Should I get a 8 seriers or wait for the 9 series?

[GooGoo]

Hi i'm planning on upgrading my graphics card soon and was wondering if I should get a 8800GT or if I should wait for the 9 series. Thanx in advance for the help

 

[bash007]

The 9-series are, so far, basically a refresh of the 8800 series. As things stand right now, it doesn't look like there will be much improvement over the 8800 series. But you never know...
In any case, the way I see it, it depends on what card you have. If it's still good enough to run games reasonably well, then I say wait and see. If not, then just get an 8800GT. You can't go wrong either way.

 

[crusoe74]

The first 9 series to be released is the 9600GT which is basically a 8800GT with 64 shader processors instead of 96, and runs as fast as a 8800GS.

You'll have a bit of a wait for anything high end.

 

[stonecold91]

it will be better to wait for the 9series as there will be price drops....mostly with ATi HD 3850

 

[cnumartyr]

Well.. the 9 series is just a G92 Core.

9800 GX2 = 2 8800 GTSs
9600 GT = 64 SP G92

I'd just get the 8800 GT if it's in your budget range.

The real next gen will be out this summer.

 

[Slobogob]

Well.. the 9 series is just a G92 Core.

9800 GX2 = 2 8800 GTSs
9600 GT = 64 SP G92

Based on the rumors i've heard the 9600GT is not a G92 chip. I read that it will support DX10.1 which requires different shaders (4.1). Since the G92 doesn't have those, it would have to be a redisign. Supporting this theory is, that the 8800GS is competing in the same market segment and actually IS a G92 with broken shaders resulting in a 192bit card with only 96 Shaders.

 

[cnumartyr]

Based on the rumors i've heard the 9600GT is not a G92 chip. I read that it will support DX10.1 which requires different shaders (4.1). Since the G92 doesn't have those, it would have to be a redisign. Supporting this theory is, that the 8800GS is competing in the same market segment and actually IS a G92 with broken shaders resulting in a 192bit card with only 96 Shaders.

That must be a new rumor then. I had heard that nVidia would not be support DX10.1 at all and would be skipping ahead to DX11 next year.

 

[Slobogob]

That must be a new rumor then. I had heard that nVidia would not be support DX10.1 at all and would be skipping ahead to DX11 next year.

Doesn't really matter - it's just a rumor. Even if it is not true, the 8800GS would probably be really close to the 9600GTs performance. Nvidia is not stupid and won't start selling 8800GT cards that were laser cut to be 8800GS cards to satisfy the mid-range market. I think selling the defective g92 cores as 8800GS is only a stop-gap measure until they can deliver the 9600GT which will be cheaper to produce than the g92 chips. The shader difference of 64/96 does not mean much if the 9600GT is manufactured on a smaller process (and i bet it will be!) and thus clocks much higher. The only thing they can possibly mess up again would be if the new cards get a 128 bit bus again. There were rumors about it getting a 256 bit bus, but rumors are just that. We will see.

 

[Evilonigiri]

So would the 8800GS be better than the 9600GT cause it has more shader?

 

[homerdog]

When will the 8800gs see the light of day?

 

[Slobogob]

So would the 8800GS be better than the 9600GT cause it has more shader?

This is purely speculative. Some applications favor clock speed, others need more processing power. IF the 9600GT has a 256 bit bus, IF it has higher clocked shaders (and not by a mere 50 Mhz) and IF nvidia improved the shader design (i hope they have) then i would guess that it is faster than those 8800GS.
Since it's all speculation we could look at what happend last time, when the 7950GTX was the flagship. The 7900GS was what the 8800GS is now. The 8600 gts and the 7900Gs were quite on par (regarding the performance - the price was a disaster for the 8600 series). Considering that the 8600 series was a debacle, i'm willing to bet that nvidia learnt from it and will make sure the the new 9xxx series will beat the 8xxx series midrange by a fair amount. The best place for the 9600Gt would be right between 8800GT and 8800GS - thats just my opinion though.

 

[Slobogob]

When will the 8800gs see the light of day?

I haven't checked the dates but i've seen plenty of them listed accross europes online-shops. Based on that, it will be very soon. Most shops list availability as 20.01.08.

Here's an example for a 145€ card:
(As a reference for those living outside europe, a 8800GT card (512MB) costs about 215€)

ASUS 90-C1CK50-Q0UAY00Z
ASUS EN8800GS HTDP 384MB DDR3 192bit active PCI-Express 2.0 HDTV 2xDVI-I
Graphics Engine: GeForce 8800GS
Video Memory: 384M DDR3
Engine Clock: 550 MHz
Shader Clock: 1375MHz
Memory Clock: 1.8GHz (900MHz DDR3)
Memory Interface: 192 bit
DVI Max. Resolution: 2560 * 1600
Bus Standard: PCI Express 2.0
DVI Output: DVI-I *2
HDCP compliant: Yes

There are rumors about a 768MB version too. I'd like to see how that card holds up against the 8800GT 256MB. I've a feeling that those 256MB cards will soon be discontinued.



edit: the date (20.01.08) is wrong. 04.02.08 seems to be the release date.

 

[saintones]

If I can find the link again Ill post it.. A represntative from Nvidia said that 10.1 wont effect any of their products becuase it was mainly a shader improvement to optimize what they already have, I'll look for it..

 

[homerdog]

There are rumors about a 768MB version too. I'd like to see how that card holds up against the 8800GT 256MB. I've a feeling that those 256MB cards will soon be discontinued.

Agreed. I never really saw the point of the 256MB 8800GT in the first place.

 

[Evilonigiri]

Agreed. I never really saw the point of the 256MB 8800GT in the first place.

For people who play Crysis on res lower than 12x10