8800 GTX vs Dual 8800GTX

the m1730 offers dual 8800 gtx's. The alienware m15x offers one. What would be the main differences. How much of an increase could you expect? If I usually play games at low resolutions is SLI even worth it? - What do you guys think?

 

40% to 50% improvement.If the game supports sli than its worth the money.Since you do low res no need for an sli.

 

I see. I know dual 8800 gtx's are only getting around 13k on 3dmark06 where as one 8800 gtx gets about 9500. Is it a driver issue with the dual 8800's? Will they increase over time when better drivers are released?

 

Yes it's a driver issue and yes it will get better.

One thing to keep in mind is that not very many games support SLI and of those that do, not very many of them implement it well.

 

I'm trying to determine whether i want to get a notebook now with dual 8800 gtx's or just get the m15x with one 8800gtx. It's a hard decision ;d. The dual 8800 GTX m1730 would cost about 300$ more then the m15x

 

If it`s only 300, get the dell. The 8800M GTX alone is 700 $. That means you gain 400 $ just like that and a bigger screen. The Dell over the m15x any day!

 

akami, you will be very content with one 8800m gtx. besides games not supporting SLI, another concern might be heating issues. save your money and you will be very happy with the best mobile graphics card in the market. this card will handle any game for at least the next 2 years or so. keep in mind that many are playing crysis with cards not as powerful as the 8800m gtx. this GPU is a BEAST!!!

 

I think your numbers are inflated. I think about 12% overall (solo vs SLI). Also Alienware is so over priced it is hard to take anyone seriously who is going to buy one. Sager/Clevo is the way to go for anybody who wants the best. And it does cost less!

 

i vote for the dell... since it is only a marginal increase in price and i think the dell is a LOT more better value for your money.. you wont have cooling problem since the dell xps m1730 is equiped with huge cooling system and the 17" screen size... higher resolution... etc, really.. the m1730 is in a whole different leage. if you dont travel much suggest getting the m1730.

the one i worried about heating issue is the m15x, either it is underclocked or it will heat up/max fan rpm. since it is after all a 15" notebook. it might have problem with heat dissipation with such a powerful gpu, compared to a 17" notebook of course.

edit:

i agree with powerpack

 

don't get me wrong, sager/clevo are good notebooks. some of my buddies own these systems, but alienware definitely has a better re-sell value. you may say it's the name , but i believe it's the quality. you pay for what you get. good luck on your decision.

 

why would you buy a laptop to sell it?

also sager/clevo quality and customer service go above and beyond alienwares not to mention they are A LOT cheaper.

 

Clevo's better than those, I know the 1710 IS clevo, I wouldn't be surprised the 1730 & 15x being too.

 

you're right probably won't ever sell mine. so far customer service has been great. i'm aware of the bad reviews about alienware customer service, but luckily i'm not one of those unhappy buyers. I was looking at a dell/sager, but decided to splurge a bit and buy the m15x.

 

If SLi is supported then dual cards will always be preferable especially if the price differential isn't significant. SLi is only really necessary if the OP is a FPS junkie who plays nothing but the most graphically demanding games on the market right now.

 

so just crysis? cause I can max every game out right now except for crysis and an 8800m GTX is better then my card...i think that would be more then enough.

 

Probably, might also have to factor in native resolutions when referring to game with maxed out graphics.

narsnail: Isn't the 8800GTS just 10% weaker than the GTX? Even with the difference your card can run at battery-saver mode and beat my card at full-power.

 

bwhxeon is working on a 8800m GTS/GTX review ATM, i dont think its more than 15% though.

 

ugh..was hoping you forgot about that. Not sure when I'm gonna have time to finish that.

 

lol sorry dude, if you dont have time eff it right?

 

Well - my main thing is I have never seen the two differences physically. I don't want any future game to be choppy with my 8800 GTX. I want to make sure I am happy with my purchase. I don't want UT3 to be choppy AT ALL. I want high frame rates with No Significant drops. If an 8800 GTX can do that i'll stick with the m15x, if i'll need something to boost that a bit - ill go for the m1730. Like I said, the m1730 Might be a bit excessive - I don't know because I have not seen it first hand.

For instance. If one 8800 GTX will give me 100+ fps Always in UT3 - I'm happy with that. I would be playing in 1280x1024. If the m1730 would generate 115+fps that's great... but I wouldn't sacrifice the m15x's look, hdmi output, and portability + power options for 15 extra fps. Now - If we're talking like... an extra 50 fps with no frame rate drops... then I would go for dual 8800's.

 

Also - When I say future game I mean the not so distant future. 2 years or so.

 

bad game to compare sli vs non sli graphics cards. UT3 doesn't show any improvement with sli till the resolution hits 2560x1600. Neither of the cards sli or non sli will get you 100+ fps.

 

Yea, Funny you mention that. I actually just read the review on the toshiba with the dual 8600's doing worse in UT3 then a single 8600.

 

If you want the very best and money is no concern, then get the SLI. I would otherwise for for the single because the price increases pretty substantially for the SLI setup.

 

the thing is with my student discount it would only be $280-300 extra. I just don't know if I want to sacrifice the options that come with the m15x for SLI if it wouldn't increase the Performance drastically in upcoming games

 

SLI 8800 GTX won't WOW you over single 8800 GTX. if you have high expectations of SLI then go with M15X.

 

Good to see someone who actually has dual 8800 gtx's responding to the post and stating that they're not worth it. Thanks for posting.

 

won't sli support get better as time progresses? so more reason to get sli, unless you want uber high performance right now.

 

At this point i'm still leaning towards the m1730 with dual 8800 gtx's. It would be 280$ more and would ship out 2 weeks sooner then the m15x. For the price of SLI (which as you said will increase performance wise in time) the m1730 isn't so bad.

12% Student discount.

Main reason is because I heard a horror story about AW's tech support

 

My brain is failing

 

You COULD get a Sager NP9262 with one GTX and user upgrade it later on when you actually need 2 cards.

 

Or wait forever for the next best thing

 

True lol. I have my order in for the m15x but ;d

 

thats exactly what im doing...waiting for the nvidia 10 series....im a loser

 

lol. Nice shin

 

you can wait...your system is still a beast in my eyes...no need for you to upgrade for another two years or so

 

I would rather get the 9600 GT, cheap and powerful like an 8800 GTS but not out yet

 

Yea but I dont think the user upgrade is available yet

 

no one is mentioning that SLI is worthless at the resolutions the OP wants to play at. 1280 by 1024 is going to inhibit SLI vs increase it. My sli desktop runs slower when I am not pumping out the high resolutions because I am running two GPU's for very low intensity pixel-pushing; there is more inefficiency with 2 cards vs 1. SLI is only recommended for 1600 by 1200 and above. This is common knowledge people!

edit: also the xps native screen (best to run in the native resolution for picture quality) is 1900 by 1200 and that NEEDS and benefits from SLI. The m15x runs 1440 by 900 which NEEDS and benefits from 1 card.

I agree that the price to performance on the dell is unbeatable compared to the alienware. However if looks, portability and good overall power are the main concerns, then it doesn't matter how good a deal the other is when it isn't used to tailor to akami's needs.

 

User upgrades are supported now, but SLi is not yet supported with the 8800M GTX until a couple more weeks. I highly doubt any games that demand SLi type graphics will be out any time soon. By going with user upgrades you can get the best performance for your money at the time while being able to upgrade for cheap when you actually need to.

 

Yerwhat?
If the driver properly supports 1 card, it will support two. You can make relatively recent any game need sli, crank the details as high as they will go, set to the native resolution and add some aa to the mix. You will have a visually stunning game while making full use of both cards.

I disagree with the resolution point, I see smoother fps with my 8800gtx sli over a single gtx at 1920x1200 and even 1680x1050 if you push it, this is on desktop cards which pack more power than the mobile versions (so the gains on the mobile cards are going to be bigger). I can also apply up to 8-16x aa with no or very little performance drops. Looks stunning.

On either the m15x or m1730 you won't be playing at 1280x1024, it looks so odd. At 1680x1050 or native 1920x1200 the gtx will shine, sli will also show massive gains. You can also pile on the aa with sli and suffer no performance drops and keep super smooth fps with aa or none applied.

3DM06 is massively CPU limited, it will improve very slightly but a CPU clock increase would result in a much bigger gain. SLI is held back in 3DM because the cpu cannot feed data to the graphics cards fast enough resulting in a small gain over 1 card, this is where games differ as you can change the graphics settings to get over the problem.

Run 3dm06 at 1920x1200 with 4-8x aa with sli on and off, difference becomes much larger.

 

If you have proof that contradicts every benchmark right now on UT3 with sli please share otherwise anyone who reads your post should ignore it.

 

Try playing ut3 at 1920x1200, everything set as high as it can go with 16xaa/af and high quality forced in the control panel.

If your gtx holds up with a constant smooth framerate in heavy firefights and general play, report back.

 

your the one with the sli setup not me. Like I said prove you get better frame rates below 2560x1600 with sli vs non sli. Btw I really don't think you even have the system anyways.

 

I gotta say, my x205-sli1 8600's are waaaay better than a single 8600... I don't know why in the x205-sli3 review chaz says that UT3 run worse with sli than without it... When i disable sli UT3 runs at abt 25~35 avg FPS, but when i enable it it goes up to 50 avg FPS... All this with "low" resolutions (1280x800)

One VERY IMPORTANT thing i realize is that in the Nvidia panel you have to select Force alternate frame rendering 2" in Sli Mode instead of Force alternate frame rendering 1 or Split Frame Rendering (and select that for every game you play "one by one
")... With these last 2 options, UT3 and any game i have tried (COD4, Crysis, GOW, NFS PS, Bioshock, Timeshift, etc) actually runs worse than with Sli disabled...

And btw, until now i haven't find a single game that doesn't support SLI... Just go to slizone.com and check the list of supported games... Even FIfa 08, which doesnt appear there, have a significant better performance with sli enabled than disabled...

 

@Bwhxeon - When did you get the M571RU-U? I thought you had the HP/Compaq gaming laptop with the 8800GTS 320MB.

 

I had the P-6831fx from gateway. Long story, but I ended up selling it to ChristmasGT a member on the forum. I needed something smaller for work since I was gonna be flying a lot so I sold the laptop and was going to give alienware a second chance and buy the M15x. Alienware decided they wanted to take even longer on my refund so I canceled the order and bought a M571RU-U barebone since I still had a T9300 processor that I had planned on using. Worked out actually, because work decided to give me a company laptop O_O' so now I'm travel with two laptops.

 

You don't need an sli system or even the full game to do my test. The demo is good enough.

Run at those settings, I can assure you it will lag like hell with 1 card, not with 2 though.

Quick shot btw.

 

You got the Cpu at 3.6? Damn, that`s a 50% increase...sweet.

 

maxing out the game on a single card would make it lag...how the hell does that have anything to do with sli post pictures with fraps or just stop posting. Not responding anymore till I see fraps pictures proving your right.