8800GT or 9600GT? Better card for $50?

[alfa147x]

Budget: $30 - $40
Games: Possibly one, GTA 4
Has to be NVIDIA not really in the mood to put up with the AMD/ATI crap

So between these two cards which is better? Also I'm looking at them used and they seem to be selling for around the same price on ebay


My computer specs:
NVIDIA 7300GS
Intel E8400 @ 3.7 GHz
GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L
8 GB RAM

How would a 8800GT or 9600GT compair to a NVIDIA 9400M?

Edit: is there a better card for $50? Post and I can research how Hackintosh friendly they are



Thanks guys,
Alfa147x

 

[veri745]

8800GT and 9600GT are both far superior to the 9400M, by an order of magnitude or more. The 8800GT is significantly better than a 9600GT. I don't know where to find one for $40 though.

What "AMD/ATI crap" are you talking about?

 

[alfa147x]

8800GT and 9600GT are both far superior to the 9400M, by an order of magnitude or more. The 8800GT is significantly better than a 9600GT. I don't know where to find one for $40 though.

What "AMD/ATI crap" are you talking about?

Sorry should have said: Link

I KNOW the 8800GT and 9600GT work with little work

Thanks man

I have friends trying to sell me their stuff, thats why its so cheap

 

[veri745]

np, I didn't realize there were hackintosh issues w/ ATI cards.

I should also clarify, the 8800GT 512MB card is significantly better than the 9600GT. The 8800GT 256MB is on par and sometimes worse than a 9600GT. You can check out Tom's graphics card hierarchy here: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-graphics-card,2521-8.html

He actually has the 256MB 8800GT as a couple steps below the 9600GT, but I didn't think it was that much worse.

 

[alfa147x]

Awesome thanks man


9600GT 512MB vs GeForce 8800 GT 512MB

anyway to give some of my RAM to be used by the video cards? I doubt GTA4 will use 8 gb... right?

 

[taltamir]

8800GT > 9600GT

anyway to give some of my RAM to be used by the video cards? I doubt GTA4 will use 8 gb... right?

I have no idea what you are saying.
Are you referring to the issue with 32bit windows are 4+GB of ram?

 

[TheMeanestGuest]

I think he wants to know if he can let his videocard use his system RAM...

The answer is no, you cannot.

 

[alfa147x]

8800GT > 9600GT


I have no idea what you are saying.
Are you referring to the issue with 32bit windows are 4+GB of ram?

I was being an idiot

I was saying can I get a 512 mb vcard and "give" it some of my RAM and make it a 1gb vCard

 

[poofyhairguy]

I was being an idiot

I was saying can I get a 512 mb vcard and "give" it some of my RAM and make it a 1gb vCard

No, not in OSX.

 

[taltamir]

No, not in OSX.

Are you saying you can in another OS?
IIRC some laptops will do that to a predetermined amount via bios, but I am not aware of an OS level method.
Also, AFAIK doing so wouldn't offer any performance advantage over not doing it, and might even degrade performance. (if you don't have enough video card ram, it will just swap back and forth between it and the system RAM AFAIK, which is exactly what it would do if you "assigned" system ram to act as extra vram... the point of vram is that its dedicated on the video card)

 

[alfa147x]

Are you saying you can in another OS?
IIRC some laptops will do that to a predetermined amount via bios, but I am not aware of an OS level method.
Also, AFAIK doing so wouldn't offer any performance advantage over not doing it, and might even degrade performance. (if you don't have enough video card ram, it will just swap back and forth between it and the system RAM AFAIK, which is exactly what it would do if you "assigned" system ram to act as extra vram... the point of vram is that its dedicated on the video card)

Thanks

I'm not a windows person so excuse my wild questions. I'll stick to linux and OS X except to play GTA4

I do remember my old HP laptop having options to change the amount of VRAM

 

[alfa147x]

Can I play GTA4 with bearable lag on a 9600GT 512? I ask this because it's WAY cheaper than a 8800 GT

 

[taltamir]

you have a very nice CPU, a nice mobo, and a lot of RAM... I would say that you would see a world of difference by allotting a bit more to your GPU budget.

 

[alfa147x]

you have a very nice CPU, a nice mobo, and a lot of RAM... I would say that you would see a world of difference by allotting a bit more to your GPU budget.

Would it be worth while to * splurge* for the 8800gt? I guess it would allow me to branch out into playing more PC Games like CoD Black Ops

 

[SolMiester]

8800GT and 9600GT are both far superior to the 9400M, by an order of magnitude or more. The 8800GT is significantly better than a 9600GT. I don't know where to find one for $40 though.

What "AMD/ATI crap" are you talking about?

The 2 cards are about the same depending on what version of 9600 you get, some had 64 shaders, other 96 or something, the 96 is G92, cooler and clocks better, I run 800 core on mine!

 

[alfa147x]

The 2 cards are about the same depending on what version of 9600 you get

Which version?

 

[SolMiester]

edited the post

 

[alfa147x]

So GeForce 9600 GSO 512 = 512 8800gt?

I probably sound like an idiot but I honestly don't know video cards

 

[taltamir]

So GeForce 9600 GSO 512 = 512 8800gt?

I probably sound like an idiot but I honestly don't know video cards

not your fault, nvidia had a confusing streak of card renaming

 

[EarthwormJim]

Are you saying you can in another OS?
IIRC some laptops will do that to a predetermined amount via bios, but I am not aware of an OS level method.
Also, AFAIK doing so wouldn't offer any performance advantage over not doing it, and might even degrade performance. (if you don't have enough video card ram, it will just swap back and forth between it and the system RAM AFAIK, which is exactly what it would do if you "assigned" system ram to act as extra vram... the point of vram is that its dedicated on the video card)

When the video card runs out of memory in Windows, system memory is used as a buffer. Otherwise games and 3d programs would crash.

The problem is that the memory has to go across the PCI-E bus which is extremely slow compared to a video cards memory. Long pauses or stuttering is what happens when system memory needs to be used.

 

[SolMiester]

So GeForce 9600 GSO 512 = 512 8800gt?

I probably sound like an idiot but I honestly don't know video cards

Not sure which versions it is, but yeah, damn near level performance...i get over 13k with mine in 3dmarks (not vantage)

 

[taltamir]

When the video card runs out of memory in Windows, system memory is used as a buffer. Otherwise games and 3d programs would crash.

The problem is that the memory has to go across the PCI-E bus which is extremely slow compared to a video cards memory. Long pauses or stuttering is what happens when system memory needs to be used.

Isn't that exactly what I said?

 

[alfa147x]

Looks like the 8800GT is actaully not Hackintosh happy

How is a gts250? or a 8800gtx

 

[EarthwormJim]

Isn't that exactly what I said?

Yes it is

I just misread your post.

 

[alfa147x]

Well cross 512 cards off the list those suck at hackintosh too