8800 GT Performance Worse than G80 GTS?

Hey all,
So I recently purchased a PNY 8800 GT 512MB. The performance, to date, hasn't been very good. I am slide showing in certain areas of Crysis on default high settings, when my old MSI 640MB G80 GTS was fine in those areas. I am only getting a max of 20 fps in Crysis on high, no better than the GTS and I didn't expect much more, but I drop down to much lower rates, 5 fps in highly populated areas, and the stuttering is much worse. I keep getting stuttering in a number of games and have had a number of screen lockups in games that never used to trouble the old GTS, especially Company of Heroes, a game which in benchmarks does much better than the GT. I know that heat is sometimes an issue with these cards so I intentionally set the fan at 75% and I know my temps aren't going much above 60. I made sure to properly uninstall all old drivers and I used Driver Cleaner Pro. I really don't know what to do here. I didn't expect the card to be much better, I mainly upgraded so my brother could have my older card, but I never expected it to be worse. I am thinking about returning it as I bought it from Best Buy. Does anyone know about PNY and maybe if another brand, BFG, might be better? As a last note, I haven't changed any setting in any of these games since updating and I have tried reinstalling the drivers as well.

Thing is this new card pulls less power than the old card I had, and that card had no problems.

So it degraded 10% in one day? Because I am talking about this is the performance I am getting the day of installation of the new card. It worked fine, a couple hours before, with the old card that uses more power. I honestly don't think it's the PSU is my point.

at this point ya got nothing to lose!try and exchange it for a different brand ie. BFG or EVGA.

also would look into getting a more reliable brand psu as ULTRA's psu rep kinda stinks. so in the near future i would look for a new psu!

my 2 rusty pennies!

RMA the card for a new one. The one you have is probably defective.

It sounds like you either have driver problems or a faulty card. Try updating to the latest WHQL drivers from Nvidia (169.25). If that doesn't work you might have to cut your losses and RMA

One more thing, what motherboard are you using? It's a longshot, but you may be having a PCIe issue where it is running on a 1x link instead of 16x. I've heard that some PCIe gen1 mobos exhibit this behavior with PCIe gen2 cards.

Edit: Ah, I see in your sig that you are using a 965P DS3. Good choice

PNY is fine really, but most people prefer Evga, XFX, BFG in that order (imo).

Check the PCIe link width with cpuz just to be sure.

As for brand preferences, eVGA has never let me down. Step-Up is just unbelievable.

The PCIe link width is x16.

SLI and/or single card performance?

Is this dichotomy just in Crysis? What's the perf in other games?? or a benchy? And what res are you playing at? Maybe the extra 100 meg of memory or so is the issue helping the older card. (unlikely, but just a thought). Must admit, I do agree with the others - probably just a dud card.
Ryan

This is in other games too, notably Company of Heroes. It's not always a constant bad performance. It is a lot of stuttering with the occasional lockup. Just today I tried Crysis and got 5 fps. I am using Crysis as a comparison because it is a popular game where many people will be familiar with the performance level. Also, I had just started playing a couple of weeks ago. I plan to return the card this weekend and will let you guys know how it goes. Wish me luck, and I hope it isn't something about my comp and PCI-E 2.0.

Update:

Hey guys,
I have to buy the next card from Best Buy because the only reason I bought it in the first place was because of the Best Buy money I had, over $115 of it from Xmas and Bday. Now I see on BestBuy.com that they have the BFG 8800 GTS 512MB for $320 with free shipping. I know it's not as cheap as NewEgg, but still it's not a bad price.

Does anyone think it'd be worth it to spring for the GTS over the GT if I have to return the card anyway?

I would too!, - if I had the money! )-;
The new GTS is paragonable to the GTX
Ryan

Just don't get a PNY one.

Install RivaTuner and check you clocks. The core should be 650MHz *600MHz and the memory 970MHz *900MHz.

When I was having problems with my 8800GT the core was locked at 350MHz and the memory at ~400MHz. It made things quite unplayable.

*Edit: Whoops, I thought you had an 8800GTS.

Then what you have there mate, is a bog standard 8800GT. Enjoy!

But the OP isn't you and hasn't waited, so the point of your post is??