[guandi]

RADCOM, You will almost always get one SLi card hotter than the other with internal air cooling when one cards intake is directly above the backside of another hot graphics card. If you want a non permanent solution you can mask off all the mating surfaces and spray the card with laquer to seal all electrical contacts around them and use arctic silver without worry of it geting in places it shouldnt.


ricecrispi, I'm sorry, that was a force of habbit typo, i meant to say UT2k4. Although my mistake didnt warrent that enthusiasm enriched sardonic response.

I know that a single 7800gtx will handle most current games with ease, but i'm not going to go out and buy a new graphics adaptor every few months jut to "keep up". My 7800gtx's are only on loan at the moment from a freind who is still building a custom chrome plated system and it is taking a while to build (2 months so far but i'm not complaining).

I have two BGF 6800Ultra's that i bought as soon as the prices dropped, and they are going to last me untill 2007's next best thing. they have served me well for older games, current games and will probably do me proud for another year or so, and there is a reason they will last that long.

On the stock cooling it would be common for them to hit 90'C during extending gaming in the summer evenings, and even tho they dont even slow down untill they hit a massive 135'C, it was still choppy and jumpy. Once i had them watercooled they never went above 45'C even in a 38'C room (okay, so i had the aircon on a little bit..) thus i can overclock them slightly if i ever need to and keep them well within their operating temperatures so that they will last untill i *choose* to upgrade. The same thing can be applied to the 7800gtx.

As for frame rates, you said it. frame rates can and will drop in intensive parts of the game and having a faster card to compensate is worth it. In games to come it will still perform, and as RADCOM said 1600/1200@85 with Vsync on, thats damn good.