Worth upgrading an 8800GTS 640?

C

citizen__erased

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 24, 2002
Messages
445
I've currently got an 8800GTS 640 that i've had since launch. It's done me pretty well, in fact it still does well even at 1920x1200 in most games (except crysis:rolleyes:). Is it worth upgrading it at the moment? Or should I hang on for the next gen? I'm kinda eying the 4870.
 
I upgraded to a 4850 and am very happy.:D The 4870 is even better and I would go for it.

The 8800GTS 640MB still has some life in it but will come to crawl with most newer games on the horizon. You can wait or get a 4870 and crank up the details in the games you're playing right now.
 
If you're games are running fine, I would just wait for the new cards to come out. From the sound of it, the 40nm cards are going to pack quite a punch. I've seen rumors that it could come as early as the first quarter of 09. I'm personally going to wait out for that so I can spend 200-300 dollars on a great card. If you don't have the patience go ahead and grab a 4870, you'll see a nice improvement in FPS.
 
My 8800GTS640 is struggling with modded oblivion and modded stalker, and given that clear sky is about to come out soon, I'm definitely tempted to upgrade. The question is whether I should get an X2 or not :p
 
Kaldskryke said:
My 8800GTS640 is struggling with modded oblivion and modded stalker, and given that clear sky is about to come out soon, I'm definitely tempted to upgrade. The question is whether I should get an X2 or not :p
Click to expand...

Really? My 8800GTS has no issues with either of those. Though I still plan to upgrade to a 4870 (x2 or not, I'm not sure yet) because of some things coming out soon that will probably bring the 8800 to it's knees at high res.
 
My 640 definitely can't handle modded Oblivion. It handled COD4, CoH:OF and Crysis struggled (CoH was unplayable with the settings I wanted). Didn't like WiC or Supreme Commander. TF2 isn't worth mentioning as Valve games tend to be like Blizzard in that they run well on most anything. Stalker seems fine at my desired settings but I just started it and haven't modded.

If you can't do without AA and max details, and want to secure good/playable settings in 90% of games released between now and say, first half of 09, get the 4870. You may still get a decent price for your GTS on ebay from someone looking to SLI.

Short answer: it is worth the money if you want to really get the most out of a 24" monitor.
 
I've got an 8800gt oc and can play every game that I want @ 1920x1200 with high graphics settings. I don't see a need for you or me to upgrade.

I plan on upgrading when a video card can max out Crysis @ 1920x1200 in windows XP....these new cards don't seem much faster in crysis and thats the only game that I really struggle with
 
A 4870 will provide you with a nice bump in graphics quality and an overall boost in FPS compared to your 640MB 8800GTS. I went from an SLI set up with two of those to a SLI setup with two 8800GT's. My 4870 almost gets the same 3DMARK06 score all by itself, not that that really means anything. If you plan to hang on to it for a while, get yourself a HD4870.
 
I just got an aftermarket cooler and OC'd my 8800 GTS 640 up a bit to improve it's lifetime, but I'm kind of cheap like that.

It depends on how much money you want to spend but GPU prices are good right now so you can't go wrong buying a new one.
 
Why do 8800GT owners seem to think their card is imbued with magical powers? 17fps is not acceptable to most enthusiasts, or even most gamers. It has had its' day @ 1920x1200.
 
Orangey said:
Why do 8800GT owners seem to think their card is imbued with magical powers? 17fps is not acceptable to most enthusiasts, or even most gamers. It has had its' day @ 1920x1200.
Click to expand...

Why do "enthusiasts" like you have to post elitist BS like this? Not really sure, it's just the way the world works.

The 8800 line are still a damn good cards, and it makes sense that people want to make sure they are getting a clear upgrade before they replace it. Put down the elitist hormones, you aren't that cool or special.
 
I have to admit that I found the 8800GTS G80 640 rather slow in terms of "real" in game performance. Quickly upgraded to 8800GTX which resulted in much better performance at 1900x1200. That was almost two years ago though and the new GPU's like the 4870 should be even better.

It really depends on whether you find laggy, low image quality performance at these resolutions to be acceptable. Some people are ok with this. But, for anything at 1900x1200 and above, and with high image quality options turned on, based on my real experience, I find the 8800 G80 GTS to be underpowered, and would definately upgrade.

p.s. let's not confuse this with the 8800GTS G92 512 which is a much more powerful card.
 
All the games I've played up the this point with mine have been great. I run 1920x1200 in everything, with 8xAF and some AA.

I've been tempted by the new cards. But, I'm waiting for FarCry 2 to come out. If the current new cards get their asses kicked in FC2, I will wait until something capable is released.

Besides, I spend most my time in TF2. Not exactly a GPU killer.

Looking at this thread, I see a pretty wide variance in opinions. I did a lot of testing with the 8800 series cards. I boil it down to this

G80 based cards - Still capable of all of today's games. Might need overclocked to stay above 60fps. Has the memory bandwidth for 1920x1200 +

G92 based cards - Faster than G80 is many situations, except those that require intense memory bandwidth. At 1680x1050 or lower, G92 pwns G80.
 
My 8800 GT is fine at 1650x1080. Until I can't max a game out at that res I think i'm okay.
 
Orangey said:
Why do 8800GT owners seem to think their card is imbued with magical powers? 17fps is not acceptable to most enthusiasts, or even most gamers. It has had its' day @ 1920x1200.
Click to expand...


wow its almost your one week anniversary of joining and your already feeling like a vet? grow up.
 
mnewxcv said:
wow its almost your one week anniversary of joining and your already feeling like a vet? grow up.
Click to expand...

Join date and post count are meaningless, really. It's not like someone didn't exist in normal spacetime before joining.

I wrote what I wrote because I'm sick of 8800GT owners over-exaggerating their playable settings. It adds confusion when someone is just trying to get advice.
 
At this point in time, it really depends on how happy you are with your current card. Is it playing the games you want the way you want? Then wait until a new game comes out that is going to stress your current card. Prices aren't going to go up. By the same token, if you feel you need a little more power, now is as good a time to upgrade as any - both manufacturers have new generations out, and any mid-life upgrades will be small and probably not occur for a couple of months. Stepping into a 4850/4870/260 right now would provide some healthy performace increases and you don't risk them being outdated by something newer in a month or so (all rumors of a 260+ being just that, rumors).
 
Thanks for all your comments guys! Certainly some food for thought there. Whilst playing games at high settings on native resolution, I feel my 8800 is just about coping at the moment. I really don't think it'll cut the mustard for much longer at 1920x1200 though. Reckon I may hang on until Xmas and see what the prices do. Would make a nice Xmas pressie I reckon :D
 
Personally I'de wait until a card is capable of playing crysis and farcry 2 with high settings @1920x1200.

Atleast your not buying a 4870 or 4850 now though...IMO its a complete waste
 
I just bit on a 260 at ~$180 shipped to replace my 8800 GT
Wasnt really planning to but at that price I couldnt resist...
 
I have a GeForce 8800GTS 640mb OC2.

I am placing the order for a 260 GTX on monday.

Recently, since I went dual screen my gts has took a massive crap on me, even while it is over clocked to the max.

I like running DS because it lets me game at 1680x1050 and I have my other screen for my desktop for apps like ventrilo, speed fan, and other chat and hardware monitoring programs. It feels great.

But even when playing CoD4 my fps is almost never above 50fps.
In smoke it gets down to 8-12fps.
 
Scheibler1 said:
Atleast your not buying a 4870 or 4850 now though...IMO its a complete waste
Click to expand...
I think the 4850 makes for a nice upgrade considering it can be had for around $150 w/MIR. It may have a short system life, but for $150 you can get a nice boost in performance while cranking up the AA and other details in games. Mass Effect plays much smoother for me and Oblivion can be pretty much be maxed out. For me it was a budget issue to get the 4850, but I will probably get a 4870 later on if needed or wait for the next gen cards and build a new gaming rig around that.

Even the 4870 is damned cheap compared to what the 8800GTS 640MB card was selling for over a year ago.

I'd only avoid buying now if you're not planning on buying any new games that will need a bump in speed at 1920x1200. I suppose you could keep a G80 card for maybe another year and either drop the screen resolution or lower the details on newer games.
 
I popped for a 4870 to upgrade my 8800gtx and after a week of playing everything that I want to play with it, I returned it. There is no way that it's worth $299 for the speed I thought I would get. I guess the AA on the 4870 was nice but overall I just couldn't justify the little increase that I could percieve in the current games I play @ 1900x1200.

I'll wait for the next round of cards and by then a few of this years latest and greatest games should be available. (* I know this is a little bit ot on the hardware you asked about, imo wait if things are fine atm)
 
Nomjr1 said:
I popped for a 4870 to upgrade my 8800gtx and after a week of playing everything that I want to play with it, I returned it. There is no way that it's worth $299 for the speed I thought I would get. I guess the AA on the 4870 was nice but overall I just couldn't justify the little increase that I could percieve in the current games I play @ 1900x1200.
Click to expand...

I noticed an almost 100% gain in both Crysis and Oblivion in over my 8800GTS 640mb.
 
That's where I'm at (8800gtx) . Though I diddn't buy the card, my neighbor bought one (4870) and after a few nights of fooling around with it, I to have come to that same conclusion . I say the OP should wait .

Nomjr1 said:
I popped for a 4870 to upgrade my 8800gtx and after a week of playing everything that I want to play with it, I returned it. There is no way that it's worth $299 for the speed I thought I would get. I guess the AA on the 4870 was nice but overall I just couldn't justify the little increase that I could percieve in the current games I play @ 1900x1200.

I'll wait for the next round of cards and by then a few of this years latest and greatest games should be available. (* I know this is a little bit ot on the hardware you asked about, imo wait if things are fine atm)
Click to expand...
 
I'm in the same situation as you (OP) but personally I'm waiting to see if nVidia give us a dice-shrink before the end of the year before deciding whether or not to upgrade...
 
Our G80 640s go for like $120 on Ebay, and the GTX 260 is going for $160. So it's kind of a no brainer, but I'm waiting for 55 nm 260s, since I game at 1680 x 1050, and everything except Crysis cruises at that resolution.
 
Nomjr1 said:
I popped for a 4870 to upgrade my 8800gtx and after a week of playing everything that I want to play with it, I returned it. There is no way that it's worth $299 for the speed I thought I would get. I guess the AA on the 4870 was nice but overall I just couldn't justify the little increase that I could percieve in the current games I play @ 1900x1200.

I'll wait for the next round of cards and by then a few of this years latest and greatest games should be available. (* I know this is a little bit ot on the hardware you asked about, imo wait if things are fine atm)
Click to expand...

Fully agree. The 8800GTX (G80) is still an excellent card after all this time and I don't see a reason to upgrade at the moment.

But that does not change the fact that it's crippled brother, the 8800GTS G80 640, is underpowered at 1900x1200+. It was significantly slower than the GTX when it first came out almost two years ago, and looks even weaker now when compared to the newer cards. Anyone who thinks that the 8800GTS 640 G80 is fine at 1900x1200 with games graphics that actually stress the GPU has not seen the difference, and if you have nothing to compare it against, you may even really believe that its mediocre performance at high res is normal. If I were gaming at high resolution and had an old G80 GTS, I'd upgrade - prices are so good now for fairly powerful GPU's that you'd get a significant improvement at an excellent price.
 
Forceman said:
Yeeesh, that's a good deal. Where did you find that?
Click to expand...

Couple of deals at approximately that price floating around on the [H]OT Deals page. If you get live.com cashback it can go down to as low as $150 or so.
 
I agree with you totally echn111. Pricing on the 48xx and the GTX series is just what us consumers have been waiting for. Your not making a bad decision if you purchase one of todays cards OP. Wait if you can or buy now and enjoy :p
 
I've seen a GTX260 for £169 and i'm very tempted. Not sure the performance difference would be big enough though. Going to hang on till Xmas and see what the price of the GTX280 does.
 
Well, Im not sure what my SIG says off the top of my head, but Im running SLI 88gts's (320s) and I do just fine. I actually have SLI disabled right now because folding/I think My CPU is a bottleneck. My Q66 comes in tuesday so that will answer that question, but even running one 320 on a very heavy OC I get medium Crysis @ 16x12 and everything else (COD4, UT3, BF2:SF. BF 2142, Wuake Wars, CnC3, etc..) Just fine at Max at 16x12 with one card, Ive almost no reason to have two (unless the Q66 helps that out, I think my E22 is a bottleneck, but at 30 bucks, I couldnt say no lol)

I can only imagine things getting better when the new CPU gets here (twice the cores and 8 times the cache? HELL YA!) SLI might even be a good thing then. I got the cards back at the FX closeout sale thing for 59 a piece so Im not complaing, but I love my little-engine-that-could cards and dont plan on replacing them soon.

However, I will mention that this is the first time really in a few years that ATI an Nv have had all their cards on the table and the outcome is short of amazing, Id really wait If I were you because both companies have it in their best interests to put out stellar cards sometime near xmas or early 09 and even if they are gaming MONSTERS and you dont wanna spend the cash, it will drive down last gen cards (48 series, GTX2 series..) to better prices. SO you really have endless options. like others have said, its up to you, your paying for it and you get the results, nothing we say reallly matters in the end, but I just wanted to post and show you there are still people holding on to the 88s and are happy with them! Good luck whichever u choose.

~Vault

PS I just got my new 24" monitor/TV, its amazing, but I dont know how 19x12 will handle but Im guessing its just shy of my 16x12 numbers. So nothing really changes, I just get an amazing monitor now..
 
Complete n00b question, but if my motherboard has PCI Express 1.0 16x slots (ASUS P5N32-E SLI ), can I upgrade my 8800GTS 640 MB to a, for example, ATI 4850? I plan on adding 2GB of Ram, going Quad Core and getting the new vid card soon, but I haven't been following all of the recent developments on all fronts.
 
Vryce said:
Complete n00b question, but if my motherboard has PCI Express 1.0 16x slots (ASUS P5N32-E SLI ), can I upgrade my 8800GTS 640 MB to a, for example, ATI 4850? I plan on adding 2GB of Ram, going Quad Core and getting the new vid card soon, but I haven't been following all of the recent developments on all fronts.
Click to expand...

you can but if you have an SLI board I would stay with Nvidia. In fact if you can pick up a cheap GTS640 that would be a pretty good upgrade option. two of those in SLI would play most everything nicely at 2.3mp.
 
For what its worth I am upgrading my 8800GTX to a GTX280 for the time being. while the 8800GTX is a nice card its lacking in several games at 2.3mp. its not as smooth as I like ether. Damn nice card but given that you can sell it for ~$150 and buy GTX260 for ~$205 it looks like a good time to upgrade. As I am looking at getting into mechwarrior forever I was looking at the performance in the crysis engine. Still I can recoup around $150 of that selling my old.
 
Valset said:
For what its worth I am upgrading my 8800GTX to a GTX280 for the time being. while the 8800GTX is a nice card its lacking in several games at 2.3mp. its not as smooth as I like ether. Damn nice card but given that you can sell it for ~$150 and buy GTX260 for ~$205 it looks like a good time to upgrade. As I am looking at getting into mechwarrior forever I was looking at the performance in the crysis engine. Still I can recoup around $150 of that selling my old.
Click to expand...

Sorry for hijacking but mechwarrior forever? What's that?
 
Valset said:
you can but if you have an SLI board I would stay with Nvidia. In fact if you can pick up a cheap GTS640 that would be a pretty good upgrade option. two of those in SLI would play most everything nicely at 2.3mp.
Click to expand...

That's an option, but at least one of the games I play doesn't yet have much SLI support. I'd rather replace. Sticking with nVidia is fine, and probably a good idea considering the chipset.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top