What's the better bang for the buck?

[misle]

I've been running my 8800GTS for about 1.5 years and it may be time to upgrade.

I really haven't been keeping up on video cards.

I'm looking for the best bang for the buck!

Thoughts:
Buy another 8800GTS and run SLI or just buy a new card?

Probably want to keep the price under $200.

I'm using:
Vista Business (32-bit)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ (maybe upgrading to 6000+)
2 GB of RAM (maybe upgrading to 4)

I do a lot of gaming, mainly FPS and RPGs.

I will say that I prefer nVidia cards because of the driver nightmares I used to have with ATI cards. I don't know if that has changed in the last few years or not.

 

[OCGuy]

Whatever you can get the better deal on between a GTX260 (Nvidia) or a 4870 1GB (ATi).

Look around, $200 is possible right now.

 

[recoiledsnake]

I take it's the 320/640MB version? Because the 512MB version is about 1.1 years old. That card was outdated a really long time ago. SLI would be pretty much useless, I think even the 9800GT for $100 should be able to beat SLI'ed 8800GTS 320/640. ATI seems to have improved it's drivers but there are still some complaints. Your best options are, the HD4850 or 9800GTX+ for ~ $170 or a GTX 260 for a little above $200(?)

 

[masteryoda34]

Depending on your price range:

9800GTX+ or ATI 4850 ~$100-150
GTX 260 Core 216 or ATI 4870 1GB ~$150-200

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: misle
Probably want to keep the price under $200.

I'm using:
Vista Business (32-bit)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ (maybe upgrading to 6000+)
2 GB of RAM (maybe upgrading to 4)

I do a lot of gaming, mainly FPS and RPGs.

I will say that I prefer nVidia cards because of the driver nightmares I used to have with ATI cards. I don't know if that has changed in the last few years or not.

I'd agree with the others, go with a new single card. GTX 260 for under $200 or core 216 for a little bit more since you prefer Nvidia cards. I'd also upgrade your CPU shortly after, as that 4600+ is going to bottleneck your new GPU significantly. RAM is extremely cheap as well, so upgrade that along with Vista 64 would be nice upgrades.

Originally posted by: recoiledsnake
SLI would be pretty much useless, I think even the 9800GT for $100 should be able to beat SLI'ed 8800GTS 320/640.

Maybe in VRAM limited situations with the 320MB, but not even close for the 640MB version. The 640MB version at stock 513MHz was slower than the 8800/9800GT for sure but once overclocked they performed almost identically. I'd agree not to bother with G80 SLI at this point though.

 

[misle]

Thanks for the info and recommendations! I appreciate it.

 

[octopus41092]

Sell yours off for ~$100 then buy an HD4850 or an HD4870.

 

[misle]

I was looking at GTX 260 cards and I have a question: What is PCI Express 2.0?

I have an older AM2 NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI board and I'm not sure if it's 2.0 or not...doubt it actually.

 

[rogue1979]

Originally posted by: recoiledsnake
I take it's the 320/640MB version? Because the 512MB version is about 1.1 years old. That card was outdated a really long time ago. SLI would be pretty much useless, I think even the 9800GT for $100 should be able to beat SLI'ed 8800GTS 320/640. ATI seems to have improved it's drivers but there are still some complaints. Your best options are, the HD4850 or 9800GTX+ for ~ $170 or a GTX 260 for a little above $200(?)

The 8800GTS still has decent performance in today's games. The 320MB version is a little limited on memory for higher resolutions, but two 8800GTS 320MB cards in SLI would fix that. They would be faster than a 9800GT and you could probably pick up a used one for less than $65 or so.

If you go for a new video card the single 9800GT will not be a huge upgrade. Maybe an ATI 4830/4850, or at least an 9800GTX OC or GTX260.

If you have the 640MB version you could overclock it for a nice performance boost.

625/1500/2000 would make a significant difference.

 

[CoinOperatedBoy]

Originally posted by: rogue1979

The 8800GTS still has decent performance in today's games. The 320MB version is a little limited on memory for higher resolutions, but two 8800GTS 320MB cards in SLI would fix that.

I don't know if that's true. I was under the impression that running two cards in SLI does not double the available VRAM, since essentially the same thing is piped into memory on both cards. There may be performance gains from SLI, but it could only take you so far if texture size was already a problem with a single card. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: Ocguy31
Whatever you can get the better deal on between a GTX260 (Nvidia) or a 4870 1GB (ATi).

Look around, $200 is possible right now.

QFT... well ,almost. the price constantly fluctuates, buy whichever one is cheaper now...
But I Would say a better comparison is a 4870 512MB vs GTX260, or a 4870 1GB vs GTX260 with the extra cores.

Don't bother with SLI on your current card, very bad idea, sell your own card on ebay and get one of the cards mentioned above... anything slower is not worth your time upgrading to, and you should stick with your current card unless you upgrade to a 4870 or a GTX200 series card.

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: CoinOperatedBoy

Originally posted by: rogue1979

The 8800GTS still has decent performance in today's games. The 320MB version is a little limited on memory for higher resolutions, but two 8800GTS 320MB cards in SLI would fix that.

I don't know if that's true. I was under the impression that running two cards in SLI does not double the available VRAM, since essentially the same thing is piped into memory on both cards. There may be performance gains from SLI, but it could only take you so far if texture size was already a problem with a single card. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

You are correct- SLi (and Crossfire) do not double memory, each card uses it's own RAM.

As for the OP:

He stated he preferred NVIDIA, and to spend $200.. I don't know of any GTX260 C216s for $200, but the MSI GTX260 192SP is $199.99 and this would be a HUGE upgrade.

It's the only card on newegg that meets his criteria and is a huge upgrade.

Personally, I'd try to scrape up another $30 and get this BFG C216 for $230AMIR with Far Cry2, but the first card is the only one that answers the question within the given parameters.

 

[DSF]

Originally posted by: CoinOperatedBoy

Originally posted by: rogue1979

The 8800GTS still has decent performance in today's games. The 320MB version is a little limited on memory for higher resolutions, but two 8800GTS 320MB cards in SLI would fix that.

I don't know if that's true. I was under the impression that running two cards in SLI does not double the available VRAM, since essentially the same thing is piped into memory on both cards. There may be performance gains from SLI, but it could only take you so far if texture size was already a problem with a single card. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

You are correct. Both cards have to load all the textures and such into VRAM independently of each other, so the effective memory is not increased.

As far as selling the card he has for $100, I doubt very much he'd get that amount of money for a used card.

If you like Nvidia, the GTX 260 is the best card that fits your budget. You could always monitor the Hot Deals section to see if any special offers on the Core 216 version pop up, especially after Christmas. The 216 stream processor version is more powerful, but even the standard GTX 260 is plenty fast.

 

[error8]

Originally posted by: misle
I was looking at GTX 260 cards and I have a question: What is PCI Express 2.0?

I have an older AM2 NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI board and I'm not sure if it's 2.0 or not...doubt it actually.

PCI express 2.0 doubles the bandwidth that PCI express 1.0 has and it's also able to give you more power through the slot itself ( around 150W ). Latest and fastest cards are really bandwidth hungry, since they can move lots of data, very fast and so they are really starting to need this PCI express 2.0 slot.

A GTX 260 is right on the edge, so is the 4870 1gb. They are quite starting to fill up the PCI express 1.0 slot, but they're not loosing performance to a point that it matters, so you can buy which card you like. Now, if you wanted a 4870X2, then the performance loss would start to matter and a PCI express 2.0 mobo would have been a must.

 

[sgrinavi]

Originally posted by: masteryoda34
Depending on your price range:

9800GTX+ or ATI 4850 ~$100-150
GTX 260 Core 216 or ATI 4870 1GB ~$150-200

Where are you getting GTX 260/216 for $150 to $200?

 

[rogue1979]

Originally posted by: CoinOperatedBoy

I don't know if that's true. I was under the impression that running two cards in SLI does not double the available VRAM, since essentially the same thing is piped into memory on both cards. There may be performance gains from SLI, but it could only take you so far if texture size was already a problem with a single card. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

You're right, my bad.

 

[kmmatney]

There is a 512MB HD4870 for sale for $165 shipped (after small rebate and promo code):

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2260160&enterthread=y

It's not NVidia, but is a great deal.

 

[Tempered81]

Originally posted by: sgrinavi

Originally posted by: masteryoda34
Depending on your price range:

9800GTX+ or ATI 4850 ~$100-150
GTX 260 Core 216 or ATI 4870 1GB ~$150-200

Where are you getting GTX 260/216 for $150 to $200?

had an msi from newegg for 155.88 shipped 2 weeks ago...

regular $259, discounted 199 in cart - 15% coupon code - $10 off - 2.75% live C/B + free shipping

 

[Dadofamunky]

I'd stick with NVidia myself. The Core 216 looks really good for the money and since you're already running NVidia drivers it should be plug-and-play. (I think.)

 

[Leyawiin]

Your Nvidia AM2 590 SLI board will be PCI-E 2.0 - no worries there. An 8800 GTS 320 or 640 will be about as fast as an HD 4670 - maybe a little faster. You should aim for something that's a worthwhile upgrade like a GTX 260. The MSI bargain board is still $199 at Newegg. There's also a $20 rebate valid through December, but Newegg doesn't list it - you can print it up from any other retailer's site that carries the card.

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

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/rebate/msi_120108_th_07.pdf

For $179.99 after rebate you won't find better and if you upgrade to a 3.1 Ghz Barcelona X2 6000+ it should do fine. I have a factory OC'd gTX 260 paired with a 3.2 Ghz Windsor X2 6400+ and they do great together. Runs things like Fallout 3 with all options maxed at 1680x1050 very smoothly.

 

[TridenT]

Save your money and wait for early next year releases. I believe GTX 295 is comin' out. That could be a pretty sweet thing.

 

[fijianalky86]

i would get the gtx 260 black edition but if you wanna save a bit i'd go with a 4870 512mb and add that towards upgrading your cpu
so the second choice looks better...the new x2 6000 at 89W looks good as it probably will OC to 3.2....see if your board can support it first...

 

[masteryoda34]

Originally posted by: sgrinavi

Originally posted by: masteryoda34
Depending on your price range:

9800GTX+ or ATI 4850 ~$100-150
GTX 260 Core 216 or ATI 4870 1GB ~$150-200

Where are you getting GTX 260/216 for $150 to $200?

I had a brain fart. I meant $250-300 or something. Sry.

 

[masteryoda34]

Originally posted by: Leyawiin
Your Nvidia AM2 590 SLI board will be PCI-E 2.0

Umm, I don't think so. I have this board personally and I'm quite sure it does not have PCI-E 2.0. I believe the first chipset to feature PCI-E 2.0 was the Intel X38.

 

[WaxHaX0rS]

I sort of have a similar question, so I didn't want to make a whole new thread (sorry for hijacking OP).

I currently have a 8800GT, Core 2 E6750, and 2GB RAM (probably upgrade to 4GB soon since ram is so damn cheap). I was thinking of adding a 9800GT in SLI with my 8800GT. I run at 1280x1024 right now but I think I will get a second monitor (probably a 24" at 1920x1200) for Christmas. I would like to run Crysis Warhead and other new games on this at 1920x1200 or 1680x1050. Right now Warhead chokes my card at highest settings for most things (low or no AA, I cant remember, I did it a while ago) at 1280x1024 and it's kind of annoying.

Basically my question is, what do you think of just adding a second 9800GT to my 8800GT?