what happens.



The Jedi Master

I Went from A 386 w/ Onboard (don’t remember who’s chip is was), to a 486DX2 w/ onboard,
To a Intel Pentium 200MMX w/ Trident 9680 PCI 1MB upgraded to 9685 4MB Direct3d PCI,
To a AMD K6-II 400MHz with a 3dFx Voodoo3 2000,
To a AMD Athlon 750MHz w/ ATi All In Wonder Radeon 7500, And An AMD Athlon 1.1GHz w/ a Geforce4 MX 440
To a AMD Sempron 3200+ w/ ATi All In Wonder Radeon 9600XT, And AMD Athlon 64 3400+.
To a AMD Athlon 64 x2 6000+ w/ an eVGA Geforce 8800 GTS SSC 112Shader
To a AMD Phenom II x2 555 w/ an XFX 5830

I’ve been with AMD since I switched to the K6-IIs, as every time Intel had a good chip, it was in the middle of my Builds Life, and every time I upgraded/Rebuilt AMDs chips were better, or in the more recent builds, CHEAPER. I remember when Built My 200MMX, there was a CPU choice between Intel, AMD, Cyrix and they all fit the same socket, Socket 7 (K6II/III, Pentium/MMX, CyrixC6), and AMD K6II was cheaper and clearly dominated.

I can't believe people think a 8800 card (either Ultra, GTX, GTS or GT) will run DX11.

DX9 = Easy.
DX10 = Yes.
DX10.1 = NO.
DX11 = DEFINITLY NOT!

They're still good cards, still have one in my old rig; but they CANNOT run ANYTHING in DX11. Fact.

However, my 2 nice shiny new MSI N580GTX FROSR II, in SLi, will.

I would highly recommend one (or two, or more) of these.

TC&HF - R&R
Smudge

But it runs those DX11 based games Fluidly in DX10 mode :p