Decisions, Decisions... Nvidia or ATI...? - Page 2 - Tech Support Forums

EXreaction · July 1st, 2008, 10:30 AM

The bandwidth used by a graphics card isn't anywhere near the 8x PCI Express slot.

EXreaction · July 2nd, 2008, 10:49 AM

ZOTAC GeForce 8800 GTS 320mb | ZOTAC 8800 GTS 320MB | ZOTAC Geforce 8800GTS 320 MB | Nvidia Geforce 8800 GTS

KarmaKiller · July 2nd, 2008, 12:04 PM

Shy, IDK if you saw the RR Deal I posted, but you can get a 8800gt(256mb) for $69 after rebates. I'd get 2 of those, sell of your current GTS, use that money for a new board, then run your Quad!

Blitzkreig75 · July 2nd, 2008, 01:04 PM

Ok, I gotta ring in on this, just because I KNOW what the 4870 is capable of, I got one

My rig:

E6420 @ 3GHz, stock vcore cooled by the ZeroTherm BTF90 linked to earlier
ATI 4870 (was an XFX 8800GTS 320 G-80 two days ago)
XFX 650i Ultra
ThermalTake Toughpower 700w
2x 1Gb Corsair XMS Pro DDR2-800

That's pretty close to your setup, and the 4870 was a HUGE step up. I play Age of Conan, (and yeah, it's a bit buggy, the memory leak still hasn't been fixed, but get in a good guild and it's fun), and can play max 'everything' with 8x AA and all view distances maxed @ 1920 x 1080 res and get 35~ fps actually playing the game. High res shadows and water reflections from 'everything'. The card is simply amazing.

It also supports shader model 4, and DX-10.1.

I mean, any upgrade is a risk on how well the hardware will resell later, but the way this card is benching, wouldn't you think it'll be a while before it's outdated and in need of upgrade?

Only note, (and it appears you've got this covered, but it's worth mentioning), is that these new gen cards are getting too fast for many people's CPUs. We're back to processor bottlenecking. lol. IDK how well a stock quad will do when paired with this 4870.

Oh, and I think the single 4870 still beats those 88's in SLI. Probably more likely to beat them in 8x SLI.

There's no practicality in being a fanboy of either 'camp'.

EDIT: Given the two options of one ATI 4850 vs. two 8800GTS 320s SLI'd, it'd be a coin flip to me. Don't you only get like 1.2-1.3x the performance in full 16x SLI over one GPU?

KarmaKiller · July 2nd, 2008, 01:09 PM

Quote:

EDIT: Given the two options of one ATI 4850 vs. two 8800GTS 320s SLI'd, it'd be a coin flip to me. Don't you only get like 1.2-1.3x the performance in full 16x SLI over one GPU?

Most of the time, yes. I know there are certain drivers that allow for a bit better, but your still not talking any kind of huge jump.

EDIT:
But for $140 after Rebates, the G92's look nice in SLI! That's a awesome price!

ShyguyXPC · July 10th, 2008, 11:47 PM

paycheck came, biggun too

but I think I might go with a single 512MB 8800GT for now (hoping I can get a decent 50% boost over the 320MB GTS I have now, if I can, then that should be enough to get me by for a little while), until I can sell the old GTS & E6400, maybe grab a second 8800GT for SLI... not 100% sure on the latter part yet, but I wanted a 9800GTX or G92 8800GTS, but I just don't want to spend more than $150 really right now... needing a good 320 to 500GB HDD to back up all my important crap, plus eventually grab a 2nd 250GB 16MB cache drive to match my current one for RAID 0 after the upgrades/reinstall of WinXP MCE...

I figure I'd be spending close to $200 after the 8800GT & larger HDD, as well as a decent better CPU Cooler for the Quad (although may just use the HSF that comes with it, not sure, don't plan on OCing it anytime soon)

I found some sweet deals on 9800GX2's for just over the $350-360 range, but thats 200 more than I really want to spend right now, if I had the old GTS & C2D sold & that money in hand right now, it'd be a different story, I'd be grabbing a single GTX 260 or 280, but thats not the case... if I didn't mind my game rig being down for a couple weeks, I could do just that, but the other rig is running a HD2600 Pro, & although it runs a few of my games fine, several others just wouldn't do well on it. (And can't be with out the games for more than a few days LOL )

anyways, will post back once I've made my purchases

(probably not for a few days, need to get that check account / check card stuff I posted about figured out)

eagle1 · July 10th, 2008, 11:57 PM

If you wanted a 8800gts G92 for less than $150, you still have time to pick this one up:

ZOTAC ZT-88SES2P-FSP | ZOTAC GeForce 8800 GTS | ZOTAC GeForce 8800 GTS G92 512MB ZT-88SES2P-FSP 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI ZOTAC Video Card

This is the one I got.
Currently testing the hell out of it.

EXreaction · July 11th, 2008, 12:24 AM

Spending $150 on an 8800 GT is absolutely insane.

You will not get even close to a 50% performance increase over your GTS.

You can get a 256MB 8800 GT for $70, a 380MB 8800 GS for $60, or a 4850 for $160.

eagle1 · July 11th, 2008, 12:45 AM

EX, I think you misread!
It's not a GT card but a GTS card (based on G92) -- two different animals... and from what I've seen from other retailers, @ $150 is not that bad... of course, with $50 more you can get a 9800gtx or the new Ati but since ShyGuy doesn't want to go more than $150, I think that could be a good selection.

Edit:... ohh wait... he already has an 8800 gts (G80)!?!?
uufff definitely to step up he would need the ATi or 9800gtx card...

ShyguyXPC · July 11th, 2008, 01:12 AM

why is spending $150 on a GT insane? why list those underdogs, 256MB 8800GT & 380MB GS, if I'm looking for something better than my current card? (the GS is at least comparable to the card I have now, rather pointless, the 256MB GT is less frame buffer despite better over all specs, but still, its only a 256MB card, run 2 in SLI & your still dealing with a 256MB card.

but eagle, thats a good deal, downside is the rebate, $189 before it, and can take up to 3 months before its sent out...

will keep that one in mind when I do grab one of these cards.

shutting down puter here, got some bad weather coming in, & haven't installed my UPS yet