2 Questions: 8800GTS 320 vs 9600GT and cheap 8800GT any good?

[rocketbubba]

I just bought an 8800GTS 320 and it's good but it's only a little bit faster than the two 7900GSs I had in SLI.

Just wondering if the 9600GT would be a whole lot better than the 8800GTS and, if so, how much? Most of the comparison stuff I've seen compares the 640 version of the GTS to the 9600GT. By the way, the most taxing game played on my machine is Guild Wars.

Also, I spotted an 8800GT for about $150 on Newegg. Its a 256mb version. Here's the link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814125089 Just wondering if it is better than the 9600GT for roughly the same price?

Thanks.

 

[Lithan]

9600gt is ~5-7.5% faster than a 320 gts. Not worth the upgrade imho.

8800gt 256meg is slower than 9600gt in most things.

 

[krnmastersgt]

Depends actually, if you could return or sell the GTS for more than the 9600 GT costs (which isn't much) I'd say it's worth "upgrading".

 

[Lithan]

He probably cant, they seem to bring <$100 on ebay and afte ebay and PP fees and shipping, I'd expect $85 tops profit from the sale. So ~$65 up front costs on the 9600gt and $30-40 MIR coming back.

 

[Jax Omen]

Man, why would you buy an 8800GTS 320MB *now*?

You should have asked here first!

 

[krnmastersgt]

Well he did JUST buy it, so perhaps return it? Even store credit will do if they carry the 9600 GT, assuming they didn't price it higher.

 

[rocketbubba]

I bought the 8800GTS used here on the forums. Got it for a good price which is a must on my budget. I got it for ~ $40 cheaper than a new 9600GT. I didn't realize the 9600GTs were that good until I read more about them. I've had mixed luck with nVidia's mid-range "600" cards in the past. A couple years ago it was the 6600GT - good but traded it for a 6800GT shortly afterward. Then it was a 7600GT - good but traded it for a 7900GS shortly afterward - eventually bought another 7900GS to run in SLI.

At any rate, I could probably buy a 9600GT now and resell the 8800GTS on the Bay minus a few bucks. Just trying to determine if it's worth it. Actually the 8800GTS is pretty good for my purposes - just not the performance increase I had hoped (It's just a little bit better than running two 7900GSs in SLI).

Which brings me to another question: Would it be a good idea to buy a 9600GT and buy another one in the future to run in SLI? I read somewhere that they're good for SLI. I figure the prices on 9600GTs will likely drop a little bit as more hit the market. Buying one GTX card just isn't in my budget - have to spread things out a little bit.

Thanks.

 

[happy medium]

A 8800gts (320) should run circles around sli'ed 7900gs's.
Whats the rest of your system like?
It sounds like you cpu limited or something.
What resolution are you running and what games?

 

[Lithan]

They run ice cold, so I'd imagine low power draw, and perform respectably close to 8800gt sli, so yeah I'd say they're damn nice for sli.

 

[happy medium]

Originally posted by: Lithan
They run ice cold, so I'd imagine low power draw, and perform respectably close to 8800gt sli, so yeah I'd say they're damn nice for sli.

Whats wrong with 8800gts 320 sli? If he can get another cheap (which im sure he can), just do that. Assumming he has the cpu power.

 

[Lithan]

It has huge power draw and heat output relative to the performance, and is outperformed by 9600gt sli.

 

[rocketbubba]

I'm probably limited by cpu. I have a X2 4400+ OC'd a little bit to 4800+ speeds and 2GB of PC3200.

I also just realized another problem - my motherboard doesn't support PCIE 2.0 (or atleast I don't think it does) so I guess this whole question is may be mute. From what I've seen, 8800GTs on up are PCIE 2.0 - correct? Are the 8800GTS 320 and 640 the highest I can go with regular PCIEx16?

By the way, my power supply is a Thermaltake 750 watt "Tough Power."

Thanks.

 

[Jax Omen]

PCIE 2.0 is completely backwards-compatible with "regular" PCIE. Modern cards can't even fill the PCIE bandwidth yet, PCIE 2.0 offers no change in performance at this time.

 

[happy medium]

Originally posted by: rocketbubba
I'm probably limited by cpu. I have a X2 4400+ OC'd a little bit to 4800+ speeds and 2GB of PC3200.

I also just realized another problem - my motherboard doesn't support PCIE 2.0 (or atleast I don't think it does) so I guess this whole question is may be mute. From what I've seen, 8800GTs on up are PCIE 2.0 - correct? Are the 8800GTS 320 and 640 the highest I can go with regular PCIEx16?

By the way, my power supply is a Thermaltake 750 watt "Tough Power."

Thanks.

Overclock that cpu to 2.8 and you'll get a good performance boost.

 

[Rusin]

Originally posted by: Lithan
9600gt is ~5-7.5% faster than a 320 gts. Not worth the upgrade imho.

8800gt 256meg is slower than 9600gt in most things.

Actually 9600 GT is much more faster than GTS 320MB. At 22" resolutions with AA it's 20% in DX9 and around 40-45% in DX10. This GTS 320MB doesn't have enough vram for these settings..on other hand GTS 640MB only loses with few percent only.

 

[Lithan]

Yeah, 5-7% is an average across all resos, so low resos bring the avg down.

 

[magreen]

What res is the OP playing at?

 

[rocketbubba]

1600 x 1200 mostly

 

[AzN]

Originally posted by: Rusin

Originally posted by: Lithan
9600gt is ~5-7.5% faster than a 320 gts. Not worth the upgrade imho.

8800gt 256meg is slower than 9600gt in most things.

Actually 9600 GT is much more faster than GTS 320MB. At 22" resolutions with AA it's 20% in DX9 and around 40-45% in DX10. This GTS 320MB doesn't have enough vram for these settings..on other hand GTS 640MB only loses with few percent only.

http://en.expreview.com/img/20...01/g80vsg9x/g80all.png

Not really. Far as how powerful the chip is they are about even. It's just that 9600gt has more vram so it does better with AA with a 22" screen.

Most games are comparable.. It's just games like Crysis and WIC that trails especially with AA.

OP I wouldn't waste money to upgrade to a 9600gt though. It's minimal gain for the effort and $$$ you put in. I would just wait for GT200 and RV7xx. They aren't too far off and should be released in the next couple of months. You want 50% upgrade at least. You aren't going to see that with a 9600gt except some rare instances in Crysis or WiC where vram starts to chuckle @ high settings.

 

[woolfe9999]

Don't bother upgrading. If you got your gts 320 for $40 less than a new 9600 gt, you made a good choice in terms of dollars/frames to begin with. Even if somehow using ebay and getting a good rebate on a 9600 gt could net you a slightly better return, it's likely not worth the hassle. The 320 remains a high performing card at middle and lower resolutions, in basically everything out today with the exception of Crysis. I have one and feel absolutely no need to spend more money to upgrade right now. If you're going to make a move, either enlarge your budget considerably, or else wait for another generation of GPU's.

- woolfe

 

[daveybrat]

Stick with your 8800GTS until the next generation of ATI/Nvidia cards are released. I'm happy with my 8800GTS and can run any game i throw at it. Remember, the image quality of your 8800GTS is slightly better than the 7900 SLI setup you had and also has the nice 2-slot cooling. And no SLI issues! I think you made out well.

 

[rocketbubba]

Lots of great replies with useful information. Thanks everybody - I really appreciate the help. By the way, I agree with the comment about the cooling. I like the cooling setup on the 8800GTS. It dumps heat out the back of the computer. Man, that gpu sure does put out some heat!

Thanks again.