calculatedChaos Gaming

alright well to state my problem, my computer is getting old and is in need of upgrading.
i am trying to pick whether from these two choices.

To get TWO Nvidia Geforce 9800 GTX+("single slot")
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814143162

Or...

To get ONE Nvidia Geforce 295 GTX ("double decker")
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814143167


what i have in my computer now is a nvidia 8600 gt silent cool and it takes up 2 slots.
if i got two of the first choice i would sli connect them to get more power but does it match the power of one 295gtx?
i only have 2 slots open.

please help ive been deciding for almost a month now on what i should up at this time.

I would get the second one. It's a better card and you will more than likely get better performance out of it. Plus, when you want to upgrade, you would just have to grab another one (of course you would need a new mobo first).

I run a single 9800 GT and it seems to handle everything fine. You better have a huge ass monitor to need that much graphics power. FWIW: I was getting 30-50 FPS with the 9800 until I upgraded my mobo+processor. Make sure it's the graphics that needs upgrading.

i have a 9800 gt on my laptop and i red at 1680x1050 (15.4" monitor) and my computer has a 22" monitor which is the same..
(i have HD Vision for my laptop)

but the thing about the second one is that it seems to need more power from the power supply which i only have 550W and i dont pay for the electricity bill so its kinda hard for me to go overboard.

what i need the new graphics card for is because im going to school for game design and right now i dont even turn my computer on. i need to have something with more power so i cna use my computer for my stuff and my laptop for schoolwork.

I wouldn't try and run two graphics cards with that power supply. I think the GTX 295 has a minimum requirement of 550W. I personally have a 700W power supply for the GTX 275 I just bought and havn't run anything less than 650W in years.

I was going to newegg to link you the powersupply I just bought, and found this:

http://educations.newegg.com/tool/psucalc/index.html

i use that but it doesnt have either 9800's or 295's