8800 Vs 275

[chavo]

Hi all,

I am thinking of upgrading. at the moment i have a water cooled system with a 8800 GTS (EVGA) 320. i am thinking of changing to a 275, seen an XFX for £161 in scan.

is the upgrade worth it?
what are scan like these days? used to have issues with delivery and stock, is that sorted out?

[nightkhaos]

Yes it is worth it, but personally I would save £30 and go for a nV 260 216 cores or an ATi 4890.

[GheeTsar]

I'd say either hold out for the Dx11 cards (Oct for ATI, Dec/2010 for Nvidia) if you can live with the 8800 for a bit longer. Or if you are keen to upgrade now, the 4890 offers equivalent performance for a fair bit less (you can get them for £125 on special offers).

[chavo]

i stopped using the ATI's when in the days of the 9800! are they reasonable these days? i have had the same system now for easily 12 months and things move so quickly.

sorry to sound dumb but isnt the 275 the better model than the 265? i dont want to spend 130 and get no upgrade if you catch my drift, is there that little difference between the 2 cards?

I also see alot of stuff about PhysX now i remember when these where seperate cards and i see they are now intergrated in to the newer Nvidia cards, do i have one in my 8800? I play games like COD WAW, BF2,FPS are my fav. and i usually play at max res 1680x1050

EDIT, DX11 :JEEZ: i still have not played a 100% DX10 game i dont believe!! lol

Thanks for the info, i could wait for DX11 in october i am not in a major hurry but i will not be paying more that £160 so if i wait will the new cards by like 300 quid? long gone are the days i pay that much! i paid 330 for the 880, plus 80 to get the water block etc.

[Pob255]

no the 8800gts g80 core (ie a 640mb or 320mb) doesn't work with the new physx as far as I remember, it's only the 8800gt and 8800gts 512mb (g92 core) from the 8 series that use it.
It's installed as part of the nvidia video card drivers.

Here's a list of game that use PhysX
http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_physxgames_home.html
No COD or BF2 on the list.

ATi was lagging behind nvidia when the 8series came out, the HD2xxx series wasn't very good.
They picked up with the HD3xxx series and now with the HD4xxx series ATi cards are pritty much beating nvidia cards for price vs performance
The top nvidia cards still hold the performance crown but the cost is way too high.

At 1680x1050 anything over an ati 4850 or nvidia gtx260 will be fine.
The 275 is better than the 260 but it is more expensive.

How much are you willing to pay?

[chavo]

I dont really have a budget, within reason. i just weigh up, how long will i have it (at least 12 months) how much i will use it (once or twice a week).

I need a new case i need a new Rad as my 360 is to big. I need a graphics card. the rest of my gear is still good enough for now.

If we say graphics card budget if around the £150 mark that is about right.

[shaithis]

no the 8800gts g80 core (ie a 640mb or 320mb) doesn't work with the new physx as far as I remember, it's only the 8800gt and 8800gts 512mb (g92 core) from the 8 series that use it.

Should work on all 8-series cards or better.

I also see alot of stuff about PhysX now i remember when these where seperate cards and i see they are now intergrated in to the newer Nvidia cards, do i have one in my 8800?

They aren't integrated as such, it's just a software layer that can use your graphics card to perform the calculations......therefore using physx on the graphics card you are gaming with, does use up processing cycles, which will effect the speed at which the card can render anything. i.e. it isn't a free lunch.

TBH, there are very few decent Physx games about and you could always use your current card as a dedicated physx card if you had a spare PCI-E slot and enough PSU power. With Windows XP and Windows 7 you can even have an ATI card as your main gfx card and the nvidia processing physx/cuda.

[jonathan_phang]

I'm in a similar-ish boat (except I have a G92) and to be honest have been out of the loop a bit on GPUs, but I'm tempted to go for a 4890 or Nvidia equivalent, as the prices are really good atm. When the DX11 cards come out its gonna be at a premium, so not really worth the wait - esp as there arent exactly going to be a whole load ot DX11 games are there...

Also, games seem to be pushing GPU boundaries less now that compared to a couple of years back (well, for what I play anyway) so there really isnt the need to upgrade to get ace framerates in your new fave game...

Just my thoughts. Feel free to shoot down.