I've found two cards in my budget that I'm willing to spend. I run games normally at 1280-1024 and plan fully to overclock either one of these. The 9600gt I would be purchasing is new, but the 8800gt I would be purchasing is open box.
I've never used neweggs open box, have no idea if it is good or not, especialy for overclocking.I don't plan on doing any MIR deals, so cards around this price are perfect.So, which one should I get?
The 320mb GTS still packs a lot of power, in a review I read the Fatality edition beat the 9600Gt in most games - the stock one was close to necking it, this one should overclock quite well..
Yeah, I did look at that, but from what I got from every one is that its almost useless. Anyone use that video card in their PC that can vouch? I'm definatley buying a card today though.
Message edited by dragas89 on 05-18-2008 at 02:56:45 PM
http://en.expreview.com/2008/04/02 [...] p/?page=10 A 640mb g80 8800gts is considered equal performance to a 9600gt and 8800gs. 320mb model perform lower. But at that price, it's still excellent value. Just don't expect g92 8800gts performance.
You might want to consider this g92 8800gts, at $169.99 after MIR, it's a bargain for the performance level. It's brand new plus 3 year warranty: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814134037 It's half the price of 8800gtx for about the same performance, and priced slightly lower than g80 8800gts 640mb for much higher performance. Plus the dual slot stock cooler is just as good and better than some dual slot aftermarket coolers.
9600GT works fine for me at 1400x900 with max details for all games i tried so far. cyrsis plays at 20fps at 1280-800 wit high specs....so if ur in budget i think 9600GT is perfect for u. den overclock it to get 8800GT performance.....but for future proofing i think 8800GT is better as it has 112 shades. G92 GTS would be an overkill. and G80 is more or less same as 9600 with more power power consumption
http://en.expreview.com/2008/04/02 [...] p/?page=10 A 640mb g80 8800gts is considered equal performance to a 9600gt and 8800gs. 320mb model perform lower. But at that price, it's still excellent value. Just don't expect g92 8800gts performance.
You might want to consider this g92 8800gts, at $169.99 after MIR, it's a bargain for the performance level. It's brand new plus 3 year warranty:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814134037 It's half the price of 8800gtx for about the same performance, and priced slightly lower than g80 8800gts 640mb for much higher performance. Plus the dual slot stock cooler is just as good and better than some dual slot aftermarket coolers.
Thanks for the advice, I'm not big on mail in rebates, takes too long sometimes and i've been screwed before on them. What id like to see is what the 9600gt and 8800gt and gts 320 are like overclocked and matched up. My main reason for a 9600gt is the 512mb of ram, where as I'm not so sure about the 320 on the GTS. I play games like AoC, LOTRO, Movie Battles, HL2 mods and 2142. But id also like to leave myself open for some of the Crysis mods coming out, so im not very sure if I would need the 512MB or not.
Thanks for the advice, I'm not big on mail in rebates, takes too long sometimes and i've been screwed before on them. What id like to see is what the 9600gt and 8800gt and gts 320 are like overclocked and matched up. My main reason for a 9600gt is the 512mb of ram, where as I'm not so sure about the 320 on the GTS. I play games like AoC, LOTRO, Movie Battles, HL2 mods and 2142. But id also like to leave myself open for some of the Crysis mods coming out, so im not very sure if I would need the 512MB or not.
Most those games are rarely used for benchmarking. But other games can give you a good idea too of where things are. See table for FPS comparasion. http://www.guru3d.com/category/vga_2/
Whoa!!! TIME OUT!!! Those cards are a lot if your on a budget. Consider an 8800 gs. It's basically the little brother to the 8800gt. The normal gs is worse than a 9600 gt. However, Newegg has a superclocked version by EVGA listed on their site. I think it's 135. Not a bad price, even though you are not big on MIR, it does have a 30 dollar one. Which means 105. It's only got 384 mb of ram though. But at the resolutions your wanting to run, ought to be plenty. And the overclocked ones according to the benchmarks at lower resolutions outperform the 9600gt in some cases. Meaning you'd have a good compromise, cheap price. Where you'd be limited is if you want to start playing high resolution. I think what I've read is above 1600x1200. But don't quote me on that, do a little research. But for 105 after rebate, it's not bad. I think EVGA also has a step up program, so if you weren't happy with the card, you could essentially trade the card in upgrade to a better card within 90 days. But look for some benchmarks and see what you think. I've been looking and that's what I've been wanting for my own rig.
For that resolution either of the three cards give a good performance ... though if you're thinking of a little futureproofing or are thinking of upgrading your resolution (new monitor) later, 8800GT is a better investment......... but as Shadow said, open box isn't the safest way to buy a card.
Whoa!!! TIME OUT!!! Those cards are a lot if your on a budget. Consider an 8800 gs. It's basically the little brother to the 8800gt. The normal gs is worse than a 9600 gt. However, Newegg has a superclocked version by EVGA listed on their site. I think it's 135. Not a bad price, even though you are not big on MIR, it does have a 30 dollar one. Which means 105. It's only got 384 mb of ram though. But at the resolutions your wanting to run, ought to be plenty. And the overclocked ones according to the benchmarks at lower resolutions outperform the 9600gt in some cases. Meaning you'd have a good compromise, cheap price. Where you'd be limited is if you want to start playing high resolution. I think what I've read is above 1600x1200. But don't quote me on that, do a little research. But for 105 after rebate, it's not bad. I think EVGA also has a step up program, so if you weren't happy with the card, you could essentially trade the card in upgrade to a better card within 90 days. But look for some benchmarks and see what you think. I've been looking and that's what I've been wanting for my own rig.
Can't you just buy an 8800gs whatever version and overclock it yourself, do the brands realy do anything that much different then a heatsink fan and a sticker?
If you can afford it the 8800GT wins hands down. I own that specific card and I must say the beefed up cooler kicks ass. Im yet to break 60C with it, and Im OCed to 700Mhz.
Ive had reasonably good luck with open box, ive gotten a motherboard and a hard drive open-box and they both perform as good as new. The motherboard didnt come with drivers or an I/O plate, so be prepared to recieve no accessorys, but Newegg tests the item to make sure its not dead, so you should recieve working product. If you do decide to go with the open-box, be sure to test it promptly, as you only have 10 days (I think from date of purchase) to return it if there is something wrong.
What's interesting about that card is the dual slots setup which should provide good cooling and certain dose of silence. I have one of another brand and single slot, it's noisy as a jet engine.
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Gigabytes 35C-DS3R | C2D 6850 |
Antec 900 | 4 X 2 Gig of DDR2 1000 G. SKill
Sapphire 4870| Corsair 620
Thermalright Ultima 90 + panaflo
8800gts 320 is gone so its between the 8800gs and 9600gt, would a super clocked evga 9600 be achieveable if I bought the regular 9600 and overclocked it manually? And is Ntune best for that?
Message edited by dragas89 on 05-19-2008 at 12:42:47 AM
Can't you just buy an 8800gs whatever version and overclock it yourself, do the brands realy do anything that much different then a heatsink fan and a sticker?
