Question about 8800 GTS

[JohnD212]

Hi... I currently have an XPS 600, Pentium 4 with 3.8 ghz and (2) Nvidia 7800GTX in SLI mode...and I'm thinking about upgrading to the 8800GTS. Do you think I'll see a good performance boost...I currently have a 20" LCD monitor that runs in 1600X1200 resolution. Thanks so much

[Das Capitolin]

Without a doubt. Not only does it double the performance of your 7800GTX in SLi, but it is DX10 compatible.

[JohnD212]

Cool...thanks...I think you've made up my mind. Gonna go get it tomorrow...

[werty316]

Going with Das on this one I also say it is completely worth it,... sort of...

I say sort of because DX10 is not out yet so why not wait for DX10 and by then a new card should be out and the 8800GTS should have went down in price.

[JohnD212]

I was thinking that for a bit ... but I know my PC being a Pentium 4 and 3.8GHZ won't be able to last too many more years...so I figure enjoy what I can now and when I do a new system in a year or so..then I'll be ready for a new card and hopefully incredibly new systems. Gettin excited just thinking about it...lol

[werty316]

You know that CPU will be a big bottle so you won't really take full advantage of a 8800GTX. I think any of the current CPUs you get is a bottleneck for a 8800GTX.

A 8800GTX doesn't really show its performance potential without a fast CPU.

[Das Capitolin]

You know that CPU will be a big bottle so you won't really take full advantage of a 8800GTX. I think any of the current CPUs you get is a bottleneck for a 8800GTX.

A 8800GTX doesn't really show its performance potential without a fast CPU.

This is true. I have my E6600 running at 3.6GHz, so it is back on the video card as far as performance is concerned. But until you get a decent dual-core CPU you will be CPU bound in all of your games.

[Schwarz]

Hey you guys.
I'm not sure if you noticed but he's talking about GTS not a GTX.
I'm not sure with a GTS it would be all that much worth it.
Of course if you were asking if a GTX would be better then I would say YES hands down but the price you will pay for a GTS you will see an increase in performance but maybe not as much as you expect.

[XJnine]

Just checking ebay it looks like 7800gtx's are going for about $150 each. If you were to sell the 7800's that would go a long way towards paying for the 8800gts and it will also give you DX 10 compatibility, a cooler and less power hungry system, and a free PCIe slot to go to SLI again in the future.

[Null]

Just checking ebay it looks like 7800gtx's are going for about $150 each.

Does anyone remember what the 7800GTX's were selling for when they first came out?

Sheesh! PC parts sure don't have much of a resale value.

[Das Capitolin]

Hey you guys.
I'm not sure if you noticed but he's talking about GTS not a GTX.
I'm not sure with a GTS it would be all that much worth it.
Of course if you were asking if a GTX would be better then I would say YES hands down but the price you will pay for a GTS you will see an increase in performance but maybe not as much as you expect.

Yes, we noticed. It was by no accident that our responces mentioned GTS in them.

Take a look at my review of the 8800 GTS here (http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=1006), and then tell me if you think a GTS is "worth it". I think that 2-2.5x the performance over a 7900 GT would be enough to prove this, but maybe it needs to cook dinner and wash your car before you will consider it?

[werty316]

Just checking ebay it looks like 7800gtx's are going for about $150 each. If you were to sell the 7800's that would go a long way towards paying for the 8800gts and it will also give you DX 10 compatibility, a cooler and less power hungry system, and a free PCIe slot to go to SLI again in the future.
What XJnine said is a good train of thought to follow.
Does anyone remember what the 7800GTX's were selling for when they first came out?

Sheesh! PC parts sure don't have much of a resale value.
I think 7800GTX cards were selling for $500-600 when they first were released.

[Kougar]

Das, I think what Schwarz picked up on is your original post is misleading. A 8800GTS will NOT beat two 7800GTX cards in SLI, a 8800GTS is only a step above a x1950XTX card in many games, and bested by it in a few. You flat out stated a GTS could "double the performance of a 7800GTX cards in SLI", not even a 8800GTX can even do this.

Especially with that basic Pentium 4 CPU. I'd say it's already bottlenecking his setup badly... IMHO you'd see much better improvements simply upgrading your CPU to a Core 2 Duo system than you ever would changing from dual 7800GTX to a 8800GTS graphics card setup. Not having the SLI overhead offloaded on that already anemic CPU would help some, but that's all I see happening with any changeover.

[Das Capitolin]

Das, I think what Schwarz picked up on is your original post is misleading. A 8800GTS will NOT beat two 7800GTX cards in SLI, a 8800GTS is only a step above a x1950XTX card in many games, and bested by it in a few. You flat out stated a GTS could "double the performance of a 7800GTX cards in SLI", not even a 8800GTX can even do this.

I went to Tom's hardware and saw that with some games/benchmarks and at some resolutions/settings the 8800GTS did beat a 7800 GTX SLi set, although when I mentioned double I meant twice that of a single 7900 GT.

[Kougar]

Okay, I looked, I saw, and I'm a bit surprised... The numbers the GTS is putting out in other reviews is much more in line with single GPU cards, so I don't get it.

For instance, look at Anandtech's G80 review (http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2870&p=22). 5 to 1 the GTS loses to a 7900GTX SLI setup, sometimes by huge amounts. So what can explain the difference between THG and Anandtech's numbers? Other sites do show a GTS losing to a x1950XTX occasionally which matches Anand's benches, so I'm leaning towards Anandtech. :confused:

Edit: I just realized... THG does not go above 1600by1200 in their benches, while 1600by1200 is the resolution Anandtech starts at. While their #s for Oblivion align okay, their Half Life numbers are completely different.

[xfxsupport]

I will have to agree with Kougar, you will not see much if any improvement with one 8800GTS compared with two 7800GTX's in sli mode. The test results will bounce back and forth, some instances the 7800GTX's will prevail (not by much) and other tests will have the 8800GTS as the dominate one. The only real advantage with the single 8800GTS is the fact you will be directX 10 ready.

XFX Support