Need user opinions on BFG 9800GT EcoIntelligence

[klemmaniac]

I recently bought a BFG 9800GT 1GB GDDR3 EcoIntelligence model. It was the only 9800gt with 1GB of GDDR3 memory I found for $100 with rebate which is why I jumped on it, but now it's really starting to hit me that it is an underclocked 9800gt with 550Mhz (as opposed to 600Mhz) and 1375Mhz in the shader clock (as opposed to 1500Mhz).

Can those who have bought and used this card testify to any real world difference in performance from a standard clocked 9800GT? In other words is there a noticeable difference to the naked eye besides measuring framerates? I would be gaming with it and am hoping to play Crysis, Star Trek Online, BF Bad Company 2, and Mass Effect 2 on modest resolutions (1366x1024) with high graphics settings and AA if possible.

My sys specs are:
Asus M4A77TD mobo
Athlon X3 440 3 Ghz
Samsung Spinpoint 500GB HDD
4GB CL7 DDR3 Ram

 

[jyjjy]

Just get rivatuner. Put the clocks back up to where they should be(or higher.)

 

[klemmaniac]

I have thought about that - but am wondering since it gets all the power from the Motherboard - would I be in danger of frying or damaging the PCI Slot on the board if it overheats from the extra power needed? Or is that not even an issue with the m4a77td board? The PSU is a Corsair 550VX fyi. thanks

 

[jyjjy]

You have a PCIe 2.0 slot and those can actually deliver 150w, more than twice the power that card uses. Your PSU is also more than capable. It shouldn't be an issue.

 

[frozentundra123456]

I had a PNY low power 9800GT with the clocks the same as yours. I did overclock it back to those of the regular card and could not really tell any difference, maybe less than 5% increase in frame rate. Since my power supply is not that good, I turned it back to the "underclocked" settings that it came with and have been happy with the performance at 1140x900.

 

[nforce4max]

You have a PCIe 2.0 slot and those can actually deliver 150w, more than twice the power that card uses. Your PSU is also more than capable. It shouldn't be an issue.

Sorry you are wrong it only supports 75w from the connector.

http://www.pcisig.com/specifications/pciexpress/specifications/ECR_CEM_Power_2009-9-09_2_.pdf

Right there is plain text.

 

[jyjjy]

Those goes against everything else I've read and googling show a lot of sources agreeing with me... I dunno.

 

[notty22]

Note that your 24 pin machine may work fine with a 20 pin power supply until you add a PCI Express card later on down the road. PCI Express cards can draw up to 75 watts through the motherboard connector so adding an expansion card can substantially increase power draw through the main power cable. Many PCI Express video cards which have the 6 pin or 8 pin PCI Express power cable still draw a substantial portion of their 12 volt load through the PCI Express slot.

http://www.playtool.com/pages/psuconnectors/connectors.html

The regular 9800 gt draws 105 watts at full load. http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_geforce_9800gt_us.html You can try overclocking, and you might get more fps depending/drawing on margins of efficiency your particular m/b. Using 25% less power probably only translates to 15% gpu power~fps or less.

 

[klemmaniac]

thanks for all the replies, but hmmm...soo...is the consensus that I can overclock the card to stock 9800gt settings without frying my motherboard/pci slot, or both?

I'd definitely like to give it a try but am not willing to risk damaging the motherboard or pci slot if there is a considerable risk in doing so. Don't care so much about the card-easy to replace if worst comes to worst.

 

[shubham1401]

AFAIK PCIE 2.0 slot delivers 75W Power only.

Sometime ago I also bought a 9800GT ECO(By Zotac).

You can OC.If power drawn is more than 75 Watts (After OC ofcourse ) then your Computer will just shut itself down.
it won't fry anything.

 

[nforce4max]

Note that your 24 pin machine may work fine with a 20 pin power supply until you add a PCI Express card later on down the road. PCI Express cards can draw up to 75 watts through the motherboard connector so adding an expansion card can substantially increase power draw through the main power cable. Many PCI Express video cards which have the 6 pin or 8 pin PCI Express power cable still draw a substantial portion of their 12 volt load through the PCI Express slot.

http://www.playtool.com/pages/psuconnectors/connectors.html

The regular 9800 gt draws 105 watts at full load. http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_geforce_9800gt_us.html You can try overclocking, and you might get more fps depending/drawing on margins of efficiency your particular m/b. Using 25% less power probably only translates to 15% gpu power~fps or less.

That is the board or VRM spec for the whole card but correct. +1 Also two other examples 189w for the G80 gtx/ultra boards as well 215w for the R600 boards. 225w for the gtx470 and 300w for the 480. These are ratings of the whole card including the vram and fan under default voltages. Many cards can be pushed higher but only slightly till they max out the limit of their power source.

 

[klemmaniac]

Ok I guess I'll give it a go, though I'd be interested if any other users successfully overclocked this card to stock settings or if they didn't feel there was a need to. Thanks for the information guys.

 

[klemmaniac]

Best answer selected by klemmaniac.