Geforce 8800gtx vs 2x7900gt in SLi

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Ok, here's ridiculously specific question.

I currently have an XFX geforce 7900gt graphics card.

I was wondering if anyone would know which if the two options would give me better performance considering the price it would cost me to upgrade.

I can either;

Buy another 7900gt and run the two in SLi for about £150

or

Buy a 8800gtx for £370

I realise the 8800 would probably be better and give me more scope for upgrading in the future, but considering the price, would the SLi idea be a worthy compromise? Also consider, for someone who's fairly new to PC gaming, I'm somewhat of a frame rate perfectionist (and I have my eyes set on next gen games such as Crysis).

Thanks for your time.

Harry
 
My guess is that the single 8800GTX would be better than dual SLI 7900GTs. I guess the cost thing is up to you. You could always go for a 640MB 8800GTS or a 320MB 8800GTS.

You could always buy a new card and sell your old 7900GT on eBay or something.

Regards :)
 
That link of peterdiva is a very good one.

However, bear in mind that you'll have to check the system's spec for each benchmark, because they are not all the same. Using a different processor to test a different graphics card will not give a true comparison, but that link shouls still give you a good idea of what to expect. They do try to keep it quite standard, but of course, as new technologies come along, they'd have to adapt, and redoing all the benchmarks would just take up too much time.

If you're new to gaming, I'd suggest you to go for the 8800gts first, and see if you need more juice.
 
Not to mention, if you plan on playing future games that are going to be DX10 compatible, you will want to be able to use that to your advantage. The 8800 series is the only DX10 card available, however the anything below (7900 included) will not support DX10 and is only DX9.
 
Thanks for the replys.

RamenNoodles: Thats true, except wouldn't I also need to be using Vista? That's something I'm not set on doing for a while yet. But having the option there will be nice.
 
I doubt MS will release DX10 for use with XP. Vista is the only one that will support it, especially since Halo 2 requires it. A 640MB 8800GTS would be very powerful, and give you scope in the future to add another one for bleeding-edge gaming performance. The 320MB version is as powerful I know, but it can't handle very high resolutions with AA and AF maxed out, hence the 640MB version suggestion. The 8800GTX is the most powerful of the lot but if you really want the best choice for DX10, I'd suggest you to wait for awhile until the Radeon HD is released. You'll have more DX10 cards to choose from then and a wider range of different cards for different price ranges available too.
 
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