Don't forget about the 8800GS...

[OmegaShadow]

EVGA covers overclocking too.


i took this from someone's post at overclock.net

"Warranty is something that we have not touched on much in the past. We think that this plays a role in card value, especially given EVGA's new policy. We mentioned in the last article that as of June 22, EVGA is offering a lifetime warranty for all of its cards. BFG also offers a warranty, but apparently, EVGA's is different in that it covers any damage to the card as long as it's not physical. So, for instance, if the EVGA card is damaged by trying to overclock it too high, or if lightning fries it because it was not protected by a surge protector, EVGA will replace it free of charge while BFG will not. MSI's warranty is only good for three years, with basically the same conditions as BFG. Depending on the user, three years may be longer than the "lifetime" of the card, but covering all but physical damage is a definite win for EVGA. Aside from power surge, overclock and heat damage, they'll even cover a failed video BIOS flash (we asked). You can find more information about each manufacturer's warranty policy at their respective websites"

i would go with EVGA over XFX because you also get the 90 day trade up program thing. i'm getting myself a evga 8800gs pretty soon since i'm selling my friend my old 3850 256mb. then i'm planning on saving up enough money to step up for the cheapest 9800 available.

 

[SorryImLate]

Heres a link i found in the FAQ and they do cover overclocking.

http://www.evga.com/support/fa...mviewfaq.aspx?faqid=55

EVGA Warrenty on Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EVGA

 

[stapuft]

Originally posted by: Azn

My core wasn't locked. Does 700 core without bios edit.

Update. I reinstalled the drivers going back to 169.32 after a thorough cleaning. Used the drivers from nvidia direct download. Uninstalled Rivatuner while the drivers were being changed - cleared every "rivatuner" entry from registry. After all was said and done the lock seems to have disappeared and I can set it to 700 without a hitch. Is it Rivatuner? Who knows.

I am running the card at 630/1564/950 since the core temp at higher clocks is a bit high and not much performance is gained due to this single core socket 939 setup.

On another note, does anyone have a similar problem where 3DMark06 will error out at a frequency setting that was hours stable in ATITool. I have never seen that before, always thinking 3DMark06 was a guarantee if ATITool passed.

 

[skillyho]

If I go anywhere above 690, even though I don't have artifacts, I have weird 3D instability issues. I think the BIOS lock just causes issues above a particular core MHz, more so than restricting you from changing the settings themselves.

 

[MustangSVT]

hmm maybe that's a evga thing? my xfx card runs happy @ 710. I will test it a bit longer and then lock it in with bios once Im sure it is stable with everything.

 

[skillyho]

Originally posted by: MustangSVT
hmm maybe that's a evga thing? my xfx card runs happy @ 710. I will test it a bit longer and then lock it in with bios once Im sure it is stable with everything.

It's a definite EVGA thing. That's why XFX put a cooler that's stuck at 100% on the card...with no restrictions. :laugh:

I've had both and they clock similarly, but the faster memory on the EVGA makes up for the XFX GPU oc'ing.

 

[Denithor]

Nearly bought one of the EVGA 8800GS cards.

Today, however, came across the Palit 9600GT for $125 after MIR.

Jumped.

Should be a nice upgrade from my x1900gt.

 

[AzN]

Originally posted by: skillyho
If I go anywhere above 690, even though I don't have artifacts, I have weird 3D instability issues. I think the BIOS lock just causes issues above a particular core MHz, more so than restricting you from changing the settings themselves.

I don't have stability issues at all. Right now I'm at 730 core.

However I did the 1.1 volt bios flash.

 

[AzN]

Originally posted by: skillyho

Originally posted by: MustangSVT
hmm maybe that's a evga thing? my xfx card runs happy @ 710. I will test it a bit longer and then lock it in with bios once Im sure it is stable with everything.

That's why XFX put a cooler that's stuck at 100% on the card...with no restrictions. :laugh:

:laugh:

 

[SorryImLate]

Just keeping all the topics together

8800GS To 9600GSO

 

[OmegaShadow]

does anyone know a good site/forum that provides a vmod for the 8800gs? bought the evga 8800gs today and i'm looking to overclock it to 8800gt stock.

 

[Lithan]

check xtremesystems forums they have a gfx vmod section.

 

[hooflung]

I picked up my 8800GS Superclocked edition for 119 AR. I love it. I run this under Ubuntu 7.10 x64 and it even plays EVE Online's linux client well. Yeah, its probably as fast as my HD3850 512 so I could use it instead on my C2D gaming rig with Vista 64 but meh... I like 512 ram on my WS.

eVGA is pretty quiet. I never hear it. It runs Compiz fully cranked up without a hitch and makes vista look like an honest waiste of time GUI wise.

 

[AzN]

Originally posted by: OmegaShadow
does anyone know a good site/forum that provides a vmod for the 8800gs? bought the evga 8800gs today and i'm looking to overclock it to 8800gt stock.

You don't need a volt mod to clock it to GT levels. It can easily do it on stock voltage.

 

[OmegaShadow]

ah thats good to know, but if i still wanted to max vmod my 8800gs how much more performance would that give me over a max overclock 8800gs in stock volt?

reason why i'm asking this is because evga's warranty does protect overclocking so if my card dies from overclocking, it'll still be protected, so i want to take full advantage of their warranty

 

[Lithan]

Unless your 8800gs has a better than stock cooler, I wouldn't vmod it. The single slot reference cooler they put on these things is pretty pathetic.

And EVGA doesnt warranty overvolting, it's considered a physical mod.

 

[SorryImLate]

Im still working on my overclock. My shader was almost stable at 1564 but got an error at about the 10minute mark.

 

[AzN]

You can turn up the fan with rivatuner or you can use bios flash to change how the fan starts spinning at desired temperature you want.

Directions here: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1260590

Warning! make sure you have pci video card when you do a bios mod so you can change back to your original bios in case something goes wrong with your new card.

There's also direction for upping the voltage by .05 volts in the bios just like 8800gt so you can get higher overclocks. Before Mine would only do 702core with the bios mod I got mine to 729mhz.


I added a 5 volt slot fan which I had it laying around right next to my card so it will exhaust hot air out from the video card when it gets hot. It dropped my temperature by 5 C on load.

This 8800gs is very sensitive to temperature. Anything over 80C on load my card acted like it wasn't stable. Once I got the temperature dropped to about 75C and it was completely stable with ATITOOLS artifact test and in game. I have my computer on 24/7 and play games on it daily.

I got mine stable 729 core 1728 SP 1064 memory in the end. I get 38fps in Crysis at high settings 1440x900.

 

[skillyho]

Azn: Great review on the GS by the way....good stuff.

Considering the XFX version of the GS is on Amazon.com for 89.99 after a $30 rebate, it's easily the best card under $100....EVAAAR.

 

[gr3if]

Can anyone upload the 8800gs Evga Superclocked Bios. Iam a bit stucked with mine. I give it a 1.15vgpu but still I can only hit a 710/1728/1000 with my Evga.

 

[Jawadali]

I know this thread is a bit old, but I just wanted to know, has anyone tested the performance of this card at 1680x1050?

It will be going into a Core 2 Duo E4600 system with 2GB of RAM with everything at stock (CPU 2.4Ghz / RAM 667Mhz).

EDIT:

I forgot to add that an eVGA 8800GS is on sale for $65 after rebate at Newegg, and hence the reason I am asking the question:

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2205807&enterthread=y

 

[Jax Omen]

DON'T NECRO THREADS. MAKE A NEW ONE.

God.

Now that I got that out of my system, I'm pretty sure it'll do alright, but it won't be maxing games out at that resolution, as that's when the lack of 512MB VRAM should start to affect it.

 

[AzN]

@ 1680x1050 you are going to be limited to how much AA you can add to your games. It's fast enough with 2xAA but I think you are better off going with a 9600gt in that case. 8800gt would be better. 4850 would be sweeter.

8800gs is pretty cheap though and can be had for $80 bucks after rebate these days.

I have played every modern game at max quality with 4xAA @ 1440x900 and it's smooth.

Crysis is nice too at 1440x900 high settings without AA. I get like 38fps.

 

[Jawadali]

Thanks for the replies.

I forgot to add that an eVGA 8800GS is on sale for $65 after rebate at Newegg, which was a primary reason I was considering the card (I edited my original post to include the link to the Hot Deals thread with more info).

It will be for my brother's new Dell Vostro 200, and I don't think he will plan to push the AA very high (heh, I don't think he or I have ever enabled AA in the past). As long as it plays games released in the past 2-4 years smoothly (i.e. ~60 FPS average with high/max settings), and recent/upcoming games fairly well (i.e. ~45 FPS with medium/high settings).

My other option is to hold out for a 9600 GT to fall into the ~$90-100 range.

The only problem is that I'd have to get an adapter that converts SATA power plugs into 4-pin molex plugs (which would then go into the included 2x molex to 6-pin PCI-E cable) in order to power the card.

 

[Tempered81]

Just bought two of these to biosmod to ~730mhz & run in SLI. hopefully mine come with 8 memory chips (hehe). Thank you Azn for all the 8800GS modding information.