How outdated is my video card?

[NL__Fool]

I bought a Nvida 6800 GT 256 Meg about 2-3 years ago for about $650. it was Top of the line back then. Is it middle of the road now or Bottom of the barrell?

Also I see in Computer magazines these "dream gaming system"
that have 2 video cards in them. What is the point in having 2 video cards?

[Bremen]

[ QUOTE ]
I bought a Nvida 6800 GT 256 Meg about 2-3 years ago for about $650. it was Top of the line back then. Is it middle of the road now or Bottom of the barrell?

[/ QUOTE ]
Its not quite bottom yet, but it soon will be.

[ QUOTE ]
Also I see in Computer magazines these "dream gaming system"
that have 2 video cards in them. What is the point in having 2 video cards?

[/ QUOTE ]
2>1. Performance doesn't scale linearly though so one expensive card is better than two half price cards (generally).

[choccypie]

Yeah I think you only get something like 50% performance increase with dual graphics cards. 2 mid range cards != 1 top of the range

Also you could run up to 4 monitors if you had 2 cards. Useful for poker if you multitable and better for games if you like to run them at high resolutions.

[_dave_]

[ QUOTE ]

I bought a Nvida 6800 GT 256 Meg about 2-3 years ago for about $650. it was Top of the line back then. Is it middle of the road now or Bottom of the barrell?


[/ QUOTE ]

Lol me too.

Recently I built a new poker computer, and since I rarely play 3d games any more I opted for a mere £50 8600GT video card.

I ran 3dmark for stability test purposes, and lol my new budget card is significantly faster than my old 6800GT. I didn't expect that [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]



The point of 2 cards is to *sometimes* double their throughput, usually more of a 1.5X boost.

At this point, only consider 8800GT (or a pair of) if you are into 3D games.

All other cards are overpriced / weak for now.

See: Anandtech.com - NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT: The Only Card That Matters

dave.