8800 GT - Give me!

fangblackbone wrote:

Is there no talk of the Intel 45nm Penryn processors coming out? That is coming in the next few months which will in the very least bring more price cuts to the current powerhouse processors.

You can get so much processing power for dirt cheap right now that it's really not that exciting.

Especially if you're willing to overclock, even a simple stock-cooling, stock-voltage overclock. You grab a low-end C2D and perform a simple, nowhere near pushing-the-edge overclock, and you've got computing power coming out of your ears.

You can even grab the Pentium Dual-Core (Core 2 Duo based chips with less L2 cache) chips and overclock them, and have crazy performance out of a sub-$100 CPU.

It was $205 a few days ago for an MSI 8800GT.. I ordered two of them.. but my Dell rep told me its listing a 6-8 week lead time.. not 1-2 weeks like on that site... still if you can wait certainly its a good price.

Just dont expect them anytime soon.

Sad to say that the price gouging is now hitting the 3870's as well.. and with either none or really murky 45nm support from any Nvidia Chipset I'm not really sure how to build systems right now.

I'd probably lean towards an X38 chipset, 45nm Dual Core (the new 2.66 once its released) and Crossfire 3870's.

I'm not buying until after Christmas, when my relatives all give me money for computer upgrades.

Hopefully by then, the price gouging will have died down.

I upgraded a few weeks ago from my 7800GTX to an 8800GT 512mb BFG brand 625mhz. I just never read the Tech forums.

Long story short: I like it and I'm glad I upgraded. Unfortunately my monitor isn't great so I haven't cranked up resolutions higher than 1280x720 but hopefully Santa will help me out with a new monitor over Christmas.

I picked one up the 512MB version last month for around $285 along with an a dual core AMD chip (4400+) for my obselete 939 MB. I'll be installing them soon and will post some feedback. Crysis - here I come baby!

93_confirmed wrote:

I picked one up the 512MB version last month for around $285 along with an a dual core AMD chip (4400+) for my obselete 939 MB. I'll be installing them soon and will post some feedback. Crysis - here I come baby! ;-)

Please do report back your findings. I've got a 7900GT (256MB) right now with a AMD x2 4600 (939 Mobo) and I'd like to see what kind of upgrade the 8800GT would be. I'm running TF2 (1680x1050) with no problems right now but I'd like to take a crack at Crysis in something other then 1024x768 and medium details.

So does this mean I should hold off on the new laptop until January, when the mobile 8800s are available? Dell and Alienware are using 8700M GTs right now.

Would be a good idea. I plan to have Logan sit in for me when I am on my honeymoon.

- Legion, taking "keeping it in the family" to a whole new level.

Xbox Live: Fedaykin98

Fedaykin98 wrote:

So does this mean I should hold off on the new laptop until January, when the mobile 8800s are available? Dell and Alienware are using 8700M GTs right now.

Based on my experience with my 8800GT, I'd say it's worth the wait. Unbelievable value for the money.

I just completed my first video card installation (WOOT!) and it went well other than snapping off the little white safety latch. I'm installing Crysis now to test it a bit before installing the dual core CPU. Does anyone know how to check the FPS in Crysis and/or a good way to benchmark my current performance against what I'll get with the new processor?

Does anyone know how to check the FPS in Crysis and/or a good way to benchmark my current performance against what I'll get with the new processor?

The demo had a couple batch files included that performed CPU and GPU benchmarks. They were located under Crysis SP Demo\Bin32 and labeled Benchmark_GPU.bat & Benchmark_CPU.bat. They run the game with your current settings and provide a rundown of the results once you exit.
As I said, these were in the demo, but I can't see why they would no longer exist for the full version.

93_confirmed wrote:

Does anyone know how to check the FPS in Crysis and/or a good way to benchmark my current performance against what I'll get with the new processor?

You can just fire the game up, hit the ~ key, and type r_displayinfo 1

It will then display some information about the renderer in use (DX9vsDX10 and all that jazz), effects turned on, and it will display your framerate right there for you.

Just as a follow up.. I still dont have my 8800GT's from Dell... and they dont appear to be shipping anytime soon.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showd...

NVIDIA coming out with two new cards very soon with new GPU.
Confusion with the name of the cards as they are still called 8800 GTS 512.
However they are coming out in Q1 and supposed to be better than the 8800 GT.

Remember I said to wait till Jan/Feb 2008, just for these reasons.

Another article on the new series...
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/vid...

Toms Hardware also has a review on the new 8800 GTS 512
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/12/...

They're also priced at $400, and you can expect them to be more when they first release much like the 8800GT's still are now.

Hardly the budget buy the GT can be, and definitely not worth the extra cost over the GT for most people.

'eh, Kilroy, you can get trapped in that mentality. There is always something better over the horizon.

Well, just ran off a few tests with my new XFX 8800 GT on Crysis, I'm pretty happy with the results; though I will say out front that I'm not exactly a graphical nut.

It isn't a comprehensive benchmark, just the results after a bit of experimenting to determine how far as I could push the graphics without compromising frame-rates. Also attending the theater tonight, which puts on some time pressure, so I didn't spend all that much time tweaking individual settings.

The big specs are the XFX 8800GT graphics card and a Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz processor, not to mention 4GB of RAM, and I used the Crysis SP demo benchmarks to test. By the way, I have to say the CPU benchmarking test is great to watch, it is the protagonist unloading grenades and rockets into a small village to strain the physics, by the end of the loop no building is left standing.

Anyway, the settings I used were 1280x768 (I have a widescreen), 4x antialiasing, DirectX 10, and all the settings the demo allows you to change set to "High." The GPU benchmark averaged at 24.5 FPS, with a range of 9 FPS to 25 FPS. The CPU benchmark averaged at 25 FPS, with a range of 13 FPS to 38 FPS. If I upped the graphics settings to "Very High," the FPS drops to the high teens, averaging out at about 18 FPS. I can try different tomorrow, if anyone is interesting. I neglected to really play with the higher resolutions, which is something I'll follow up on.

However, note that I was able to successfully play the demo itself on "Very High" settings, with everything else being equal, without any noticeable problems. But I wasn't typically looking over the wide vistas the GPU benchmark favors either.

Important Addendum: For the benchmark, it turns out I left my anti-virus on. Turning it off gained me some advantage in FPS, the same settings as before on the GPU benchmark resulted in an average of 28 FPS, with a range of 8-38 FPS. However, "Very High" settings didn't improve any. 8x AA results in the same performance hit as "Very High" setting. 1400x900 at the same settings as before (4x AA, "High" settings) resulted in a 21.5 average FPS, with a range of 11-27 FPS. One other thing I noticed about the GPU benchmark is that it zooms across the landscape pretty quickly, which is another reason why performance would be better in the actual game.

Thin_J: Everything I've found has them priced between $250 to $350 depending on the review you read. They will probably be closer to $400 your right but only because our lovely capitalist system that forces a markup from manufacturer to distributor to seller. Plus the demand is going to be nuts but NVIDIA does claim that their production of the card will be in overdrive and there should initially be plenty to sell. Unfortunately the time to buy this particular car will be in the first week of sales and not later for if demand should rise so will the price.

Tannhauser: Yes, there will always be something better and you can't necessarily hold out for the next best thing every time however when you are looking at waiting for only Q1 2008, that's not exactly waiting very long. It's just sound advice. With the number of changes going on in the CPU, GPU and Memory market right now right at the cusp of 2007/2008 there is absolutely no reason not to wait a few months for the next generation of products. Penryn mid range CPUs, GPU G92 series from NIVIDIA (8800GTS 512 and no doubt the GTX eventually) and then DDR3 coming down in price as DDR4 is being perfected. Considering I won't be touching my new build for a long while I want to make certain if I want to upgrade later that I have the necessary components to do so. This is my goal and so waiting is exactly what needs to happen. At least till Q1 of 2008.

I'd tend to think if you want to buy now, the 8800GT would be an excellent choice; the new GTS will be faster, but will cost a lot more. It's sure looking like bang per buck will be better on the regular GT.

And, if you're going to wait that long anyway, it might be worth waiting for the whole next generation; if past experience holds, you'll be kicking yourself for overspending on a card this late in the product cycle.

$250 is drastically under the MSRP. No way the new card shows up anywhere on it's week of release for that kind of price.

Unless it falls off the back of the truck or something. I'm actually quite surprised there isn't a distributer out there somewhere who sells cards like this at cost plus 10% for the first couple of days and then goes up to normal prices. They would be completely sold out in like 48 hours.

kilroy0097 wrote:

Unless it falls off the back of the truck or something. I'm actually quite surprised there isn't a distributer out there somewhere who sells cards like this at cost plus 10% for the first couple of days and then goes up to normal prices. They would be completely sold out in like 48 hours.

Yeah but Newegg.com was sold out of ALL their 8800GT's in ~24 hours at ridiculous mark-ups.

Oh man... I was in Fry's today (fremont, ca store). They had half a dozen XFX 512mb 8800GT's for the MSRP $279. I don't have the money to spend on it but I do have the money in my bank account. It was so hard not to walk out with one. Be warned though. They have a billion 8600GT's so don't pick up the wrong box by accident.

They had 3 radeon 3850's @ $229 ($209 with a $20 mail in rebate), but were sold out of 3870's.

Redhwk wrote:
93_confirmed wrote:

I picked one up the 512MB version last month for around $285 along with an a dual core AMD chip (4400+) for my obselete 939 MB. I'll be installing them soon and will post some feedback. Crysis - here I come baby! ;-)

Please do report back your findings. I've got a 7900GT (256MB) right now with a AMD x2 4600 (939 Mobo) and I'd like to see what kind of upgrade the 8800GT would be. I'm running TF2 (1680x1050) with no problems right now but I'd like to take a crack at Crysis in something other then 1024x768 and medium details.

I just installed the AMD X2 4600+ to go with the 8800 GT and my machine finally has some new life breathed into it. I'm able to run Crysis on High for all settings and get a pretty consistent FPS of 30. I too have the 939 mobo and am running 2GB of RAM. I'm really glad I did this small upgrade for around $400 to keep me somwhat up to speed for another year or so.

Is everyone running Vista with the 8800GT for DX10 compatibility?

I'll be honest, this card has hooked me. Like Legion said, Bang for buck! I'd be doing what 93 did, and upgrading a 939 mobo, but I haven't made the switch to Vista yet. Is that necessary?

Stay away from Vista if you value your frame rates.

Well, I'm still running XP - SP2 and haven't had any issues. I'll stay away until the first service pack is released.

From the other thread here in Tech, I don't think it will make any difference. XP SP3, on the other hand, probably will improve your system's responsiveness somewhat.

Well, just received the full game in the mail, and ran some more benchmarks using that tool I believe someone linked to earlier in the thread. Now this is using a ABIT IP35 Pro motherboard, Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 at 2.4Ghz, XFX GeForce 8800 GT, Windows Vista (which I, personally, got more for hardware support than DX10), and 4GB of RAM. I also haven't gotten involved yet in heavily tweaking for performance, so there is undoubtedly at least a little improvement to be had.

1400x960 AA=No AA, Quality: High ~~ Average FPS: 31.96
1400x960 AA=2x, Quality: High ~~ Average FPS: 20.64
1400x960 AA=4x, Quality: High ~~ Average FPS: 17.595
1280x720 AA=No AA, Quality: Very High ~~ Average FPS: 22.525
1280x720 AA=2x, Quality: Very High ~~ Average FPS: 17.19
1280x720 AA=4x, Quality: Very High ~~ Average FPS: 16.505
1280x720 AA=No AA, Quality: High ~~ Average FPS: 32.5
1280x720 AA=2x, Quality: High ~~ Average FPS: 29.93
1280x720 AA=4x, Quality: High ~~ Average FPS: 25.325

93_confirmed wrote:
Redhwk wrote:
93_confirmed wrote:

I picked one up the 512MB version last month for around $285 along with an a dual core AMD chip (4400+) for my obselete 939 MB. I'll be installing them soon and will post some feedback. Crysis - here I come baby! ;-)

Please do report back your findings. I've got a 7900GT (256MB) right now with a AMD x2 4600 (939 Mobo) and I'd like to see what kind of upgrade the 8800GT would be. I'm running TF2 (1680x1050) with no problems right now but I'd like to take a crack at Crysis in something other then 1024x768 and medium details.

I just installed the AMD X2 4600+ to go with the 8800 GT and my machine finally has some new life breathed into it. I'm able to run Crysis on High for all settings and get a pretty consistent FPS of 30. I too have the 939 mobo and am running 2GB of RAM. I'm really glad I did this small upgrade for around $400 to keep me somwhat up to speed for another year or so.

93, what resolution where you running in?

In-laws gave me computer parts money for Christmas, and the eVGA 8800 GT came back in stock at NewEgg for $269. At just $20 over MSRP (and just $20 over what the 3870s are selling for), I had no problem making that purchase.