upgrading an 8800gts 320

[happy medium]

every single review I have ever seen has shown that 512MB is more then enough for the 1920x1200... 1GB sometimes benefits performance by a few percent, but the cost is usually not justified...
what are you basing your recommendation on?

I'm basing my recommendation on my own experience.

All the games I play now allow me to play at higher settings with the 9800gtx 1gb card vs my highly overclocked 512mb 8800gt.

I can now set my details on high and run @ 1600x1200 vs 1280x1024 with med/high settings with my 8800gt. They also run a bit quicker.
It was a 20$ upgrade.

My 9800gtx 1gb card overclocked to 810,2000,1050 will allmost = a 4870 512 with the games I play. The card struggles @ 1600x1200 @ high setting.
I don't see it doing that well @ 1920x1080 with high settings. Keep in mind that there is a VERY high setting in most games too. I wouldn't try that with a 512mb card.

I don't how buying a 512mb card now for 1920x1080 is a good choice. 6 months ago mabe.

 

[happy medium]

he has old 8800 rebadged card that can't run 1920x1200 regardless how much RAM he's got. It has no merit to tell whether 4870 512M or such can run 1920x1200.

Lets see underclock your q9650 to 2.5 (to simulate the op's 3.0 cpu) and run the games I and Toyota listed on max settings with your 4870 512mb and tell me what happens @ 1920x1080.

Skip,choke, stutter. Thats whats gonna happen.
A 1gb card would be much better.

 

[postmortemIA]

Lets see underclock your q9650 to 2.5 (to simulate the op's 3.0 cpu) and run the games I and Toyota listed on max settings with your 4870 512mb and tell me what happens @ 1920x1080.

Skip,choke, stutter. Thats whats gonna happen.
A 1gb card would be much better.

max till it stutters? no thanks. all games I got play at reasonable settings. So that's another item: games we play differ.

 

[BlueAcolyte]

I thought that 512mb was acceptable for 1080p or 1920x1200 if you didn't use any AA?

 

[happy medium]

I thought that 512mb was acceptable for 1080p or 1920x1200 if you didn't use any AA?

The key word in that sentence is "was".

 

[vj8usa]

I've actually run into plenty of situations where my 512MB of VRAM wasn't enough, even at 1680x1050 on a relatively lowly 4850. Anno 1404, HAWX, Fallout 3, and Crysis/Warhead come to mind - I saw stuttering in all of them even though my framerates were fine.

 

[toyota]

I've actually run into plenty of situations where my 512MB of VRAM wasn't enough, even at 1680x1050 on a relatively lowly 4850. Anno 1404, HAWX, Fallout 3, and Crysis/Warhead come to mind - I saw stuttering in all of them even though my framerates were fine.

just because there is some stuttering doesnt always mean its lack of vram at vault. very few games will exceed 512mb at 1680 with the settings a 4850 can smoothly run regardless of how much vram it has.

 

[vj8usa]

just because there is some stuttering doesnt always mean its lack of vram at vault.

What else would cause stuttering?

very few games will exceed 512mb at 1680 with the settings a 4850 can smoothly run regardless of how much vram it has.

I'm not sure what you're trying to say here. The games I mentioned definitely weren't running smoothly at the settings I used, even though their framerates were high. Once I turned off AA, the stuttering went away.

 

[toyota]

What else would cause stuttering?




I'm not sure what you're trying to say here. The games I mentioned definitely weren't running smoothly at the settings I used, even though their framerates were high. Once I turned off AA, the stuttering went away.

so you actually think a game has never stuttered on a pc with a graphics card that has plenty of vram? unless you just started gaming yesterday then surely you know this can happen. some examples are Fallout 3 has plenty of documented stuttering issues, Far Cry 2 is known to stutter in DX10 and Bioshock stuttered on several sets of Nvidia drivers from earlier this year. in other words those stutters can happen no matter how much vram you have. you can check vram usage for yourself and I guarantee you that you are not going over 512mb in almost every case.

 

[Schmide]

Being an owner of 2x 4870s I will agree that there are some situations were you cannot run AA. There are others where you can run a 2x and it's fine, and others where 4x or 8x do ok.

As for AA being a game changer. Nah. At the higher resolutions it becomes harder to notice. Still it's nice to have when you can use it.

I currently play COD Mw2 4x AA and see no slowdown.

 

[vj8usa]

you can check vram usage for yourself

How? I've never managed to find a utility that monitors VRAM usage. I vaguely remember there being one years ago from a German site that no longer exists, but even that would only work on XP (or so I've heard - I never managed to find it anywhere).

What convinced me I was running out of VRAM in the games I mentioned was the fact that in every one, turning down AA/resolution would get rid of the stuttering completely.

 

[toyota]

How? I've never managed to find a utility that monitors VRAM usage. I vaguely remember there being one years ago from a German site that no longer exists, but even that would only work on XP (or so I've heard - I never managed to find it anywhere).

What convinced me I was running out of VRAM in the games I mentioned was the fact that in every one, turning down AA/resolution would get rid of the stuttering completely.

Riva tuner has vram monitor but for me the easiest one is the latest version of gpu z which has a very simple one to use. in Fallout 3, I stutter less with 2x AA than with 4x AA even though I am not even close to my 896mb of vram so yeah it happens.

 

[BlueAcolyte]

Riva tuner has vram monitor but for me the easiest one is the latest version of gpu z which has a very simple one to use. in Fallout 3, I stutter less with 2x AA than with 4x AA even though I am not even close to my 896mb of vram so yeah it happens.

Doesnt AA also take graphics core power?

 

[toyota]

Doesnt AA also take graphics core power?

well yes the gpu has to be strong enough to use AA.

 

[MrK6]

Riva tuner has vram monitor but for me the easiest one is the latest version of gpu z which has a very simple one to use. in Fallout 3, I stutter less with 2x AA than with 4x AA even though I am not even close to my 896mb of vram so yeah it happens.

I think that's more of a driver issue than hardware limitation. Fallout 3 never really played nicely with my GTX295, despite having more than enough horsepower to run full settings and 4xAA @ 2560x1600.

 

[toyota]

I think that's more of a driver issue than hardware limitation. Fallout 3 never really played nicely with my GTX295, despite having more than enough horsepower to run full settings and 4xAA @ 2560x1600.

well thats sort of my point. everything from drivers to a poor game engine can cause stutters.

 

[MrK6]

well thats sort of my point. everything from drivers to a poor game engine can cause stutters.

Ah, I was going with a comment like this:

well yes the gpu has to be strong enough to use AA.

You were pointing out GPU insufficiencies. I agree with you though, there are lots of issues that manifest themselves with stuttering.

 

[Medicius]

Hehe, you folks get into the best discussions.

I was happy to see the OP post this. I too run with an 8800GTS 320. I recently started my new computer build and had to perform some cost saving changes to my original plan. In the end, and due to my wife's inability to remember to pay parking tickets, I had to scavenge my old 8800gts 320 from my other machine in order to test everything out on my new one.

At this time, I just want a card that is an upgrade compared to it. Then I'll put the 8800 back into the old machine and let the kids use that for their games (lego SW's, etc). Eventually I'd like to build the gaming machine I originally wanted...and hope to move the MB, GPU, and CPU to the old machine and get the MB, SSD, and GPU('s) I wanted (same CPU though).

From reading this post, it sounds like - playing the games that I do - the 5770 will work nicely (and be a nice CF when it moves my "old" PC (which will finally upgrade from Winxp32 to Win732).

Medicius

For Reference, my new Machine Specs:
Win7 Ultimate 64
Antec 1200
Antec CP-850
Intel i7 860
Gigabyte GA-P55-UD4P
4G OCZ Gold OC'd to 1600
8800GTS 320 (scavenged from old machine)

Old Machine Specs:
Winxp SP2 32
Antec 900
Antec TP 500(?)
Intel DG965RY
Intel C2D 5300(?) 1.8G
2G PNY Optima 667
On-board Graphics (while the 8800 is above)

p.s.s. EFF EWE Seagate! I'll never attempt to build a new computer using one of your drives, no matter how much Best Buy takes off the price!