[CP5670]

From what I have seen of it so far, SLI with 7800GTs is the thing to get if you have about $1500 to spend on your computer alone and an appropriate monitor to back it up. It's the only high end hardware solution worth spending money on. I briefly tried out Far Cry and framerates at 2048x1536 4xAA/16xAF went from an unplayable 37 average on one card to a relatively smooth 71 with both of them. This is exactly the sort of performance I was looking for. Some form of 16xAA should now be a viable option in FSO.

That being said, I don't think Kalfireth is considering this, and if you're not getting both cards immediately an SLI motherboard is not worth the extra cost, as it's not much of an upgrade option.

A stock X800GTO will not hold up much longer unless you are only looking to play older games, if my 6800GT's performance was any indication. It's only worth considering if you heavily overclock it or get one that can be turned into a X850XT. There is one Powercolor GTO with all 16 pipes enabled out of the box for the same price as the other GTOs, which seems to be a good choice right now.

[Stealth]

dood, Scuddie.  SLI's the future   Maybe it's not really worth doing at this stage due to the cost, but you watch... in the future there'll be a lot more SLI

dual 7800 GTs, or *gasp* dual 7800 GTX.

also:  CP, yeah the XFI cards have trouble fitting because they have those oversized capacitors on the CARD.  actually i believe it's just one that gives trouble.  and yeah, i've heard just bending it a bit would work.  so yeah if you plan on running two video cards and an XFI, prepare to have to bend a capacitor or two

you've had trouble with Asus?  I've used *thinks* probably about 6 or maybe even 7 ASUS boards, and never had a problem.  the rest have been a bit of everything.  I used an Epox last, and an Abit before that.

[CP5670]

Did you get your second card? Nice. I'm getting GTX performance with my COs for $300 less though, which is good enough for me.

There is currently one SLI setup that is a very good overall buy, two 7800GTs, preferably EVGA CO cards. The others are only worth considering from a pure performance standpoint, regardless of bang for the buck, unless you get in on a good ebay deal. Two X1800XTs may also be worth a look as a super high end setup in the near future, if the master card prices come down to $500 and Crossfire gets its bugs worked out.

you've had trouble with Asus?  I've used *thinks* probably about 6 or maybe even 7 ASUS boards, and never had a problem.  the rest have been a bit of everything.  I used an Epox last, and an Abit before that.

I used an A8V deluxe and an A7N8X and they both had cold boot crashing problems and caused slight interference on any sound card I used. I had to spend almost a week tweaking the A8V to get it stable enough for normal windows usage at stock speed, while the A7N8X's CPU fan controller was messed up and the onboard LAN broke down after two weeks. So I decided I would rather try some other brand this time around. Incidentally, the board I had before either of those (and is still in service in my retro gaming computer), an Asus A7M266, has had none of these issues.

[Scuddie]

A stock X800GTO will not hold up much longer unless you are only looking to play older games, if my 6800GT's performance was any indication. It's only worth considering if you heavily overclock it or get one that can be turned into a X850XT. There is one Powercolor GTO with all 16 pipes enabled out of the box for the same price as the other GTOs, which seems to be a good choice right now.

X800GTO will do him just fine.  Hell, I'm on a GeForce4 Ti 4200 and I can play most games without problem, and the rest of them with minor delays.  The way I do it is by disabling AA and AF at the device level.  Yes I would complain about only getting 4fps if I was running San Andreas with 8x AA, 8x AF, 1600x1200 resolution, and the 10x draw distance mod, but for ****s sake, why would I?  I think if he's not aiming for the absolute best picture quality, the X800 GTO will suit him well .

As for the PowercolorGTO, that's the R480 chipped one I was talking about.  That one only has 40% of the units shipped out as R480 chipped that you can break the firmware to unlock the four pipes.  The rest are R423(?) chipped, which don't have the four pipes to be unlocked.  Also, many of the R480s were of a reject batch that could not sustain the clockspeed or stability while running 16 pipes.  However, because you might find an R480 in the box, people are willing to spend the higher price tag.  This is what I mean by a gamble.

[CP5670]

Try a newer game like COD2. That performed pretty unacceptably on my previous 6800GT at 1024x768 with no AA or AF. I could play at 640x480, but then it looks like crap. SLI is not necessarily needed but a stock GTO isn't going to cut it much longer, especially if you have an LCD and need to play at the native resolution.

As for the PowercolorGTO, that's the R480 chipped one I was talking about.  That one only has 40% of the units shipped out as R480 chipped that you can break the firmware to unlock the four pipes.  The rest are R423(?) chipped, which don't have the four pipes to be unlocked.  Also, many of the R480s were of a reject batch that could not sustain the clockspeed or stability while running 16 pipes.  However, because you might find an R480 in the box, people are willing to spend the higher price tag.  This is what I mean by a gamble.

No, there are actually two different Powercolor GTO models, one of which is advertised as having 16 pipes at stock settings. And there is also the Sapphire GTO2, which seems to be a guaranteed X850XT through an unlock/overclock. That card has been out for some time now and there is still not a single known case of it not unlocking and going to at least the X850XT core and memory speeds.

[Stealth]

I used an A8V deluxe and an A7N8X and they both had cold boot crashing problems and caused slight interference on any sound card I used. I had to spend almost a week tweaking the A8V to get it stable enough for normal windows usage at stock speed, while the A7N8X's CPU fan controller was messed up and the onboard LAN broke down after two weeks. So I decided I would rather try some other brand this time around. Incidentally, the board I had before either of those (and is still in service in my retro gaming computer), an Asus A7M266, has had none of these issues.

that's funny.  i've used all three models you mentioned