8800gts and 8800gt - what's best?

[Dreaming]

Quick question, don't want a big debat-ey thread as there's about 50 million on google, just a quick thing.

I've got an 8800gts 320. Overclocked ridiculously on stock cooling to 684 core and 1053 (or 2106 if you count in DDR). My modest PC gets 10757 in 3dmark06, which for comparison, is better than a friends PC that has:

Intel C2D e6600 | XFX 8800GTX XXX (9204 points)

Now, the crysis demo has thrown up a spanner in the works. Previously, I wanted to play lots of games at 1680x1050 at full settings, which was ok - but I've got no chance in crysis.

Would the logical upgrade path be:

- sell the GTS and get something better when available and when prices come down because there's going to be some competition war apparently, OR

- buy another and SLI them, then I'd have 640mb VRAM which should be enough for the textures (hopefully)

I'll soon be investing in a q6600 and then need to faff with my hard drives to get a bit more storage, so this is definately 'in the works', but all the same I feel a bit annoyed the 8800GT is cheaper yet apparently much more powerful than the GTS (even now when they're both on the shelf together - who would buy the GTS?)

Maybe supply / demand will drive down the price of a GTS. But then what is the implementation of SLI like?

[Winkle]

Crysis is just a demo, so may not be optimised, however if your card is struggling than the 8800GT is 1 option, i;d suggest hanging on to the new year though, as a new 8800GTS is in the works, plus the 3800 from ATI.

[Dreaming]

The new 8800gts wouldn't work with the old one would it?

Ah, nevermind. Can't believe how much we spend on PC components!

[Choo Choo]

I'm pretty much in the same situation. I've decided to wait at least till mid November for the new GTS and the HD3800.

I wouldn't go SLI as you'll have to buy another motherboard just to use it, and the one you have now is good.

[edp33]

yep I won't go sli either with the 320MB GT it just doesn't have the memory for upcoming games.

The 8800GT is a nice card, but i'd hold out for the new GTS (Nov 19th?) that should give you a big jump in FPS over the 320mb.

I just looked at the 8800GT on [H] Enthusiast and for games that support SLI, 2x8800GT beats the Ultra at 1920x1200 or lower where framesize doesn't matter so much. Pretty good bargain for less cash Will be interesting to see how 8800GTs in SLI and the new 8800GTS fairs when Crysis comes out.

[Optical668]

Yeh i know how you feel i too have a 8800gts but the 640mb and i thought i would be able to run Crysis on max settings... i was kinda letdown that i woundnt be able to. But i dont really think that this demo of crysis is very well optimized and that the driver support is still kinda buggy.

So id wait till the game itself is released and wait until nvidia release stable drivers then see how the game runs and decide then.. Im also going to be upgrading to a Q6600 nextmonth and that should boost some power. But if i still can run crysis on very high settings even after stable driver support and a better optimized game then looks like il have to buy another 8800GTS and SLI them, theres no way i can afford to get a ultra or anything over £200 now as i already spent about £1000 on upgrades in the past 6 months.

[TMD]

Yeh i know how you feel i too have a 8800gts but the 640mb and i thought i would be able to run Crysis on max settings... i was kinda letdown that i woundnt be able to. But i dont really think that this demo of crysis is very well optimized and that the driver support is still kinda buggy.

So id wait till the game itself is released and wait until nvidia release stable drivers then see how the game runs and decide then.. Im also going to be upgrading to a Q6600 nextmonth and that should boost some power. But if i still can run crysis on very high settings even after stable driver support and a better optimized game then looks like il have to buy another 8800GTS and SLI them, theres no way i can afford to get a ultra or anything over £200 now as i already spent about £1000 on upgrades in the past 6 months.

Crysis is designed so that even the top end stuff at the moment can't play it with everything on. Give the technology another 6-12 months and then it will...

As much as Crysis is a game...its also a tech demo...Far Cry was the same...the top end systems out at the time struggled to show it in its full glory when it first came out

[chuckskull]

Personally I wouldn't buy anything just yet. See how the actual game performs combined with the latest drivers at the time. If you do decide on upgrading; I'd be going for selling the GTS and upgrading to a GTX, prices should soften on the current models with the range being refreshed.

[Lucio]

The new 8800gts wouldn't work with the old one would it?

Ah, nevermind. Can't believe how much we spend on PC components!

Actually, the "new" GTS should work with the old one because they're based off the same 90nm core. I don't think ppl should get their hopes up for new 8800 GTS, it'll be an improvement but I'm not convinced it'll be *that* much of a change...

[Winkle]

I think the GTX is old news, seeing how powerful the new GT is i can only imagine the new GTS will stomp all over the current GTX.

Personally i've gone for a GT, i had a GTS but RMA'd earlier this month only to be told it couldn't be replaced as the GTS's were being phased out, so after having to wait this long for the GT i'm not baout to hang around another month for the GTS.

My GT arrives tommorow....hooray!

[Dreaming]

To be honest if it was a case of replacement I would just wait until the 9 series or radeon 3/4 series were about, I only bought it a few months ago and want to get at least 12 - 18 (hopefully) months out of it.

[hanster]

Well the 8800GT cards are faster by a fair bit according to reviews coming out.

But ATi are releasing their new cards soon and it may be worth waiting it out to see what's the best in a months time.

The problem there is that the value of your card is going to take a nose dive if you wait what with the 8800GT cards being cheaper and faster and the new 8800GTS coming out.

Basically I would sell the 8800GTS and get a temp card then see what's the best at the end of Nov.

But if you can't live without being with a good graphics card for a month best bet is to sell 8800GTS and get a 8800GT 512mb and clock it.

[jonathan_phang]

Well, unfortunately I've been a bit of a chump and somehow managed to land myself with a 8800GTS 640 about a month ago. Kicking myself now due to the price and performance of the 800GT but I guess you cant have everything...

Mind you, I've had silly thoughts or selling the current one and getting a GT but then it hit me... Its only really Crysis that I cant play that well. I've got Bioshock and the UT3 demo runs well (all of this is at 1920x1200 though) so that bodes well for other UT engine games, like Gears of War. And to be honest, good though it is, if you have any existing 8800 then changing to the 8800GT isnt going to future proof you that much. I dont think that the current GTX or the GT will be able to cut the mustard with the next round of DX10 titles (I say that like they'll even get through the first round ) Maybe the next release after that will be really worthwhile.

If only I could get anywhere near the money I paid for it... Maybe someone on ebay would stump up £200 for it.... *Wishful thinking*

To be honest money might be better spent now on a Q6600 as my X2 might be a bit of a bottleneck...

[Blitzen]

If the 8800GT is better than an 8800GTS then why is the GT cheaper?

I dont understand?

[PenguinJim]

It's newer and costs less to make.

[jonathan_phang]

If the 8800GT is better than an 8800GTS then why is the GT cheaper?

I dont understand?

Sometimes its not all based on the relative performance of product. It probably has something to do with better, more efficient fabrication plants, and maybe cheaper yields of silicon wafers for GPU dies. The price of that does seem to flucutuate and the if they are in a good spot then the savings may be passed on to us.

Its like a too good to be true scenario - but i guess its not!