8800gts 320mb

[MarcVenice]

So heres the dilemma. I review games, big deal, but I get a lot of new games, and the newer games, like Overlord, Dirt, Shadowrun etc don't really run to smooth, playable, but I'm used to better framerates so to speak. My current setup is a x2 3800+, which I plan on overclocking to 2.6ghz as soon as my ac64 pro comes in, 1gb ddr 400, and a 7600gs 512mb, with the core clock at 400 and the memory clock at 270. So yeah, it's slow, it's the slowest 7600gs card out there. I didn't know a lot about videocards back when I bought it.

So I figured, since I've got some money to spare, but not loads, that I could get a new videocard, it should allow me to run all these games at max settings, at 1024*768. Now, should I buy a 8800gts 320mb, or should I wait a little longer till my games really don't play anymore. Keep in mind, summervacation started, I don't plan on spending to much time behind the PC, but it will be more then when college starts again in 2 months. So buy now, versus buy in 2-3 months.

My main concern is buying a pretty expensive, 200 euro+ videocard now, enjoying it for about 2-3 months, then having games come out where the videocard will once again become 'unsuitable'. Also, what abt the g92 I read about today, something between the 8600gts and the 8800gts, how will it affect prices ? Argh, I just need some people to put my mind at ease

oh and, it's kind silly to pay 150ish euro for a 1950xt, right ?

 

[Slugbait]

Personally, I was hoping since November that AMD would encourage nVidia to drop their prices. That didn't happen, in a very embarrassing way, so I'm still waiting.

So if less time will be spent in front of your monitor, I'd suggest you wait. Those prices may yet come down in another two months.

And when they do, I'd suggest you get the 640. As an example, Quake4 is an old game, and it's painful to crank every setting to the max if you have less than a half-gig. Other games, and especially games yet to be released, will love swimming in that much memory.

 

[Demoth]

At 1024X768, the 8800GTS 320mb is all your going to need for a pretty long time, that is even taking into account when we start seeing pure DX10 titles in a year or so. At such a low res., your CPU is playing a big factor in gaming, though the GPU is still more important for most games. At 1024X768, extra memory on the GPU will NOT be useful for any kind of gain except on some benchmarks. An X2 at 2.6 ghz will not bottleneck a 8800GTS very much either. Unless your planning on gaming at higher resolutions in the near future, your safe with that card for quite a while. And yeah, your current card was pretty much garbage even when it was first released and comperable to a mid range pre-7 gen card. Difference between that and a 8800 GTS is from a used Yugo to a Ferrari.

I'd also recommend another 1 gb of ram while you can still find cheap older DDR online. Alot of newer games will use quite a bit more then 1 gig and the performance increase will be dramatic in many games.

And yes, a 50 euro difference is way too small to get a 1950xt over a 8800GTS. Just the IQ improvement alone would make me opt for the 8800, even if speed wasnt a factor.

 

[superbooga]

Originally posted by: Slugbait
Other games, and especially games yet to be released, will love swimming in that much memory.

For games yet to be released, the 96 SPs are going to be a bigger limiting factor than the amount of memory, especially at 1024x768.

 

[SickBeast]

If you want something that will really last you, make sure you get a card with more than 320mb of video memory.

I actually have the 320mb GTS and it's great, but if I were on the market now I would probably have a good look at the ATI cards (2900XT). Personally I would spring for a GTX if you can; it's 30% faster than a GTS in most cases and sometimes more.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: SickBeast
If you want something that will really last you, make sure you get a card with more than 320mb of video memory.

I actually have the 320mb GTS and it's great, but if I were on the market now I would probably have a good look at the ATI cards (2900XT). Personally I would spring for a GTX if you can; it's 30% faster than a GTS in most cases and sometimes more.

well, i would at least suggest the 640MB version of the GTS if you are on a strict budget ... and i actually paid more for my GTS than i did my 2900xt

in addition to my HD2900xt, i also got a GTX 8800 640MB OC ... Keys, n7, myself and probably others are gonna test the 1GB HD2900xt, the 512MB 2900xt, the GTS 640M and GTX ... all this is done "in-house" on clean installs of Vista and XP ...
--so, i'd suggest waiting to see the test benchmarking results as they should be finished - mostly - this weekend

maybe you could send us a couple of games to benchmark
--we are doing HL2's Lost Coast/FEAR/STALKER/PREY ... Keys is doing CoD2 and i am adding Painkiller [as is n7] and Q4 ]

i almost bought Call of Juarez for the DX10 path today ... but no one would say if it was a good game or not
--so i didn't

 

[MarcVenice]

But I really don't wanna spend more then 300 euro's at most. I'd jump on the ati x2900xt if it were 320 euro's or so, but it ain't And I think I might upgrade my screen, but it will have to wait till christmas or so, and will probably be 1600*1200 at most. As for the ram, yeah I am thinking about getting another GB of ram. Thing is though, if I do buy a 8800gts, I also need a new PSU. ATM I'm using a PSU that came with the case, it's not total and utter crap, the rails actually seem to be quite stable, but with 18a on the 12v rail it's not going to cut it.

So 8800gts 320mb + psu is 300+ euro's allready, assuming I get the 8800 at 260- and the psu at 60ish. Add in 1gb of ram for 65-70 euro's, that's 400 euro's -_- My 7600gs might sell for 50 euro's, at most

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: MarcVenice
But I really don't wanna spend more then 300 euro's at most. I'd jump on the ati x2900xt if it were 320 euro's or so, but it ain't And I think I might upgrade my screen, but it will have to wait till christmas or so, and will probably be 1600*1200 at most. As for the ram, yeah I am thinking about getting another GB of ram. Thing is though, if I do buy a 8800gts, I also need a new PSU. ATM I'm using a PSU that came with the case, it's not total and utter crap, the rails actually seem to be quite stable, but with 18a on the 12v rail it's not going to cut it.

So 8800gts 320mb + psu is 300+ euro's allready, assuming I get the 8800 at 260- and the psu at 60ish. Add in 1gb of ram for 65-70 euro's, that's 400 euro's -_- My 7600gs might sell for 50 euro's, at most :

how is your credit?

seriously, i think you are going to be very unhappy with your GTS 320M about the time that the new games hit ... you probably know better than me that Crysis &c are not far off ... and a SLEW of inefficiently coded DX10 paths in patches to enable early DX10 features ... that is till the native games come which will be even more demanding
... and you are going to have to upgrade your PS anyway ... even for 1950p or XT.

so ... you NEED some HP ... even at 10x7 ... i have 14x9 and am planning for a booster PS and a 2nd HD2900xt if i keep this XT card ... if not, i may just keep the GTS as a "placeholder" for G90 ... or get a GTX after the tests this weekend
--- of course, depending on who "wins" ... and the price vs performance ... i can return one card for full refund ... i paid $60 more for the GTS then the XT but Wreckage & HardHOCP say the 320MB is an "equivalent card" ... so we are gonna find out what is really up

 

[MarcVenice]

Well my credit is like 300 euro's The rest of the money I have or will earn has to be spend on other things. I kinda got lucky, coz I intended on paying college tuition for 2 more months, but I don't have to, coz the yearly fee has been paid allready, so that's about 300 euro's I got extra. 50 more won't kill me, but it's also about getting the most bang for my buck, I don't care about bragging rights and stuff.

 

[secretanchitman]

yes go for it. works just fine for me using the rig in my sig at 1920x1200 (mind you at older games like ut2k4) with AA/AF cranked.

 

[pcslookout]

Works well on newer games pretty well too. I played Oblivion 1680x1050 with everything on max and I mean everything. Water reflection, textures, the furthest distance I could set, even 4x FSAA. It looks awesome. Very rarely does it slow down enough to notice. I have a eVGA Geforce 8800GTS 320MB as well and have been trying to decide if I should go to the 640 or GTX as well. Even tried Quake 4 with everything on max and 4x FSAA. Works very well too even during heavy gun fights inside and outside. If there is any other games you would like me to try I will be happy too. The only thing I am worried about is I am not sure how long I am going to keep this video card. If I can get a new video card in a few months I may if need be for the new DX10 games.

I don't think even the Geforce 8800 Ultra will be able to play most DX10 games at 10x12 with playable framerates.

Does anyone here think its worth spending $130 to upgrade to a Geforce 8800 GTS 640 ? Thats how much I have to spend because I would step up. Its less of a hassle then having to sell my card. Around $350 to upgrade to a GTX.

 

[MarcVenice]

Well, how do games like Shadowrun, Dirt, Overlord, Two worlds, run on your PC ? Dirt for example runs EXTREMELY bad on my current videocard, Overlord at low-mediumish settings is playable at around 30fps, using FRAPS. Two worlds at low-mediumish also runs around 30fps. If you like Oblivion btw, DEFINATELY try out Two Worlds, won't say it's a Oblivion killer, but I'm pretty sure Oblivion players will like it. This is all without any AA/AF.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: MarcVenice
Well, how do games like Shadowrun, Dirt, Overlord, Two worlds, run on your PC ? Dirt for example runs EXTREMELY bad on my current videocard, Overlord at low-mediumish settings is playable at around 30fps, using FRAPS. Two worlds at low-mediumish also runs around 30fps. If you like Oblivion btw, DEFINATELY try out Two Worlds, won't say it's a Oblivion killer, but I'm pretty sure Oblivion players will like it. This is all without any AA/AF.

2Worlds isn't released in the US is it yet ?
--i believe some of us are looking forward to it in 'pc games'

IF i had the latest games, i would be more than happy to bench them for you - or Keysplayer2003 ... i DO plan to pick up Two Worlds ... maybe Call of Juarez if it is a decent FPS .... but i hear *bad things* about Shadowrun ... and i don't have the latest 'dirt' on Overlord

Of course, Crysis on Day One ... but by the end of next week i will have either my GTS or my XT and will no longer be able to compare them directly anymore

 

[bigsnyder]

Gamespot has a review of Call of Juarez up. Seems to be pretty decent.

 

[MarcVenice]

The only bad thing for shadowrun on the PC I can think of is that the amount of DEDICATED servers is lacking, but I've tried a few public games and it worked just fine. Also can't see my ping, so no idea if I'm being slow or not. No way to type messages, and no voice chat for PC users, wtf is that about ? I might have yet to discover the voice chat ability for pc users though. But the gameplay in itself is pretty good. Teleporting in and out, becoming invulnerable for a little while * can't hurt others either tho * and stuff like that really mix up the FPS experience. Being able to res ppl, heal, and close combat with the katana, all in all, pretty fun imo. Graphics not bad either.

And maybe Keys can do those games, hehe.

 

[apoppin]

thanks ... oh, it MMO ... no SP for shadowrun? that won't work at all for me till i get broadband ...

i see in another post you went for the GTS 320 ... good choice and excellent bang-for-buck !

yep, PM Keys

 

[MarcVenice]

No SP unless you like killing bots

 

[pcslookout]

Does anyone have any idea why in most games you can enable 4x FSAA and 16x AF with high settings all turned on with the Geforce 8800 320 at 1600x1200 or below still having playable frame rates with at least a minimum of 30 fps but in others you can't like Stalker, SC, F.E.A.R. quake 4 ? It makes no sense.

Half Life 2 doesn't even break a sweat at 1600x1200 with 4x FSAA and 16x AF maximum details on everything running by Geforce 8800 320.

 

[bryanW1995]

marc, check out this link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814102067. that's a lot cheaper than the gts 320 and should last you a while.

 

[apoppin]

BREAKING NEWS ... i just updated with NewEgg

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...07&ATT=N82E16814130071

EVGA 8800GTS 640MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card - Retail $359.99 after $30.00 Mail-In Rebate

don't buy 'em out .. unfortunately Marc lives in Europe

 

[MarcVenice]

Bryan, didn't you see my post where I explained why I would rather spend 100$ more on a 8800gts versus a 1950xt that is dx9 ? Appreciate it though, but even if they sold the 1950xt in holland for 150ish euro's I'd probably still go for the 8800gts.

Crappy thing is, the euro is worth 1.30dollars. Yet, we pay the same prices as you guys do, we pay like 260euro's, which would be 340$. Man I wish I knew some1 who is going to the US for a business trip or something, then take home a 8800gts for me, it would save me cost me 200 euro's, instead of 260