Need quick help with RMA decision. EDIT: Need new advice.

[shortylickens]

I paid 200 bucks for my XFX GeForce 8800GT a while back. It started to make buzzing noises. The fan was going bad.
I sent it in for RMA and they dont have any more to replace it.

They offered to send me an XFX 9800GTX in its place.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814150292

Should I take their offer?
Is the 9800GTX leaps and bounds ahead of the 8800GT?
Or should I just get my 200 bucks back and do something else?

I only have 3 days to respond with a decision.

Forgot to mention I did check the Video section of Anandtech's reviews. Most of the games seemed to show a minor improvement, but I dont play any of the games they reviewed (or play them any longer).
These days I play Test Drive Unlimited, Titan Quest + Expansion, and Neverwinter Nights 2 + expansion.
I also play a lot of older games but since my monitor wont display 400fps I dont think it will matter much.

My system is a 939 Athlon 64 4800+ dual core with 2GB of OCZ Platinum 4200. I have a 550W power supply and one hard drive & optical drive.

 

[ashishmishra]

I would get the money back and try to snag one of those 4870/GTX-260 deals that are popping up recently.

Edit: Neverwinter Nights and Test Drive Unlimited shows big improvements with the latest cards.

 

[QuadDamage2k]

Why wouldn't you want to take a better card then you have now

Do it

 

[QuadDamage2k]

Could ask for the money back and get a 4850, i would try that

Or if you have to upgrade thats not a bad choice.

 

[jcwagers]

I don't know if this will help you or not but Tom's Hardware has Test Drive on a review of the ATI HD4870 card. The 9800 GTX is listed on there but the 8800GT is not. I'm guessing that it's within striking distance of the HD3870. I was thinking that the 9800 GTX would be a decent step up from the 8800GT but I'm thinking that Ashishmishra was probably right. For around $60 more(after rebate) you can find the 4870 and it trashes the 9800 GTX especially with AA turned on. Enough of my rambling.......see for yourself.

Test Drive benchies

 

[daveybrat]

Sounds like a good deal to me. You'll be getting a nice upgrade from a good company. Definitely a good deal.

 

[JPB]

Originally posted by: jcwagers
I don't know if this will help you or not but Tom's Hardware has Test Drive on a review of the ATI HD4870 card. The 9800 GTX is listed on there but the 8800GT is not. I'm guessing that it's within striking distance of the HD3870. I was thinking that the 9800 GTX would be a decent step up from the 8800GT but I'm thinking that Ashishmishra was probably right. For around $60 more(after rebate) you can find the 4870 and it trashes the 9800 GTX especially with AA turned on. Enough of my rambling.......see for yourself.

Test Drive benchies

If I were him, I would go with the 9800GTX. Especially since he is still on socket 939 and a AMD X2 4800. He would more than likely be bottlenecked with the 4870. The 4850 *may* be ok though. Depends on if he overclocks the CPU.

 

[taltamir]

its better to be bottlenecked with a faster card then with a slower card.

If money back/store credit (as in, 200$) is an option, then you should ABSOLUTELY opt for that. the 9800GTX is not worth 200$ right now. Heck I snagged an eVGA GTX260 SC for 225$ after 30$ MIR rebate. And you can get a 4850 for 140$.

They are offering you 200$, or a card that has the MSRP of 200$, even though cards are now can be found for almost 100 under MSRP (ex, the 140$ 4850 is 60$ under MSRP, the GTX260 SC is 85$ under MSRP).

PS. how much did your service plan with newegg cost?

 

[Denithor]

taltamir +1

I had nearly the identical thing happen about a year ago, an x1900gt died on me 11 months after I bought from newegg. They offered to replace it with an open box x1950pro or refund my original purchase price (less shipping). I opted for the cash and then found the deal at BB for a 7900GS @ $45. I was happy, with both newegg's service and the deal at BB.

I would suggest that you take the cash and then buy either a 4850 ($140AR) or a GTX 260 ($225AR). The GTX is honestly probably somewhat overkill for your setup, you will probably be at least somewhat CPU limited especially if you game at lower resolutions.

 

[ashishmishra]

Originally posted by: taltamir
its better to be bottlenecked with a faster card then with a slower card.

If money back/store credit (as in, 200$) is an option, then you should ABSOLUTELY opt for that. the 9800GTX is not worth 200$ right now. Heck I snagged an eVGA GTX260 SC for 225$ after 30$ MIR rebate. And you can get a 4850 for 140$.

They are offering you 200$, or a card that has the MSRP of 200$, even though cards are now can be found for almost 100 under MSRP (ex, the 140$ 4850 is 60$ under MSRP, the GTX260 SC is 85$ under MSRP).

PS. how much did your service plan with newegg cost?

What he said,

"its better to be bottlenecked with a faster card then with a slower card."

Also 9800GTX is definitely not worth $200 now, at least not with the 4850/4870/GTX-260 around.

Option 1: Get money back, buy 4850 get better card and save money for possible better stock cooler for more OC & even better performance.

Option 2: Get money back, add some money buy GTX-260/4870 and end up with a much better card than 9800GTX

 

[nitromullet]

Yep, if they will give you $200, take that and put it towards a GTX 260 or HD4870. If not, the 9800GTX is still an upgrade over the 8800GT and Newegg would be treating you right either way.

 

[geno]

:music:Go on, take the money and run:music: to another video card for $200

 

[adlep]

Get the money back, and maybe get this deal:

MSI GTX260 for $229 AR ?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814127361

A hell of a bang for the buck (all set and done the upgrade will cost you only about $30.00).

 

[shortylickens]

Alright, its done.

Thanks for the tips.

 

[daveybrat]

Originally posted by: shortylickens
Alright, its done.

Thanks for the tips.

Awwww.....don't leave us hanging! What did you decide on?

 

[cubeless]

he got the money; bought a used 8600 off the fs/ft forum because he feels guilty about having more power than somebody else; donated the remainder to the obama campaign...

cross forum pollination... ;p

 

[adlep]

Originally posted by: cubeless
he got the money; bought a used 8600 off the fs/ft forum because he feels guilty about having more power than somebody else; donated the remainder to the obama campaign...

cross forum pollination... ;p

Hahahaha!
Classic...
I LOL'ed

 

[Gikaseixas]

Originally posted by: daveybrat

Originally posted by: shortylickens
Alright, its done.

Thanks for the tips.

Awwww.....don't leave us hanging! What did you decide on?

yes, please let us know

 

[hans007]

yeah if you can get money back get the moneyb ack.

 

[fpsdean]

I'd take the money and run on that one. I have tons of crashes with my 9800gtx. You can read about the fan speed problem that existed for a while when it first came out. Know that they never fixed it (auto still runs between 4 and 39% fan speed, and it still does occasionally revert to auto from 100% fan speed). Also all the drivers, Vista or XP for it are very buggy and you can't run the last stable Nvidia driver version on the 9 series cards (169.25).

Get a 4870 for the $200 plus another $50-80... it mops the floor with the 9800gtx/gtx260 and is arguably as fast as the gtx280 but much cheaper and you don't have to deal with Nvidia.

Or for the $200 you can get a 4850. That is still faster than a 9800gtx/9800gtx+, or you can buy a 9800gtx+ which is a little faster than a 9800gtx, but why when both ATI cards are a much better buy?

That's my honest two cents worth, Nvidia has been nothing but problems lately.

 

[spittledip]

Originally posted by: fpsdean
I'd take the money and run on that one. I have tons of crashes with my 9800gtx. You can read about the fan speed problem that existed for a while when it first came out. Know that they never fixed it (auto still runs between 4 and 39% fan speed, and it still does occasionally revert to auto from 100% fan speed). Also all the drivers, Vista or XP for it are very buggy and you can't run the last stable Nvidia driver version on the 9 series cards (169.25).

Get a 4870 for the $200 plus another $50-80... it mops the floor with the 9800gtx/gtx260 and is arguably as fast as the gtx280 but much cheaper and you don't have to deal with Nvidia.

Or for the $200 you can get a 4850. That is still faster than a 9800gtx/9800gtx+, or you can buy a 9800gtx+ which is a little faster than a 9800gtx, but why when both ATI cards are a much better buy?

That's my honest two cents worth, Nvidia has been nothing but problems lately.

You can just rivatuner to deal with the fan problem, can you not? I prefer to be in control of my fan speeds/temps than let some auto-fan speed decide what is best temps for my hardware. Also, i have not heard of crashes with 9800GTX.. this is news to me.

 

[shortylickens]

I got the 9800GTX.

Thought about it a while and realized that most current gen games are a huge disappointment and none of the next gen games are of any interest to me.
I actually dont need the fastest card available right now. I'll just take the suggested replacement in the RMA and get my gaming system up & running again.

 

[shortylickens]

BUMP!!!

The bastards never sent me a 9800GTX but instead refunded my money.

I got the Vision Tek 4870 instead.

First off: Its a fuckin monster. Its longer than my penis and weighs more than my ego.

2nd: I keep reading different things about Catalyst these days.
The last time I had an ATI card was the X800 Pro, and I stopped updating drivers after a while because they usually caused more problems than they fixed.

Which Catalyst should a guy use if he has no interest in overclocking and just wants his card to be stable?

Should I assume no one here will recommend the silly little Java program that ATI pushes alongside their drivers? I believe its called CCC or something similar.

The VisionTek box came with 8.6 but I see 8.7 is the latest on the ATI site.
Is it safe to assume that the drivers in the box will actually work properly?

 

[Ike0069]

Use the 8.7. They work well.

 

[videopho]

Originally posted by: shortylickens
BUMP!!!

The bastards never sent me a 9800GTX but instead refunded my money.

I got the Vision Tek 4870 instead.

First off: Its a fuckin monster. Its longer than my penis and weighs more than my ego.

2nd: I keep reading different things about Catalyst these days.
The last time I had an ATI card was the X800 Pro, and I stopped updating drivers after a while because they usually caused more problems than they fixed.

Which Catalyst should a guy use if he has no interest in overclocking and just wants his card to be stable?

Should I assume no one here will recommend the silly little Java program that ATI pushes alongside their drivers? I believe its called CCC or something similar.

The VisionTek box came with 8.6 but I see 8.7 is the latest on the ATI site.
Is it safe to assume that the drivers in the box will actually work properly?

Never ever use the driver that comes with the CD.
The 4870 I believe is over 10" long or about the same length with my new gtx-260 (10.5").
It took me over an hour to install the 260, mostly due to some cable layout management.