The Official Budget-Conscious Dream Machine!

not worth it boozer.

the 9800GTX is a speedbinned version.

it only has a few more MHz on core/shader/memeory

 

Indeed, think of the 9800GTX as an 8800GTS OC, rather than anything special. While we're at it, I suppose you should think of the 8800GTS as an 8800GT OC, since that's not much better. If you can hold out for the next gen cards then do it.

 

the extra SP from 112 to 128

 

Sorry what? You've lost me...

 

Sam, I think he means that the 8800GT has less shader processors than the 88000GTS.

Sorry I haven't gotten back about the case yet. I haven't had time to open it.

 

Hey, turns out a regular fan will work fine in the unwindowed side of the case.

 

Thanks for all your help abuzar. Very much appreciated

That's an interesting way to put it. But the 8800GTS G92 has more stream processors than the 8800GT as well.

The jump from my 8800GTS 320MB to even an 8800GT will be huge. If you guys think that 8800GTS will be a good deal, then I'm going to order it today. I don't know how long it's going to be there, so I'm making my big purchase today. I can't wait to turn up the settings in Crysis

Here's what I'm getting:

OCZ StealthXstream 600W(replacing the Liberty 620W. It's failing methinks)
2 x Raidmax Smilodon(I might get something different for myself or my friend, I'm gonna take a look at their other cases quick)
MSI 8800GTS 512MB G92
and all the other stuff for my friend's build.

This should bring me back up to the same performance as my 8800GTX. It's gonna be nice

 

cant you wait 2 weeks?

 

Show me performance previews. Change my mind

Honestly, I've lost faith in AMD/ATi. The Athlon 64 architecture is still very fast for its age, and the X1800/X1900 series was incredible. But the HD3870/HD3850s and the Phenom leave a lot to be desired for performance. Not saying that they're bad products, they just disappointed me after raising my hopes so high. If the HD4870 turns out to be amazing, then eBay will see another video card for sale very soon

 

Abuzar: Interesting - but I tend to disregard specifications for graphics cards because they seem a bit meaningless (read the overperforming 8800GTX's relatively low clock speed, and the underperforming HD3870's ridiculously high memory speed) - I only compare cards based on an overall view of all the real world benchmarks. In that the 8800GTS seems to come out very little faster than the 8800GT. For the price Estuansis has found one for though, it would still be worth buying.

However, Estuansis, I'm sure you know this yourself, graphics card previews are always pretty meaningless until the real product comes out - at least wait until the 4850 comes out and you get some idea as for how the 4870 will fare when it comes out in a couple of months' time - or if you're not prepared to wait that long, just get a 4850 and have done with it. If there's one thing I haven't lost faith in ATI for, it's the performance of their GPUs - yes, it's less than the plethora of various nvidia cards that have come out recently - put there's less than a 40% difference between the 3870 and even the best solo card nvidia have pulled out of their hats lately - and a big price difference in most cases. It's things like nasty drivers and powerplay that put me off.

 

sam there is ALOT more to gfx cards than clocks.

Shader, TMUs ROPs etc etc etc

trust me, the 8800GTS is its own product, not an 8800GT

 

Yeah, I'm well aware - but you have to admit, the difference between the two cards in real world performance is hardly spectacular...

 

agreed (unless you reach 1920+ Res)

 

Interesting - I wasn't aware of that. However, they make 1 GB 8800GT, I don't think one exists for the 8800GTS. For high res, that's going to make a difference.

 

1GB wont make a difference, if it does, its 1-2FPS.

the memory bandwidth is to cripled to use the 1GB

 

Hmm, I'm doubtful. Even an X1900XT could have made use of more RAM.

 

crysis is the only one that uses more than 512atm, at about 660. its not worth one crap game

 

and Quake 4... lol

 

Ugh... Quake 4... That game had so many performance problems on my X800GTO and X850XT. Ran fine on some parts and just chugged on others. The X1800XT handled it well though. 8800GTS does even better. The 512MB should be an even bigger improvement.

I honestly can't see the difference between the 8800GTS G92 and the 8800GTX in most benchmarks. They seem to be about equal. I expect I'll see lowered temps though.

On my 8800GTX, the Crysis demo played beautifully all high at 1650 x 1080. I'm talking mid 40's FPS average. On the 8800GTS 320MB, eh, not so good. About 15-25FPS. 320MB really kills you in Crysis. Look at any benchmark and you'll notice that performance drops sharply with anything lower than 512MB. I'm excited to see how the full game all patched up fares on my new 8800GTS. I think it'll be nice. And Colin McRae's DiRT really chugs too at Ultra settings. Only decent performance at high.

 

Yeah dirt's almost as demanding as Crysis. Racing games are hard to play with a low frame rate. It's worth bearing in mind that nvidia cards don't manage memory as efficiently as ATI ones so they seem to 'run out sooner' - a 1GB HD3870 was released recently, and scored the same as the 512MB version give or take 5% in every test, no matter the res, filters or whatever. The nvidia cards, however, were miles apart.
What's interesting to see is that three 8800 Ultras absolutely liquidise a pair of 9800GX2s...