Which card?!

[covert24]

First of all one question to you guys. Will i see a huge/noticeable increase going from a 8800GT to a 8800GTS? Does the extra 14 stream processors really matter?

Here are my choices as of right now:

ZOTAC ZT-88TES3P-FSP GeForce 8800GT 512MB

EVGA 512-P3-N802-AR GeForce 8800GT

GECUBE GC-XHD3870XTG4-E3 Radeon HD 3870

Or my Main choice:
MSI NX8800GTS 512M OC GeForce 8800GTS (G92)

Im guessing most of you are probably going to go with the last MSI one but just want to make sure before i spend money..

 

[IL2SturmovikPilot]

8800GT Definitely,HD 3870 is a ripoff for the same price and the 8800GTS 512MB will likey become obsolete around the same time as the 8800GT,though for $20-25 (Depending if you get the ZOTAC or eVGA) more the 8800GTS 512MB isn't a terrible choice.

 

[JACKDRUID]

Zotac.. the cheapest of the bunch..

3870 for $199 is too expensive , should be around $179 since its slower than 8800gt.

 

[JPB]

Originally posted by: JACKDRUID
Zotac.. the cheapest of the bunch..

3870 for $199 is too expensive , should be around $179 since its slower than 8800gt.

GIGABYTE 3870 $179.99

Price drop coming on the HD cards

ATI cuts prices on the 3850 and 3870

ATI IS GOING TO drop prices on the 3850 and 3870 in the next day or two. This is not a short term thing, it is a permanent cut.

The price on the 3850/512 is going to sink to $145 or below, and the 3870/512 should hit $159 or less. At that money, many may ask, why bother with the 3850?

In any case, these are screamingly good deals. You can buy three 3870s for the price of a 3870X2, or three and a mobo for less than a GX2. Not bad.

 

[pontifex]

MSI or the PNY at Amazon for 159.99 AR

 

[JPB]

Originally posted by: pontifex
MSI or the PNY at Amazon for 159.99 AR

Wise man here :thumbsup:

 

[covert24]

Originally posted by: JPB

Originally posted by: pontifex
MSI or the PNY at Amazon for 159.99 AR

Wise man here :thumbsup:

do you have a link to that? i cant seem to find it

 

[bryanW1995]

yeah, $160 for an 8800gt is just stupid. makes me embarrassed that I paid $155 AR for an x1950xt 8 months ago

 

[boybleu]

i hate to be a thread jacker but i had the same question, and as im sure its been asked a million times on a million cards, i was hoping i could slip it in here


deciding between 2 x 9600gt ssc (eVga)
or a single of a more expensive card 800gtx maybe


they seem to be in a similar price range but seeing as the 9600s are in
a new generation, will they become obsolete later than the 8000 series cards?

my last rig (many years ago) featured a 7800gtx i bought for almost a whopping
600usd. i always planned to get a 2nd SLI when the price dropped, but bu the time i
noticed games starting to suck (right now, when i got sins of a solar.... nother story)

the card is completely obsolete. as ive only played a handful of games since that rig
id like to avoid the same mistake twice.

my goal? as cheaply as possible be able to play sins of a solar empire on highest possible
settings, crysis on relatively high settings.


sorry for being longwinded
-redronin (boybleu)

 

[imported_wired247]

boy- if you have an SLI mobo then get 2x9600GT's. nice price point for the performance level.

 

[boybleu]

thanks wired. i intend to build the system from the ground up, (reusing only case, cooling, and sata hdd and optical drives) however as u may know
the price difference between sli ready (mobo/psu/ram) is usually not that much, so i always go with sli ready when possible


just like to say again, ty so much community and anand. u helped me build my rig peice by peice years ago when i thought it was going to be impossible, and again now that i know
its cake. love ya guys

-rr/bb

 

[covert24]

Originally posted by: covert24

Originally posted by: JPB

Originally posted by: pontifex
MSI or the PNY at Amazon for 159.99 AR

Wise man here :thumbsup:

do you have a link to that? i cant seem to find it

 

[Ika]

Originally posted by: covert24

Originally posted by: covert24

Originally posted by: JPB

Originally posted by: pontifex
MSI or the PNY at Amazon for 159.99 AR

Wise man here :thumbsup:

do you have a link to that? i cant seem to find it

I think he's referring to this deal. The price has since gone up $16, but it's still a decent deal.

 

[covert24]

oh i looked at that one but didn't see a rebate on it??

 

[BlueAcolyte]

Originally posted by: boybleu
thanks wired. i intend to build the system from the ground up, (reusing only case, cooling, and sata hdd and optical drives) however as u may know
the price difference between sli ready (mobo/psu/ram) is usually not that much, so i always go with sli ready when possible


just like to say again, ty so much community and anand. u helped me build my rig peice by peice years ago when i thought it was going to be impossible, and again now that i know
its cake. love ya guys

-rr/bb

Don't bother with SLi-Ready for RAM... But yea, that's good to know. 2x9600GTs is the best SLi spot right now.

 

[v8envy]

Problem is, going SLI means nvidia chipset. The *good* choices are the 790i ($380ish board, plus another $500 for DDR3 ram) or skulltrail ($500, $500 FBDIMM RAM, $1000+ cpu).

You can go with a lesser solution like the 6xxi or 7xxi and RMA a lot of baked northbridge boards and fried RAM, but meh.

SLI has costs over and above the initial investment at the moment.

 

[boybleu]

Originally posted by: v8envy
Problem is, going SLI means nvidia chipset. The *good* choices are the 790i ($380ish board, plus another $500 for DDR3 ram) or skulltrail ($500, $500 FBDIMM RAM, $1000+ cpu).

You can go with a lesser solution like the 6xxi or 7xxi and RMA a lot of baked northbridge boards and fried RAM, but meh.

SLI has costs over and above the initial investment at the moment.

well you dont have to get ddr3 right now with sli do you? the article i read on this website
showed that ddr3 isnt even better than ddr2 until they get the faster timings on ddr3
(maybe these are coming out now but at insane prices) as i read in another thread today
you can get 5-5-5-15 ddr2 (800) at 4gb to $75. so for 150usd on a64bit system i can get 8gb of ddr2 or 2g of probably 6-6-6 at best ddr3?


i think maybe we are considering different range builds

 

[v8envy]

You don't have to get DDR3 -- unless you go with a 790i chipset, which demands it.

Likewise you don't have to get FBDIMMs -- unless you go with Skulltrail.

Reference and non-reference designs for 650i, 680i and 780i chipsets have their shares of problems. Don't take my word for it -- google for the model of SLI board you want and add in keywords 'failure', 'fried ram', 'RMA' and 'fried northbridge.' 'ballistix' is another good one. Compare the hit count to the same searches for popular P35 chipset boards from reputable vendors. Read the accounts and see if you can spot a pattern.

Most nvidia chipset boards for socket775 have woefully inadequate power regulation circuitry and/or northbridge cooling. And electrolytic capacitors. BIOS issues have mostly been resolved from the early days of non-stop horror, but power regulation and northbridge running at 80C issues remain. You could luck out, or you could wind up as one of the (estimated as high as 10%) of users having problems. If not on day 1, then on month 10.

My point is there's a cost to some SLI boards for Intel, over and above the purchase price.

 

[covert24]

alrighty. back on topic....

where can i get that 8800GT for 159.99AR?? i cant find it on amazon