8800 Ultra is somewhat worth it

[swtethan]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814130090


free 680i motherboard, cant beat that

 

[josh6079]

The link shows it for more than $800.

 

[swtethan]

thats with a free 680i motherboard

motherboard is $190 on newegg

 

[Acanthus]

When a 8800GTX is within 5% of it, no, it isnt worth it at all.

 

[josh6079]

I know, but the title was just a little misleading, suggesting that the card was only around $650 when you're still paying over $800 for the card. It's just that this time they compensate you well for it by throwing in a nice motherboard.

Thanks for the find though. :thumbsup:

 

[terentenet]

Originally posted by: Acanthus
When a 8800GTX is within 5% of it, no, it isnt worth it at all.

Overclock both and the gap will get wider. Max you can get with a GTX is about 680/2100-2150 (at best). That's with volt mod and watercooled (not a great setup, but it does its job).
You can get 700-720/2400 with a stock Ultra. Volt mod and water cool it, and it will overclock some more.
Plus, it's shaders are slightly faster and will scale up with core speed.

True, if you have the GTX, it's not worth the effort and extra bucks, but for a new system, coming with a free 680i motherboard, it's a good starters bundle at $800.
A GTX and 680i board would cost $700. For $100 extra you have the top of the line.

Personally, I will wait and upgrade when 65nm parts are out with more shaders and higher frequencies.

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: terentenet

Originally posted by: Acanthus
When a 8800GTX is within 5% of it, no, it isnt worth it at all.

Overclock both and the gap will get wider. Max you can get with a GTX is about 680/2100-2150 (at best). That's with volt mod and watercooled (not a great setup, but it does its job).
You can get 700-720/2400 with a stock Ultra. Volt mod and water cool it, and it will overclock some more.
Plus, it's shaders are slightly faster and will scale up with core speed.

True, if you have the GTX, it's not worth the effort and extra bucks, but for a new system, coming with a free 680i motherboard, it's a good starters bundle at $800.
A GTX and 680i board would cost $700. For $100 extra you have the top of the line.

Personally, I will wait and upgrade when 65nm parts are out with more shaders and higher frequencies.

Do you have any links to ultras overclocking like this?

ATs review said it OCed like crap.

I find it very hard to believe that you can get +20% on a bleeding edge product just by speed binning.

 

[lopri]

At any rate, it's obvious that Ultra isn't selling very well. EVGA did a promotion "Step-Up" (let you upgrade ANY brand of GTX to Ultra), and now they're bundling a motherboard? :laugh: $650 is still too much. You can buy a motherboard + GTX for that.

 

[BFG10K]

I've tried every possible angle to justify the purchase of a 8800 Ultra instead of a 8800 GTX but I just can't do it.

 

[nitromullet]

If the mobo wasn't the "LT" model it might be somewhat worth considering, but who's going to pair an Ultra up with the LT mobo model?

At any rate, it's obvious that Ultra isn't selling very well. EVGA did a promotion "Step-Up" (let you upgrade ANY brand of GTX to Ultra), and now they're bundling a motherboard? $650 is still too much. You can buy a motherboard + GTX for that.

Interesting... I had not heard that about the step-up. I guess this is the argument against those saying that NV can just get lazy and not produce interesting new technology and still keep enthusiasts buying their cards. My GTX has had an incredibly long lifespan at the top in comparison to previous generations... Not good for NV's high margin top end sales... Not to mention that the lackluster Vista drivers give me no incentive to buy a second GTX for SLI.

 

[lopri]

As a matter of fact, I'm slightly worried that I sold my GTX off too early. I bought it last year and sold it after 5 months after enjoying lots of games at full glory. Reason I sold it was 1) got personally busier so no time to play 2) not many enticing titles these days 3) thought (and still do) a new card will come out around the summer time.

Right now, NV has no reason to introduce a new high-end SKU (Ultra doesn't count), let alone a new generation/revision. Only possibility is that if TSMC's 65nm becomes mature, and more importantly, cheaper than 90nm process, that'll give NV a motive to reduce cost or even possibly a GX2 style SKU. But I've heard TSMC 90nm is dirt cheap right now. And GTX is still selling at the introductory price. :disgust: So there isn't really an incentive for NV to screw current pricing hierarchy or piss off their AIB partners. Talking about the AIB partners, usually by now (6 month after the launch) there should be some custom-designed SKUs (like a different PCB, cooling, or some other funky stuff), we don't even see those. They're just merrily selling off the reference design ever since.

I expect the Video forum will die off slowly. :laugh: