Video Cards

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Pyro78

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So I currently have a Geforce 8800GTS 320meg version "The 512 was not out at the time" And am looking to replace it
I am trying to decide if the 280GTX is worth the $400 price tag, or if you guys think I should drop down to a 260

Thoughts?

The main reason for my change is I did run duel 8800GTS cards in SLI, however SLI has been nothing but trouble since I got it running, so I am going to drop back down to a single card. If anyone here ever considers doing SLI I offer 2 words of advice. #1 with nvidia "not sure about ATI" in some games they turn off SLI, so the other video card is basically turned off. No benefit
#2 in many games I ran it took allot of tweaking to make the game behave correctly. So if you not opposed to tweaking your system for 30 mins or longer before running a game for the first time then this should not be a problem.

At this point I just want a single video card so I can slap a game in and go.

I have an eVGA 680I mobo, Intel QX6600 and 4 gig of Patriot ram. With a 23inch widescreen monitor "so I need some video card HP to push the native resolution"
 
my suggestion is to use just your single 8800. if it doesnt have enough horsepower to push your game to max settings on any resolution then your not playing any game i know of(except crysis). my card has less power than yours and runs tf2 max settings without dropping below 20-25 fps on 1920x1080 res
 
Go for a ATI 4870 or 4850. I'm pretty sure they'll work on your mobo, but they wont crossfire. But, I don't think you're worried about that.

I prefer Nvidia, but ATI really has the lead for this week. ;)

I have dual 8800GTS 512s and have had no problems with SLI, aside from some games not using it.
 
i swore i saw a story recently that said that Nvidia had a problem with all there graphics chips they had shipped for those series cards.

I was seriously considering going to an ATI card for the first time. Not only because they are owned by AMD and i have had AMD sence i built my first machine 10 years ago with a AMD K6-2

/. had a nice review of sub $200 cards that really impressed me. http://techreport.com/articles.x/15559/9 I was thinking about going for a new Radian HD4850 which is likely to out perform my current G-force 8600GT

the question is can dual $150 cards out perform a single $300 card?

are you going to be happy staying on the bleeding edge, $400 a pop every 12 months, or are you happy just off the bleeding edge by 6 months picking up that $400 card for $150 and still upgrading every 12 months.

id perfer to upgrade every 12 months at $150 a pop then feel i have to stick with my bleeding edge $400 card for 2 years.
 
Or stick with a card until it actually becomes useless. In other words, I agree with pimpinabox. There is no game (minus Crysis) that you shouldn't be able to play on max res with an 8800. If you are having fps problems while online, it is more likely your internet connection speeds and not your card. Remember, you're only as fast as the slowest connection, which in almost every case, is the cable from modem to pc.
 
Ive got an ATI Radeon HD 3870 512MB, 4 gb ram, and an AMD 580x cpu.
I haven't had any problems with the video card, I run crysis on max settings decent, Run TF2 without any problems as far as framerate, (im guessing its at least above 30fps in action). Haven't run into anything besides crysis that can really push it past its limits.

TF2 runs as smooth as yogurt.
 
A small upgrade would be a 8800gt 512meg card. They're available for ~100 bucks now and run every game out there now without no difficulty. I just don't think dropping $300 dollars and above on a graphics card is worth it anymore.
 
what the heck happened to the 8 series?

I bought a 880 GTX about a year ago and now its 280???

8800 is a good card series, won't be trading mine in anytime soon
 
I have the GTX 260 and the card is fantastic. Runs at 1650 x 1080 at 60 FPS. I also have the Q6600 with the 750i mobo. Just one of these is great and they just released a 216 (which is the stream processor count) for the 260. Up from 192, and they are, I think the same price. You can get the low end version from EVGA for about 279, and with the OC utilty they throw in for free, you can easily overclock the card but I havent had the need to do so yet with any of my games.
Also it runs really cool, 50C under full load with fans at 80%
 
For $400, you can get 2 8800 Ultra's in SLi. And I'd say that's pretty good - check Tigerdirect, and maybe newegg hsa them for that price.
 
jdcskillet said:
There is no game (minus Crysis) that you shouldn't be able to play on max res with an 8800.
Click to expand...

He has the 320meg GTS. It is a very different card from the 8800GTS 512.

And, even a 512meg GTS won't run all games on max. It really wont run CoD4 on max very well, and I know a couple other games it wont handle either.

That said, a single 512 GTS pwns the Orange Box, and that's all that matters. :P
 
If you're going to drop 400$ for the 280GTX, just spend the extra 100$ for the 4870X2. The 4870X2 will last you for a very, very long time, and is much better than the 280GTX.

If you're a die hard nividia fan... then still go for the 4870X2.
Think of it as a long term investment, as

Its a long term investment, as the 280GTX will outdate faster then the 4870X2.
 
Kunai said:
For $400, you can get 2 8800 Ultra's in SLi. And I'd say that's pretty good - check Tigerdirect, and maybe newegg hsa them for that price.
Click to expand...

4870X2s use less power, make less noise, and easily beat both by about 20%, not to mention the fact that it is more stable than two SLI guys

Atten said:
He has the 320meg GTS. It is a very different card from the 8800GTS 512.

And, even a 512meg GTS won't run all games on max. It really wont run CoD4 on max very well, and I know a couple other games it wont handle either.

That said, a single 512 GTS pwns the Orange Box, and that's all that matters. :P
Click to expand...

The 320 Meg is that different. Maybe a 5% difference, at most.
Some games are also slightly biased against certain games. CoD4 tends toward ATI cards more, while the Orange Box is more biased against Nvidia drivers.
 
Atten said:
He has the 320meg GTS. It is a very different card from the 8800GTS 512.

And, even a 512meg GTS won't run all games on max. It really wont run CoD4 on max very well, and I know a couple other games it wont handle either.

That said, a single 512 GTS pwns the Orange Box, and that's all that matters. :P
Click to expand...

i have a single ati hd3850 256mb and that >should< be less powerful than the 8800gts reguardless of 320 or 512. 256 is sufficient to play almost any game and my card runs crysis on max settings well enough (25 fps which is better than film quality) at 1024x768 on the earlier levels of the game.. later on i drop the settings a little bit as it gets more intense

if your graphics card runs the game you like to play at higher than 20 fps then you wont experience any real visual lag, thats scientifically proven.. anything past that is just for pure e-Manhood. so just stick with the flippin 8800 cause you already know you dont need anything better. if you really must. then right now id go ati, probably the 4850. but really if your spending more than 130 dollars ANY card will perform plenty well.
 
Too lazy to read the whole topic...

It depends on your res. If you're gaming at a 24" res or above, then the 280. Otherwise, that GTS will do you fine.

My 512 8800GTS (yes, I know they're different, G80 vs G92 core) ran COD4 at 1920x1200 maxed flawlessly.

~Gooda~
 
and alot depends on the resolution you want to run why buy a new grafix card if the card you currently own will run your games at the resolution you use as gooda previously stated
 
Kunai said:
For $400, you can get 2 8800 Ultra's in SLi. And I'd say that's pretty good - check Tigerdirect, and maybe newegg hsa them for that price.
Click to expand...

But 2 8800s won't be able to touch the single 280 card.

Why do people refuse to believe this?

The guy up there says: 60FPS.

The 8800 says: 25 FPS.

You're going to get 31FPS with the SLI setup. Is 6 FPS really worth spending $200.00 on? 36FPS on the other hand, yeah, that's good.

SLI and Crossfire are *a waste of money*.

Always have been, always will be. But hey, I'm all for it. People who buy those double video cards will fund the next series of card after the 9800's - and then I'll be able to get a nice new video card on your backs. ;) Best investment move evar for Nvidia & ATI since they went public. Hasn't anyone ever wondered - why the double PCI video cards option offered by 3DFX DIED shortly after it was offered? Because back then - people figured out that having 2 good parts that couldn't work together all that good wasn't all that much better than having 1 good part. Well, it's not all that good for much else but bragging rights.

( But really, if you don't want to get ripped off ... go get 1 good video card - and be happy with it. )
 
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