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8800 GTS 320

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So I am considering upgrading to a 8800 GTS 320mb from my current 7600GT. After reading forum and forum and checking reviews of FPS etc I thought that for myself the 320 varient is the way to go. Cost wise its a few hundred cheaper than the 640mb card and I am not too worried about the differences in FPS as the jump from my current card to a new one is pheonominal.

I am after peoples opinions on whether its worth doing it now or waiting until more games come out. The next game I get is Bioshock. Haven't played the demo...just put my order in after a recommendation from the dude at the games shop.

From my sig I have a 22inch widescreen so my native res and the res I now run games at is 1680 x 1050. I installed Company of Heroes yesterday and from the initial test I had a high of 59 and a low of 9 with a average of 20. That was with the automatic settings on that res.

Really I have no reason to not get a new card....but I just get sick of constantly spending money on PCs. I want to be able to play Assassins Creed when it comes out and I am considering getting Vista to Dual Boot.

EDIT - I have a 500w PSU. I think its Thermaltake

On a side note, does paying $400 for 2GIG OCZ RAM really make a difference between my generic 2gig ram?

More about : 8800 gts 320

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Damn peer pressure :-)

I guess it was all dependent on Brands. The difference could be anywhere from $120 - $200+.

So brand name ram makes no difference unless OCing?

Don't buy the $400 ram, I doubt you're gonna see a huge difference in performance. It's a waste of money in my opinion.
About the card, for your resolution you could get the 640MB GTS or even a GTX, if you want to play on max setting with high AA and AF.
Graphics card Master

Seems to me you have it all worked/reasoned out perfectly the diff between the 320/640 is not in my opinion worth the extra and the ram is just not needed.
Mactronix
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i've been playing bioshock on my 8800 GTS 320 (oc-ed) and it is silky smooth at max settings at 1280x1024. However, at that high of a res, i would second the suggestion to go for the 640mb version.

I have a 640 and run it at 1680x1050 or whatever exactly it is (16x10). Definately worth the extra dough. A friend bought a 320 thinking that he would have the same performance at the same resolution only to be slightly disappointed. It's not a huge difference, but it's really noticable and he even has a faster overall system than mine.

You can't go wrong with a 8800GTS 320MB. A perfect blend of value and performance. As for the RAM, the money would be better spent elsewhere if you already have 2 gigs. You will not notice the slightest difference.

Thanks everyone. So the extra money is probably better off to be spent on a 640 mb version.

What about the difference between an OC 320 mb version or a standard 640. Is the 640 still going to be better?

I finally worked out how to add a sig if that helps in the decision making process. I am thinking a 640 now but now it depends on Brand. Albatron and Gigabyte are the cheaper of the brands but I have a BFG at the moment and have been recommended the XFX.
I pick up my copy of Bioshock on Friday so once installed and tested, if necessary Saturday I will be getting a new video card

Snail said:

Really I have no reason to not get a new card....but I just get sick of constantly spending money on PCs.

I want to be able to play Assassins Creed when it comes out and I am considering getting Vista to Dual Boot.


The only time it's a bad time to upgrade, is when you're upgrading for something that isn't released yet...

By the time the game is released, videocards will be even cheaper. So what's your hurry? Wait until AFTER it's released to pull the trigger...

cleeve said:
The only time it's a bad time to upgrade, is when you're upgrading for something that isn't released yet...

By the time the game is released, videocards will be even cheaper. So what's your hurry? Wait until AFTER it's released to pull the trigger...



Good advice :-)

Rinswind - Haven't got the card yet but will let you know how it goes.

I have been reading other forums, and for the money a few people have recommended the 2900XT over the GTS. I have never tried ATI before so would be interested to know peoples opinions. BIOSHOCK tomorrow!!!!

therealchrist said:
Your PSU will not support the 2900 xt .



Serious?

500W isn't enough?

Any recommendations then.....I didn't want to stuff around installing a new PSU but maybe now is the time to buy a new one.

Urgg.....too much money.

But as Cleeve said....perhaps its not worth upgrading until I know if my PC can handle the new games etc coming out.

Bioshock runs at max settings with my 640mb 8800gts. Pairing that with my 1680x1050 monitor and things are silky smooth. So smooth in fact, that when you expect a slowdown you dont get one and the action gets to you just that much faster, so yeah, get the 640 if you want performance in bioshock.

Ugh, well you COULD go ATI, but really, and this is coming from a past ati user, the nvidia world is so much nicer. The site is easier to navigate, the information is more clear, you dont need .net framework to install drivers. Not to mention, you can uninstall individual driver components, ATI will uninstall ALL ati drivers(that included my tuner card from ati on my last build, very frustrating to say the least). Now, i'm not an ATI hater or anything, and if you can get a 2900xt for less than the 640mb go for it (or if you really love Company of Hero's).

You dont need an 8-pin connection to run the 2900xt, but you will need two 6-pin connectors.

As for bioshock its an awesome game and is only the third FPS i've bought and the second i'll play to finish (HL2 - best game ever, FEAR-didnt finish, Bioshock-getting there). Pretty much any game that can have as many elements from HL2 as possible will be awesome.

Quote:
For those that are considering getting the 640mb version, and playing at 1680 x 1050 or higher. Get the 640mb version dont hesitate. The 320 mb version wont cut it!


Errr...
Have you had a direct negative experience? Tom's hardware charts puts the two at almost identital performance:
http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_2007.html?modelx...

I hope it's not too bad because I will most likely play at 1680x1050 and I'm already uncomfortably overstreached with the 320mb version.

Btw I'm building my rig around a Corsair 520HX PSU. If the 8800 GTS 640/320mb dares to find that lacking... well it can go to hell! Didn't even cross my mind that a 500+ PSU can be gobbled up by a single video card....

first off the 8800gts owns the ati solution. 2nd I have the 640 version and it is great-most of the time now the two are merely 30-50$ diff and as games get more texture intensive the extra memory will help especially at higher res's. I got the bioshock demo yesterday and it was very awesome indeed. beware you dont need to upload the beta drivers necessarily- it tried to make me on install and I refused since I had seen a thread on here saying that the beat dreivers were crap. ran fine on the drivers I have in. i would post them but I'm at work.
good luck on your purchase.

psychobob said:
Hi guys. I'm going to go purchase an 8800gts and try it with my generic 350W PSU. Wish me luck! :) 

rather than doing that, why not send it straight to me? I'll get some use out of it since I have a decent PSU

I got a EVGA 8800GTS 640MB for 379$ from TigerDirect, so maybe if you shop around you can get the extra vram for a bit more $$, may be worth it for when FarCry 2 and Crysis come out... Some games don't even let you go past medium textures with less than 512MB of vram, so that would suck if newer games worked like GRAW and you had to stick to medium settings EVEN if the card could handle it with other settings turned down or off...

ughh...now im totally confused....

Mind you I am selling my house and getting a new one, so perhaps with some of the payout from the old house, I will just spend 4gs and buy a kickass new PC.

Of course I could also pay out my car/credit cards, but doing that won't play Crysis at Max res now will it?

Quote:
The 2900 has 2 power connects, you dont have to use the second one unless you want to oc.
I believe at a minimum you have to use two six pin PCIe power cables, and a six pin and eight pin cable while overclocking.

Snail said:
ughh...now im totally confused....

Mind you I am selling my house and getting a new one, so perhaps with some of the payout from the old house, I will just spend 4gs and buy a kickass new PC.

Of course I could also pay out my car/credit cards, but doing that won't play Crysis at Max res now will it?


Right there with you snail!
I've pretty much decided on the common 320 version. Everything else is just too much cache over the top for a hazy gain. My greedy local dealers sell the 640 version for no less than 120$ extra. And mind you - paying more for the video card than for my mobo+cpu+ram seems just too imbalanced for the casual gamer that I am. I'll just have to get over the fact that most games will be playable at 1600x1200 but not at max settings.
Graphics card Expert

rinswind said:
Too bad they don't ship internationally - I'm in eastern europe :p 


You might wait a couple of weeks. Deals like this have their way of working around the globe. Especially if sales are sluggish in the area.

Yesterday I took the plunge and bought the BFG 8800 GTS 320 OC. It costed me only 10$ more than the regular Gigabyte 8800 GTS 320 I was aiming for at first. Wish me luck since I also ordered a Dell 2007FP monitor with native resolution of 1600x1200. As soon as the monitor arrives I'll report what bioshock looks like.

Oh and if you buy a BFG look for the OC2 version rather than OC - it is overclocked to about the frequencies cited at tom's hardware charts and this means it is overall the third fastest videocard on the market today.

Cheers,
Todor
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