1950 XT vs 8800 GS (384mb)

I am currently running 1950 XT in my rig...which runs all my games flawlesly, but i have a chance to upgrade to 8800GS, not sure if its even an upgrade. What do you guys think...which one is better benchmark wise?

Id go for the GS, just make sure the ram is clocked at 1600Ghz

Heres a link http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews [...] GS/16.html It outshines it. I was refering to the GDDR memory not the system memory, sorry for the confusion. Some GS have a slower memory rated at 1400 Ghz . Youd want the 1600. Check out the link, hope this helps

There ya go. Good upgrade

John, I wouldn't think 200MHz on the memory speed would make that much of a difference. Got any links showing it? What I mean is I find it hard to believe that 1400MHz ram makes it slower then the x1950XT, while 1600MHz ram would make it faster. Usually when the difference is that small, it doesn't make much difference.

I do agree with the assessment. Older games there probably isn't much difference in performance. Newer games however probably favor the 8800GS. I doubt its a large difference. If you assume that the 8800GS is equal in performance with the 8800GTS 320MB, look at these games.

http://www23.tomshardware.com/grap [...] &chart=288

At an LCD res and Doom3, the cards are almost the same. Both are above 60FPS, I doubt anyone could see the 10FPS difference.

http://www23.tomshardware.com/grap [...] &chart=292

In MS Flight Sim X, the 8800GTS is one of the few cards that could break 22FPS. The x1950XT could do just over 15. Depending on the settings and the game, this might not be worth it.

I upgraded from X1950XT to 8800GTS 320MB. There is a difference for sure, but results vary depending on the game, resolution, and system specs. I was using a single core FX-55. So in Oblivion my results around a town were cpu limited and basically the same. Out in the GPU demanding foliage, the GTS managed 30% or higher gains. Overall for 1680x1050 gaming yes it was worth the upgrade.

I now also own an 8800GS (price was too good to pass on) and while I have not yet pitted it against the X1950XT directly(will soon), I'd say for about $100 yes it is a worth while upgrade assuming you have a dual core CPU in the system. If you are on a single core CPU I'd put the money tward a CPU/system upgrade.

Like Marvelous211 said, the slower memory really handicaps these cards. I think XFX was making the slower memory cards, if I remember correctly

Depends on the clock speeds, and probably games and resolution too. If we assume evga's 550/1600 as a reference clock for the 8800GS, I think the GTS 320MB may beat the GS possibly more often than not depending on the resolution. But Probably very close and trading blows....which I hope to examine soon.

If you get to do any testing paul, I'd love to know the results. As I've said in my rant, Nvidia's naming scheme is so broken right now that I have no idea what cards are faster. When I saw the 8800GS, I ASSUMEd that it would be slower then the 8800GTS 320/640, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised to learn otherwise.

Yup, will do. The naming is a mess but doesn't bother me. I welcome any new card that offers alot for the money, no matter what they call it. But I better not expand on that ^

http://en.expreview.com/2008/04/02 [...] up/?page=9

Having a faster core and shader makes it faster in the raw performance dept. Having more memory bandwidth is slower with AA situations. Having more vram makes games run smoother in higher resolutions and AA.

Like this..

8800gs>8800gts 320 Raw performance
8800gs<8800gts 320 AA only when it has enough vram to compensate

Currently Crysis and WIC eats up more vram than 8800gts 320vram even at 1280x1024 resolution.