Im buying one of these soon and thinking of getting an EVGA one in case an 8900 or GX2 comes out within the 90 days so i can step up. The difference in price between the above is around 50euro which is nothing when im spending 550euro on an 8800GTX. I know the ultra has better clocks at default, but is it worth it for just 50euro?
 
Also should i pay the little bit extra to go with an EVGA for the step up in the current climate considering the rumours( yes i know only rumours but still )
 
Thanks

Well, it is a faster card. Is it worth the price difference? Most people will tell you no.
The GTX will simply run just about anything you throw at it very nicely. But if you have the money the burn, and don't mind spending it, why not go for it? You can then brag that you own the fastest card on the planet, for while anyway.

If you mean better card in terms of performance, then the 8800Ultra is king. If you mean better card in terms of value, then the 8800GTX is the way to go.
 
The Ultra is simply a higher clocked version of the GTX; the performance difference is almost always negligible, but the price difference is not.
 
Go with the GTX.

ultra has a better cooler though

ultra has a better cooler though

Double post!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Go with the 8800GTX, and OC it

I have had mine for 4 months now. I have to tell you that it is the best card I have ever had. I do not think that the Ultra is worth the money so get the GTX and save the difference between the 2 and add some more over the next couple of months and then drop in another GTX for SLI that will leave you with nothing to want for a few years.

Great info, thanks guys, well i dont mind paying a an extra 50Euro for the Ultra especially if it has a better cooler.
 
The card im looking at is the EVGA 8800Ultra 768-P2-E881( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] ra&x=0&y=0 ) which works out at $842( out great euro prices, grrrr )
or the EVGA GeForce 8800GTX KO @ 626 MHz, theyre basically the same price, so im just trying to decide which is best, the ultra is better for the e-penis stuff,lol, but im not really into that
 
My situation is that at the damn price i wont be upgrading for at least 12months minimum, id like to wait for the G90 or 8900 GX2( if there is one ) but i can get a 20% discount if i but in the next 3-4 weeks hence im kinda rushed lol( and also why im preferring EVGA in case an 8900 or 8950 comes out soon.  
 
I dont perceive SLI'ing it unless some mega unbelievably fantastic game comes out next year that requires it, but im not aware of any( i have the cash, just have other priorities is all )
 
I just built this new rig( new forum is horrible and it disabled my sig for some reason ) so i wont be upgrading anything for at least 6-8 months, ill probably get a quad core( need to update my 680i for this to OC ) next year as an upgrade after this card. And i'll probably get a water cooling system( my rig OC's to 3.55Ghz no problem, had to reduce it for heat reasons, could be a summer issue though ) or at least a new HSF for the 8800 once ive had it for 6-8 months or so( its expensive dont wanna feck it up, but have added HSF's to other cards in the past ), so ill probably overclock the card if i can.
 
Sorry for the long post, id appreciate any advice or your OC'ing experience/heat issues of either card
 
 

Both the KO and the ultra have a special cooler. The Ultra is just OC'd more.

Do the coolers keep the cards at regular non OC'd 8800GTX temps? I really dont need any extra heat at the moment( sck is acceptable, the 7800GTX generates quite a bit, im sure the 8800 is good bit more ),  
 
The EVGA NB cooler has the stupidest design and blows on the PCIE cards instead of out the back( whoever thought of that needs to be shot ), so stock temp and max temp before artifacting is important to me too( worst comes to the worst it doesnt matter and ill reduce my CPU OC before i get decent cooling, again summer is keeping it hot at the mo )

BUMP sorry for bumping, but seriously i need your input soon guys

I have the 8800GTS 640mb Superclocked VGA, which is nearly the same as the GTX, but about $100 cheaper with guaranteed stability and a warranty (minus a couple shaders and a bit of RAM I believe).  This thing idles quietly, but when I put it under full load (Oblivion at highest settings + forced AA and AF) it really kicks up some heat (the majority of which seems to go through my PSU which is about a centimeter above it (around about a half inch or so for those of you who are American like I am).  The worst part is that it sounds like a jet engine taking off.  Now it's hard to tell whether or not that's my Opteron 185 stock cooler or whether it's the video card, but I suspect it's probably both.  I have an X-Fi sound card and good 5.1 speakers and the noise emanating from my PC is quite noticeable and rather distracting.  This can easily be solved by good noise canceling earphones (I'm thinking Sennheiser) but currently I lack them.  I stress the importance of a good cooler (if you can, water cool it) but it depends on whether or not you have a LAN party PC right next to you on your desk/table as I do, or whether you have it underneath.  It also makes a difference if you want wear headphones all the time or not.  When it's not gaming it's not loud.  But I doubt you'll buy it to surf the net or for the occasional game.  So my advice is to either water cool it or buy yourself a solid expensive pair of noise canceling headphones.  As for the GTX or the Ultra?  I'd buy the GTX and start saving for the next generation of cards.  You can always OC it to faster speeds, but I find it's best to wait awhile to do so until games are made that really require a faster card so you can keep the warranty valid while it's still a card of high value.  If you're trying to not produce more heat than a 7800GTX you're looking at the wrong cards.  My guess is that it'll produce a bit more heat than your 7800GTX regardless.  I mean, they're a 2-slot card and might be longer than your desk is wide.   Don't you just love the new smileys?

 
To fix your sig, click on 'profile' and then 'forum related info'.  The latter is in very small text, but you'll find it if you look hard enough.  Don't ask me how I stumbled across it 'cause I don't know!!!
 
-J.
 

Got it thanks
 

Thanks for the info, the noise dosnt bother me because my scythe mine CPU cooler is a little noisy anyway and its in the tv room so not wearing headphones i wouldnt hear it as herself will have the soaps and what not on the telly. When i have the headphones on its usually loud enough to drown out everything
 
The heat info is interesting because th 680i NB cooler blows directly on the PCI-E cards( stupid design ) so i may have to reduce my CPU OC
 
As for which to get, im still trying to decide on an overclcoked 8800 or the ultra, theyre neigh on the same price. Do you guys think an 8900 or GX2 will come out soon? i havnt heard anything in a while about them. The reason i ask this is from where im getting them and if i stick with EVGA( i case something new comes out soon ) then the 8800GTX at 626Mhz is the same price as the 612Mhz Ultra?

I heard around christmas, but not sure if it is true.

Thats the G90/92 though, i.e. the 9800 series, if there is an 8900 or 8950 it is supposed to be out soon, but i havnt heard anything in ages

I think they are going to skip it.

The Ultra does run a little hotter than the GTX, but it's also a lot faster... yes you can overclock a GTX to Ultra stock speeds, but guess what, you can overclock an Ultra too and it has a higher ceiling.  Sort of like an E6600 vs. an X6800, for sure you can push the E6600 past the X6800's stock speed, but the X6800 has a higher ceiling.  The difference is the Ultra's not nearly as much more expensive than the GTX as the X6800 is compared to normal XPUs.  The Ultra and GTX make a lot of heat but the stock fans are surprisingly quiet for the amount of cooling they do, especially at idle where the're almost dead silent.
 
The Ultra has a newer stepping of the GPU and also runs the GDDR3 RAM at a slightly higher voltage, allowing higher RAM speed (you can do this to a GTX through a board mod as well, but not through software).  Whether it's worth it or not is up to you, but I'd certainly take an Ultra over a factory OC'd GTX like the KO ACS3 now, in fact the Ultra is cheaper ($599 for the EVGA after M-I-R vs. $649 for the ACS3).  The Ultra surely wasn't worth it at launch price, but the market fixed that and the price has come down to be about the right difference over a GTX for the performance.
 
By the way, the factory OC GTS-640 is still pretty far short of a GTX or Ultra, it's not missing a few shaders, it's missing a quarter of them (96 vs 128) and has a narrower memory bus (320 bit vs 384 bit).  (Also has less RAM, but the missing shaders and narrow memory bus matter more.)  The GTS is a nice card, but look up the benchmarks and yo