Hi guys

Well it seems I've grown tired of some of my games bogging down with low
fp2, so I'm thinking of a new card.

After seen the 8800gts on Newegg for about $140 (with a $30 rebate) I just about wet myself lol

It's been a while since I priced out cards and had no clue that prices had dropped that low for a 88xx card.

But while reading different site reviews I also came across the new 9600 card.

Though it's reduced in several areas it still seemed to hold up pretty well in the bench tests I've seen.

One thing is my current monitor tops out at 1280x1024 85hz which I'm fine with for a while. So I don't "need" a ton of memory for the high def settings.

Basically looking for the best bang for the buck...and I'm thinking that the 8800gts card is going to be hard to beat in that category so I thought I'd toss out the question here to the experts

Any opinion or view is quite welcome (as always)

Regards

MC

Here's a few links on both cards for any that are interested


9600 GT 512mb - $159.99 (after rebate)

- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130328
- http://www.digit-life.com/articles3/...g94-part1.html
- http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3234

8800 GTS 320mb - $114.99 (after rebate)

- http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16814130082
- http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=2953&p=6
- http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/416/
- http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/articl...50aHVzaWFzdA==

OR for a bit more headroom for future resolutions or mem intensive games:

GeForce 8800GTS SSC 640MB - $199.00 (after rebate)

- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130317

If you wanted the "best" card for the "best" price which card do you think falls into the best price/performance ratio?

OR, should I wait and see how some of the higher end 8800 cards drop once the 9xxx series really gets going?

What say you?

thx

Those are old g80 8800gts. The new g90 8800gts perform far better, despite sharing the 8800gts name. They're a different breed apart. Consider this one, $225, and $195 after mail in rebate. It comes with factory oc and a free game.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814127325

Benchmark comparasion of oced version of g92 8800gts to 9800gtx:
http://en.expreview.com/2008/04/03 [...] review/12/

WAIT WAIT WAIT

If you can wait for 2 more months, new cards from ATI and Nvidia are coming out. ATI (AMD) is releasing the 4850 and 4870, which double the number of ROPs (a supposed bottleneck on the 38xx) and increase stream processors by 50%. That may mean the cards are 50% faster while selling for under $300 (supposed target).

Nvidia is also due to the release the 9900GT sometime around July, which will be the GT200 chip. It will be expensive (rumor of $500), but it will drive the cost of current cards down.

It's gonna be more than 2 months before Nvidia releases the 9000's. It's scheduled for Q3 minus delays. Depends on what res you game on. If you do high res you sure as heck don't want a weak 320 gts. The 8800GT's are about as low as you're gonna see them even after a 9000 series launch.

Here is how I look at it:
8800gts (g92) 512mb>8800gt (g92) 512mb>9600gt
I'd get an eVga card, since you can use their 90 day "Step Up" program, if needed. This might buy you some time until the newer GPU's from nVidia come out. Otherwise the Limited Lifetime warranty is a good reason to buy eVga.
At a minimum I'd go with the 9600gt followed by the 8800gts (g92) 512mb card. The 8800gt is nice, but if you don't get one with a better cooling solution than I would rather have the cooler and faster 8800gts (g92). Rumor also has it that AMD might be bringing out their newer GPU's sooner than later, might be within a couple of weeks. This might/might not change nVidia's prices. Time will tell.

So for even at near just $114 you wouldn't bump up to the 8800gts 320? My monitor is maxed at 1280x1026 85hz (Samsung 700ift crt) so I'm not worried about the rez atm.

Would the performance boost from the 7800GS be noticeable?

Then maybe 6 months or so I could see where the prices are...

Hard to decide, there's always something better on the horizon, these cards just seemed like a good price for a better card than I have atm you know

OK, so you have a 7800GS AGP, but now you are buying a PCI-e card for a new rig (or mobo that supports both)?

Forget the 8800GTS 640MB SSC. It peforms like an 8800GT for more money.

Depending what you want to spend, sticking to NV, the G92 8800GTS 512MB would be best, then the 8800GT, then the 9600GT, then the 8800GS. All 4 are great for the money. Here are some options starting at about $100 and going up:

Better than the 320MB GTS for less money $110 shipped AR:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814130333

Then the 9600GT (oodles to choose from) is a bit better with fsaa.

Next is the 8800GT 512MB with sweet Quad cooler or cheaper reference cooler:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814127329
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814130318

One step up is the 8800GTS 512MB:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814127325


Oh, and prices are so freakin' amazing now (in the USA anyway) I just can't understand anyone saying wait. If $100-200 is your price range, there has never been a better time to buy as prices have dropped and the table is stacked with great performers throughout that price range.

Looks like your budget is quite, small.
I think the 9600gt is a better buy than the old 8800gts's.
Or just wait a few months till the 9900 or the 4800s come out, then everything's gonna change.
Price too!

7800GS is AGP. All the cards you are looking at are PCI-e. Do you have a MB that runs both?

Thanks a lot guys for the suggestions and info

It's not that my budget is "that" small, it's just that the surprisingly low price for the 8800 gts 320 really caught my eye and got me excited about the prospect of a better card for a great price.

Then I began digging a bit further and found a few more that seemed like similar good deals.

I normally stay a year or so out from the top line cards, till the prices fall between 2-3 hundred...so $114 (AR) looked like a steal for a good 8800 card.

This is my current setup:

/ASRock 939 Dual/AMD 64 4000+/G.SKILL 2GB DDR 400 (PC 3200)/eVGA 7800GS/500GB Seagate 16MB cache/200GB Seagate 8MB cache/80GB WD SE 8MB cache/Lite-On DVDRW SOHW-1693S/400w RaidMax PS/Windows XP Pro SP2

and yes my mobo will accept pci x16, I'm assuming that the new 2.0 backward compatibility would also work with the new cards, not as much bandwidth perhaps but "compatible" I hope. If not it would give me a great excuse to get a new system

Again thank you for the info, I'll hopefully decide something by the end of the day.

Basically do I want a cheap stepping stone or something better for a bit more heh

Decisions, decisions....

Regards

MC

Yes, pcie2.0 is fully backward compatible. Besides, 8000s Nvidia cards still use only pcie1.1, so it's fine.

http://en.expreview.com/2008/04/02 [...] up/?page=8

I love this article

Basically, the 8800GS is untouchable for 100 bucks, but the extra bill on an 8800GT gives tangible yet debatably worth-while increases. Hopefully scanning these vast and thorough charts for 1280x1024 results will help you make up your mind.

9600gt or 8800gs

Hey I Have two of those mobos myself. You may be interested to know in One I have an 8800GS and have been testing CPU performance between the A64 4000+, X2 4200+, and tonight I'll be installing the AM2 daughter card and testing an X2 5600+ in it. Quite the upgraders mobo supporting native AGP 8X, PCI-e16x, S939 and socket AM2.

Anyway, with S939 X2 dual cores so rare and expensive, and DDR2 much cheaper than DDR, I wanted to look into just what the AM2 X2 + DDR2 upgrade will do for the single core 939 Dual Sata II owner. An AM2 5600+ and 2GB GDDR2 and the daughter card combine are about the cost of a S939 X2 4800+ now. And the used PC3200 should bring in enough money to buy 2GB new PC6400, lowing the upgrade cost more. A whole new system is always an option too, but not everyone wants to go through a new build, OS, and software install if all they need to do is a quick CPU/mem upgrade.

Wow that Chart was very detailed and exactly what I needed!

Thx JuiceJones

After looking over the data and checking out newegg I decided to go with a 8800 GT 512mb!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814130318

After the rebate it's $159 but from the looks of the tests it has quite a bit more power and ability than the 8800 gts card. (the large mem helps i'm sure)

It also will allow me the "ability" to game at a higher rez if I choose to get a new monitor.

If not, I should see very playable (hopefully improved) FPS in my games that I play at 1280x1024

Will be fun to check the numbers and see the real difference between it and my 7800 GS

Again TY to all who replied, every little bit helped and that chart was amazing!

Now I'll need to check my PSU and make sure I have enough power on my 12v rail

Should have the card by the weekend, I'll keep you posted.

Regards 2 All

MC

The 8800GT is nice and will help some in most games for sure. At 12x10 resolution, you will very often be CPU limited with that single core CPU. I think you may have had very similar 12x10 performance on that system with a $100 8800GS. Anyway, crank the FSAA & AF levels to best take advantage of that new card. Good luck.

Yea I was actually thinking the same, but I'm hoping that this will give me a bit more head room for the future, if and when I get a new LCD. And the added pipes and memory will hopefully help with the more memory intensive games.

I was comfortable with spending $50 more (or so) to have a little more freedom.

This should tide me over till I build a new system that will then be able to utilize the card to it's full potential

That's cool that you have 2 of the ASRock boards, I've had nothing but good luck with it. Actually took a gamble and bought it from newegg "refurbished" for $39 lol

Was prepared for it to go either way, but it worked perfect from the first boot

Seeing that you have some experience with the board, what would you recommend as the proper steps to switch from AGP to the PCIe slot?

Should I change out the card 1st and then go into the bios to change to PCIe when booting?

Need to check the manual and see if there's a jumper that needs to be switched as well, I know there is for cpu, not sure about the video slots.

Any thoughts would be appreciated

Regards

MC