Upgrading to a 9600GSO from a 7800GT

[harle]

Hi all,

I recently bought the PNY Verto GeForce 9600 GSO 768MB on a deal for $30 (it is now up to $43 after rebate). My current card is a 7800GT 256mb. I was wondering if you thought it is even worth the upgrade. The only reason why I jumped on the deal was because it was so cheap. I have looked for benchmark comparisons but the cards were released so far apart that none are available. Overclockers has a master list of all graphics cards and how they stack up, but that does not really offer a good comparison between the two cards. Again, I would appreciate any input you guys could offer.

 

[s44]

Should be about the same as the 8800GTS 640mb? GSO = same shaders, clocked slightly higher, same memspeed, more RAM (well, this one), but smaller memory bus

I believe the regular 384mb GSO was comparable to the 8800GTS 320mb.

 

[katank]

Definitely worth the upgrade. 9600 GSO should be same as 8800GS which is quite a bit better than a 7800GT. You should also be able to overclock the 9600GSO. Besides, 256MB of vid ram is really too little nowadays. The 768MB is very nice. After all, for $30, it's hard to go wrong.

 

[Nohr]

I went from a 7900GS to a 9600 GSO 384MB and it was most definitely worth it. If you plan on playing recent games much higher than 1280x1024 you might consider something faster though.

 

[edplayer]

Yes, it is totally worth it. Do you already have the card? I notice it says "This item has not yet been released."

$30 for that is an excellent deal.

 

[harle]

Originally posted by: edplayer
Yes, it is totally worth it. Do you already have the card? I notice it says "This item has not yet been released."

$30 for that is an excellent deal.

I do not have it yet. I purchased it this morning before the price jumped to $43.
Edit: I do not remember it saying pre-order when I purchased it. The estimated shipping date according to Amazon is January 2nd.

The reason I am not upgrading to a better card than this is because I am doing a full upgrade in about a year (college graduation). This will just be a slight upgrade until then. Also, my friend recently upgraded his computer so he gave me his old Opteron 180. So for $30 I am going from:

Athlon 3500+
7800GT
2gb ram

to

Opteron 180
9600GSO 786mb
2gb ram

I definitely do not expect to play the most recent games on high settings, but I wouldn't mind playing games like STALKER, Left 4 Dead, and Oblivion on medium to high settings.

 

[harle]

Originally posted by: Nohr
I went from a 7900GS to a 9600 GSO 384MB and it was most definitely worth it. If you plan on playing recent games much higher than 1280x1024 you might consider something faster though.

Then native resolution of my monitor is 1680x1050, but I bump it down to 1440x900 on some games so I can crank some other settings up.

 

[AzN]

Originally posted by: harle

Originally posted by: Nohr
I went from a 7900GS to a 9600 GSO 384MB and it was most definitely worth it. If you plan on playing recent games much higher than 1280x1024 you might consider something faster though.

Then native resolution of my monitor is 1680x1050, but I bump it down to 1440x900 on some games so I can crank some other settings up.

It should be fine even with 1680x1050 long as you keep at 2xAA or no AA with some games.

I play everything with 4xAA or higher @ 1440x900 except for Crysis and GTA4 since it doesn't even have AA option.

 

[adlep]

Bear in mind that the card comes with 786 MB of RAM, also you should be able to sell your current card for at least $15.00 + shipping. That will push your Total Upgrade Cost to only $15.00 for a card that can play Crysis!
Excellent!

 

[harle]

Originally posted by: adlep
Bear in mind that the card comes with 786 MB of RAM, also you should be able to sell your current card for at least $15.00 + shipping. That will push your Total Upgrade Cost to only $15.00 for a card that can play Crysis!
Excellent!

I think I may gift the 7800GT to one of my friends. Since my roommate gave me his processor for free, one good deed deserves another, right.

Yeah, I saw that it had that extra ram. Not only that, but it is GDDR3, not GDDR2 like a lot of the other 9600GSO's. I am curious just how powerful this card is compared to my 7800GT. I am hoping for somewhere around a 15%-20% boost, but who knows.

 

[lyssword]

definetly good card for that money

 

[vj8usa]

Originally posted by: harle
I am hoping for somewhere around a 15%-20% boost, but who knows.

Actually, I'm betting that 9600GSO is close to twice as powerful as your 7800GT.