8800gt and 9600gt

[fraggelrock]

Based on the Tom's Hardware 9600GT review, it looks like the 8800GT and 9600GT have similar performance with the 9600GT showing great performance with antialiasing enabled:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/02/21/nvidia_geforce_9600_gt/page10.html

Comments on some of the threads here say that the the 9600GT has similar price and performance to an 8800GT

So I went on newegg and found these cards:


XFX - 9600GT 512MB 256-bit with 650 Mhz core $180

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150277

eVGA 8800GT - 512MB 256-bit with 600 Mhz core $230

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130318


The 9600GT looks to be $50 cheeper, but similar performance, uhh - $50 is not so similar to me, so I would go for the XFX 9600GT in this case.

Am I missing something, or that is the argument that the 9600GT is same performance and price as the 8800Gt - false?

$50 is not similar in price to me, even though the performance is similar - 9600GT seem to make sense to me.

 

[emp]

MSI NX8800GT 512M OC GeForce 8800GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127329

$10 cheaper than the one you listed, with good aftermarket cooling, and with a $30 rebate if you want to cash it in for $190 AR card.

As I understand it, there is some shady trick going on with the PCIe slot frequency automatically overclocking the GPU on the 9600GT to achieve greater performance, sounds good for average joe who just wants something to work, but for someone that likes to know how everything is working, I'm not too sure it would be the way to go.

In my eyes the extra bucks are definitely worth it because of the cooling, the solution on the stock 9600GT and 8800GT can barely be called adequate at best, i'd go as far as say it's a poor cooling solution for great cards. However MSI is providing what appears to be a very nice cooling for the card.

 

[IndigoMoss]

I'm going to agree with emp on this one. I know all too well how higher PCI-e bus frequencies can effect stability. My GH3 wouldn't play at all and it took me a long time to figure it out, but the issue was that for whatever reason, it didn't like my PCI-e bus at 110mhz, so I put it back down to 100mhz and it fixed all of my issues with the game.


Personally, I think the MSI card looks like the best 8800GT out there due to the awesome cooling on it and the nice rebate. If possible, I'd go with the the MSI 8800GT over the 9600GT. You'll get better head room for overclocking with it and in theory, better stability without much more money after MIR.

 

[boonality]

I don't know much about video cards but also the stream processes of the 9600GT are 64 and the 8800GT is 112. Which may mean a big difference, but I don't really know what it means. It was an observation that I made while trying to pick between the two for myself.

 

[fraggelrock]

Hey, guys, thanx for the info.

emp - the in-depth info was very helpful.

I had a good experience with XFX, which is why I am concidering the XFX 9600GT even though it is not the cheepest, but the 8800GT by MSI is a nice price.

What about service and support? MSI dosen't seem as quality as XFX. Any positive experiences with MSI?