Upgrade from 7600gs - CHOICES CHOICES

[The Bakery]

I'm upgrading my passive 7600gs that has been completely awesome.

Games up through Orange box have run GREAT on this card for me. But
now I want to bump it up a notch, newer games at higher res. I just bought
a 16:10 wide screen.

I want high res - 1650x1080 if possible - with AA and AF, high settings

With that in mind - I'm looking at the $200 price point and here's where I am:

HD3870 512mb
8800gt 512mb

Can I really go wrong with EITHER of these cards for $200? I know that's a
popular pitting, and I'm leaning ATI for heat and power handling. I feel like
I can go either way so I'm throwing a shout to the community.

System specs:
Geforce 7600gs passive
Tforce 550 Mobo AM2
AMD single core 3800+
1 gig DDR2 800
Fortran FSP400 400W PSU 29A on two 12V rails
Antec Coolermaster centurion case

Considering a processor (to X2 5000+) and RAM upgrade (to 2GB) also.

Thoughts?

 

[TC91]

the 8800gt is notably faster than the 3870, but both are good cards. for the same price the 8800gt i have to say is a better card for the money (although i personally prefer ati cards). grabbing a 5000+ black edition and 2gb of ram would help alleviate some bottlenecks that your current single core might impose on the new graphics card and would be a good idea considering the low cost of both the x2 5000+ black edition and 2gb of ddr2 ram.

 

[happy medium]

Rumor is in three weeks the 9800gt will be out.
mabe you can wait?

 

[daveybrat]

I would personally grab an Nvidia 9600GT, an AMD 5000+ X2 cpu, and another 1Gb of ram. Then you'd really get the best bang for the buck.

 

[IL2SturmovikPilot]

Originally posted by: daveybrat
I would personally grab an Nvidia 9600GT, an AMD 5000+ X2 cpu, and another 1Gb of ram. Then you'd really get the best bang for the buck.

I also recommend 9600GT,awesome price/performance.

 

[bryanW1995]

yeah, 9600gt is actually ~$140 makes it a hard choice to go for 8800gt~$190 or 8800gts512 ~$215. any of those 3 are hard to knock. I love my 3870 but unless you can get one in the $150 range the nvidia cards are a better bang/buck.

 

[The Bakery]

Yeah...

Looking at the benchmarks, the 9600 is probably a better value.
But many are shipping defective so I'm not really willing to step into that circle yet.

Maybe I should order my RAM and CPU now and wait until mid April to see if prices on the 8800gt or 3870 drop further.
If I can get an 8800gt and a cooler for under $220 I'll do it. But if I can get the 3870 for less than $190 that's where I
think I'm going to be.

 

[The Bakery]

What do you guys think about this OC 8800GT 512 with what looks like a nice cooling solution < $210

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814127329

Competing with:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814103050

As long as the cooling is tight, that answers my GPU questions and the 880gt
it is.

 

[BlueAcolyte]

There's an MSI HD 3870 for $160 AR with a free "Witcher" game.

 

[Lithan]

At your pricerange, 8800gt or g92 8800gts. Anything else would be silly right now.

Either get the 8800gt < $175 or get the 8800gts <$225.

Spending more than $175 on a gt doesnt make sense with the gts near $200 now.

 

[themisfit610]

Definitely get a 5000+ X2 and some extra RAM - maybe even 4 GB given it's stupid cheap and will be nice if/when you go to Vista.

 

[Munky]

Originally posted by: happy medium
Rumor is in three weeks the 9800gt will be out.
mabe you can wait?

Waiting based on rumor is generally a bad idea, especially when the 9-series cards are just rehashed 8-series. The 8800gt is about 10-15% faster than a 3870, and the latter is about on par with a 9600gt, maybe slightly faster. All 3 are great cards for under $200.

 

[angry hampster]

Originally posted by: themisfit610
Definitely get a 5000+ X2 and some extra RAM - maybe even 4 GB given it's stupid cheap and will be nice if/when you go to Vista.

Agreed -- Although vista Ultimate 32 bit runs beautifully on 2GB.


For graphics, the 8800GT is really the best bet right now. This is an unbelievable deal with a Zalman VF1000 cooler:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814127329

 

[The Bakery]

Either get the 8800gt < $175 or get the 8800gts <$225.

Spending more than $175 on a gt doesnt make sense with the gts near $200 now.

The only 640mb 320 bit GTS I can find is about $274 (too much)

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but :

8800GTS $145
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814130082

Core clock 500MHz
Stream Processors 96
Memory Clock 1600 MHz (effective)
Memory Size 320MB
Memory Interface 320-bit

8800GT overclocked with Zalman $210
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814127329

Core clock 660MHz
Stream Processors 112
Memory Clock 1900MHz
Memory Size 512MB
Memory Interface 256-bit

Benches I recall show the GT ahead of the GTS. Plus 512 vs 320 memory. I
game at higher res.

So for $200 wouldn't my money be better spent on the GT with the aftermarket
cooling solution???


EDIT -
I'm purchasing a 5000+ dual core processor and 2gb ddr2800 4-4-4-12 as well.

 

[Lithan]

g92 gts, the bakery. Buying a g90 gts at this point is silly.

 

[Lithan]

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/...7125&prodlist=celebros
8800gt @ $170

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1288818
8800gts (g92) deal @ $200 (last day is today)

 

[The Bakery]

See below

 

[The Bakery]

It's about $230 without the rebate, and $200 with it.

And the GT rebate (MIR) expires today =/

I assume I will never get rebates.

So I'm still on the fence. Do you have a link or know
about benches between the new GTS and the GT. How
wide is the performance margin ?

Thanks again

 

[Lithan]

Really depends on the game and settings. Not much, most reviews find an average difference around 5%. More than 10% is a very rare occurence.

 

[The Bakery]

So then the overclocked 8800 GT for $209 with a $30 MIR including aftermarket cooling...

Would that not be an equal or better buy than the $230 8800 GTS with $30 MIR?

I guess I just don't understand why the GTS is more expensive if the performance
is negligible.

 

[Lithan]

Depends how much you value that little bit of performance, really. Some people think the gt's a better buy, some think the GTS is. @ $30 difference I'd probably spring for the GTS... but taking the cooler into account too: I'd say either way you're getting a good deal.

 

[The Bakery]

Excellent.

I won't be missing 10-15 FPS, and I am coming from a 7600gs.

I think that for the money, right now, the overclocked MSI 8800gt
is the best bang for the buck. I think the aftermarket cooler is what
sold me.

Hopefully this won't turn my apartment in to a kiln when I move to
Atlanta

 

[Lithan]

Originally posted by: The Bakery
So then the overclocked 8800 GT for $209 with a $30 MIR including aftermarket cooling...

Would that not be an equal or better buy than the $230 8800 GTS with $30 MIR?

I guess I just don't understand why the GTS is more expensive if the performance
is negligible.

Welcome to high end VGA cards. Hell 2-5 years ago you'd have $100-200 cards who were nothing more than underclocked $300-350 cards.


No problem.

 

[The Bakery]

Ordered via Newegg:

AMD X2 5000+
2 Gig Corsair XMS DDR2 800 4-4-4-12
MSI 8800gt 512

$369.99 before rebate - $300 after rebate.

I can't really find a way to be upset with that.

 

[klee]

Nice set up