Thinking of getting an 8800GTS

[-Psy-]

Well, it would seem that my Sapphire X1900GT is on it's way out because it's producing all sorts of heat-related graphical glitches even after I cleaned it and the rest of the system using compressed air.

Like this.
And this.

That's another guy who has the same card and problem...

And this too.

And that's what I'm getting...

Anyhoo, since the 8800GTS is around £150 now, it seems pretty affordable and I am lagging a bit in games now (especially Bioshock) so should I get an 8800GTS or wait till something better arrives?

 

[The Brick]

It's pretty sad you have to upgrade already, but if warranty isn't an option, the 8800gts320 will do very well.

 

[3ssence]

Yeah, i agree, shame about the 1900GT going so quickly. What specs are the rest of your system ? An 8800GTS would indeed do you very nicely. All depends on whether you want to play the waiting game on new hardware or just get on with it and buy something decent now !

 

[The Brick]

4200+ x2, 1gb ddr533. I just happen to know that.

 

[Chris D]

I'm the proud owner of an 8800GTS 320MB and I'm verrrrry happy with it.

 

[Warbie]

Try underclocking it a little - that fixed one of my cards that was having a similar problem.

 

[-Psy-]

I'll try that. I'm going to get a proper case instead of the crappy cheap one I've got now and also because it's rather loud and there is no front fan. :|

The Antec 900 is what I shall be getting mainly because it has huge fans (which are quieter?) and doesn't look cheap and plastic.

 

[wailingmilk]

just installed an 8800 GTS

I just installed the 8800 GTS and it does look pretty cool. Having said that, I gamed with it the other day (HL2 Deathmatch) and it froze up over the course of teh 7 hour evening. We had about 7 players in the board and after about 10-15 minutes, it would just freeze. All i could do was reboot (I did other things like flash the bios, update drivers, drink heavily, etc...). I'm still exhausting my options on trying to figure out why. The graphics in Red Faction (yes, i'm old and it's an exercise in nostalgia to play it) were too freaked out to play...probably something to do with the age of the game (another dude had an 8600 i think and had the same problem). The original Halflife seemed to do ok, but i only tested it for few minutes. I played HL2 Episode One last night, at the highest resolution (1680x1250 i think) with ratio at 16:10. It ran great...really cool. as far as HL2 Deathmatch goes, i'm wondering if there is some correlation with Win XP (the OS i'm running) being Direct X 9 and the card being Direct X 10. I still have a few more games to test ( Earned in blood looks nice). The card puts out a lot of heat so make sure you got fans going, and god help you if you live in South Arizona. Keep your case clean from dust (blow it out every once in a while). My MOB is an ASUS P5N32-SLI Deluxe. I'm not able to take advantage of the EZ Plug on the MOB (it helps to regulate power to the video card/s) because the 8800 GTS is so big, it covers up the plug. Those are just some thoughts.

 

[CptStern]

the 8800gts 320mb is being discontinued ..the 640mb version will get a revision (more stream processors ..or something or other) release in a few weeks and new nvidias should be coming out: mid to low end cards so prices may fluctuate however the 320mb is being discontinued so it may eventually get harder to find

 

[Tyguy]

i have the 640MB and am happy so far. Only thing is the card is gigantic so make sure you have enough room. (probably cant use more than 1 PCI slot with this bad boy in there.)

 

[Dynasty]

If you can slash out for the higher memory version, do it. WIll make a big difference.

Ive just thrown a SLI setup on 2 8600gt 512mb, which will pretty much do the same as an 8800gts 320, if a bit slower and they support dx10 so...its upto your wallet. I saved about ?40 going for the SLI, but it means getting a SLI motherboard obviously...

 

[CptStern]

i have the 640MB and am happy so far. Only thing is the card is gigantic so make sure you have enough room. (probably cant use more than 1 PCI slot with this bad boy in there.)

I'm thinking of getting the 640mb ..is it the depth or the length that makes it such a large card? I just installed a chipset heatsink (thanks Asus) and it almost brushes up against my current video card: 7800gt ..also my hardrive cage is a little close to the video card ..how much longer is it than the 7900 (your old card right?)

 

[wailingmilk]

anyone had any trouble with the 8800 GTS and HL2 Games?

Just wondering if anyone has had anything odd happen once they installed the 8800 card. Are there any tweaks that should be optimized in the Nvidia control panel, or should I let the applications decide how best to utilize the card?

 

[hool10]

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2007/10/08/nvidia_to_re-introduce_geforce_8800_gts/1 New GTS...

 

[CptStern]

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2007/10/08/nvidia_to_re-introduce_geforce_8800_gts/1 New GTS...

http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=131689

 

[3ssence]

What chipset are you on Stern ? I only ask because i have an nforce4 sli board, and i replaced the chipset fan and heatsink combo, and soon found that with some larger cards (X1800XT and 8800GTS) that the footprint of the chipset heatsink impeded the graphics card.

First i did a little bodging to remove a few fins, and later i replaced it altogether with Thermalright's sli northbridge heatsink (which incedentally, on my board, impedes the second slot i.e. renders the use of dual graphics cards impossible !)

 

[CptStern]

nforce4 on a asus an8-sli

that fan was close to the vid card ..with the heatsink even more so

 

[Tyguy]

I'm thinking of getting the 640mb ..is it the depth or the length that makes it such a large card? I just installed a chipset heatsink (thanks Asus) and it almost brushes up against my current video card: 7800gt ..also my hardrive cage is a little close to the video card ..how much longer is it than the 7900 (your old card right?)

Im going on pure memory but i believe they are similar in length. The biggest difference is width, where you sacrifice an extra slot for the card. If your current card is that close, it might be a tight fit. I'll try and get a picture when I get home.

I have a fun problem though, my new motherboard has the IDE connector BEHIND the video card....so atm i have to stretch it over the card itself. Its a mess in there but luckily everything works. Need to pick up a longer cable :angry:

 

[CptStern]

shit wide might mean it'll be a tight squeeze, might have to cut off a few fins

I'm assuming you mean the IDE for your dvd drive, floppy drive? just get a sata dvd they're extremely cheap

 

[Tyguy]

yeah, my dvd drive.

I'll probably end up getting a SATA, didnt even think of it

 

[3ssence]

nforce4 on a asus an8-sli

that fan was close to the vid card ..with the heatsink even more so

Haha, i have the a8n sli premium and i had that very heatsink !!

The 8800GTS won't fit in with that configuration, you'd have to cut half of the heatsink away unfortunately.



I replaced the zalman with one of these:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-044-TR&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=399

As i mentioned, it blocks the second graphics card slot (so much for sli !) but it sits well out of the way of the primary graphics card slot, as such an 8800GTS fits quite nicely.

 

[-Psy-]

I can see how this card would be a problem for SLi. One of my PCI slots has been made useless now.

 

[CptStern]

Haha, i have the a8n sli premium and i had that very heatsink !!

The 8800GTS won't fit in with that configuration, you'd have to cut half of the heatsink away unfortunately.



I replaced the zalman with one of these:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-044-TR&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=399

As i mentioned, it blocks the second graphics card slot (so much for sli !) but it sits well out of the way of the primary graphics card slot, as such an 8800GTS fits quite nicely.

ah ffs, I just installed it the other day ..and it was a pain in the ass to slip in because of the tight squeeze/my fading eyesight

 

[3ssence]

Yeah, i know, it was a bit of a pain to have to pull the motherboard out again just to upgrade my graphics card !

 

[The Brick]

The reintroduced 8800gts will be a single slot card according to rumours.

 

[CptStern]

Yeah, i know, it was a bit of a pain to have to pull the motherboard out again just to upgrade my graphics card !

ya I had to pull my mobo just to change a $6 heatsink ..now I'll have to do it again

 

[3ssence]

The reintroduced 8800gts will be a single slot card according to rumours.

I'd heard rumours of an 8800GT single slot card, are they really going to release a slightly more powerful version of the GTS with a less sufficient cooling solution ?

 

[The Brick]

Oh ups, I was probably confusing it with the 8800gt.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

Just wondering if anyone has had anything odd happen once they installed the 8800 card. Are there any tweaks that should be optimized in the Nvidia control panel, or should I let the applications decide how best to utilize the card?

Thats windows Vista, you can download microsoft hotfixes to fix this problem through Nvidia's website. I use to have problems concerning lag issues, but all Source Based games seem to be alright now.

However, you will need the latest drivers for it to be effective.

 

[Asus]

The 8800GT will be 65nm. Smaller chip, lower power and heat.