9600gt to 8800gt The good the bad and the ugly

[Lithan]

The good:

Hellgate London went from 45fps avg @ max dx9's 1680x1050 to 50fps... dips arent as noticable, better gameplay.

Memory clocks to 1000mhz, 9600gt only managed 980 or so.

The bad:

This card is slower than the 9600gt in crysis @ 1024, equal at 1280 and only a couple fps faster @ 1680. Still not playable @ 1680 all high.

The fan is louder. 9600gt was dead silent.

The ugly:

Can't run stock settings stably. Overheats. MUST crank fan to at least 50% to run stably. This is in a 75F room with very good case cooling.
Runs @ 85+ degrees versus ~60degrees
Core overclock brutally limited by cooling. 700+ appears possible, but only with 100% fan which is unbearable.


I gotta say, final word from me, do NOT under any circumstances buy a reference cooled 8800gt. They must have chimps doing their testing if they thought this card would be stable.
And looking at price difference... $127 for a 9600gt with upgraded cooling vs $170 for an 8800gt with upgraded cooling... I'd say the 9600gt is almost universally the better choice. I'm debating whether to sell this card and buy another 9600gt since I already sold my last one. I do like me some hellgate london though. I'll test COH and get back to you all.

 

[angry hampster]

Agreed about the stock cooler. My BFG was unbearable with it even only with the fan at 60%. I put a Zalman VF900 on mine and have it overclocked quite nicely, and it can go further but I just haven't taken the time to mess with it. However, I ended up paying around $260 for the card+cooler. This was still an amazing price for a tits card back in December, but saving a hundred bucks while getting equal performance would be incredible.

 

[Pabster]

Sounds about right. With 9600GT so cheap, 8800GT is a marginal...at best...upgrade.

I believe the 9600GT offers the best price/performance ratio out there right now.

 

[Lithan]

Ok, Company of heroes is kinda wierd. I was @ 30-38fps constant with the 9600gt... but the 8800gt gets 45-60fps most of the time... but dips to 30-38fps when I scroll quickly. Rain drops fps into high 20's... don't think I ever played a rain map on the 9600gt, but I imagine It'd probably see the same... so 8800gt is much better avg fps, but about the same min fps it seems.

 

[Lithan]

Originally posted by: angry hampster
Agreed about the stock cooler. My BFG was unbearable with it even only with the fan at 60%. I put a Zalman VF900 on mine and have it overclocked quite nicely, and it can go further but I just haven't taken the time to mess with it. However, I ended up paying around $260 for the card+cooler. This was still an amazing price for a tits card back in December, but saving a hundred bucks while getting equal performance would be incredible.

Yeah, this fan is making me glad of my antec solo. side off, 40% is bearable, side on 60%... and thats the difference between overheating and not overheating for me.

 

[error8]

I guess that the stock cooler on 8800 GT is the worst cooler Nvidia ever engineered for a graphic card. They tried so hard to make it slim and single slot, but didn't really considered the temperatures. Great card crippled by the worst cooler. But it seems that right now 8800 GTs with aftermarket coolers on them are more often found in stores the the stock cooled ones.

 

[Lithan]

Yeah it's really horrible. Running stock It takes maybe two loops of crysis benchmark to get the card to overheat and lock up. Hell the cards @ 60+ in 2d if I leave it on autofan.
Honestly the RMA rate on these things must be 90%+, it doesnt even work unless you know your way around the control panel.

 

[ArchAngel777]

The 9600GT is a very balanced card and is definitely worthy its name. Unfortunately, the same can't really be said for the 9800GTX.