8800gt SSC back in stock (eVGA website)

Get them while they last. Just bought mine, next day air.

Why get the SSC when you can get a stock card for $30 less and OC it yourself in 5 minutes using RivaTuner?

Here's the problem with a factory OC'd card. The BIOS has been flashed (again something easy to do yourself if you want) at the factory to the high core, shader and memory speeds. They also set the fan at 100%.

That means your card is running full blast even when just surfing the web, a waste of resources, hot and noisy too. Fans at 100% are MUCH louder than at 60%.

Just get a stock card and OC it yourself. Run it stock when just going desktop apps and crank it up when gaming. Card will stay cooler and quiter.

SSC and all that is just a gimmick to make more money. Physically, there is NO DIFFERENCE between the SSC ($300) and the Stock Card ($260).

Oh yeah, they do add a nice $30 sticker

http://www.dailytech.com/But+Wait+ [...] le9474.htm

WARRENTY!

BIOS flash will VOID warrenty.

Ontop of that not everyone can overclock.

I've always just bought stock cards and OC'd them and never had a problem. They may "say" they cherry-pick the "best" cards for the OC, but then they are admitting that the other cards they sell are somehow of inferior quality without letting the consumer know they are really buying "seconds". If that were true, they would be begging for a class-action lawsuit.

The EVGA tech (not sales - can't trust sales) I talked to said the cards are physically IDENTICAL except for the factory OC.

No, my friend, the whole "cherry-pick" the best cards is just marketing hype.

I like the evga trade up as an option even if it very often is not a great deal. $300 for the SSC from their site transfered toward a $400 or less 8800GTS 512MB SSC sounds like a nice plan to me.

But you know, the time has already come that these monster cards run 20 fps. Look at FSAA and HQ setting in Crysis.

The cards are identical, the cherry-picked chips are not. the EVGA tech must have misunderstood what you were asking. Sure they are physically identical but the overclocked versions use higher binned chips. Much like a QX6800 is much better binned than a Q6600, even though they have the same architecture and everything, the chips are of different quality standards. its like gems, you can find flawed gems that are still nice, and you can find flawless gems that are much better.

I was under the impression that they didn't process nor ship on Weekends? Granted UPS does pick up and process packages on Saturdays; eVGA does not. I wouldn't saved the money and gotten cheaper shipping. I may be wrong though. but I'm fairly forcertain they don't ship or process on the weekends. But hey if you get it tomorrow than bench it for us please.

oh are you for real??

Valtiel,

I'll be sure to look for the "Warning: Contains Inferior Chip" sticker on my stock 8800 GT Box. The tech at EVGA told me there is "no difference" between the SSC and a stock card except for the guaranteed factory overclock. None. Zip. Nada.