Nvidia Geforce 7900 with SLI

**Spartos** · July 27, 2007, 03:18 PM

I hate to do this, because I know you guys get these kinds of questions all the time, but I searched and couldn't find anything useful.

Like many, I'm upgrading to a better system and pondering the graphics card issue. I think I've found the right card, but just to be sure I'll check to see if anyone here has anything to say about it (approval, disapproval, personal experience etc...)

Nvidia's Geforce 7900 GT seems to be an affordable option, and better yet it's SLI Ready. About $100 (Canadian Dollars) cheaper than the new 8600's and nearly the same performance, it seems a decent offer.

So the question is, does anyone have a 7900 series card and can tell me how it's running M2TW (FPS, relative lag if any, your M2TW graphics settings)? Better yet, if someone can tell me how their performance is with the SLI feature, running two of these cards, that would be excellent.

Does M2TW even make use of SLI? I read somewhere that the demo doesn't, but what about the retail version? How much does SLI improve M2TW if it is supported?

I know I'm asking a bit much here, but an answer to any of these questions would be great. Thanks for your time!

**Shaun** · July 30, 2007, 05:01 PM

I do not have a 7900GT, but I can tell you it should handle all settings at max at 1024x768 no problem at all, with SLI you should get 1600x1200!

**preston** · July 30, 2007, 05:04 PM

I do not have a 7900GT, but I can tell you it should handle all settings at max at 1024x768 no problem at all, with SLI you should get 1600x1200!

why do ALL of you underestimate this *****. I have a 7600 and i run EVERYTHING maxed out resolution at 1440x900 and have no lag runs smoothly perfectly infact. You don't need some super bada** 8000+ you probably don't even need what i have. infact you don't need some super fancy processor know what mine is? 1.66ghz. quit telling people false things i'm really pissed about this and have been for a while. its wasting money for something you really don't need. hell i do all of this on a laptop. You don't need that Spartos to run this game. The only reason you should get that is if you plan on playing Dx10 games soon which won't be for a while more than a year i'm sure.

**Spartos** · July 30, 2007, 05:43 PM

Thanks for the answers guys, actually double thanks because I realize you probably had to repost due to the servers being down, thanks a lot!

Thanks for the postive feedback Shaun, that's great news and should look sweet on my new flatscreen at 1600x1200.

I know what you're saying Preston, I'm also pretty upset at those FPS freaks that advise people on buying new parts and set the standards so high (I'm not saying you're one of them Shaun), it's quite discouraging to someone on a real budget (not just their daddy's wallet

)

I'll definetely go ahead and get the card though, because it's such a good deal (at least in Canada) and I do plan on making this new system last a while (hence the SLI feature and DX10 support).

Thanks for the help, the friendly people at this forum still continue to amaze me!

**preston** · July 30, 2007, 05:52 PM

yeah thats a decent deal in canada. if its not on sale wait until it does. i have no idea how the sale stuff goes in Canada but here in the US it starts on sunday and its the best time to go. infact if you wait until the day after xmas u could seriously find that for like 60 dollars. and i know this because i went to bestbuy last year on the day after and found my dad a 2gb flash drive that was normally 70 dollars but it was on sale for 19 dollars

**Judean Rebel** · July 30, 2007, 06:00 PM

This guy with the 7600, are you talking about medieval 2 on geforce 7600 gt? caus if so i got this and it sure doesnt run smoothly on my core2due... hehe
so plz explaine how do you get this kind of results with this computer.

**preston** · July 30, 2007, 06:34 PM

thats exactly what i have and it works for me and yes its med2. 7600 GEFORCE GO. works perfectly for me. sorry it don't work for you man. oh well.

**Judean Rebel** · July 30, 2007, 06:45 PM

I got 7600 GT do you think the diffrence is that big ?
caus when i saw your post i thought you are on drugs (thinking of asking you some..)

**Garnier** · August 09, 2007, 09:20 PM

Originally Posted by preston

thats exactly what i have and it works for me and yes its med2. 7600 GEFORCE GO. works perfectly for me. sorry it don't work for you man. oh well.

Could you show your exact settings? I simply do not believe that a 7600 could run M2TW on max settings.

What unit size do you use?
What AA setting do you have, and is it set to adaptive AA?
Do you have extreme shadows?
Do you have maximum grass + vegetation?
What resolution are you running?

I had an x850xt which isnt much worse than a 7600, and I had to run medium/low settings. (large unit size, no AA, no shadows, medium vegetation, etc).

**preston** · July 30, 2007, 06:53 PM

no i don't do drugs. and there shouldn't be that big of a difference.

**Judean Rebel** · July 30, 2007, 07:43 PM

Ok then. fot they guy that opend the thread, dont buy 7600 you wont get good result.
Maby it depends on what your taking as good result and "smoothnes" but i like my game to run as fast as it can even with 3000 soldiers inside acastle when zooming into the main battle... i dont get this with 7600.

**boboftl** · August 05, 2007, 11:42 AM

The 7600GT is a bit better than the mobile version, faster clockspeeds and more pipes I believe. I have a 7600GT /w no AA I max it out at 1024x768 and it doesn't lag for me.

Also, don't get SLI, it's a waste of money. For the price of those two cards you can get a better one.

**Spartos** · August 09, 2007, 01:26 PM

Also, don't get SLI, it's a waste of money. For the price of those two cards you can get a better one.

You're forgetting that SLI allows you to achieve double the frame rate of a single card! With two SLI Ready 7900 GTX's, I can have the equivalent performance of an 8800 GTX for $150 CDN less!!

Let me make it simple...

-----Card-----------Cost---------------Relative FPS (1.0 = 8800 GTX)

Single 7900 GTX----$175 CDN-----------------0.45
Single 8800 GTX----$500 CDN-----------------1.00 + shadow glitch

Dual 7900 GTX------$350 CDN-----------------0.90

And even at that, my estimate of a 7900 GTX running at 45% of an 8800 GTX is rather low. It's probably about 50%, which would allow exactly the same performance as with SLI. However, even if my low estimate is all I'll get, it's still worth it for 150 bucks less! Especially since the 8800's suffer from a dreadful shadow glitch where they can't get shadows of flora or buildings to render!

If you don't believe these numbers, check any card benchmark graphs that show the added performance of SLI, you'll see.

**Armatus** · August 09, 2007, 04:26 PM

Hmm what kind of framerates? I've got dual GeForce GO 7900 GS cards with 512 MB total ram with SLI enabled and while I can play all games on high to max settings, I get low frame rates like below 60 FPS in Mount&Blade and some lag on "Large" or "Huge" unit sizes in MTW2 but more so in multiplayer.

**Spartos** · August 09, 2007, 04:51 PM

I would assume the frames would average around 40 in a normal battle involving about 3000-4000 soldiers. From about 20-15 FPS is usually considered the limit, meaning anything after that (15-0) is considered "laggy".

Let me tell you, I've got a crappy ATI Radeon 9600 pro (AGP

) and I get about 5-6 FPS on medium graphics in Agincourt.

I get low frame rates like below 60 FPS

Trust me, I don't even know what that looks like.

Please Armatus, could you tell me a bit more. What are your settings in M2TW? What frames are you getting on Agincourt? What are your system specs? Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

**Zhou** · August 09, 2007, 06:40 PM

Just a word of caution for you here Spartos...when you say:

"You're forgetting that SLI allows you to achieve double the frame rate of a single card"

You're not entirely correct. SLI will typically give you a 50-75 percent boost in your framerates in applications that support it. There is always at least some loss, so don't make the mistake of taking the frame rate for a single card and just doubling it to get an idea of what SLI can offer you.

As for your question, I think it's a question of what you're looking to do with the video card:

If you're mostly looking at playing today's games with max settings, then by all means, go for the dual 7900 GTs (although dual 7950s would be better).

On the other hand, if you want something that's ready for DX10 games (titles coming out in the next couple of years), you would be better off with a 8800.

Again, also keep in mind that you might have to upgrade your power supply for a 8800, so that would also be added cost. In any case, I'm sure either way, you'll have a better playing experience then on your old 9600.

**Chola_Kingdom** · August 09, 2007, 09:23 PM

first off where did you find 7900gt sli in 100 $ iam just curious because i can only find the 7600gt in 200 $ +tax single card
btw i have 7600gt sli and i maxed to 1600X1200 and all maxed out if you need to find my performance please check the stainless steel screenshots section
so 7900gt should be better and it should give better perfom than 7600gt
for the even better performance you should have better motherboard that supports that video card in high performance for example atleast 32 sli ausus will do
so go for it mate you can have a better game if you have sli X2 video card of 7900gt

if you have money or single would handle as like or better than mine
with all maxed out
(btw again where did you find a price that says 100$ in canadian stores 7900gt because i would like to buy it too.)

**Garnier** · August 09, 2007, 09:30 PM

I checked your screenshots there chola and I don't know why you think you have it maxed out....

You don't have anisotropic filtering
You don't have higher than 4x AA
You don't have adaptive AA (so vegetation/arrows dont have AA)
You don't have extreme shadows

**lcbiiimd** · August 09, 2007, 09:41 PM

Well I have a NVIDIA GeForce Go 7900 GS on my laptop and cannot get the game to run at all since I moved it to Vista. On XP it ran perfectly on maximal settings.

**Chola_Kingdom** · August 11, 2007, 01:25 AM

Originally Posted by Garnier

I checked your screenshots there chola and I don't know why you think you have it maxed out....

You don't have anisotropic filtering
You don't have higher than 4x AA
You don't have adaptive AA (so vegetation/arrows dont have AA)
You don't have extreme shadows

you really want to see my Settings through my Internet mate

i have anisotropic filtering - and i didnt say that my video card is better than anyother so why false guessing?
i have a higher 16X AA
and the high end shadows
btw mate i would like to tell you something i have 7600gt not 8800gt

so iam happy with my little end video card gives better quality
iam comparing like this mate
$60 worth 50L Gas or $100 worth 60L Gas so choose your self mate