Also I was thinking about doing the SLi thing with the dual video cards, does it make enough of a difference to pay that much?

I have several dual core machines (See specs).

For games specifically, they offer no performence boost because games don't make use of them...yet. They will eventualy and then you will see a boost. Dual cores do offer much better multitasking ability though and its also great for multimedia like video, audio editing, or compressing HD video, etc.

I also have SLI, which is great, but pricey.

No game today requires SLI. A single 6800 GT or above will handle any game out there today at decently high resolutions. With SLI though, you can set everything to maxiumum and expect it to run smoothly. I've never seen below 45 fps on any game on my systems.

Its really up to you. BTW, no stock SLI will get your 20000 in 3dmark05. My stock 7800 GTX SLI does around 12000 in comp 2. You need overclocking to get it that high (which I will do eventually).

And don't bother with crossfire. Its not worth the wait (the long wait, it was annonced when SLI came out and still isn't out yet). cross fire allows you to use two x850 xt pe at the same time, but keep in mind that one 7800 GTX is equal in power to two x850 XT pe. So SLI'ing ati video cards is kinda dumb when better performence can be gotten from nvidia. What you should be waiting for from ATI is its r520s will indeed rock the gfx world.

I agree with Autopilot is the fact that dual core is not the answer to gaming, but it does not hurt either.

Most games today are more graphics card dependent than CPU.

For Flight Sim I use two 6600GTs which are not top of the line gamers but they do work pretty good for the Sim.. I also have 4 monitorsd installed. It is great to have your Sim spread all over the place.

For the tougher games the 6600GTs in SLI mode do a pretty good job.

For HalfLife2 and Far Cry my other computer has a 7800 GTX with a single core +3500. The 7800s are a lot of overkill for most stuff but it really is fun to run 3Dmark05 on a single card and watch it top out over 8200 with no overclocking.

Actually, I did not say I ran FS9 in SLI mode. I use two graphic cards with 4 monitors.

As far as the CPU's go, put a FX57 chip in your computer with a 6600GT and look at your FPS, then put a +3500 in with a 7800GTX and compare FPS rate.

I did not mean that the CPU was not a factor as all related components are indeed important. Match the FX57 with the 7800 graphics card and you have a killer machine. But I would put more weight on the graphics card than the CPU when it comes to gaming.


My wording was wrong but the concept was right.

Here is my current supplier's prices (in Australian dollars) for the Athlon 64 3500+ and the X2 4200+ cpu's....

Both CPU's use core speeds of 2.2ghz and this is my "real world" comparison.

Athlon 64 3500+ = $325

X2 4200+            = $715

The future of gaming can wait at these prices.

I'll add that the same firm supplies the Athlon 64 3800+ which has a core speed of 2.4ghz for $473, which would represent a significant performance advantage over the above X2 cpu at a much reduced cost.

Haha, sounds like I will just sit on my money for a while until there is an acutal need for dual cores and SLi.  Damn computers are so freaking confusing!  I think I will stick to designing airplanes instead.