8800 GT Upgrade Help

[glowtraq]

Hi, I currently have an x800 GTO2 and would like to upgrade it with an 8800 GT, thing is I don't know which one to get, since there are so many. I currently have 250 bucks to spend, I keep hearing rumors of people over clocking their cores from 600-650 to 750, is this true? Which models allow you to do this favorably?

- Thanks

 

[vogar34]

Well there is no way to really know what clocks you are going to achieve on a certain card before purchase. Higher clocked versions are available for higher prices, but you may be able to get to those speeds on a slower clocked version of the same card, which you usually can.

As of what to get I tend to prefer EVGA cards like this one here
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130296
EVGA has a lifetime warranty and a step up program that are very useful and allow you to upgrade to a different card within a certain time period. As of right now the step up program is available for the first three months.

 

[Big D.]

I got the eVGA one for 299 with a 40-50 dollar game and I'm pretty happy, although I would have liked the new version with the larger fan. This one's fine at 30-45%, but anything over 50% is just loud as hell. My DVD burner's louder when I use it, but my system's got huge, quiet fans so I really hear the video card if I turn up the fan speed.

Anyway but performance's great and in my case, temperatures only go up to around 75 degrees (30-40% fan speed) when playing games, not 90+ like some people were saying. (23 degrees in my room btw)

If you're from the states, definitely get the eVGA 8800GT Superclocked if it's at around $250, and if you really don't want to pay more, you can usually get the BFG overclocked one for less than the eVGA version. (BFG was 250-260 versus my 299 when I bought it, but with a game, the eVGA came down to about the same price)

 

[haadij404]

I went to best buy today and they had it for sale - $237. I used a 12% reward zone coupon and that brought it down to $219 which is a great price. Its the BFG version which is slighty overclocked. I think normal is 600mhz core and this came at 625mhz is really isn't anything special. I overclocked it and reached 725mhz easily. Didn't wanna take it further cause of heat and the fan on above 60% is like a screaming banshee. I got the memory up to 1000mhz. Which is a pretty good overclock. This is the first card where heat really limited my OC and I sure as hell ain't spending money on an aftermarket cooler.