Upgrading from 2x PNY 8800GT's XLR8- need recommendations

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paco16

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 20, 2007
Messages
498
Hey there. I have 2 8800gt's that are running wonderfully. However, I've noticed that with intense shading this card just isn't cutting it(even WoW crawls with shaders turned up). Frame-rates are great at 1900x1200 on my 24" Sceptre, however an opportunity has come up and I'm going to jump on it.
I'm building a system for a friend and he's trying to save money on video cards. He wants SLI and offered to buy my old cards and upgrade me to a single GPU (the difference is my fee to build it). I would've done this for free but he's insisting.
Put it this way, I've got a total of $250 to spend on a new card. I'm planning on pairing it up with another of the same in a few months.
I need a card that will run 1900x1200 on all the biggies, (i.e. Crysis, Far Cry 2, COD:W@W, Mirror's Edge, Counter-Strike, WoW, & Fallout 3), but want this card to be an upgrade in performance from 2 8800gt's.
Any ideas? Suggestions. (SLI or X-Fire doesn't matter)

Here are the specs of my rig:

Xclio A380 case
Enermax Infiniti 720
EVGA x58
Intel i7 920(stock for now)
6 gigs of OCZ Platinum DDR3 Triple Channel
All optical drives are SATA II
X-Fi Fatal1ty Champion Series
Sceptre 24" (non-hdmi) 1080P LCD
 
8800GT's in SLI are ridiculously fast, and there aren't many upgrades that will yield better performance.
The GTX 285, while fast, is out of your budget...
Perhaps 2 4850's? But that may not yield the performance increase you're looking for.
Hm..
 
you really don't know which cards to choose from? gtx 260 and 4870 1gb are already retailing for well under $200 before shipping or taxes. if you're looking for better performance in crysis or mirror's edge stick with nvidia.
 
khanis said:
8800GT's in SLI are ridiculously fast, and there aren't many upgrades that will yield better performance.
The GTX 285, while fast, is out of your budget...
Perhaps 2 4850's? But that may not yield the performance increase you're looking for.
Hm..
Click to expand...

I agree... which is why I've called upon my geek brethren to help a...brethren out! :)
I agree with the previous comment. I'm thinking I'll have to stick with Nvidia... So the GTX285 (not the GTX275) would be the next "noticeable" step up in performance?
 
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Note- My friend is no where near ready to start building this... (about 1-2 months out) Anyone see the GTX200's dropping soon? I'm wondering if ATI's announcement that they'll have a DX11 card by July will affect prices.:confused:
 
I made the upgrade 1 month ago. I had 2 x 8800 GT (superclocked eVGAs) in SLI...24" monitor. Just like you said, in shader heavy games, I was stuttering and laggy (e.g. crysis and FC2).

I bought an overclocked MSI (see sig.) GTX 260 (c216 55nm) and it nearly doubled my minimum fps in games like Crysis. The avg FPS went up slightly over the SLI, but not having such a low bottom end, makes a real difference.

After rebate, that gtx cost me $159...I plan on SLI upgrade in a couple of months.

However, if you study real world benches, you will see that when the res is up and the AA is turned up, that the ATI cards are doing better and better.

If I had $250 to spend, I would probably get a Radeon 4890.
 
tekmet said:
I made the upgrade 1 month ago. I had 2 x 8800 GT (superclocked eVGAs) in SLI...24" monitor. Just like you said, in shader heavy games, I was stuttering and laggy (e.g. crysis and FC2).

I bought an overclocked MSI (see sig.) GTX 260 (c216 55nm) and it nearly doubled my minimum fps in games like Crysis. The avg FPS went up slightly over the SLI, but not having such a low bottom end, makes a real difference.

After rebate, that gtx cost me $159...I plan on SLI upgrade in a couple of months.

However, if you study real world benches, you will see that when the res is up and the AA is turned up, that the ATI cards are doing better and better.

If I had $250 to spend, I would probably get a Radeon 4890.
Click to expand...

Even without PhysicsX Processing? (if Mirror's Edge is any indication of what we'll see with PhysicsX in the future... it's a no brainer)
 
paco16 said:
Even without PhysicsX Processing? (if Mirror's Edge is any indication of what we'll see with PhysicsX in the future... it's a no brainer)
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hands down. 4890 right now. another option is a GTX260 and another latter. but I have to tell you, this is coming from a GTX280 owner, outside of the demos physics is even more worthless then DX10.1, there are at least some real benefits in some games to DX10.1. mirror's edge did really do anything outside of putting curtains in it. didn't really affect the game play. and there are several up and coming physics engines that don't require GPU processing that look far more promising.

having said that there is a lot of bang for the buck with a couple of GTX260. but for the performance right now the 4890 for the money. I would not worry about physx or DX10.1 for that matter.
 
Interesting article on GTX275 shootout vs. 4890.

This is making me think twice about the 4890- however 800 stream processing units sounds nice. 1gb of memory outdoes the 275, and GDDR5 as opposed to GDDR3. The EVGA x58 board will run either x-fire or SLI so there's no issue there. Nvidia's drivers are hands-down better than ATI's and Windows 7 support now is a plus for the big N. I'm on the fence here between the two more-so than I've been since the OP.:( Help....!
 
crysis_warhead.jpg

FarCry2.jpg

stalker.jpg

cod.jpg

hawx.jpg

vantage_results.jpg

"Legit Bottom Line: This battle is too close to call, but that doesn't matter as the consumer wins no matter which card they pick."
 
So it's between a 260 OC'd version, a GTX 275 and an ATI 4890... *how to make a poll after the fact* hmmm...
 
paco16 said:
Interesting article on GTX275 shootout vs. 4890.

This is making me think twice about the 4890- however 800 stream processing units sounds nice. 1gb of memory outdoes the 275, and GDDR5 as opposed to GDDR3. The EVGA x58 board will run either x-fire or SLI so there's no issue there. Nvidia's drivers are hands-down better than ATI's and Windows 7 support now is a plus for the big N. I'm on the fence here between the two more-so than I've been since the OP.:( Help....!
Click to expand...

don't start with drivers again...NEVER and EVER..

there is load of people who have problem with nVidia driver including me, not mentioning the L4D SLI issue that still not fix...

also lots of driver failure on Vista 64bit, Win 7 driver still failing...etc...

how is it any better than ATI driver? both side are quite the same in term of STABLE...


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to OP, any GTX card above 260 would be a good choice for nVidia, for ATI 4870 above also makes a good choice..

but I would definitely recommend a 4890 overall, not just the potential of the card, but also the values, especially OC is just a unbeatable beast...
 
shansoft said:
don't start with drivers again...NEVER and EVER..

there is load of people who have problem with nVidia driver including me, not mentioning the L4D SLI issue that still not fix... I've run L4D since release with SLI with no issues... I'm curious, could you elaborate?

also lots of driver failure on Vista 64bit, Win 7 driver still failing...etc...

how is it any better than ATI driver? both side are quite the same in term of STABLE...
To me the ATI drivers act a lot more bloated and at the risk of starting a troll war (different post elsewhere) the Catalyst drivers have been notorious for acting like a virus in the figurative and literal sense (flagged by Symantec)

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to OP, any GTX card above 260 would be a good choice for nVidia, for ATI 4870 above also makes a good choice..

but I would definitely recommend a 4890 overall, not just the potential of the card, but also the values, especially OC is just a unbeatable beast...
Click to expand...

Thanks for the input guys. It's really appreciated. The 4890 "potential".... I'm interested... What does that mean?
 
Oh... another question (sorry I know this is getting a bit deep), what's the benefits of OpenGL 3.0 compliance over 2.1? I see different cards with different compliance versions.
EDIT-sorry... For some reason it didn't click that OpenGL is liek DirectX10 an API for programming. I'm not seeing any games released in OpenGL 3.0... is anyone else? maybe if I were an Adobe PS guru....(which I'm not)
 
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the overclocking 'potential' of the card is what shansoft is referring to. lowest list price i've seen from a major etailer is $239 with free shipping from zzf.
 
paco16 said:
Thanks for the input guys. It's really appreciated. The 4890 "potential".... I'm interested... What does that mean?
Click to expand...

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1412889

it happens on my GTX 295, but 8800 GTX runs fine..

also, when did CCC count as a virus by Symantec ? maybe their Anti-Virus just well known blows?

4980 can easily outperform most of the card in market beside dual GPU solution with just simple OC, no voltage increase require.....

and the price of it is just amazingly low...

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...asp?keywords=4890&searchbtn.x=0&searchbtn.y=0
 
shansoft said:
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1412889

it happens on my GTX 295, but 8800 GTX runs fine..

also, when did CCC count as a virus by Symantec ? maybe their Anti-Virus just well known blows? It was a MOM.exe error that flagged Symantec Corporate V8(i can look for a link if needed). Also got flagged by AVG 7.0 and McAfee V8. didn't get fixed for about 5 months if I remember correctly

4980 can easily outperform most of the card in market beside dual GPU solution with just simple OC, no voltage increase require.....

and the price of it is just amazingly low...

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...asp?keywords=4890&searchbtn.x=0&searchbtn.y=0
Click to expand...

I have to say that the more I read on all 3 cards (GTX 260, 275 & ATI 4890) the more I want any of those cards. I'm still undecided however. All these cards are under the $250 I'll have to spend and look like they'd be amazing once I paired an additional card with it. I do have to say these 8800gt's are freaking work-horses. And for being 2 years old this fall... I more than got my money's-worth out of them. Not as "future-proof" as old faithful (Radeon 9800 Pro- 4 years I ran that thing), but I'm sure I could get another year at least and be completely happy.
 
ewiz has HD 4890 (sapphire) for $235 with additional $20 off if you use their code.

That code might work on other cards as well.
 
Valset said:
hands down. 4890 right now. another option is a GTX260 and another latter. but I have to tell you, this is coming from a GTX280 owner, outside of the demos physics is even more worthless then DX10.1, there are at least some real benefits in some games to DX10.1. mirror's edge did really do anything outside of putting curtains in it. didn't really affect the game play. and there are several up and coming physics engines that don't require GPU processing that look far more promising.

having said that there is a lot of bang for the buck with a couple of GTX260. but for the performance right now the 4890 for the money. I would not worry about physx or DX10.1 for that matter.
Click to expand...

I've had physx enabled on two games and I can tell you that I am not that impressed right now. UT3 uses physx and the effect are mediocre. Agreed on dx 10.1...hell, Already talking dx 11 for ATI in july, but imho even dx10 is over rated...meh.
 
paco16 said:
I have to say that the more I read on all 3 cards (GTX 260, 275 & ATI 4890) the more I want any of those cards. I'm still undecided however. All these cards are under the $250 I'll have to spend and look like they'd be amazing once I paired an additional card with it. I do have to say these 8800gt's are freaking work-horses. And for being 2 years old this fall... I more than got my money's-worth out of them. Not as "future-proof" as old faithful (Radeon 9800 Pro- 4 years I ran that thing), but I'm sure I could get another year at least and be completely happy.
Click to expand...

Oh, and I sold my 8800 GTs on ebay for a buy it now price of $80...they were purchased in 4 hours. I got 1.25 years of use out of them, and got 33% of their orig purchase price back through resale, which I used to buy my gtx 260.
 
tekmet said:
Oh, and I sold my 8800 GTs on ebay for a buy it now price of $80...they were purchased in 4 hours. I got 1.25 years of use out of them, and got 33% of their orig purchase price back through resale, which I used to buy my gtx 260.
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So it's not just me that thinks these cards"rock the Casbah".... noice.:D

Weigh in on the poll I've posted on this issue if you all get a chance. Again, thanks so much for everyone's input. I can honestly say my PC component search is much more enjoyable since I discovered the big [H].
 
I had dual 8800GTs too. BFG. While the move to a 4890 is not that drastic of an upgrade speedwise, I've noticed several improvements, most notably using 8x AA on just about anything without slowdowns and hitches. Temps are better, resulting in an overall cooler case and lowered CPU temps. Overcloked, the GTs got me over 19000 3dMarks 06 fwiw.

Perhaps I just had the upgrade itch. :p
 
ScourggeFX said:
I had dual 8800GTs too. BFG. While the move to a 4890 is not that drastic of an upgrade speedwise, I've noticed several improvements, most notably using 8x AA on just about anything without slowdowns and hitches. Temps are better, resulting in an overall cooler case and lowered CPU temps. Overcloked, the GTs got me over 19000 3dMarks 06 fwiw.

Perhaps I just had the upgrade itch. :p
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I only got the upgrade itch after my friend decided to throw an extra $250 my way if I'd give him my 2 8800gt's. I'm a bit concerned about the 4890 and the reports of "squeeling"/"squeeking"... The poll is pretty one-sided. I'm just hoping people will be objective and not let their "fan-boy" tendencies over-shadow their judgment. Video card debates are almost always teetering on the edge there...
 
GotNoRice said:
Dual 8800GTs are still very fast. Do you have it working with SLI? Many people have got it to work by using AFR.
Click to expand...

SLI is working fine with every game I listed, including WoW. The EVGA x58 is an SLI board... hardware or software- I haven't researched.
 
paco16 said:
This review has pretty much locked up the decision for me. Would I still be able to buy an Nvidia card to run PhysicsX?
Click to expand...

In windows 7 you might vista is a no go. but for real I would not worry about it, I have a physx card and out side of Nvidia demos I have not once used as such.
 
I would recommend 2 4850s if you wanna go cheap or 2 4890s if you wanna spend a little more.

If your an nvidia only guy then go for 2 gtx 260s.
 
I just replaced my 2 8800gtx cards with 2 evga gtx 260 sc 55nm and I have noticed a marked improvement in performance, especially @ 16xQ aa with supersampling tsaa enabled. These babies eat anything I throw at them for breakfast (1920x1200 res)

As a side note anyone know how much I should ask for my 8800 gtx's? I'm thinking around 90 bucks each, does this sound about right ?
 
update: newegg has the EVGA GTX275 on sale for 240 shipped JFYI
 
I'm thinking that price is prolly good new@this.


They might bid higher, but if you put a buy it now for $90, you will def sell them.


After much though, I still stand by my "if you have $250 buy a 4890."

They rock out when it comes to 1920 x 1200 with higher AA. AND you will be able to crossfire them in another 6 months with another card for prolly less than $200.

Also, if you are considering going the GTX 260 route, they run much cooler and quieter than the 8800GT.
 
tekmet said:
Also, if you are considering going the GTX 260 route, they run much cooler and quieter than the 8800GT.
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That's a good note thanks! The 8800gt's are quite hot... I just saw Sparkle released a 1792MB GTX 260 card with more phases of vGPU and vMem. Link here Those look nice... Not sure the legitimacy of that site however.
 
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