8800gts 320 ... is it worth upgrading?

[Xarick]

I currently have an 8800gts 320. I run 1440x900 and am right now playing the witcher. I can really feel the loss of VR in this game. So I am wondering if it is worth upgrading now or waiting for next gen. If I did upgrade now should I go with a 4870 or a 260 216.



This thread has gotten out of hand, so I'm locking it.

Azn, I saw the screenshot of the offensive PM Toyota was talking about, so I'd suggest you refrain from sending such PM content in the future.

Video Mod BFG10K.

 

[toyota]

PLEASE list the rest of your specs when asking for hardware advice.

 

[techmanc]

If you can hold out wait. If your rich do both 🙂

 

[toyota]

Originally posted by: techmanc
If you can hold out wait. If your rich do both 🙂

wait for what? he is playing a low res that even a $100 4830 or 9800gt can max out most games easily. he could even go to a slightly faster card than that but we dont know the rest of his specs so he might not see any benefits doing so.

 

[AzN]

For such low resolution you should hold out. Not much other cards will do better other than slight bump in speed. It's more noticeable in higher resolutions though.

 

[toyota]

Originally posted by: Azn
For such low resolution you should hold out. Not much other cards will do better other than slight bump in speed. It's more noticeable in higher resolutions though.

why should he wait? if he is struggling with even one game there are several current video cards that can easily address that prob for not much more than 100 bucks. if the rest of his system is up to snuff then even a 4850 or 9800gtx might be a good choice.

 

[AzN]

Originally posted by: toyota

Originally posted by: Azn
For such low resolution you should hold out. Not much other cards will do better other than slight bump in speed. It's more noticeable in higher resolutions though.

why should he wait? if he is struggling with even one game there are several current video cards that can easily address that prob for not much more than 100 bucks. if the rest of his system is up to snuff then even a 4850 or 9800gtx might be a good choice.

Why shouldn't he wait? Getting extra 10fps is enough to drop money on a new card?

8800gts 320mb is plenty for witcher. I played that game on my 8800gs at the same resolution with 4xAA and it was constant 40-50fps. A 4850 or 9800gtx won't do you much good. Now if he was working with a 8600gt like you had the difference would be night and day but he's not. he's working with a very formidable card at that resolution.

 

[alcoholbob]

The GTS 320mb is actually a very good card even for today performance wise but the lack of VRAM cripples the card considerably. Honestly at 1440x900 I think you can hold out for a bit.

The Witcher is based on the Aurora engine (as is NWN2), basically just shaders and higher quality textures piled up on a 2001 3d engine. The Aurora engine is plagued by the same problems that Morrowind's engine, the lack of occlusion culling--it basically renders *everything* in the game world including whats off-screen. The Oblivion engine fixed these issues which is why if you took the same PC to run both games, the game would run smoother on Oblivion even today.

Even today Aurora-derived engines are extremely poor performing. I have a Core i7 at 3.8GHz, DDR1600 RAM, and SLI evga GTX285 SSC and I hit lows of 19fps in NWN2. Aurora is just a terrible engine with 2001 programming techniques. The only thing you can do with Aurora is brute force power. And the G80 series actually has more brute force capability than G92 or low end ATI 4000 so its actually running in the wrong direction.

So don't let the Witcher to base your performance needs...it's definitely a bad example.

 

[toyota]

Originally posted by: Azn

Originally posted by: toyota

Originally posted by: Azn
For such low resolution you should hold out. Not much other cards will do better other than slight bump in speed. It's more noticeable in higher resolutions though.

why should he wait? if he is struggling with even one game there are several current video cards that can easily address that prob for not much more than 100 bucks. if the rest of his system is up to snuff then even a 4850 or 9800gtx might be a good choice.

Why shouldn't he wait? Getting extra 10fps is enough to drop money on a new card?

8800gts 320mb is plenty for witcher. I played that game on my 8800gs at the same resolution with 4xAA and it was constant 40-50fps. A 4850 or 9800gtx won't do you much good. Now if he was working with a 8600gt like you had the difference would be night and day but he's not. he's working with a very formidable card at that resolution.

if he currently cant play a game he has then whats the point in waiting if he can buy a card NOW and fix that issue. what exactly does he need to wait for? there are choices right now and he obviously has money to spend because he asked about a gtx260 and 4870. sure those cards would basically be overkill and he may not have the rest of the specs to make full use of them anyway. as long as he has a decent setup then he should go ahead and get a 4830, 9800gt or maybe even 4850 so he can actually enjoy his games.

 

[Xarick]

right now I am running 3 gigs of ram on vista 64 running 5-5-5-12 DDR2 800 with an e6400 OC to 2.8ghz. a audigy 2 sound card and a 200gig pata 7200 drive.

 

[alcoholbob]

I'm gonna stick to my guns. DON'T UPGRADE to run neolithic game engines. I thought I had the sh1t to run NWN2 and failed miserably. My minimum framerate went from 17fps to 19fps and I was running a 2.2GHz Athlon64 with 8800GT before.

 

[toyota]

Originally posted by: Xarick
right now I am running 3 gigs of ram on vista 64 running 5-5-5-12 DDR2 800 with an e6400 OC to 2.8ghz. a audigy 2 sound card and a 200gig pata 7200 drive.

yeah you have a decent enough rig to use a 4830 or 9800gt effectively. you could get a 4850 but that would be as high as I would go with your current setup and res. just get a new card, sell your old one and enjoy your games. 😉

 

[toyota]

Originally posted by: Astrallite
I'm gonna stick to my guns. DON'T UPGRADE to run neolithic game engines. I thought I had the sh1t to run NWN2 and failed miserably. My minimum framerate went from 17fps to 19fps and I was running a 2.2GHz Athlon64 with 8800GT before.

thats because a 2.2 X2 sucks. hell even my 2.6 X2 couldnt pull of better minimum framerates with high end cards than I was getting with an 8600gt.

 

[alcoholbob]

Originally posted by: toyota

Originally posted by: Astrallite
I'm gonna stick to my guns. DON'T UPGRADE to run neolithic game engines. I thought I had the sh1t to run NWN2 and failed miserably. My minimum framerate went from 17fps to 19fps and I was running a 2.2GHz Athlon64 with 8800GT before.

thats because a 2.2 X2 sucks. hell even my 2.6 X2 couldnt pull of better minimum framerates with high end cards than I was getting with an 8600gt.

I went from that to this: Core i7 at 3.8GHz, DDR1600 RAM, and SLI evga GTX285 SSC

Unless you're saying that sucks too. Unless you have some secret super computer somewhere laying around.

 

[toyota]

Originally posted by: Astrallite

Originally posted by: toyota

Originally posted by: Astrallite
I'm gonna stick to my guns. DON'T UPGRADE to run neolithic game engines. I thought I had the sh1t to run NWN2 and failed miserably. My minimum framerate went from 17fps to 19fps and I was running a 2.2GHz Athlon64 with 8800GT before.

thats because a 2.2 X2 sucks. hell even my 2.6 X2 couldnt pull of better minimum framerates with high end cards than I was getting with an 8600gt.

I went from that to this: Core i7 at 3.8GHz, DDR1600 RAM, and SLI evga GTX285 SSC

Unless you're saying that sucks too. Unless you have some secret super computer somewhere laying around.

I guess I misunderstood what you were saying. 😱

I thought you were talking about upgrading just the video card on the 2.2 X2 machine and not getting better minimum framerates.

 

[AzN]

Originally posted by: toyota

Originally posted by: Azn

Originally posted by: toyota

Originally posted by: Azn
For such low resolution you should hold out. Not much other cards will do better other than slight bump in speed. It's more noticeable in higher resolutions though.

why should he wait? if he is struggling with even one game there are several current video cards that can easily address that prob for not much more than 100 bucks. if the rest of his system is up to snuff then even a 4850 or 9800gtx might be a good choice.

Why shouldn't he wait? Getting extra 10fps is enough to drop money on a new card?

8800gts 320mb is plenty for witcher. I played that game on my 8800gs at the same resolution with 4xAA and it was constant 40-50fps. A 4850 or 9800gtx won't do you much good. Now if he was working with a 8600gt like you had the difference would be night and day but he's not. he's working with a very formidable card at that resolution.

if he currently cant play a game he has then whats the point in waiting if he can buy a card NOW and fix that issue. what exactly does he need to wait for? there are choices right now and he obviously has money to spend because he asked about a gtx260 and 4870. sure those cards would basically be overkill and he may not have the rest of the specs to make full use of them anyway. as long as he has a decent setup then he should go ahead and get a 4830, 9800gt or maybe even 4850 so he can actually enjoy his games.

4830 9800gt is roughly 20% faster than G80GTS. Is that worth dropping money onto a new card that barely does anything? For most game he won't be able to distinguish the difference at that resolution. Hell he could even overclock that card and get very close to 8800gt speed.

Maybe you think G80GTS is like your 8600gt. It's anything but. It has 320bit memory bus 20ROP with 32TMU and 96SP. It is very capable card.

 

[toyota]

Originally posted by: Azn

Originally posted by: toyota

Originally posted by: Azn

Originally posted by: toyota

Originally posted by: Azn
For such low resolution you should hold out. Not much other cards will do better other than slight bump in speed. It's more noticeable in higher resolutions though.

why should he wait? if he is struggling with even one game there are several current video cards that can easily address that prob for not much more than 100 bucks. if the rest of his system is up to snuff then even a 4850 or 9800gtx might be a good choice.

Why shouldn't he wait? Getting extra 10fps is enough to drop money on a new card?

8800gts 320mb is plenty for witcher. I played that game on my 8800gs at the same resolution with 4xAA and it was constant 40-50fps. A 4850 or 9800gtx won't do you much good. Now if he was working with a 8600gt like you had the difference would be night and day but he's not. he's working with a very formidable card at that resolution.

if he currently cant play a game he has then whats the point in waiting if he can buy a card NOW and fix that issue. what exactly does he need to wait for? there are choices right now and he obviously has money to spend because he asked about a gtx260 and 4870. sure those cards would basically be overkill and he may not have the rest of the specs to make full use of them anyway. as long as he has a decent setup then he should go ahead and get a 4830, 9800gt or maybe even 4850 so he can actually enjoy his games.

4830 9800gt is roughly 20% faster than G80GTS. Is that worth dropping money onto a new card that barely does anything? For most game he won't be able to distinguish the difference at that resolution. Hell he could even overclock that card and get very close to 8800gt speed.

Maybe you think G80GTS is like your 8600gt. It's anything but. It has 320bit memory bus 20ROP with 32TMU and 96SP. It is very capable card.

believe me I know the 8600gt is nothing like an 8800gts. if he had a 640mb 8800gts than it would be a different story. once you run out of video memory it doesnt matter about how strong the rest of your card is. Nvidia is worse than ATI about managing video ram and at only 320mb the 8800gts can easily poo itself even at 1440 in some games.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Seems like it might be worth upgrading but only if you move up to a 4870 or better. A 4830 will outperform your current card and draw less power, but it's not enough of an improvement for it to be worth it.

 

[AzN]

Originally posted by: toyota

Originally posted by: Azn

Originally posted by: toyota

Originally posted by: Azn

Originally posted by: toyota

Originally posted by: Azn
For such low resolution you should hold out. Not much other cards will do better other than slight bump in speed. It's more noticeable in higher resolutions though.

why should he wait? if he is struggling with even one game there are several current video cards that can easily address that prob for not much more than 100 bucks. if the rest of his system is up to snuff then even a 4850 or 9800gtx might be a good choice.

Why shouldn't he wait? Getting extra 10fps is enough to drop money on a new card?

8800gts 320mb is plenty for witcher. I played that game on my 8800gs at the same resolution with 4xAA and it was constant 40-50fps. A 4850 or 9800gtx won't do you much good. Now if he was working with a 8600gt like you had the difference would be night and day but he's not. he's working with a very formidable card at that resolution.

if he currently cant play a game he has then whats the point in waiting if he can buy a card NOW and fix that issue. what exactly does he need to wait for? there are choices right now and he obviously has money to spend because he asked about a gtx260 and 4870. sure those cards would basically be overkill and he may not have the rest of the specs to make full use of them anyway. as long as he has a decent setup then he should go ahead and get a 4830, 9800gt or maybe even 4850 so he can actually enjoy his games.

4830 9800gt is roughly 20% faster than G80GTS. Is that worth dropping money onto a new card that barely does anything? For most game he won't be able to distinguish the difference at that resolution. Hell he could even overclock that card and get very close to 8800gt speed.

Maybe you think G80GTS is like your 8600gt. It's anything but. It has 320bit memory bus 20ROP with 32TMU and 96SP. It is very capable card.

if he had a 640mb 8800gts than it would be a different story. once you run out of video memory it doesnt matter about how strong the rest of your card is. Nvidia is worse than ATI about managing video ram and at only 320mb the 8800gts can easily poo itself even at 1440.

No that wouldn't be a different story. At such low resolution 320mb of vram is sufficient at that resolution.

If you don't think 320mb of vram is enough @ 1440x900 link me to game that eats up more than 320mb of vram at that resolution.

 

[toyota]

Originally posted by: AstroManLuca
Seems like it might be worth upgrading but only if you move up to a 4870 or better. A 4830 will outperform your current card and draw less power, but it's not enough of an improvement for it to be worth it.

I would say split the difference and go 4850. that would plenty for almost every game out there to be maxed at 1440x900. a 4870 at that res might not but fully utilized every game with his current set up.

 

[toyota]

Originally posted by: Azn

Originally posted by: toyota

Originally posted by: Azn

Originally posted by: toyota

Originally posted by: Azn

Originally posted by: toyota

Originally posted by: Azn
For such low resolution you should hold out. Not much other cards will do better other than slight bump in speed. It's more noticeable in higher resolutions though.

why should he wait? if he is struggling with even one game there are several current video cards that can easily address that prob for not much more than 100 bucks. if the rest of his system is up to snuff then even a 4850 or 9800gtx might be a good choice.

Why shouldn't he wait? Getting extra 10fps is enough to drop money on a new card?

8800gts 320mb is plenty for witcher. I played that game on my 8800gs at the same resolution with 4xAA and it was constant 40-50fps. A 4850 or 9800gtx won't do you much good. Now if he was working with a 8600gt like you had the difference would be night and day but he's not. he's working with a very formidable card at that resolution.

if he currently cant play a game he has then whats the point in waiting if he can buy a card NOW and fix that issue. what exactly does he need to wait for? there are choices right now and he obviously has money to spend because he asked about a gtx260 and 4870. sure those cards would basically be overkill and he may not have the rest of the specs to make full use of them anyway. as long as he has a decent setup then he should go ahead and get a 4830, 9800gt or maybe even 4850 so he can actually enjoy his games.

4830 9800gt is roughly 20% faster than G80GTS. Is that worth dropping money onto a new card that barely does anything? For most game he won't be able to distinguish the difference at that resolution. Hell he could even overclock that card and get very close to 8800gt speed.

Maybe you think G80GTS is like your 8600gt. It's anything but. It has 320bit memory bus 20ROP with 32TMU and 96SP. It is very capable card.

if he had a 640mb 8800gts than it would be a different story. once you run out of video memory it doesnt matter about how strong the rest of your card is. Nvidia is worse than ATI about managing video ram and at only 320mb the 8800gts can easily poo itself even at 1440.

No that wouldn't be a different story. At such low resolution 320mb of vram is sufficient at that resolution.

If you don't think 320mb of vram is enough @ 1440x900 link me to game that eats up more than 320mb of vram at that resolution.

I have no idea about Witcher but there were same ram usage charts I saw last summer that showed a couple games going over 320 with the settings cranked up. sorry I dont have the link for that but it was a guy in the Crysis forums. newer games will probably get close to or go over that at 1440 and remember Nvidia is slightly poorer at handling vram than ATI.

IMO I still say he should get a new card so he can better enjoy all his games. waiting will not accomplish anything as for as I am concerned.

 

[AzN]

Originally posted by: toyota
I have no idea about Witcher but there were same ram usage charts I saw last summer that showed a couple games going over 320 with the settings cranked up. sorry I dont have the link for that but it was a guy in the Crysis forums. newer games will probably get close to or go over that at 1440 and remember Nvidia is slightly poorer at handling vram than ATI.

IMO I still say he should get a new card so he can better enjoy all his games. waiting will not accomplish anything as for as I am concerned.

Then why mention the 320mb of vram vs 640mb when you have no idea?

The only game that eats more than 320mb of vram is WIC with AA and maybe Fallout 3 at ultra settings with AA which I'm not even too sure about let alone a 640mb 8800gts fast enough to play those settings.

Believe me the difference isn't night and day. I had a 8800gs and upgraded to 8800gts. I got a slight speed bump and that's about it. It didn't make me enjoy all my games any better than the 8800gs.

 

[alcoholbob]

I think Crysis hits over 500MB VRAM at 1680x1050 but this is on DX10 Very High settings.

 

[toyota]

Originally posted by: Astrallite
I think Crysis hits over 500MB VRAM at 1680x1050 but this is on DX10 Very High settings.

original Crysis, Warhead, original Stalker and Clear Sky would exceed 320mb even at 1440 on max settings with AA.

 

[AzN]

Originally posted by: Astrallite
I think Crysis hits over 500MB VRAM at 1680x1050 but this is on DX10 Very High settings.

Is it even playable though at very high? In high settings it uses less than 320mb of vram @ 1440x900. @ 1680x1050 it uses something like 350mb.