[Bretts31344]

Hey guys,
I bought a similar card a year ago: EVGA 512-P3-N973-TR GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814130435

As far as I can tell the model look and specific serial number is different, and fan is different, but all other features of the card are the same.

Is it safe to assume I can reliably SLI-link these cards?
Thanks

You should be good to go. Just make sure you have a powerful enough PSU, SLI motherboard, etc. It is nice that your first card is single slot, so both cards shouldn't have clearance problems.

[AlphaConqerer]

Thanks Bretts, yeah I built a new rig last year and bought a 750 W PSU and was trying to be as prepared as possible once I saw another price drop on this card series.

[Lithos]

I love how the benchmark for graphics is still Crysis -- a three year old game.

LOL, mix in a high end graphics game with low efficiency and that is a good cause. That is why you don't hear too many people using the expansion for benchmarks and just the base game.

[aeri]

LOL, mix in a high end graphics game with low efficiency and that is a good cause. That is why you don't hear too many people using the expansion for benchmarks and just the base game.

:P Hey it still is a pretty good benchmark.

[Richard Longfellow]

I'd prefer to buy a single 2xx or 4xx card with 1GB VRAM instead of spending $170 up front to rig up an a SLI setup on 2 older, hotter, watt-munching cards. I'm currently running GTA IV reasonably well on an HDTV with a 250 GTS 1 GB, which is a mild improvement over the 9800 GT.

For an HTPC setup that wont be running new games, though, this 9800 GT is a great deal (after rebate). And EVGA is probably the best card manufacturer (and warranter) out there.

[Wolfpup]

Dang, if it were $50 even, I'd buy that as a Folding card for one of my systems here. Obviously it would be nice for games too (if you don't need bleeding edge at least...I mean it's still many times more powerful than the console GPUs and would eat them up and spit them out).

I HATE rebates though and sort of have a hard time justifying much on secondary systems.

[Chronis]

My computer has an AGP port...

[Wolfpup]

I have one of those too :-D

[Filbert]

I'd prefer to buy a single 2xx or 4xx card with 1GB VRAM instead of spending $170 up front to rig up an a SLI setup on 2 older, hotter, watt-munching cards. I'm currently running GTA IV reasonably well on an HDTV with a 250 GTS 1 GB, which is a mild improvement over the 9800 GT...

My personal experience with SLI'n two 6600GTs is that it isn't worth it unless you're buying a second card to match whatever single card you already had to act as a stopgap between proper upgrades.

[Wolfpup]

Hmm...looks like the 250GTS was basically the same thing as the 9800?

[Bretts31344]

Hmm...looks like the 250GTS was basically the same thing as the 9800?

The GTS 250 is the same as a 9800 GTX+. So the 9800GT is a slightly less powerful card. It is still a great price.

[AwRy108]

That computer will be fine with normal home use, but the CPU won't let you play many newer games. Even if you buy a new PSU and video card, you will be limited by the processor. What type of games were you looking to play?

What he said.

If you're planning on gaming on your PC, you probably should shopped around more (and asked a lot more questions), or should have just built your own.

[Wolfpup]

Yikes, a 2.2GHz Sempron? It's better than an Atom based system of course, but that's really low end even by notebook standards (heck, I'm not even 100% sure it would beat a dual core Atom).

[ratzombie]

Should I even bother upgrading to a 9800GT when I'm currently using an 8500GT? I can run Starcraft decently well on a mix of medium/high settings... although the framerate can take a hit once in a while.

I'm thinking I should just save up and get something a little better. I want to run Starcraft 2 and hopefully Diablo III on high settings.

[Wolfpup]

An 9800GT has 8x the hardware, so it would be a big upgrade, but at the same time if you're running what you want decently now, it might not be a bad idea to get something better, given how much better hardware's gotten.

[aeri]

Should I even bother upgrading to a 9800GT when I'm currently using an 8500GT? I can run Starcraft decently well on a mix of medium/high settings... although the framerate can take a hit once in a while.

I'm thinking I should just save up and get something a little better. I want to run Starcraft 2 and hopefully Diablo III on high settings.

Definitely, yes. The 8500GT is a bit worse than the 8600GT and the 9800GT is about 20-25% better than the 8600GT. However, if your CPU is crap it's not worth it anyways. Additionally, if your monitor resolution is anything less than 1280x1024 you should be able to run almost everything with a 9800GT.

[Wolfpup]

The 9800 should be 3.5x better than the 8600, right? And the 8600 is already double the 8500.

[Jaysonguy]

Should I even bother upgrading to a 9800GT when I'm currently using an 8500GT? I can run Starcraft decently well on a mix of medium/high settings... although the framerate can take a hit once in a while.

I'm thinking I should just save up and get something a little better. I want to run Starcraft 2 and hopefully Diablo III on high settings.

I'd say save and grab something better

http://www.tomshardw...eon,2646-7.html

There's a nice list done a couple of months ago about the most bang for your graphic card buck

[praystation]

Time to upgrade from my geforce 4 ti 4400 512MB AGP1x (my old card had agp 4x but stupid mobo would crash with 4x).

[Psybuster]

9800GT is a massive, massive upgrade from an 8500GT; I don't know why people are saying otherwise.

[Wolfpup]

Yeah, 7x more hardware, and I think it's clocked faster too.

[Richard Longfellow]

I agree the 9800 GT would be a huge upgrade over and 8500. Then again the 8400/8500 series were really bad cards.

[evildeadjedi]

9800 GT is a huge upgrade from the 8500 GT. A source of reference is the Tom's Hardware Graphics Card Hierarchy Chart. According to the chart it's a difference of 12 tiers. They don't recommend an upgrade unless the card is at least three tiers from your current one.

[ihadFG]

I'm thinking of getting this along with this PC:

http://www.tigerdire...0999&CatId=4928

Any thoughts or better recommendations?

[1HiTekTexan]

I'm thinking of getting this along with this PC:

http://www.tigerdire...0999&CatId=4928

Any thoughts or better recommendations?

The power supply is only 300 watts. I thought I read this card minimum was 400W. Looking for another option.

[aeri]

I'm thinking of getting this along with this PC:

http://www.tigerdire...0999&CatId=4928

Any thoughts or better recommendations?

Yeah I would skip on that for sure. Like someone else mentioned, the PSU is terrible. Other problems [I] noticed was the case has poor ventilation and is small. That's the Achilles heel of the 9800GT - overheating.

If you look at the value of the parts alone (comparing to newegg)
-CPU 115
-PSU (So small that it probably carries no to little value) 20
-Motherboard (No info on what the mobo is - but a good mobo, which this surely isn't priced at...) 80
-6 GB ddr 3 ram - about 45/chip 135
-case (bad case) 50

That comes out to about $400.

Now with parts solely from NewEgg..

Gskill 4gb DDR3 - $96 - Gskill makes the best ram
http://www.newegg.co...1-193-_-Product

Here's the reason for 4gb of ram... In order to run 6gb you need to run it in triple channel, however finding a motherboard that is compatible with *everything* is impossible. The processor I picked out runs AM3, and I would guess you'd want SLI to run a second 8800GT. Additionally, the ram is DDR3 1600 speed (supported by this motherboard, but many older ones do not support it.) 4gb is more than enough to run this setup, and in the future (because the mobo has four ram slots) you can add another pair to run in 2 dual channel pairs (4 2gb chips work, 3 do not - unless you have a triple channel board. HOWEVER if you do wish for more than 4GB of ram, I'd go with 2 4gb chips. It's more $50 expensive than 4 2gb chips, but will have future uses ( 2x 4gb http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820231311 )

Combo-deal on Processor/PSU
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz I'd go with an AMD - much more power for the price. This should be quite a bit more powerful than that processor. These were actually the two I had found separately then noticed they had a combo deal. So yes, they're both great parts.

CPU
CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W
http://www.newegg.co...st=Combo.468987
$229.98
$20 rebate
$209.98

One of many decent, ventilated cases - $70
http://www.newegg.co...9-215-_-Product


Mobo
http://www.newegg.co...0-235-_-Product
99.99

$495 total.
475 with rebates.

However it is SLI compatible and it is compatible with the RAM & AM3 processor, and it'll give you a hell of a lot better performance than the prebuild. Plus tigerdirect is evil and they won't get any money.

Now the catch... this has no harddrive, no Windows 7. I prefer builds with two harddrives - one smaller harddrive (~160GB) for the operating system, one larger one for data. Plus, 1TB is quite large. A 1TB drive goes for $90, a 500GB goes for $55. This is all down to personal preference, but for the sake of a small budget lets go for the 1TB.
+$90.

Total Price Now: $565 (Woot same as the TigerDirect machine - no videocard)

And the other problem - Windows 7. This all comes down to what you want/have as well. If you HAVE an extra copy of XP or Vista around the house, you can get an upgrade to professional for about 60% of the full price. Otherwise you'll have to pay $149.99 for it. If you are a student with a .edu email address, even better. You can get the UPGRADE (once again, requires XP/Vista) for 29.99 from Microsoft (http://www.microsoft...re/windows.aspx)

Price:
565 + 29.99 for upgrade with .edu (digital copy) = 595
565 + 89.99 for normal upgrade = 655
565 + 149.99 for full copy = 715

If you truly consider buying that setup... I'd highly recommend getting a second opinion in case I messed up somewhere - but it seems correct.

RAM matches mobo
PSU matches mobo
Videocard matches mobo
CPU matches mobo
SLI supported

And finally add 9800GT the videocard.

TLDR (With 9800 GT)
http://www.newegg.co...1-193-_-Product 4gb ddr3 1600 gskill RAM - 96.99
http://www.newegg.co...st=Combo.468987 CPU/650 watt PSU $209.98 after $20 rebate
http://www.newegg.co...9-215-_-Product Case $70
http://www.newegg.co...0-235-_-Product SLI Ready motherboard 99.99
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16822136284 1TB WD Harddrive $90
http://www.newegg.co...0-535-_-Product EVGA 512-P3-N987-TR GeForce 9800 GT (49.99)


Total: 616 MINUS WINDOWS.

And for a second (no-rebate) videocard.
$701.95

Also might want this... (DVD/CD reader/writer)
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16827106335

25.99



EDIT: Other notable mentions...
Nicer case ($10 more after rebate)
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16811129021

A step down from the above case, but the same price with no rebate hassle
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16811129066

A better version of the motherboard. (139.99 after rebate)
http://www.newegg.co...0-236-_-Product
Main differences = allows for 3way SLI (I'd recommend 1 260 versus 3 8800's though), 1 more SATA connection, allows for hybrid SLI (I do not know much about this), probably better compatibility because of a newer chipset. Also two LESS USB connections.

16.99 wireless card
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16839121008 (THIS WILL TAKE UP YOUR ONLY PCI SLOT.)

Edited by aeri, 05 August 2010 - 08:16 AM.

[Masume]

For a moment I considered getting this, then realized my 8800GTS is on par, if not slightly better than it. Good card though, if your setup is good it should be able to run anything maxed out at 1280 with no issues.

[Drakee]

Better deal just came up anyways if you're willing to shell out a little extra ($20) for something that's a little higher (two steps) on this list: http://www.tomshardw...gtx,2676-7.html

MSI N250GTS Twin Frozr GeForce GTS 250 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card w/ Starcraft 2 TRIAL
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814127495
Original Price: $114.99 You Save: $15.00 $99.99
($69.99 after $30.00 Mail-In Rebate )

Similar PSU requirements and one 6-pin power connector necessary for anyone that needed that info. Comes with the 2x 4-pin Molex to 6-pin adapter as well. Only drawback is the LACK OF HDMI to me but I believe it comes with a DVI->HDMI adapter as it is HDCP ready.

PS: I originally ordered the 9800GT for a friend, but find myself making plans to either flip it or return it now.

[Bretts31344]

Better deal just came up anyways if you're willing to shell out a little extra ($20) for something that's a little higher (two steps) on this list: http://www.tomshardw...gtx,2676-7.html

MSI N250GTS Twin Frozr GeForce GTS 250 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card w/ Starcraft 2 TRIAL
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814127495
Original Price: $114.99 You Save: $15.00 $99.99
($69.99 after $30.00 Mail-In Rebate )

Similar PSU requirements and one 6-pin power connector necessary for anyone that needed that info. Comes with the 2x 4-pin Molex to 6-pin adapter as well. Only drawback is the LACK OF HDMI to me but I believe it comes with a DVI->HDMI adapter as it is HDCP ready.

PS: I originally ordered the 9800GT for a friend, but find myself making plans to either flip it or return it now.

That MSI 250 is nice. I have the same card, but the cooler on that one is much better. Don't forget to choose the combo deal (which adds a voucher giving you the option to choose Street Fighter IV, Dark Void, or Resident Evil 5 for free) if you purchase this card.

[typical guy]

i dont play any pc games other than sc2. is it worth it for me to buy this? i can play on low res with a gforce 310. my processor is an i3 530 with 6 gb ram.