8800GT or 3870 ?

B

brhinton89

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 3, 2006
Messages
277
I have a Thermaltake SILENT PUREPOWER 560 watt psu and i'm wondering whats the fastest card out that this psu can handle. It pumping out about 22amps and from the [H] review the 8800gt RECOMMENDS about 24 amps,and i dont know what the 3850 needs to run. I will be overclocking a E6400 with whatever card i can run on this psu. Any help would be great! This is my psu. http://www.hardwarecooling.com/prod...e_Purepower_560W_Active_PFC_Power_Supply?s=2f
 
Which mobo do you have, you might want to consider 2x8800GT or 2xHD3870 over the Ultra :D
 
brhinton89 said:
I have a Thermaltake SILENT PUREPOWER 560 watt psu and i'm wondering whats the fastest card out that this psu can handle. It pumping out about 22amps and from the [H] review the 8800gt RECOMMENDS about 24 amps,and i dont know what the 3850 needs to run. I will be overclocking a E6400 with whatever card i can run on this psu. Any help would be great! This is my psu. http://www.hardwarecooling.com/prod...e_Purepower_560W_Active_PFC_Power_Supply?s=2f
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my first c2d build i used a 580wt hiper psu with 38 amps on the 12v rail. in a rig built around an e6300@3.2ghz, 2gig of ram@960mhz, a single 160gb hdd, no optical drive, and an evga 8800gtx acs3, during gaming i bsod related to the nvidia drivers. i had to run the gpu fan at 100% to avoid the error. it wasn't until i switched to a psu that offered 48 amps on the 12v rail that i didn't need to over run the gpu fan. while the 8800gt draws much less power than an overclocked gtx, overclocking an e6400 to anywhere near 3ghz may be too much for your psu.
 
I'd go with the HD 3870. Its bigger, but its also quieter, cooler, cheaper, higher performance/price ratio, and looks like its a little more available then the 8800GT (The HD3870 has been fading in and out of stock at NCIX for a while now where the 8800GT is just... no).
 
So i CAN run a 8800GT ? kool!!!!!!!!!! So what about the 3870? Can i run that as well? I have a high-school buddy in management at DELL i've known about 20 years so it wont be hard to get one at a cheap price!!!!!:D ;) :cool:
 
brhinton89 said:
So i CAN run a 8800GT ? kool!!!!!!!!!! So what about the 3870? Can i run that as well? I have a high-school buddy in management at DELL i've known about 20 years so it wont be hard to get one at a cheap price!!!!!:D ;) :cool:
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You should have no problems running a 3870.
 
morfinx said:
ExtremeTech's Dollar/Performance Review:
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2219902,00.asp
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Too bad the 3870 is already up to $270 and out of stock at NewEgg.
There really is very little if any price savings in getting one of those.

Also that review smells a bit funny. Specifically it's interesting how they put the GT and the 3870 at opposite ends of their charts making it harder to see how they stack up to each other. Most charts you'll see on review sites will have the competing cards next to each other so you can most easily see how they match up to each other. Perhaps this is because the point of their article is to make the 3870 seem like an amazing deal when it really isn't so amazing right now. ;)
 
brhinton - Just for your reference this is what I'm running with an OCZ Modstream 450w PSU (25 AMPS on the 12v rail):

X2 4800+ o/c to 2.64ghz (stock volts)
8800GT KO o/c to 695/1725/995 (Accelero S1 passive cooler - no fan)
WD Raptor 150 HDD
Sony CDRW/DVD combo drive
Audigy 2 ZS
Nforce 4 SLI mobo w/ 2gb Corsair RAM o/c to 220mhz (stock volts)
Zalman 7700AlCu CPU cooler @ low, 120mm exhaust fan, 140mm front intake fan, 250mm side intake fan

All runs stable and rock-solid. No power issues.
 
yacoub35 said:
Too bad the 3870 is already up to $270 and out of stock at NewEgg.
There really is very little if any price savings in getting one of those.

Also that review smells a bit funny. Specifically it's interesting how they put the GT and the 3870 at opposite ends of their charts making it harder to see how they stack up to each other. Most charts you'll see on review sites will have the competing cards next to each other so you can most easily see how they match up to each other. Perhaps this is because the point of their article is to make the 3870 seem like an amazing deal when it really isn't so amazing right now. ;)
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Its still a pretty good deal..especially when you can get a 3870 from Dell for $223..
 
Question becomes what is the benchmark speed differences b etween the avg overclock of the 3870 and avg overclock of the 8800GT.

If they are very similar then take the 3870 since it runs cooler and is more silent.
 
WhyYouLoveMe said:
brhinton - Just for your reference this is what I'm running with an OCZ Modstream 450w PSU (25 AMPS on the 12v rail):

X2 4800+ o/c to 2.64ghz (stock volts)
8800GT KO o/c to 695/1725/995 (Accelero S1 passive cooler - no fan)
WD Raptor 150 HDD
Sony CDRW/DVD combo drive
Audigy 2 ZS
Nforce 4 SLI mobo w/ 2gb Corsair RAM o/c to 220mhz (stock volts)
Zalman 7700AlCu CPU cooler @ low, 120mm exhaust fan, 140mm front intake fan, 250mm side intake fan

All runs stable and rock-solid. No power issues.
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I was just making sure i could run a good setup that will hold me awhile on my psu because i'm that guy that goes about 3-4 years between upgrades and IF i NEED a new psu i can go get one.I have about $800 to buy a good vid card,ram,mobo and psu if i need one.
 
mle said:
Question becomes what is the benchmark speed differences b etween the avg overclock of the 3870 and avg overclock of the 8800GT.

If they are very similar then take the 3870 since it runs cooler and is more silent.
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Wow there alot of votes for the 3870.............i guess thats my new card! :D:p
 
brhinton89 said:
I was just making sure i could run a good setup that will hold me awhile on my psu because i'm that guy that goes about 3-4 years between upgrades and IF i NEED a new psu i can go get one.I have about $800 to buy a good vid card,ram,mobo and psu if i need one.
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If you want to buy a mobo, I assume you want a CPU too. To upgrade your mobo otherwise is generally pointless unless you want to go SLI or are having real problems with your current one.

If you're set on a 3870, and the price quoted before was accurate, then here would be my recommendations if you need a CPU:

Video Card: Radeon 3870, Dell, $223
RAM: 4GB Corsair XMS2, Newegg, $106 (as you can only get one MIR per address)
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600, Newegg, $280
Motherboard: abit IP35 Pro for overclocking and Crossfire or Gigabyte P35C-DS3R for expandability and upgradability (and still good at overclocking, just not as much so as the abit), either one $150 (after $30 rebate for the abit)

Total: $759


If you don't need a CPU, then you probably don't need to upgrade anything but your graphics card. In that case, with that amount of money you'd might as well get an eVGA 8800 GTX. :D
 
farfromhome said:
If you want to buy a mobo, I assume you want a CPU too. To upgrade your mobo otherwise is generally pointless unless you want to go SLI or are having real problems with your current one.

If you're set on a 3870, and the price quoted before was accurate, then here would be my recommendations if you need a CPU:

Video Card: Radeon 3870, Dell, $223
RAM: 4GB Corsair XMS2, Newegg, $106 (as you can only get one MIR per address)
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600, Newegg, $280
Motherboard: abit IP35 Pro for overclocking and Crossfire or Gigabyte P35C-DS3R for expandability and upgradability (and still good at overclocking, just not as much so as the abit), either one $150 (after $30 rebate for the abit)

Total: $759


If you don't need a CPU, then you probably don't need to upgrade anything but your graphics card. In that case, with that amount of money you'd might as well get an eVGA 8800 GTX. :D
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I dont need a CPU. Im running a E6400 c2d on a ECS with an agp vid card. The $800 that i have to spend is to upgrade the mobo,ram(pc2700), and vid card(6800GT).
 
brhinton89 said:
Wow there alot of votes for the 3870.............i guess thats my new card! :D:p
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Considering the fact that you can place an order for a XFX 8800GT from Dell today for about $200, there is absolutely no reason to settle for a 3870 that's around 15% slower on average.
 
brhinton89 said:
I dont need a CPU. Im running a E6400 c2d on a ECS with an agp vid card. The $800 that i have to spend is to upgrade the mobo,ram(pc2700), and vid card(6800GT).
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Ah, I didn't think of that possibility. My humble apologies for making too many assumptions. Well, take away the CPU suggestion, and you should have enough money left over for a 8800 GTX. :D That said, if you're running at 1680x1050 or below (maybe even 1920x1200), the 8800 GT should be plenty good. :)
 
Btw, I wanted to know about this also recently when I bought my 700 watt PSU (hasn't arrived yet), but the requirement is 24 amp COMBINED...not per rail. Most PSUs, even at 600+ watts with 4 12v rails will have 18-20 amps per rail and some with 3 rails will have say, 15, 15 and 20+. That does not mean that the 4 rail PSU won't handle a PCI express card. In fact, it could easily handle 2. Check the "combined" number...it's usually 50 or so amps for $100+ PSUs.
 
farfromhome said:
Ah, I didn't think of that possibility. My humble apologies for making too many assumptions. Well, take away the CPU suggestion, and you should have enough money left over for a 8800 GTX. :D That said, if you're running at 1680x1050 or below (maybe even 1920x1200), the 8800 GT should be plenty good. :)
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Its kool dude..............i jus want to make DARN sure 22amps is enough for an 8800GT but most people here give me the impression that i dont have enough to power an 8800GT. I would rather have a 8800GT.:)
 
brhinton89 said:
Its kool dude..............i jus want to make DARN sure 22amps is enough for an 8800GT but most people here give me the impression that i dont have enough to power an 8800GT. I would rather have a 8800GT.:)
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The 8800GT "itself" does not use 22 amps.
The 22amp nvidia recommendations is a rough system wide recommendation. It totally depends what you have in your system. If you have say 1C2D CPU, 1HDD, 1DVD then and then put in a GT, 22amp it will be fine, although more overhead is always nice.
 
Well, I did a 10 minute google search and looked at all the 8800 gt and 3870 reviews I could find, all of them showed that the 8800 GT is ahead in terms of performance by at least a couple FPS in every game (don't say 2 FPS isn't worth the extra ~60 dollars, I said AT LEAST, most were around 10-15)
 
Battleneter2 said:
The 8800GT "itself" does not use 22 amps.
The 22amp nvidia recommendations is a rough system wide recommendation. It totally depends what you have in your system. If you have say 1C2D CPU, 1HDD, 1DVD then and then put in a GT, 22amp it will be fine, although more overhead is always nice.
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THAT is exactly what i have in my system! :D But from the [H] review,Kyle says Nvidia recommends 24 amps IIRC. :confused:
 
forcefed said:
Dont worry, you can run a 8800ultra with a psu like that.
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no, that's not true. My EVGA ultra recommends at least of minimum of 34 amps on the 12V. You could probably run a ultra with a little less but only 22 amps would be asking for trouble. The GT only requires 22amps on the 12V so your PSU should be fine for that card.
 
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