Upgrading from 8800gts (320mb)

skuzzb

Ok I have a budget of €150 and im trying to weigh up a few options.

Should I
a) Buy a second 8800gts 320mb for sli
b) Sell the card for (max of 110 expected) and buy a newer card for around the €260 mark (in range for a 9600gt, 8800gts 512mb and 8800gt 512mb
c) Save my money as I wont see much of a difference with any of the above.


Im usually know my hardware pretty well but to be honest the new range of cards is confusing so its hard to tell what product will produce what. Are all the new 9xxxx range just different variations on the 8800gt 512mb?

Im running a 1680x1050 res but have been trying out stuff with a 2x19" and a 22" widescreen using a program called softh which changes my res to 4240x1024 but framerates are horrible (24fps in CSS with no AA on). The program also means that my second PCI-E x16 slot is taken up with a 7200gs.

Also ive only got a 400Watt PSU so that could put a nail in the SLI option!

conzy

why do you want to upgrade? an 8800gts 320mb is as good if not better than a 9600gt!

Option C, save your money for another few months

TerrorFirmer

The 9600Gt is an improvement on a 320mb GTS...just not a huge one.

Don't go Sli, that's a waste with the 320mb version...still stuck with 320mb of memory.

260 would get you 9600GT Sli however, which is excellent. Would also get you either the 8800GTS 512mb, or the new 9800GTX, both of which are much faster then the 320mb GTS.

My opinion: cheap 9600GT + New PSU...then throw in another 9600Gt later....I'd say the 320mb is hurting the card on the latest games at 1680x1050. A single GTX would be better, but if your power supply is only 400w I'd give that a lash of future proofing as a primary concern, and you could still get a new card to boot. Of course it also depends on what sort of deals you can find...no point getting a 9600GT if you can only find the expensive models in stock, when I said that I had 150-ish in mind, and equally Komplett had 8800GT's for 144 earlier, epic value.

skuzzb

Cheers for the help guys. I think ill save up for a few more weeks and get a decent PSU and the 8800GTS 512MB. Any advice on a decent quiet PSU? I read a decent review of this 'Be quiet' PSU but they look like a new brand. Im running a 400W Point of View PSU so I think anything would be an improvement.

http://www1.hardwareversand.de/3/articledetail.jsp?aid=8101&agid=240

Also why can you get a crappy 8600gt with 1 gig of ram on it but ya cant get any of the higher end cards with more than 512mb? Like theres no way in hell an 8600gt could ever use 1gb!?

PogMoThoin

:rolleyes: I say no more

sebastianlieken

jaysus Pog, that bookmark already came in usefull huh!

as for the grfx option, yup, new psu and 8800gt would be my choice. but to be honest, my 320gts is still holdin up unreal against everyting i throw at it. i even get pretty nice frame rates n qualtity outta crysis.

another option which will get u about 10-15% moar outta ur gpu (dunno if uv done it yet) is overclocking ur card with rivatuner, (remember to step up the fan level a bit tho if u do) overclock ur cpu aswell for good measure

conzy

I really wouldnt upgrade from the 8800gts 320mb for a few months until we see some real next gen graphics cards....

The 8800gts 320 is still a kick ass card and will handle anything you throw at it, you could get a new psu + an 8800gts + a SLI motherboard? for 450 euro but it would be a pretty bad upgrade financially

sebastianlieken

conzymaher wrote: »

I really wouldnt upgrade from the 8800gts 320mb for a few months until we see some real next gen graphics cards....

The 8800gts 320 is still a kick ass card and will handle anything you throw at it, you could get a new psu + an 8800gts + a SLI motherboard? for 450 euro but it would be a pretty bad upgrade financially

i was lookin to upgrade my gpu aswell with the release of these new cards that r out, but i jus cant justify it. i have the money to spend no problem, after doin a good bit of research, i just cannot justify it, cant really see the point

skuzzb

I already clocked it from 513/792/1188 to 674/950/1561 (core/mem/shader) so dont want to chance pushing it much more!!!

Running an E6300@2.4GHz on a 650i Abit FP-IN9 (the fatality one) with 2 gigs of Ballistix DDR2-6400 @ 800/4-4-4-12

Looks like the PSU would be the only solid investment at the minute, i cant justify an E8400 especially as there is a FSB hole on this board so im waiting for the next gen E2160 type bargain!

Sqaull20

skuzzb wrote: »

I already clocked it from 513/792/1188 to 674/950/1561 (core/mem/shader) so dont want to chance pushing it much more!!!

Running an E6300@2.4GHz on a 650i Abit FP-IN9 (the fatality one) with 2 gigs of Ballistix DDR2-6400 @ 800/4-4-4-12

Looks like the PSU would be the only solid investment at the minute, i cant justify an E8400 especially as there is a FSB hole on this board so im waiting for the next gen E2160 type bargain!

Good move no point upgrading yet, unless your on a 7900/x1950 or something, your card is still decent....

How high can you get the E6300?

2.4ghz seems low as your normal speed, 3ghz plus should run perfectly on that cpu....

Anyway you should wait until the summer when the new ati/ nvidia cards will be out by then you might be able to get a 9800gx2 type performance on single slot card for €300...

skuzzb

Cheers for the advice Squall!

Yhe can only get it to 2.6 but it would randomly lock up sometimes so i dropped it down to 2.4 and its really stable. Its just a crap motherboard to overclock on too due to a massive FSB hole and i really dont think it can hold the voltages i set. After hours of trying to get past it i gave up! There are some modded drivers for the board but I havent managed to find em!

Somebody in the house got an Acer PC with an E4500 in it, thinkin i might swap em out and see if I can have better luck with an 800mhz fsb starter!