Don't forget about the 8800GS...

[skillyho]

Just wanted to share my results with you guys...

So I picked up the "Alpha Dog" XFX 8800GS (580/700) for $150-$20 Rebate with FS earlier this week from the egg. I just sold my other (better) rig and put this one together on a very small budget to be my portable gaming build. Now that everything is assembled, I'm actually blown away with the performance of this $130 card. Fraps shows games to be almost exactly the same with small improvements across the board.

8800GS 3dMark06 Performance

8800GTS (320MB) Performance

How about that? A cheaper card with lower memory clocks, smaller bit-interface, 400MHz slower CPU, slower RAM with looser timings, (and less fanfare) beat the seemingly superior card with ease. I know a lot of you couldn't care less for synthetic benches, but I value them and always take them into consideration with my upgrade decisions. UT3, Bioshock, CoD4, Crysis all run better than expected.

If there is someone out there trying to find that perfect sub $150 card don't be so quick to toss this one out of the mix just b/c of the name. Take a hard look at the 9600GT, but if that extra $20 can be saved, go for it (or just get a GT )

Edit: My only gripe is the stock cooler which cools well (under 70C overclocked) but remains at 100% all the time. I've ordered a replacement cooler that should be in next week.

 

[americruzano]

If only UPS delivered on weekends I'd be enjoying my 8800GS too.... Glad to hear a positive review though. A lot of people seem to be downplaying or ignoring the 8800gs in favor of the 9600gt. But when the 8800gs is selling for $125 you can't even bring up the 9600gt. They're at two completely different price points.

viva la 8800gs!

 

[Tempered81]

yeah i keep hearing about this card. supposedly its just an 8800gt with 1/4 chopped off. How well does it overclock? ~725 on the core?

 

[angry hampster]

It seems to me that Nvidia owns every segment of the vid card market right now. Bottom of the line the 8400GS/3450 is a close call, but when you hit $75 and above, Nvidia is pretty much the golden choice across the board.

 

[BlueAcolyte]

Nah, Nvidia is giving up the entry-level market to ATi. They don't have anything lower than a 9500GS scheduled to come out... Plus I think ATi has the high end with HD 3870x2 and soon CrossfireX. Then the price drops on the HD 3800 series made them competitive again... I'm not a fanboy, but it's nice to see competition from AMD in one field, at least.

 

[happy medium]

Seems nvidia does have or will have the entire market.

9800gx2 will beat the 3870x2
9800gtx will kill the 3870 and mabe = the 3870x2
98oogt will kill the 3870
9600gt is killing the 3850 and real close to the 3870
9600gs seems will be = to a 3850 for a much lower price
9500gt will kill the 3650 but the 8600gt is good enough now
95oogs will kill the 3450 but the 8500gt is good enough now

http://www.crysis-online.com/f...ndex.php?topic=22650.0

Am I missing something?

Right now Ati/AMD has the 3870x2 win.
I think in 2 weeks when the 9800gx2 is released the partys over till they come out with the 4000 series. At that point who knows? mabe Tulip?

 

[skillyho]

Originally posted by: jaredpace
yeah i keep hearing about this card. supposedly its just an 8800gt with 1/4 chopped off. How well does it overclock? ~725 on the core?

I was able to run 06 without any issues up to 740 on the core....but the temps were a little higher than I liked (74-76C)...after scanning for artifacts with ATiTool it would slowly find errors at 10-12 minutes into the run. I'm hoping the new cooler will fix that too....NewEgg has the Accelero S2 for 16.99 and hopefully it'll fit when it comes in on Tuesday.

 

[americruzano]

Let us know if it fits. I'm putting mine in an HTPC so ditching the loud fan is something I'm definitely looking into.

 

[RussianSensation]

Amazing performance per dollar

http://www.techpowerup.com/rev...eForce_8800_GS/23.html

 

[nonfatmatt]

I snagged one. It's going back tomorrow. No fan control and it's loud loud loud. I can't believe you wouldn't have a variable fan on a 150 dollar graphics card.

 

[Ika]

Originally posted by: happy medium
Seems nvidia does have or will have the entire market.

9800gx2 will beat the 3870x2
9800gtx will kill the 3870 and mabe = the 3870x2
98oogt will kill the 3870
9600gt is killing the 3850 and real close to the 3870
9600gs seems will be = to a 3850 for a much lower price
9500gt will kill the 3650 but the 8600gt is good enough now
95oogs will kill the 3450 but the 8500gt is good enough now

http://www.crysis-online.com/f...ndex.php?topic=22650.0

Am I missing something?

Right now Ati/AMD has the 3870x2 win.
I think in 2 weeks when the 9800gx2 is released the partys over till they come out with the 4000 series. At that point who knows? mabe Tulip?

Yeah, you missed the part where the 3870 is probably half the price of the 9800GTX/9800GT. Besides, you're also comparing NVidia's "next-gen" with ATI's current gen. What happens when the 4xxx series comes out?

 

[JPB]

Originally posted by: happy medium
Seems nvidia does have or will have the entire market.

9800gx2 will beat the 3870x2
9800gtx will kill the 3870 and mabe = the 3870x2
98oogt will kill the 3870
9600gt is killing the 3850 and real close to the 3870
9600gs seems will be = to a 3850 for a much lower price
9500gt will kill the 3650 but the 8600gt is good enough now
95oogs will kill the 3450 but the 8500gt is good enough now

http://www.crysis-online.com/f...ndex.php?topic=22650.0

Am I missing something?

Right now Ati/AMD has the 3870x2 win.
I think in 2 weeks when the 9800gx2 is released the partys over till they come out with the 4000 series. At that point who knows? mabe Tulip?

:shocked:

 

[skillyho]

Originally posted by: nonfatmatt
I snagged one. It's going back tomorrow. No fan control and it's loud loud loud. I can't believe you wouldn't have a variable fan on a 150 dollar graphics card.

I understand....it's by far the loudest component in my build as well (which is why I picked up the S2). I haven't seen any info on the compatibility, but hopefully it'll work.

 

[Maasracer]

Team Brown dropped off my GS today. It's a nice performance upgrade from my x1900GT, obviously. But...

MAN THIS THING IS LOUD ! ! !

I run 3 boxes at my workstation on a KVM and they're average in noise - no silent systems. Of course it all adds up and my area is fairly loud and the steady hum usually doesn't bother me but DAAAYYYYYUUUUMMMMM..... threw this card in and it really is a distracting, high-pitch whine.

I guess the free 4gb flash drive AND the $20 rebate helps offset the fact that I have to spend $20 to $30 on an aftermarket cooler. Now I gotta read the fine print to see if changing the cooler will void the lifetime warranty... frickin annoying.

skillyho, hopefully you'll post your S2 experience...? The AC website says the S1 Rev2 fits the new G92s, but not the S2. However, a few S2 reviews at the Egg say they got it to work on assorted 8800GT cards (I'm assuming the GT and GS are the same PCB and layout). After this the next cheapest compatible cooler *seems* to be a Zalman at $30+. !@#$%^&

 

[skillyho]

Originally posted by: Maasracer
Team Brown dropped off my GS today. It's a nice performance upgrade from my x1900GT, obviously. But...

MAN THIS THING IS LOUD ! ! !

I run 3 boxes at my workstation on a KVM and they're average in noise - no silent systems. Of course it all adds up and my area is fairly loud and the steady hum usually doesn't bother me but DAAAYYYYYUUUUMMMMM..... threw this card in and it really is a distracting, high-pitch whine.

I guess the free 4gb flash drive AND the $20 rebate helps offset the fact that I have to spend $20 to $30 on an aftermarket cooler. Now I gotta read the fine print to see if changing the cooler will void the lifetime warranty... frickin annoying.

skillyho, hopefully you'll post your S2 experience...? The AC website says the S1 Rev2 fits the new G92s, but not the S2. However, a few S2 reviews at the Egg say they got it to work on assorted 8800GT cards (I'm assuming the GT and GS are the same PCB and layout). After this the next cheapest compatible cooler *seems* to be a Zalman at $30+. !@#$%^&

Yeah as much as I like the card, it's far to loud for day to day use. If this S2 doesn't work (UPS delivery is Wednesday) I'll probably send it back to NE.

Note for XFX: You've ruined the point of a great budget card when you necessitate the need for aftermarket cooling.

 

[Syntax Error]

Originally posted by: happy medium
Seems nvidia does have or will have the entire market.

9800gx2 will beat the 3870x2
9800gtx will kill the 3870 and mabe = the 3870x2
98oogt will kill the 3870
9600gt is killing the 3850 and real close to the 3870
9600gs seems will be = to a 3850 for a much lower price
9500gt will kill the 3650 but the 8600gt is good enough now
95oogs will kill the 3450 but the 8500gt is good enough now

http://www.crysis-online.com/f...ndex.php?topic=22650.0

Am I missing something?

Right now Ati/AMD has the 3870x2 win.
I think in 2 weeks when the 9800gx2 is released the partys over till they come out with the 4000 series. At that point who knows? mabe Tulip?

Predicting the future FTW! :Q

 

[skillyho]

So I'm sad to say the S2 was a no go......it came close but the PCB just wasn't compatible. I'm on the fence about sending it back....It's only $130 AR and there isn't a better performing card for the money.

Hopefully someone will put out a cooler for this thing soon that isn't over $30 b/c the fan noise is driving me crazy. Anyone know a way to put a potentiometer in line on the fan? If I could just drop it to 70-80% I'm sure it would take the edge off.

 

[Maasracer]

Thanks for being a guinea pig on this skillz.

This is disheartening. Had you and I been a little more patient, we would have seen, maybe even right here, that Newegg has EVGAs that cost only $5 more and have a reference cooler...

:|

 

[razor2025]

8800GS is a great card if you game in lower resolutoin, 1280x1024. Too bad my LCD is 1920x1200 native without decent scaler. The $151 9600GT PNY deal was too hard to pass up, so I got that instead.

 

[angry hampster]

http://www.techpowerup.com/rev...eForce_8800_GS/24.html

 

[skillyho]

Originally posted by: Maasracer
Thanks for being a guinea pig on this skillz.

This is disheartening. Had you and I been a little more patient, we would have seen, maybe even right here, that Newegg has EVGAs that cost only $5 more and have a reference cooler...

:|

This is true....I saw that after I got my RMA# from NE.....

I think I'm going to hang on to the card still...It was $130 AR and came with a free 4GB flash drive (which also has a $5 rebate) and all had free shipping. I can sell the Jump Drive off for $25 and a pal of mine already wants the S2, so no loss for me. The VF900's are on sale for around $30 at NE too, so the jump drive profit + $5 rebate covers that. I know this card is stable at 700/1900 so it's not worth the shipping/return expenses to pick up the EVGA. I'll post back when I pickup another cooler.

For those of you wondering how to get the 8800GS to show up in RivaTuner....Edit the file " rivatuner.cfg " with notepad/wordpad and change the line " G92 = 610h-61Fh " by " G92 = 600h-60Fh,610h-61Fh " , save and close.

 

[stapuft]

Rivatuner v2.07 recognizes the card.

Top stable ATItool clock for me is 720 core, 1728 shader, 1640 mem. Looks like I got marginal memory. The EVGA supposedly uses 1ns chips so it should be a better overclocker. It also appears they use the new 8800GT cooler with bigger fan and a reference board design. I may ask Newegg for an RMA and get the EVGA. :clock:....waiting for free shipping...


XFX board design is not reference so HSF fitment issues will be trial and error until enough people share their results.

 

[bfdd]

Originally posted by: Aflac

Originally posted by: happy medium
Seems nvidia does have or will have the entire market.

9800gx2 will beat the 3870x2
9800gtx will kill the 3870 and mabe = the 3870x2
98oogt will kill the 3870
9600gt is killing the 3850 and real close to the 3870
9600gs seems will be = to a 3850 for a much lower price
9500gt will kill the 3650 but the 8600gt is good enough now
95oogs will kill the 3450 but the 8500gt is good enough now

http://www.crysis-online.com/f...ndex.php?topic=22650.0

Am I missing something?

Right now Ati/AMD has the 3870x2 win.
I think in 2 weeks when the 9800gx2 is released the partys over till they come out with the 4000 series. At that point who knows? mabe Tulip?

Yeah, you missed the part where the 3870 is probably half the price of the 9800GTX/9800GT. Besides, you're also comparing NVidia's "next-gen" with ATI's current gen. What happens when the 4xxx series comes out?

Lets also not forget that the 3870 is already losing to the 8800GT and the 8800GTS and nvidia doesn't have their x2 solution out yet which should be as fast or faster than the 3870x2.

 

[Denithor]

The EVGA 8800GS should be a nice upgrade over my current x1900gt (rev1) right?

I wish AT had included the 8800GS in their first 9600GT review, they had all the other relavent cards in there but totally skipped this one. Maybe in a future review or at xbit or somewhere else reputable?

 

[skillyho]

Originally posted by: Denithor
The EVGA 8800GS should be a nice upgrade over my current x1900gt (rev1) right?

I wish AT had included the 8800GS in their first 9600GT review, they had all the other relavent cards in there but totally skipped this one. Maybe in a future review or at xbit or somewhere else reputable?

I have a rev2 x1900GT in my other rig and it's a HUGE improvement. 3Dmark06 more than doubled, and newer games that were taxing on 12x10 (Gears of War / UT3 / BioShock) all run very well.

To me, the 8800GS and 9600GT are still in two marginally different price segments. (130-135AR vs 160 AR)