Should I buy today?! Please advise!

Hi,

(I have another thread about upgrading my card but it says "thread no longer exists" ).

Anyway - I really want to go and buy a graphics card today - I hate waiting for things and I can't be bothered waiting for one from online.

Problem is the card I wanted was the EVGA 8800GTS SuperClocked from Ebuyer at £197 but today I have seen the BFG GEFORCE 8800 GTS OC at PC World (i.e. I can pick it up today!!!) for £199.

Question is do you think I should wait for the extra bit of power the EVGA provides (spec differences below) as I haven't overclocked before OR is it easy enough and safe enough to overclock the BFG to the EVGA specifications?

EVGA:
GeForce 8800 GTS core - 575MHz
Shader Clock - 1350MHz
320MB GDDR3 Memory - 1700MHz

BFG:
GeForce 8800 GTS core - 550MHz
Shader Clock - 1300MHz
320MB GDDR3 Memory - 1600MHz

Many thanks!

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Graphics card overclocking is extremely easy. Buy the cheapest gts you can find and crank it up yourself.

Reply to MooseMuffin

Grab your wallet and go get it!

Reply to jitpublisher

I don't believe it - I was just about to take your advice and there is no more stock left at PC world in the whole of Scotland! Arrgghh!

Ok going to try somewhere else - anyone know the following cards and if they are any good?

X/VISION 320MB GEF 8800GTS TV/DVI PCI-E

OR

SPARKLE NX8800GTS. 320MB DDR3. PCIE. HDTV. DUAL DVI. SLI

Ta!

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to motto

Yep, the very same BFG GEFORCE 8800 GTS OC I saw available at a local vendor in Southern California this week for $299 US has the same little annoying tag beside it **Sold Out**

Reply to jitpublisher

motto wrote :

I don't believe it - I was just about to take your advice and there is no more stock left at PC world in the whole of Scotland! Arrgghh!

Ok going to try somewhere else - anyone know the following cards and if they are any good?

X/VISION 320MB GEF 8800GTS TV/DVI PCI-E

OR

SPARKLE NX8800GTS. 320MB DDR3. PCIE. HDTV. DUAL DVI. SLI

Ta!

I've heard good things about Sparkle and nothing about X/Vision. Go with the Sparkle or if you can find a Gainward card, that would be good too. Especially if it's the golden edition.

Not in Scotland but I'm sure they will post it to you. http://www.yoyotech.co.uk/product_ [...] 507295771b

Reply to mousemonkey

Ok I opted for the Sparkle - well I just played Oblivion on full settings at 1400 x 900 and Wow!

Yes this is a big step up from my old Geforce 780 GS.

I'm currently using an 8x Pcie - do you think it will make much difference when I go to 16x with DDR 2?

Thanks.

Message quoted 1 times
Message edited by motto on 07-21-2007 at 08:37:21 PM

Reply to motto

get the evga one for 2 reasons.
1- step up program.
2-it has the new cooler

i currently run my evga 8800 320mb at 667/1051 and it doesnt get hot at all

Reply to javimars

PCI-E 8x.... you might or might not get a difference, last I read PCI-E 8x was not bottlenecking GF8. Not sure I could be very wrong.

Message edited by emp on 07-21-2007 at 09:50:25 PM

------------------------------ Anxiously awaiting the Hydra 100 and the Hydra Engine...
www.lucidlogix.com
Reply to emp

motto wrote :

Ok I opted for the Sparkle - well I just played Oblivion on full settings at 1400 x 900 and Wow!

Yes this is a big step up from my old Geforce 780 GS.

I'm currently using an 8x Pcie - do you think it will make much difference when I go to 16x with DDR 2?

Thanks.

A high-end card put in a 16x slot will give about 30% more fps than in an 8x slot. I saw that in some review a few months ago, no link, sorry. If you already get great fps then the difference is irrelevant, you won't notice it.

Reply to aevm

That depends on your resolution and quality settings mainly. IF both are really high then there will be a difference but anything over 40fsp is acceptable.

Reply to Hatman

Thanks everyone.

When I upgrade to Pcie x16 and DDR2 I'll do a post to tell what differences (if any) there were. I've done a benchmark on 3D mark 06 of 7283 I'll post up the results after the board and RAM upgrade for those who are interested.

Cheers.

Reply to motto

Heres the link, 8x vs 16x pcie. [http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/03/27/pci_express_scaling_analysis/] In the article, it shows varying degrees of performance 8 vs 16. The 16x sometimes would barely eek out better performance over 8x, but overall, and the higher and more demanding a game or program becomes, the more improvement youll see in a higher bandwidth. Heres their quote "The benchmark results make pretty clear that chipsets and motherboards need to be capable of supporting all graphics cards at the full x16 PCI Express speed. If you run high performance graphics cards on inadequate interfaces such as PCI Express x8, you give away performance." Plain and simple, get yourself a 16x mobo and youll be even happier

Message quoted 1 times

------------------------------ I went drifting, thru the capitols of tin, where men cant walk and cant freely talk, and sons turn their fathers in
Reply to jaydeejohn

jaydeejohn wrote :

Heres the link, 8x vs 16x pcie. [http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/03/27/pci_express_scaling_analysis/] In the article, it shows varying degrees of performance 8 vs 16. The 16x sometimes would barely eek out better performance over 8x, but overall, and the higher and more demanding a game or program becomes, the more improvement youll see in a higher bandwidth. Heres their quote "The benchmark results make pretty clear that chipsets and motherboards need to be capable of supporting all graphics cards at the full x16 PCI Express speed. If you run high performance graphics cards on inadequate interfaces such as PCI Express x8, you give away performance." Plain and simple, get yourself a 16x mobo and youll be even happier

Cheers - I'm playing demanding games i.e. Oblivion etc at 1400 x 900 with everything turned to max and I like everything to be smooth as possible so I really need to squeeze as much as I can out of the card.

Question about overclocking - I've never overclocked before (anything) I will have my first attempt with this card, I have seen the following article about overclocking the sparkle 8800 gts (same as my new card):

http://www.madshrimps.be/?action=g [...] rticID=543

and it raises the core clock to 630 Mhz and memory to 1010 Mhz with stock cooling (with Revatuner) - should I be safe enough to do this do you think or should I start of lower?

Thanks.

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to motto

I'm hardly an expert but I think most ppl who overclock start low and check if its stable at each small jump upwards and I daresay not every GFX card is EXACTLY identical

Reply to spuddyt

motto wrote :

Cheers - I'm playing demanding games i.e. Oblivion etc at 1400 x 900 with everything turned to max and I like everything to be smooth as possible so I really need to squeeze as much as I can out of the card.

Question about overclocking - I've never overclocked before (anything) I will have my first attempt with this card, I have seen the following article about overclocking the sparkle 8800 gts (same as my new card):

http://www.madshrimps.be/?action=g [...] rticID=543

and it raises the core clock to 630 Mhz and memory to 1010 Mhz with stock cooling (with Revatuner) - should I be safe enough to do this do you think or should I start of lower?

Thanks.

Use Atitool. Download it and tell it to detect the optimal frequencies. It cranks the speeds up step by step and tests the card to make sure there are no artifacts. It'll go until the card fails a test and drop the speeds back to the last one that worked. If you want to use Coolbits or something else, you can either do the same or just keep creeping the speeds up until either the card fails the test or you get artifacts while playing a game. I personally have used Coolbits. It is incredibly simple to use, but it only checks to see if the card can work under a given frequency. It doesn't scan for artifacts.

Thanks alot will give Atitool a try - does this mean that I don't need Rivatuner at all then?

Ta

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to motto

motto wrote :

Thanks alot will give Atitool a try - does this mean that I don't need Rivatuner at all then?

Ta

Rivatuner is better for nVidia cards.

Reply to ethel

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