8800GTS (G92) versus 8800 Ultra

audiobliss

Ok, so the time has come for me to finally upgrade my GPU and RAM.

I'm undecided on what to get for my new GPU, though. I really like the 8800GTS (as seen here). It has the new G92 processor.
Specs:

Core Clock Speed: 670MHz Stream Processors: 128 Memory Clock: 1940MHz Memory Size: 512MB Memory Interface: 256-bit Price: $185 (was listed at that when it was still in stock)

Or should I got with the 8800 Ultra (as seen here)?
Specs:

Core Clock Speed: 612MHz Stream Processors: 128 Memory Clock: 2160MHz Memory Size: 768MB Memory Interface: 384-bit Price: $200 (also out of stock)

Any input as to which would be a better choice? They're so close in money and I really can't determine if the better G92 processor would make up for the other benefits the Ultra has over the GTS.

Thanks!

BaggedLancer

Neither, they are both out of stock.

ben62670

Take a look at the 9800GT's
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121268
Silly cheap with a good fan, and heat sink;)

AsSiMiLaTeD

That 8800 Ultra is out of production, I doubt you'll see them come back in stock. Having said that, if you play at high resolutions, the Ultra is actually going to be your best bet.

The GTS benchmarks better on almost every test, but real world experience says that at higher resolutions the extra memory of the Ultra will help it run better.

That 9800 GT Ben linked can't be beat for the price, it'll out perform both of the cards you listed in most real world scenarios.

However, if you can up your budget to closer to $250 or $300, you can't really beat the AMD 4870 cards right now. The 4850 is also an excellent choice, it'll outperform the 9800GT, but at that price the one Ben listed is still a much better price to performance ratio.

I've always been an NVidia guy myself, but recently switched over to the 4870 in light of the driver issues at nvidia and the awesomeness of performance and low price I got my 4870 for.

AsSiMiLaTeD

Oh yeah, make sure your computer has a beefy enough power supply to run whatever you get, and good enough cooling as well.

audiobliss

ben62670 wrote: »

Take a look at the 9800GT's
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121268
Silly cheap with a good fan, and heat sink;)

Thanks for the suggestion. That is a lot cheaper.

AsSiMiLaTeD wrote: »

That 8800 Ultra is out of production, I doubt you'll see them come back in stock. Having said that, if you play at high resolutions, the Ultra is actually going to be your best bet.

The GTS benchmarks better on almost every test, but real world experience says that at higher resolutions the extra memory of the Ultra will help it run better.

That 9800 GT Ben linked can't be beat for the price, it'll out perform both of the cards you listed in most real world scenarios.

Well, my monitor's max resolution is 1680x1050, and I won't be upgrading monitors for quite a while (though I might could add a smaller second one at some point). So, no crazy huge resolutions.

AsSiMiLaTeD wrote:

However, if you can up your budget to closer to $250 or $300, you can't really beat the AMD 4870 cards right now. The 4850 is also an excellent choice, it'll outperform the 9800GT, but at that price the one Ben listed is still a much better price to performance ratio.

I've always been an NVidia guy myself, but recently switched over to the 4870 in light of the driver issues at nvidia and the awesomeness of performance and low price I got my 4870 for.

There's NO way I'm extending my budget a DIME. I'm really not a big gamer yet, though I am enjoying a few right now, so I might be getting into it more. But, my 7900GS does a great job for the most part. NewEgg has a PNY 8800GT for $110 and I feel really guilty for not getting that, because it would definitely blow me away and keep me happy for a long time. I just like being able to have some bragging rights. And while I guess these two old cards I'm looking at won't really get me very many bragging rights, and least they are a bit higher up on the totem pole. So, $200 is absolute max, less is awesome.

AsSiMiLaTeD wrote: »

Oh yeah, make sure your computer has a beefy enough power supply to run whatever you get, and good enough cooling as well.

I'm pretty sure my PSU can handle it. It's a PC Power & Cooling Silencer 610. Just to throw it out there, this is the rig in question:
CPU: Q6600 G0/AC Freezer 7 Pro
MOBO: GIGABYTE P35-DS3R
RAM: 2GB Patriot DDR2 667
GFX: PNY GeForce 7900GS 256MB
PSU: PCP&C Silencer 610
HD: 2 x Seagate Barracuda 250GB
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-S203B
Case: Cooler Master Centurion 5
Monitor: Samsung 216BW
Sound: Sennheiser HD590
Mouse: Logitech G5
OS: XP Pro

And I'm going to be upgrading to 4GB of G. Skill DDR2 800 RAM. (Linky here)


I'm really pretty clueless when it comes to video cards, I have to admit. My computer buddy was steering me towards these two 8800 cards, so that's mainly why I was looking at those. I'll talk to him sometime today and find out more about these new cards.

Thanks for all the info, and feel free to throw some more out there!!

audiobliss

Oh, and I forgot to mention temps. Idling it's usually about 42* - 44*, and after playing Crysis or Stalker for a long time it'll get up to 49* or 50*.

ben62670

CPU or GPU?

audiobliss

Ok, so I think I've finally decided on a video card.

Toms Hardware has a chart with tons of video cards and SLI/CF combinations, and I was looking at the one for 1680x1050 resolutions. Here's the chart.

I went down that chart, starting at the top (or, rather, highest-ranked card, which would be at the bottom), and kept going down until I got to a card I can afford. My cut off point is $200. The best performing card on that chart in my price range is a OC'd 8800GTS. So, that leads me to the G92 8800GTS.

I'll hold off a while and hope NewEgg gets them in stock soon.

Any ideas on that?

audiobliss

ben62670 wrote: »

CPU or GPU?

Oh wow, good question. And, actually, I'm not sure. I use SpeedFan for the temperature, but I don't actually know what the temps it reports correspond to. Temp1 is the one it displays in my taskbar, and that's the one I was giving numbers from. For instance, my Temp1 right now is 43*. All my CPU Core temps are 40* or 41*. Core temp is 50*.

I really would LOVE to be able to figure what temps correspond with Temp1, Temp2, etc in SpeedFan. Any idea how to do that? Or even a better way to monitor temperatures?

Thanks!!

ben62670

Check pricegrabber.com

You have an Intel chipset. You actually have a very similar setup to me. I have the same board(I think(non sli)), and CPU 6600. Your video card should have a program to tweak it. Nview. It will tell you at least the video temp. If you are not running your CPU over 3ghz then it won't be hot.
Ben

AsSiMiLaTeD

audiobliss wrote: »

Ok, so I think I've finally decided on a video card.

Toms Hardware has a chart with tons of video cards and SLI/CF combinations, and I was looking at the one for 1680x1050 resolutions. Here's the chart.

I went down that chart, starting at the top (or, rather, highest-ranked card, which would be at the bottom), and kept going down until I got to a card I can afford. My cut off point is $200. The best performing card on that chart in my price range is a OC'd 8800GTS. So, that leads me to the G92 8800GTS.

I'll hold off a while and hope NewEgg gets them in stock soon.

Any ideas on that?

Uh yeah, the 9800 GT that Ben linked to is a better card, for cheaper...

9800GT > 8800GT or 8800GTS in almost any real world scenario. it's not ALOT better, but is by a small margin, and the one Ben linked to is dirt cheap.

audiobliss

Well, I'm not 100% sure what to think. But here is a real world test of FPS from Crysis at 1680x1050, 0xAA, on High Details. Chart shown here (linky).

According to that chart, here's the lineup of single GPU's:
1. GTX280 @ 34.8fps - too expensive
2. 9800GX2 @ 34fps - too expensive
3. GTX260 @ 32.3fps - too expensive
4. HD4870 @ 32.2fps - too expensive
5. 8800 Ultra @ 30fps - I can afford it
6. 8800GTS OC @ 29.9fps - I can afford it
7. 9800GTX @ 29.4fps - I can afford some of those

So, there's the lineup of GPU's, ranked in order of performance for Crysis, 0xAA, High Detail, at 1680x1050.

ben62670

I'm not going to look up all the prices, but 5fps is going to cost how much more? All you have to do is turn down just a few details, and boom your FPS goes up;) I leave world, and enemies at high, but turn down some of the lighting, and smoke just a tad, and it is just fine:)

BTW my card is an 8800GTX 768. The 8800GT 512 performs on par with it, and I am happy.

audiobliss

Ok, so I just went through and compared the performance of the G92 OC'd 8800GTS 512, the 8800 Ultra 768, and the G92 9800GTX 512.

The 8800GTS always beat the 9800GTX and almost always beat the 8800 Ultra (we're talking about at 1680x1050). However, the 9800GTX was REALLY REALLY close to the 8800 GTS and is about $25 cheaper.

HERE is the G92 9800GTX I've decided on for $160. (linky) Any thoughts on that particular GPU? Look like a good choice?

Thanks so much for the input, guys. I still think I'd be happy with the 8800GTS, as they perform really closely, but y'all have managed to save me a few bucks. Thanks! Me and my wallet appreciate that!!

AsSiMiLaTeD

You're comparing an OC'd card to a card that's not OC'd. That 9800 you linked will overclock quite a bit, and it'll beat the 8800GTS when it does.

audiobliss

AsSiMiLaTeD wrote: »

You're comparing an OC'd card to a card that's not OC'd. That 9800 you linked will overclock quite a bit, and it'll beat the 8800GTS when it does.

So that's a vote of approval, then? Sweet! I cant wait to order it!

I plan on playing around with overclocking a bit, too. However, I think I'll iron out a few wrinkles before I mess with it.

Thanks again for the info and advice! I think I'll be happy with it!

zingo

When doing the OC thing on CPU or GPU, it's just going into the bios and adjusting numbers right? I have never OCed myself, but have friends that have. I know of all the dangers and precautions that should be taken, just not exactly clear on the how...

ben62670

With nvidia cards you use ntune;)
http://www.nvidia.com/object/ntune_5.05.54.00.html

zingo

Thank you sir.

audiobliss

ben62670 wrote: »

With nvidia cards you use ntune;)
http://www.nvidia.com/object/ntune_5.05.54.00.html

I would humbly disagree.

I prefer RivaTuner. You can download it HERE (linky). Now, mind you, I've had just VERY little experience with overclocking, but I found nTune's little 'Test' feature (to test out your new specs and see if they should be stable) to be very flaky.

RivaTuner is very popular on the forums over at www.xtremesystems.org. I started using it to OC my 7900GS. Stock GPU speed is 450MHz, but I was playing Crysis for a while at 531MHz. However, I did get artifacting after a while.

ben62670

I will have to check that out. I am dual booting XP Pro, and Vista ultimate. I use XP all the time, and Vista just to check XP's drive for viruses once in a while. BTW I game in Vista.
Ben

concealer404

Is Coolbits still around? I haven't messed with overclocking since i broke the AMD Socket A/6800 non-ultra 3DMark records....

fbm211

You can find coolbits here... http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?id=13

fbm211

For evga cards EVGA PRECISION is a great program/Tweaker.It lets you set the fan/core/shader and memory.I can get my 8800GTS(G92) 745 core/1861 shader/1075memory.I run the fan around 70-80% A little loud but Im gaming with my klipsch promedia 4.1 .cranked. Nice having a sub right under the desk at my feet.I also have my e8400 at 3.6ghz and memory@1200mhz