8800GT vs. 8800GTS vs. 8800GTX... read on please

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football76

Gawd
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Jan 23, 2008
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I sold my 320MB GTS so I'm looking to upgrade. Here are my options;

EVGA 8800GT + Accelero + fan = $265 ($290 shipped next day) Plan to OC a bit
EVGA 8800GTS $300 ($325 next day) Plan to OC a bit
Slightly Used EVGA 8800GTX $280 ($300 next day) OC?

I game at 1280x900. What do you think? I play COD4, Battlefield 2, Crysis, MS Flight Sim X, Bioshock and GOW. The other factor is EVGA's step up program- will the 9xxx series be worth it (the GTX is out of the 90 day step up window)?

These will be used in XP w/ a OC'd C2D E4300 @ 3.0 GHz.

I appreciate your help!
 
At that resolution any of those cards is more then enough. Do you plan to upgrade to a higher rez monitor any time soon? If not, maybe save some money and get a 3850 or something, which would still be plenty of power for that rez.
 
I think I'm going to go w/ an EVGA 8800GT and buy the accelero cooler and fan. I don't plan on changing my monitor anytime soon but if I do I'll have the option to "step-up." Anybody else have any thoughts?

Edit: should I be looking for the accelero S1 or S2?
 
matadorluis said:
If you think the gt needs another fan you should buy the gts ;)
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The 8800gt is quite a bit cheaper though even with fan, also if he only uses a 1280x1024 res the boost from the GTS won't be 50$ more noticeable.

@OP: You should be able to max out just about any game with the gt itself, esp if you're going to oc.
 
I'd go with the GTS. It's within $35 of the setup you're talking about. The GT configured as you indicate will take 3 slots, I believe, if not more to allow air to properly enter your fans. It still won't exhaust outside of the case and will generally look like crap. The Accelero may not even fit into future (or current!) cases you have or may purchase and it will become a critical "shopping point" when choosing a case.

For $35 more you get 15% higher performance (according to what I've read), a well-cooled two-slot solution which exhausts outside of the case, better potential for overclocking (according to what I've read) and something which doesn't look like Frankenstein when you go to sell it.

The GT is a great value, but with your add-ons you've made it a monster and brought it within $35 of a GTS which you can leave stock. Worst case you'd need to replace the TIM on the GTS with something good like AS5 and reassemble.

Either find a cheaper GT to increase bang/buck or get the GTS, IMO.
 
$300 GTX. I know its only a little better than the GTS and GT but for the same price, why not. Then if you upgrade your monitor later you will have enough horsepower. Plus the GTX runs every game great ( except crysis, but i run at very high settings in DX10 and @ 1680x1050 and it plays ok ). Also you can oc the GTX to ultra speeds most of the time.
 
All the tests that I've seen indicate that the GTX is only "better" at high resolutions beyond 1680x1050 where the memory bandwidth is beneficial. At lower resolutions, the G92 GTS seems to exceed the abilities of the GTX often enough.

Generalizing that the "GTX is better", especially to someone who has stated that they run fairly conservative resolution, isn't completely accurate in my opinion. The G92s also have the extra HDTV decoding enhancements and the like that may present value to either the OP or the person he sells this card to.
 
At that res, you should have just kept the GTS 320. I hope you got a good price for it, because I doubt you'll notice any real difference.
 
If you have a 600W PSU, the GTX should be fine, any less than 600W, you'd best let us know what PSU you have to be safe.
I'd get the GTS though with an Accelero S1 cooler, voltmod it then clock the nads off it :)

Dont get the S2 cooler, it has less heatpipes.
Get the S1 Rev 2.
 
8800 GTS 512MB or 8800 GTX. It's a standoff at that res.

No reason to even consider the GT, as after the cooler swap it's huge and nearly as expensive.
 
Well, I ordered the GT for $240. I can still cancel it though...

The GTS is $320 ($300 after mir). What if I forgo the extra cooling on the GT? I'm sure it can reach "superclocked" speeds on the stock cooler (or at least I would hope it could). Then compare the two. One other thing, how well does the stock EVGA GTX OC? It should get to Ultra speeds correct?

GT $240 ($260 shipped)
GTS $300 ($320 shipped)
GTX $280 ($300 shipped)

This is tough. Part of my says stay conservative and stick w/ the GT. Part of me says ,"hey, the GTS overclocks like mad and will destroy @ 1280x900" and part of me says, "dude, you can't go wrong with a GTX!"

The other factor is if I decide to upgrade (In the near future) I could sell the GTX for at least what I'm paying.

*Edit: this is my current PSU. I may be upgrading anyway. PSU HERE

***Edit 2: GT has been canceled for now. I'm waiting to hear back about a possible GTX price drop (possibly $280 shipped). Now lets hear what you guys think.
 
football76 said:
this is my current PSU. I may be upgrading anyway. PSU HERE
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Dont put a GTX on that PSU.
It may work but it may go bang.
A PSU should not be pushed near its limit as it will age much faster, reducing its output.
Even though it might work when you first start using it with a GTX, at any time it could become overloaded as the PSU wears.

Given that I cant find any specs for your PSU, I can only assume the specs arent stellar hence why they havent been published.
Not worth the risk.
 
Well, according to Tom's Hardware the GTX uses ~282watts at load and the GTS 320 (my old card) uses 267. I only have 1 hard drive, 1 DVD drive, 4 80mm case fans and a mildly OC'd E4300.

EDIT: I linked to the wrong PSU before (not sure how though, copy + paste?) Here is my actual PSU: The real one

Specs:
+3.3V@30A, +5V@50A, +12V1@18A, +12V2@18A, -12V@1A, [email protected]
500W
It never had a problem powering my old GTS 320. What do you guys think?
 
Honestly, it's mediocre at best and utter trash at worst. I wouldn't continue to risk it. Coolmax isn't exactly known for quality.
 
I was in a similar dilemma a while back when wanting to buy a new PSU and graphics card so I read up a lot.
My choice was either get the Hyper Type R 580W and wait for the lower power 8800GT or get a 600W+ with stronger 12V rails and get a GTX.
I got the Hyper 580W PSU and an 8800GT.
My 580W PSU has the same 12V ratings as your PSU.

PSUs do wear, even more so when hot so if it isnt new, its unlikely you will get the rated current on the 12V rails.
How much less I cannot help with though.

I have seen the result of PSUs failing after being pushed too hard, it sometimes isnt pretty.
If it cant handle the load at a later date, you might be lucky in that the PC will only become unstable.
There is a risk that it will go bang though which can take out anything attached to it.

I wish I could say yes, use the 500W but I would be negligent.
It might work fine but you are playing the odds.
 
Well I suppose I should upgrade then.

Here are my choices:

PSU 1

PSU 2

PSU 3

The OCZ looks like a monster and it has a perfect rating on newegg w/ over 600 reviews.

The Corsair is well known for being a solid PSU (but only 520W), the modular cables are especially attractive to me.

The Seasonic, well its a seasonic.
 
Newegg overprices quality PSUs. Look at Zipzoomfly.com, Buy.com, ClubIT.com, mwave.com instead.

Of those the Corsair is probably the best option. You might also look at the 620HX (also modular) or the 550VX, which is non-modular but may save you a few dollars if you don't care about that sort of thing.

The Seasonic is also good, but their support isn't that great. Seasonic actually builds the Corsair PSUs, but it's probably worth a small price premium to deal with Corsair should something ever go wrong (and get a longer warranty).

Stay away from OCZ branded PSUs -- most are built on the FSP Epsilon platform, and have out of spec DC ripple on the 12v rails at high load. You may never load the PSU enough to induce this ripple, but it isn't worth risking it. Heavy DC ripple can kill your components over time.
 
Hey thanks for the heads up. I'm ordering the 520HX off of buy.com for $90 or the 620HX for $120 or the 550VX for $70. :)
 
I'd say go with the 550VX for that price, especially if your case has some reasonably good cable management.
 
^^I've got a Lian-Li PC-61 (pretty much stock, I'm upgrading the fans). I usually stuff all the extra PSU wires up top in front of the PSU where nobody can see them. The top fan is somewhat blocked but still blows plenty of air.
 
football76 said:
^^I've got a Lian-Li PC-61 (pretty much stock, I'm upgrading the fans). I usually stuff all the extra PSU wires up top in front of the PSU where nobody can see them. The top fan is somewhat blocked but still blows plenty of air.
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Should be fine then.
 
It was a deal from a friend who was going to go w/ triSLI but decided it wasn't worth it.

I went with a 8800GTS 512 and a VX550. :)
 
Theres the capital cost

and the running cost

id say, save on your bills and get the GTS... the GTX is a long card nevertheless, it also sucks in all the coal they burn down your powerstation. But then your in the US i presume, then most people there dont care anyway... so just go for GTX if you want the one that sounds the most UBER otherwise the cooler less power consuming gts is the way to go
 
Leepox said:
Theres the capital cost

and the running cost

id say, save on your bills and get the GTS... the GTX is a long card nevertheless, it also sucks in all the coal they burn down your powerstation. But then your in the US i presume, then most people there dont care anyway... so just go for GTX if you want the one that sounds the most UBER otherwise the cooler less power consuming gts is the way to go
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"If you have nothing nice to say don't say anything at all."

They teach some of us that pretty early over here.
 
JVC said:
the gtx is faster than both the gts 512 and the gt.
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I think the decision was already made a few days ago. But, depending on resolution this can be true. If the GTS overclocks like a bat out of hell, then the margin lessens even at a high resolution.

Congratulations on your new video card though. Have fun with it and don't look back! You might want to stop reading reviews or this section of the forum for awhile (a couple years) :p.
 
I have the same CPU setup...a 4300 running at 3.1g

Im running a 8800gts 640m and things are smooth.
I usually play at 1680x1050
Only thing i need to do is drop the rez some for crysis
 
skizzled said:
I think the decision was already made a few days ago. But, depending on resolution this can be true. If the GTS overclocks like a bat out of hell, then the margin lessens even at a high resolution.
Click to expand...

at least its the newer g92 card. (i need a new video card.)
 
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