Nvidia 8800! which one should i buy!?

[gnu611]

yo homes, now i gots the money but i really dont got the money to get bfg's water cooled 8800 so which air cooled one should i get. second will there be another bunch of 8 series cards come out that are better?

 

[almerac]

yo homes, now i gots the money but i really dont got the money to get bfg's water cooled 8800 so which air cooled one should i get. second will there be another bunch of 8 series cards come out that are better?

at the moment most manufactures are just releasing stock speed 8800's. the 8800GTX is the more powerful of the two. if i were to recommend a manufacturer, it would definitely be either EVGA or XFX. because both have double lifetime warranties on all their cards. so if you sell them later, the person after you gets the warranty too (adds to the resale value, especially on places like eBay)

for the second part of your question. they might release a 8900 series later. in fact i would almost count on it the way the 7xxx series went. because ATI and Nvidia will try to out power each other. you can expect those (later cards) to be just as expensive too. but it will probably be months, or even a year before release them. you might want to hold out till ATI releases their R600 and see how it performs against the 8800GTX, and buy whichever is better.

 

[danny9894]

If you are looking for an air cooled version of the BFG card I would go for this one

 

[tool_462]

I have seen a few eVga 8800GTS/X bundled with Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. When you spend $500 or more on a video card, doesn't hurt to get a $50 game free! They also have lifetime warranty.

 

[Talon]

My recommendation would be to go with the EVGA.

Reasons for this are:

1) Only card I know for sure right now doesn't use exactly the standard cooler. It has been reported to run a few degrees C cooler than the reference design.

2) The stepup program they offer is nice, if in 90 days beyond purchase a newer or better card is released you can just pay the difference and swap cards with them.

3) Lifetime (retail) for the card and warranty is transferable to a 2nd person if you sell the card to a buddy later.

Edit: 4) What tool said above. You get an actual current and much anticipated game with the bundle. The only other cards I've read about thus far that even include a game they are 1-2 year old games.

 

[chuckshissle]

Go for the BFG Tech 8800GTX Water Cooled version.

 

[Talon]

Great card I'm sure if you have the $. OP said he didn't have the extra budget to spring for the watercooled version tho

 

[chuckshissle]

Okay, I didn't know 8800GTX is a budget. :lol: Well, from a couple of people that has this card already, they said that the cooler is hot. But they don't know how hot it is since there's no temperature display in the card's control panel on the current driver.

 

[rodney_ws]

I think the general consensus is that the next batch if 8800's (they might not even be called that) will be made on a smaller manufacturing process and that should allow for higher clock speeds... just think back to the 7800 GTX and the 7900 GTX... should be the same sort of evolution. When will that happen? No clue... possibly in time to counter the ATI DX10 card.

 

[Talon]

I don't consider it budget either really But OP said he couldn't go the extra $100-150 for the watercooling.

I've heard the same thing, that they run hot but no one is sure just how hot due to temps being disabled. Intriguing for sure haha

To Rodney_ws:

I have to agree with you on that. They are generally expected to drop to a 65nm process by the time the new ATI cards are expected. At least I think it was 65nm, its somewhere around there, don't quote me lol.

Makes it tough to buy now in a way knowing that change will be possibly only a few months away but I'm sort of tired of waiting. Just need to see more benchs on the 680i. hehe

 

[quantumsheep]

Sorry for jacking this thread a slight bit here, but with all the talk of the heat of these beasts does anyone know the overclocking potential they have?

 

[Talon]

Edited: Found the exact review I mentioned from firingsquad

I do not remember the "exact" numbers but I read yesterday a review where the card OC'd on stock cooling from 575/1800 stock to 620/1814. I think thats about the right number on the memory, it was a very small OC tho, they said wasn't stable at anything above 620ish tho.

I'll try to find the exact numbers, posting this to give an idea of OC, its not exact but what I remember reading. Still a little disappointing on the OC front.

 

[bob360]

dont buy any u will be wasting ur money....wait untill ati bring there dx10 range out and both the card will be quite alot cheaper....unless ur stinking rich then go all out 8800gtx

 

[arjunatgv]

Why dont you go with MSI, Leadtek or XFX? They have slightly different clock speeds as core clock- 513MHz and memory - 1584MHz according to this review.

 

[danny9894]

You could always overclock it to BFG speeds but I don't think NVIDIA recommends ocing these cards

 

[quantumsheep]

You could always overclock it to BFG speeds but I don't think NVIDIA recommends ocing these cards

No manufacturer EVER recommends overclocking :-\

 

[Xazax310]

Many review site has OCed the cards themselves and report 1-3% increase going from 575 to 600 and from 1800 to 1874 either way this card is top dog right now, i would go for the EVGA 8800GTX as if they do release the 8900GTX in 3 months or so you can just nab one and pay the difference if there is going to be any at all.....

 

[Doughbuy]

Whoa whoa whoa... I started a thread just to answer this question, but I'll repost the linkage here, it contains all the air-cooled 8800GTX out right now, the water-cooled one just introduces a lot more problems, since your gonna need a lot more additional hardware... anyways:

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2873

Have fun perusing

 

[danny9894]

That EVGA card looks pretty tight