Should I step up my EVGA 8800GT ???

[bryan240g]

I have 12 days left before my step-up program expires with EVGA. My question is, IF I were to step up to a better card or cards, What should I go for? My 2 8800GT SC, are going for $259.99 each. SO I have over $500 bucks invested in these cards as of now. I will be running whatever cards I end up with on an EVGA 780i, or maybe the 790i, undecided. Using SLI, should I keep my current set-up, and just add a pair of ARCTIC COOLING ACCELS1 Rev 2 VGA Cooler, along with the turbo module fan, on each one, or dish out a few more bucks and get something else that will be outdated in 6 months? I run a 24" monitor, and want my resolution as high as I can, and still be able to play COD4. By the way the cpu I will be using will be either the e8400(overclocked), or a quad core. Again undecided. So what do you think? I am running out of time.

 

[invisik]

in my opinion i would get 2 8800gts how much is ur total budget 500?

 

[ryanthesav]

Chill out, no upgrade will yield that great of a difference right now. Thats why they do the step-up program. Its all BS. They just want you to spend more money for no difference. 500$, what are you going to get two 8800 GTS's, or maybe two 9800 gtx's huh!... not without extra cash. Have fun with that.

 

[bryan240g]

No the $500 bucks is what I already have invested, I am willing to plop down another couple of hundred bucks, IF the performance increase it's worth it. I just want a cool running system, that I can overclock, and from what I have read, the 8800gt runs hotter than some of the others. But with the coolers I mentioned in my first post, that might take care of it.

 

[ryanthesav]

Well, I wouldn't give anymore money to nvidia; they're putting out crap right now. If I were you I would buy one of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186016

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118037

 

[invisik]

theres nothing really good out. maybe 2 9800gtx. im waiting for the 9900.

 

[bryan240g]

Well thanks for that. Anyone else got any opinions?

 

[dagger]

theres nothing really good out. maybe 2 9800gtx. im waiting for the 9900.

http://en.expreview.com/2008/04/03/geforce-9800gtx-review/12/
Skip the 9800gtx. It's hardly an upgrade.

 

[bryan240g]

Dagger, thanks for that link. Good info. there. Well, after reading that maybe I will just keep what I have. Besides because my current SLI setup hasn't even been really tested, because of my really hot, cramped, xps 600 case, maybe I will just keep them until I get my new build in a couple of weeks, to see what they can do in my new silverstone tj09 case, with those artic coolers. Thanks dagger, you the man.

 

[invisik]

http://en.expreview.com/2008/04/03/geforce-9800gtx-review/12/
Skip the 9800gtx. It's hardly an upgrade.

ya but if u compare an 8800gt vs 9800gtx i think that would be a decent upgrade. the 9800gtx in sli scales really well not to mention they overclock really high.

 

[dagger]

ya but if u compare an 8800gt vs 9800gtx i think that would be a decent upgrade. the 9800gtx in sli scales really well not to mention they overclock really high.

"Sli really well" is misleading. The performance scaling for 9800gtx is no better than gts. Although "really well" would be right if you consider tri sli, for one simple reason: GTX can tri sli, the other cards can't. A tri sli rig will certainly outperform any dual sli.

Also, 9800gtx can overclock its g92 core with 128 stream processors reliably to 750mhz, and possibly to 800mhz. A 8800gts with the same g92 core and 128 stream processors can reliably oc to the same 750mhz, and possibly 800mhz. 9800gtx's artifically set higher stock clock simply eats into your oc headroom, so it's not an advantage if you oc.

 

[Shadow703793]

^Agreed.

 

[bryan240g]

Well, from what I have been reading, it appears that since I will ONLY be running dual-sli, and to be honest, I doubt I ever would do tri-sli, because if i am gonna have 3 gpu's I might aswell get a newer better card sooner. Besides I don't stay satisfied for long. I mean if my step up program runs out and I didn't use it, in the future I can always upgrade cards later. But from what i have been reading, there isn't much out ther, that's worth the money I am willing to spend that warrants an upgrade. Thanks for all your thoughts.

 

[pauldh]

What are evga's upgrade options and price?. What would 8800GTS 512MB cost? How about the 9800GT?. If you could almost break even and don't mind the hassle, the 8800GTS 512MB would be nice to have. But factor in your total cost and see what the option cost for you. I'd suspect with your shipping, the trade up to GTS would be $40-50 per card anyway, kinda high IMO.

 

[liswara]

"Sli really well" is misleading. The performance scaling for 9800gtx is no better than gts. Although "really well" would be right if you consider tri sli, for one simple reason: GTX can tri sli, the other cards can't. A tri sli rig will certainly outperform any dual sli.

Also, 9800gtx can overclock its g92 core with 128 stream processors reliably to 750mhz, and possibly to 800mhz. A 8800gts with the same g92 core and 128 stream processors can reliably oc to the same 750mhz, and possibly 800mhz. 9800gtx's artifically set higher stock clock simply eats into your oc headroom, so it's not an advantage if you oc.

Very much agreed

 

[secolliyn]

What follows is a Real story about SLI this is why I will never have a system with it myself (or CrossFire for that matter)

Me and a friend went to a lan party we sat next to each other first i will list the relevant specs for his box

AMD X2 4800
2Gb Ram DDR 400
320Gb Hard Drive 7200 Rpm SATA
19 In LCD Viewsonic
SLIed 7800GT's (brand EVGA)

We will call this friend Mark (just a funny name)

Now I will list the same specs for my computer at the time

AMD X2 3800
2GB Ram DDR 400
250GB 7200RPM SATA
19in Samsung
1X 7900GT (brand XFX)

We will call me for obvious reason secolliyn ( Yes i know another funny name
Thats what you get for being drunk and makeing a profile)

Now that you have the specs i will list for you the reason i will never have an SLIed computer

at this time one of the best benchmarking games out was FEAR so we took out computers to it made the settings on both computers the same down to resolution and AA we ran the benchmark looked the same to both of us during the sequence at the end of the benchmakr FEAR came up and told us the results and yes folks he did beat me as far as highest frame rate hit
by 3 FPS...

he at the time had spend over 600 on the cards he put into sli and i had spent a total of 311 shipping included on my one card that did get beat but only by 3 Frames so from that moment on i've never seen the point in getting or building an SLI rig you don't gain that much

 

[royalcrown]

An 8800gts only averages 10 percent faster, he'd never get his moneys worth !

 

[bryan240g]

I have decided to just keep the cards I have. I will being adding better coolers to them though. Just wish they didn't eat up so much space with the coolers though. It will be a tight fit, if I pop my X-FI card in between them. Wish me luck.

 

[pcgamer12]

u know uve never been drunk before and u only drink mikes. wow, waste of money on coolers, the 8800gts 512mb have better coolers, why not upgrade ur coolers and improve performance. the 8800gts coolers are good, they can tolerate up to 90c.

 

[dagger]

u know uve never been drunk before and u only drink mikes. wow, waste of money on coolers, the 8800gts 512mb have better coolers, why not upgrade ur coolers and improve performance. the 8800gts coolers are good, they can tolerate up to 90c.

It's not a matter of "tolerating" higher temperature, it's to make sure the temperature never gets that high. There is also a difference other than just cooler, GTS use higher binned chips and use 128 stream processors instead of 112. Still, a mere 10% increase in peformance is hardly enough gap to warrant an upgrade. You'll need to oc to get any noticable improvement.