8800 GT on older machines

[njrich2]

Just wondering if anyone has found any reviews of the 8800 GT on older computers, or if anyone has bought one that has something that doesn?t have a state of the art CPU. My computer has a dual core Opteron 2.6 GHz (model 185-socket 939) with 2 GB of ram and Win XP. I bought an Xbox 360 because I got tired of the constant upgrade chase, but the price of this new graphics card has me thinking it might be worth the expense (I miss the mouse/keyboard combo).

 

[MichaelD]

Assuming your motherboard has a PCI-E 16x slot (I'm pretty sure it does) than you'll be just fine. You've got a dual-core, 2.6GHz processor and 2GB of RAM. THat's still a fine machine. :thumbsup: Go for it.

 

[biostud]

I plan a similar upgrade once I get some $$$

 

[alcoholbob]

It should be fine, I'm running a 4400+ and it did just fine with an 8800GTS Falta1ty. 3DMark06 score was low (about 80-85% of a top end Quad Core) but the fps in games there was not much difference. And the higher the setting, the more the minimum framerate is dictated by GPU performance.

 

[dajeepster]

I'm replacing two 6800GT with one 8800GT. I have an Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe. I can only stick one 8800GT in it since it runs at x16.... in sli my motherboard would just cripple the cards by just running them at x8 in each slot..... just make sure your motherboard can do both pci-e slots at x16 in sli, otherwise just stick with one card

 

[Spike]

I am also planning on using a new card with my "old" rig. I will pick up the GTS refresh as thats all I can afford right now and when the wife loves me enough to let me spend more money I'll build a new rig and throw the GTS in that. But for the meantime it's going to be Opteron 165 @ 2.52 + G92 GTS goodness.

 

[jonks]

Originally posted by: dajeepster
I'm replacing two 6800GT with one 8800GT. I have an Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe. I can only stick one 8800GT in it since it runs at x16.... in sli my motherboard would just cripple the cards by just running them at x8 in each slot..... just make sure your motherboard can do both pci-e slots at x16 in sli, otherwise just stick with one card

IIRC, all benchmarks I've seen comparing SLI running 2x8 vs 2x16 have demonstrated negligible difference. Certainly not "crippled" so don't worry about that issue. If you want SLI don't let the x8/x16 stop you.

EDIT: http://www.tbreak.com/reviews/printpage.php?id=438

Seems ATI Xfire x16 gets real gains over x8, but SLI not so much.

 

[njrich2]

Hey, thanks for the help/comments. Maybe this old rig has another year or so left in it. I'll probably wait till after the holiday season seeing as everyone is asking for a price premium and another card is on it's way. Mostly looking to play UT3 on it and maybe HL2 ep2. I can wait (Halo 3 keeping me occupied and I still have Battlefield 2142 on the PC). -njrich2

 

[shropshireinc]

Can you SLI two different models of the same card? For example can I SLI a regular model of the 8800 GT with an overclocked model? Thanks in advance.

 

[Matt2]

Originally posted by: shropshireinc
Can you SLI two different models of the same card? For example can I SLI a regular model of the 8800 GT with an overclocked model? Thanks in advance.

yes you can.

 

[Dadofamunky]

Yeah, that's what I'll be doing in my Shuttle - replacing my 7800GT with an 8800GT. Should run just fine, but I won't be able to overclock much. A guy at NVidia was stunned that I was running a 7800GT in my rig, but I've had no problems. Even if I'm CPU limited, I'll still get twice the performance of my current card. That should hold me over until I do my next system build, which will definitely be Intel.