Export thread

So my video card got fried last week while still under warranty... and of course they don't make cards like it any more.

So now i'll have to wait for a different replacement card and i was wondering, what current cards have the same (or similar) capabilities as it?

This would be the card in question ASUS EN8800GTX GeForce 8800 GTX - HotHardware

Just so i know i'm not getting a worse card...

A replacement for a GF 8800GTX?

Closest (current) replacement is probably any of the 9800GT's out there, though they will be a bit slower. If you want to stay with NVIDIA, you're better off getting at least a GeForce GTS 250/450. If you're feeling like jumping over to ATI, there's the Radeon HD 4770/5770.

--Patrick

A replacement for a GF 8800GTX?

Eh... right now i have no idea what if any options i have, as that's between the guys i bought it from and their suppliers atm.

And i doubt they're gonna replace a Nvidia with an ATI.

So a 9800GT would be slower... good to know.

A replacement for a GF 8800GTX?

@Li3n said:

So a 9800GT would be slower... good to know.

Click to expand...

Probably not by that much an amount, unless you like to play games in 1900x1200 with most of the good stuff turned on.

I'm guessing they'll probably try and fob a 9800 GT off on you, hold out for a 9800 GTX or GTS 250. Doubt they'll go higher no matter what.

For quick reference. 3 rows difference is considered significant enough to spend money to make up the difference.

A replacement for a GF 8800GTX?

That's an awesome chart Keo, thanks for the link. Good to know my 4870 is still at the top.

+1

A replacement for a GF 8800GTX?

Man, the asus 8800GTX is what I use too.. I did notice it runs a little hot, so I got an aftermarket fan for it.

When I built the little woman's PC, I made it exactly the same except for the card, in which I used an 8800GT. 90% of the time, there's no difference, and the card costs half as much. But from time to time in Warhammer Online, when dealing with HUGE battles with HUNDREDS of players, it does get choppy for her while mine is still ok.

I find it hard to believe that a replacement 8800GTX can't be found though!

A replacement for a GF 8800GTX?

@Gas

They're no longer being made and the supplier doesn't have any it seems... but there is the posibility that they will find one i guess...

But a smaller card that performs about the same would be better...

SpecialKO;443111][QUOTE=@Li3n said:

So a 9800GT would be slower... good to know.

Click to expand...

Probably not by that much an amount, unless you like to play games in 1900x1200 with most of the good stuff turned on.
[/QUOTE]

Well my plasma won't go beyond 1284x1024, but i do like to have all the bells and whistles for when i SP by myself...

And that chart i already saw... but it wasn't very well explained to me...

Basically i should not settle for anything one level above where the 8800GTX is, right? Considering how much it was back when i got it...

BTW, what the difference between the GTS 25 and the 450?!

I'm guessing they'll probably try and fob a 9800 GT off on you, hold out for a 9800 GTX or GTS 250. Doubt they'll go higher no matter what.

Click to expand...

Actually they did replace my PSU a few months back (which might have been for nothing is the videocard was at fault from he get go) with a stronger one for the difference in price, so they might just to get some money...

Which reminds me... any idea what the last price was for the 8800GTX (new)?!

A replacement for a GF 8800GTX?

The way this thread title gets truncated on the main forums page keeps making me do a double-take. "A replacement for a GF..." When I first saw that headline in the Tech subforum, I thought this was going to be a thread about android girls or dating sims.

A replacement for a GF 8800GTX?

That table was the one I based my recommandations from, the main takeaway is that a 9800GTX and 8800GTX are pretty similar (which is no surprise since the chip itself is essentially the same, just a different process size). I only suggest 9800GT since they are still available as new (though maybe 5-10% slower than 8800GTX...at stock speeds, that is) and the 9800GTX appears to be retired.

GTS 250/450 are similar, but 450 is dx11 while 250 is only dx10. Further details (and there are a LOT) can be found here.

--Patrick

A replacement for a GF 8800GTX?

10x man...

figmentPez said:

This way this thread title gets truncated on the main forums page keeps making me do a double-take. "A replacement for a GF..." When I first saw that headline in the Tech subforum, I thought this was going to be a thread about android girls or dating sims.

Click to expand...

Well the japanese still have some plenty of work to do before i can make that thread...

Adding android girls into the mix really makes the "it's not how big it is, it's how you use it" argument into something considerably more complicated.

How important is getting Direct x 11?

How important are the new DX11 features to you? If your answer was, "New DX11 features? What are they?", then the answer is that DX10/10.1 is probably good enough for what you need.

--Patrick

If the switch to 11 is coming really soon, I'd pay the $20-30 more for a card with somewhat less performance. There are several games out that require 11 already.

Require? Really? I'm surprised. Most games still have a DX9 code path, since DX9 is still so popular. I would be surprised to see a game released this year or next that required DX11 for anything other than the ability to advertise 'ultra-high quality' graphics settings.

--Patrick

I have my eye on this:

Newegg.com - ASUS ENGTS250/DI/512MD3/WW GeForce GTS 250 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

any better choices out there? with in $30?

Newegg.com - EVGA 01G-P3-1450-TR GeForce GTS 450 (Fermi) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card ?

I know there ain't much of a performance upgrade, but as Pat mentioned, it's DX11 if that matters to you.

The time they're taking i'm assuming that they're actually looking for another 8800GTX...

And it's annoying because the firm i got it from is actually waiting for word from their suppliers... so i have no clue what options if any there are.

Oh well, at least they put a temp card on it and i have it back home now... can't wait for work to be over already so i can at least play some L4D2...

SpecialKO said:

Newegg.com - EVGA 01G-P3-1450-TR GeForce GTS 450 (Fermi) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card?
I know there ain't much of a performance upgrade, but as Pat mentioned, it's DX11 if that matters to you.

Click to expand...

And it has 1GB RAM instead of only 512MB on the 250. That right there is worth the upgrade.

Forgot to mention in previous notes: It appears DX11 is a straight up superset of DX10.1, so this means any DX11 card is 100% DX10.1 compatible without any sort of drivers/modification needed.

--Patrick

PatrThom;444073][QUOTE=SpecialKO said:

Newegg.com - EVGA 01G-P3-1450-TR GeForce GTS 450 (Fermi) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card?
I know there ain't much of a performance upgrade, but as Pat mentioned, it's DX11 if that matters to you.

Click to expand...

And it has 1GB RAM instead of only 512MB on the 250. That right there is worth the upgrade.

Forgot to mention in previous notes: It appears DX11 is a straight up superset of DX10.1, so this means any DX11 card is 100% DX10.1 compatible without any sort of drivers/modification needed.

--Patrick[/QUOTE]

It is a 128-bit card, though. I hadn't noticed that. Hmmm....

EDIT: Nevermind. If I did the math right, the memory bandwidth on both cards is about the same (64 GB/s, give a take a little).

It may only be 128-bit, but it's GDDR5 (lower voltage/power/heat) and clocked 65% faster, meaning the memory ends up being only a net 18% slower than the 250. Also, while the 450's shaders are clocked 15% slower than those on the 250, they have crammed 50% more of them into the 450. This is the explanation for why real-world performance tests show the 450 is anywhere from 0-25% faster than the 250 (depending on the game in question) while using almost a third less power.

--Patrick

I had a 9800GTX go belly up a while back. I replaced it with a GTS 250 (pretty much the same card). My wife got an ATI 5770 (pretty sure that's the card...roughly the same price as the GTS250. Her card ran noticeably cooler and quieter than mine. It was much smaller. The GTS 250 covers up my PCI-E x1 slot (not sure if there's an easy way around that), whereas her card didn't, if I recall correctly. The fan on hers looks like a little race car. I actually like her card more than mine, but the GTS250 won't fit in her case, so I'm stuck with it.

PatrThom said:

Require? Really? I'm surprised.
--Patrick

Click to expand...

As far as i know only 1 game that's out requires DX11, and it's that shooter in space where you actually fight in zero G. And it didn't do so well from what i recall.

SpecialKO said:

Newegg.com - EVGA 01G-P3-1450-TR GeForce GTS 450 (Fermi) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card ?

I know there ain't much of a performance upgrade, but as Pat mentioned, it's DX11 if that matters to you.

Click to expand...

It was delivered and installed yesterday. I went from running fair settings in WoW to Ultra Settings and saw a big uptick in FPS. Best $124 I've spent in a while. It is almost like playing a new game.

Update: they found another 8800gtx... worked for about a week and then started doing it again... now i'm playing WoW on an old laptop... i have 9fps...

sixpackshaker said:

It was delivered and installed yesterday. I went from running fair settings in WoW to Ultra Settings and saw a big uptick in FPS. Best $124 I've spent in a while. It is almost like playing a new game.

Click to expand...

A friend of mine got that one... of course his PC is too old imo for the card, but he doesn't play many new games anyway...

the 8800 GTX definitely needs an after market fan, btw. I don't know if I said that earlier. Mine used to overheat constantly before I got one.

I've never been able to figure out at what point your computer is too sucky to make use of a good video card.

I have a Pentium D, which makes me wonder whether I should bother upgrading at all anymore, but supposedly, if I upgrade to an E6600 Core 2 Duo (which my mobo purportedly supports), there's a massive performance upgrade along with a decent-ish, currently middling video card.

SpecialKO said:

I've never been able to figure out at what point your computer is too sucky to make use of a good video card.

I have a Pentium D, which makes me wonder whether I should bother upgrading at all anymore, but supposedly, if I upgrade to an E6600 Core 2 Duo (which my mobo purportedly supports), there's a massive performance upgrade along with a decent-ish, currently middling video card.

Click to expand...

I can tell you my Q6600 Core2Quad actually delivers better gaming performance than the Core 2 Duo because I've run those two machines side by side... But even the duo is a big step up from the Pentium D.

But in my experience, what usually makes a "computer" too sucky for a video card to make up the difference is has not been the CPU but the other parts of the data pipe - the speed and amount of RAM, the bus clock, the access time and transfer rate of the hard drives. The step up from IDE to SATA was a huge one for gaming. It's made the difference in load times like you wouldn't believe... and of course, the jump from DDR to DDR2 ram was also a big one, and doubtless whatever's coming down the pipe in an iteration or two will be just as big again.

GasBandit;449208][QUOTE=SpecialKO said:

I've never been able to figure out at what point your computer is too sucky to make use of a good video card.

I have a Pentium D, which makes me wonder whether I should bother upgrading at all anymore, but supposedly, if I upgrade to an E6600 Core 2 Duo (which my mobo purportedly supports), there's a massive performance upgrade along with a decent-ish, currently middling video card.

Click to expand...

I can tell you my Q6600 Core2Quad actually delivers better gaming performance than the Core 2 Duo because I've run those two machines side by side... But even the duo is a big step up from the Pentium D.

But in my experience, what usually makes a "computer" too sucky for a video card to make up the difference is has not been the CPU but the other parts of the data pipe - the speed and amount of RAM, the bus clock, the access time and transfer rate of the hard drives. The step up from IDE to SATA was a huge one for gaming. It's made the difference in load times like you wouldn't believe... and of course, the jump from DDR to DDR2 ram was also a big one, and doubtless whatever's coming down the pipe in an iteration or two will be just as big again.[/QUOTE]

Not too concerned with hard-drive (500 GB SATA). The RAM isn't so hot, but it's workable (2GB 533Mhz DDR2 for an XP system), and while I can add more, the best I can do is 3 GB of 667Mhz DDR2 (4 if I upgrade to 7 from XP). The mobo currently has an 800Mhz FSB, but with the firmware upgrade needed to install an E6600 (can't install a quad on this sucker), it will increase to 1066Mhz.

I could upgrade all of that (+ a new video card) for maybe $400 and change ($100 for 4 1GB sticks of 667Mhz RAM, $80 for the E6600, $100 for Win 7 Home Prem Upgrade, $130-ish for an HD 5750), but at that point it may be more worth it to put it in the "new desktop fund" jar, since what comes out of this upgrade would still be far behind even a budget system today (except possibly the video card).

Your motherboard can't handle 800mhz DDR2?

GasBandit said:

Your motherboard can't handle 800mhz DDR2?

Click to expand...

Inconclusive. It's an XPS400, and Dell says it can't, but people in their own forums say that it can.