ASUS ATI Radeon X850XT PE VS. nVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra SLI

[MutantToad]

I need help deciding... I'm either going to get the ASUS Radeon X850XT PE, or 2 ASUS GeForce 6800 Ultras (SLI.) The X850 is around $700, and the 2 Geforces are around $1400. Please help me decide which is better in PERFORMANCE, I am not looking for value.

 

[C0d3Warr10r]

Apples & Oranges

Well the only flaw in your thinking is that a 256MB has a snowball's chance in hell of competing with a 512MB dual video card setup. With SLI using the 6800 Ultra, you are not just doubling the memory, you are effectivly using two 1.1GHz GPUs to reak havok upon any game you could possibly throw at them. I know you said that you are not looking for best "value" but overall system performance. Hands down, the SLI config would be the obvious winner here.

With that said, the X850XT-PE is a smoking fast card. It boasts more features than the 6800 Ultra, and actually has a faster GPU when comparing against only one 6800 Ultra. For $700 you are no doubt gonna be the big boy on the block for quite a while. Most casual gamers are not going to drop that kinda look for a video card, for that matter, many of them may not have even spent that on their computer.

In summation, for raw brute-force power to handle anything you throw at it, the 6800 Ultra/SLI config is clearly the victor here.

 

[MutantToad]

Thanks a lot. But ya know what would be really nice? ATi SLi. (It even rhymes!)

~Toad

 

[BringinHeat]

I agree with above but i also wanted to add that SLI is very driver and game dependent meaning that if the driver or game does not support SLI then you will see no performance whatsoever and sometimes will see worse performance than running a single 6800 ultra. I am no ATI fan boy by any means actually my current system has a Nvidia 6800 GT but when it comes to gaming the ATI 850 XT pe usually comes very close to the FPS and benchmarks put up by 6800 ultra SLI, the only place the SLi really dominates is 3dmarks benchmarks, and a couple of open GL games which are coded for SLI. For the best bang for the buck in your case ATI x850 XT pe will be the best bet it will give you good all around performance with everything with no compatibility issues with games.

As for ATI SLI it is in development and expect to see it later on this year. :wave:

 

[ColdBlizzardIce]

If you really want the raw performance and money isnt a issue go with the dual SLI 7800 GTX's. That would blow everything out and suck it back in like a vacum. You can get the cards off Newegg which is the best site ever and awesome prices. :grinthumb