To keep the card or to not keep the card?

[PeanutButter]

As of late, my poor 8800GTS 320 is starting to show signs of aging. Since the first time I bought it back in July of 07, it was clocked at 648/1518/2000. Since the last two months or so, I've had to clock it down some to 625/forgot /1800 to keep it stable in COD4 on max and Crysis on medium settings. It sometime crashes during 3dMark06 and just recently, losing display indefinately until I force restart it. I have the superclocked model and don't really feel like taking this guy back to stock.
So anyways, I am planning on RMAing the card soon to evga to see if anything improves from it. An option for me is to just tough it up with the card after I get it back from evga and deal with whatever clocks it will let me set or sell it now (before it's worth dirt) and get the 8800gt or even a 8800GTS 512 if I catch a good deal on it. I've read the other on a similiar situation except without the crashing but now a little iffy after mine started to bug out a little.

Thanks in advance

 

[DaveSimmons]

You've listed your two options, but not anything for us to help you decide between them.

So . . . go ahead and buy an 8800 GTS 512 for under $200 after rebate, newegg has several. RMA the 320 then sell it after you get it back.

Why? Because you know you want to.

 

[Zoide]

Or you could wait for the Radeon 4870 to come out in a few weeks....

 

[PeanutButter]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
You've listed your two options, but not anything for us to help you decide between them.

So . . . go ahead and buy an 8800 GTS 512 for under $200 after rebate, newegg has several. RMA the 320 then sell it after you get it back.

Why? Because you know you want to.

Sorry about not putting enough details on my situation.

The main use of my computer is for F@H, gaming, then for movie playback on a 20" LCD (1280x1024) monitor (may be upgraded sometime in the future to widescreen since they're getting fairly cheap). My budget I suppose if I had one is around $160-180 where about 80-1?? could come from the old card. I also plan on sticking to nvidia on this one so radeon is out of the question.

 

[Nathelion]

Well if you're going for F@H, then Radeon is the ONLY option that makes sense. I don't care how fast your processor is, a video card will pwn it very badly.

 

[mhouck]

at that resolution, correct if I'm wrong (I know somebody will), the GT performs on par with the GTS so if money is a huge consideration then that would be your cheapest solution. If you want the g92 GTS go for it, it's a great card. I could clock mine up to 780/2020 for games with the fan at 55%. It doesn't get too hot can overclock very well and is very cheap.

They only problem, those two cards aren't being supported driver wise nearly as often as the 9 series.

 

[Lithan]

Yeah, at that reso for anything other than crysis and the like, gts would be a waste. GT is plenty card. But if it's <$25 difference, I'd get the GTS just for the better cooler and resale value.

You could go with 9600GT even, but it'd probably only be ~5% improvement on your GTS @ that reso. (Unless you cranked AA). It'd run a hell of a lot cooler and use a ton less power at least.

 

[Jax Omen]

Yeah, if F@H is important to you, wait for the Radeon 4870 and buy one of those. Save up some cash

 

[TC91]

a bit off topic, but would they let you RMA the card if it ran good on stock speeds but not at your higher oc settings? my card's memory wont clock up to 1800mhz anymore stably, which is why im asking.

 

[PeanutButter]

Originally posted by: TC91
a bit off topic, but would they let you RMA the card if it ran good on stock speeds but not at your higher oc settings? my card's memory wont clock up to 1800mhz anymore stably, which is why im asking.

I submitted an RMA request a while ago for just about the same issue and they approved it, but I cancelled it and just decided to settle with it until something actually new came out. Room mate of mine also had problems with his evga 8800gt with just about the same problems and his RMA worked out well.

 

[bryanW1995]

Originally posted by: PeanutButter

Originally posted by: TC91
a bit off topic, but would they let you RMA the card if it ran good on stock speeds but not at your higher oc settings? my card's memory wont clock up to 1800mhz anymore stably, which is why im asking.

I submitted an RMA request a while ago for just about the same issue and they approved it, but I cancelled it and just decided to settle with it until something actually new came out. Room mate of mine also had problems with his evga 8800gt with just about the same problems and his RMA worked out well.

if you guys are asking "will they accept an rma if the card won't run at the speeds stated on the box" then obviously they will. If you're asking "will they accept my rma if I oc'd the hell out of it and now it doesn't oc so good" then I think that you'd be sol in that instance.

 

[geoffry]

I'm in the same boat as you, minus the overclocking problem.

It did me well on my games, just passed assassins creed and it could do everything maxed but only 2X AA on my 19". I thought about selling it recently for an 8800 GT or GTS and stepping up to a 24" monitor.

And for me I have a bit of a dislike for online multiplayer, I like the single player with a good story, so once I pass my games I don't play them for months until I'm ready for the story again. Ergo I can wait for the 4870, which is what I currently have my eye on if what they say is true about the GT200 coming out a few months later.

Once I get the 4870 I'll probably sell it to my brother for 60-80 bucks and he can SLI them.

 

[Cheex]

I'm in the same boat too.

I think however, that I will be waiting for the GT200. It is said that the performance increase will be like what G80 did to the GF7 series.

If that is true...then its worth waiting for. All current cards will be made obsolete.

Just my $0.02.