320MB 8800GTS, honest opinion

[SneakyStuff]

Hi all, I found a deal for an OEM 320MB 8800GTS manufactured by evga for $92 flat. It's factory oc'd at 575/1800 which caught my eye immediately, plus the heatsink and fan seem to be beefed up, which I ALSO LIKED! Now I know this is no high end card anymore, but my question to you is this. If i'm staying at a resolution of 1280x1024 (since thats my monitor's max) do you think this card will carry me for at least another year to year and a half? I would just like something that I can max out call of duty 4 with a little aa/af, and be able to play starcraft 2 nicely when it eventually comes out december/january. Thanks!!!

EDIT: check my last post, found a 640MB version of the 8800GTS

 

[Jax Omen]

That card will max out any game, except MAYBE Crysis, at that resolution.

Crysis it'll max out except for a couple settings that you'll need to turn down.

I had one, I gave it to my girlfriend and got the 512MB GTS when I upgraded my monitor.

 

[Munky]

If you like using AA, then this is not the card for you. It takes a major performance hit in several games when AA is enabled due to running out of video memory, and even in some cases, it suffers without AA. It will still be a huge improvement over a 8600gt, but if you're getting a new card, I'd recommend a 9600gt 512MB, which has a gpu about as capable as the old 8800gts, but with more memory, and it can be had for a little over $100.

 

[BradAtWork]

Originally posted by: Jax Omen
That card will max out any game, except MAYBE Crysis, at that resolution.

Crysis it'll max out except for a couple settings that you'll need to turn down.

I had one, I gave it to my girlfriend and got the 512MB GTS when I upgraded my monitor.

If by max out you mean 30FPS. :disgust:

I have one, and at that res it can't get 60FPS in COD4, Bioshock or Stalker. That's without AA or AF.

I had to drop Crysis to 1024x768 at Median to get it playable.

 

[schneiderguy]

I would avoid the 320mb version because of the performance hit it takes when you fill up the vram.

 

[Sylvanas]

I would probably be looking for a cheap 9600GT ($150 @ newegg) or a 3850 for $100- both will be sufficient for your rez and games.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

This is what i just got. I LOVE IT!

so far hehe.

 

[brencat]

Originally posted by: munky
but if you're getting a new card, I'd recommend a 9600gt 512MB, which has a gpu about as capable as the old 8800gts, but with more memory, and it can be had for a little over $100.

+1

512mb VRAM should be your minimum if you want the card to last 1 - 1.5yrs.

 

[SneakyStuff]

Originally posted by: Sylvanas
I would probably be looking for a cheap 9600GT ($150 @ newegg) or a 3850 for $100- both will be sufficient for your rez and games.

I never really thought of the 3850 angle, how much better would a 512mb version of that be? I'm looking for the most longevity at the least amount of cost.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

After playing TF2, my FPS nearly tripled from my x1650 512mb. I can tell my CPU is the bottleneck since turning everything up doesn't really phase the card at all.

My 3dmark06 went from 1964 to a whopping 7361 with ZERO overclock.

The 8800GTS is pretty HOTT. 66c idle at 74% fan.

 

[Fayd]

Originally posted by: BradAtWork

Originally posted by: Jax Omen
That card will max out any game, except MAYBE Crysis, at that resolution.

Crysis it'll max out except for a couple settings that you'll need to turn down.

I had one, I gave it to my girlfriend and got the 512MB GTS when I upgraded my monitor.

If by max out you mean 30FPS. :disgust:

I have one, and at that res it can't get 60FPS in COD4, Bioshock or Stalker. That's without AA or AF.

I had to drop Crysis to 1024x768 at Median to get it playable.

i had one too, and at 1280x1024 i was running between medium and high on all settings, and it was glass smooth (for the most part). when i got into the REAL BIG firefight somewhere in the middle of the game, it got a bit choppy. actually, that was with everything on high. with some things moved down to middle, it was smooth even there.

 

[BradAtWork]

Originally posted by: Fayd

Originally posted by: BradAtWork

Originally posted by: Jax Omen
That card will max out any game, except MAYBE Crysis, at that resolution.

Crysis it'll max out except for a couple settings that you'll need to turn down.

I had one, I gave it to my girlfriend and got the 512MB GTS when I upgraded my monitor.

If by max out you mean 30FPS. :disgust:

I have one, and at that res it can't get 60FPS in COD4, Bioshock or Stalker. That's without AA or AF.

I had to drop Crysis to 1024x768 at Median to get it playable.

i had one too, and at 1280x1024 i was running between medium and high on all settings, and it was glass smooth (for the most part). when i got into the REAL BIG firefight somewhere in the middle of the game, it got a bit choppy. actually, that was with everything on high. with some things moved down to middle, it was smooth even there.

It would seem smooth to a noob. Real gamers need 60fps.

 

[Sylvanas]

Originally posted by: SneakyStuff

Originally posted by: Sylvanas
I would probably be looking for a cheap 9600GT ($150 @ newegg) or a 3850 for $100- both will be sufficient for your rez and games.

I never really thought of the 3850 angle, how much better would a 512mb version of that be? I'm looking for the most longevity at the least amount of cost.

If the 8800GTS 320mb and 3850 512mb are the same price then the 3850 would be the better option (reference). I would say perhaps wait for the next gen cards to arrive (due in the next month or so) however I don't think you will see anything released for $100 that will be a better buy, so might aswell buy now.

 

[AzN]

It's fine for that resolution even with AA. It does considerably worse in Crysis compared to other modern GPU but a good overclock will let you run fine @ 1280x1024 @ high. 320mb is just enough to run Crysis @ 1280 without texture thrashing. Not that other cards won't choke on crysis either.

 

[fk49]

so if 320mb is a bottleneck, how would the 640mb version compare to the 9600gt, 3850 etc?

 

[BolleY2K]

The 640 benefits a lot from overclocking. Example my system, 2GB DDR2-800 @44412, E4300@3.05 GHz, XP SP2:

8800 GTS 640 stock: 8796 3DMarks, Crysis 1280, everything high, no AA, 27-28 FPS in GPU-Test

8800 GTS 650/1000 (stable btw.): 11463 3DMarks, 33 FPS in Crysis GPU-Test

Overclocked I played through Crysis on everything high in 1280 without any major slowdowns - believe it or not, I didn´t expect that myself.

Regarding any comments about my resolution - I am still using a 21" Sony-CRT. ;-)

 

[RussianSensation]

8800GTS 320 was a decent card at the time. However, for just a little more $113 you can have 9600GT with 512mb of ram - giving you a peace of mind and overclocking headroom (which should allow you to come pretty close to 8800GT's speeds).

 

[Sylvanas]

Originally posted by: RussianSensation
8800GTS 320 was a decent card at the time. However, for just a little more $113 you can have 9600GT with 512mb of ram - giving you a peace of mind and overclocking headroom (which should allow you to come pretty close to 8800GT's speeds).

Nice find! This is the card to get for close to $100.

 

[AzN]

Originally posted by: RussianSensation
8800GTS 320 was a decent card at the time. However, for just a little more $113 you can have 9600GT with 512mb of ram - giving you a peace of mind and overclocking headroom (which should allow you to come pretty close to 8800GT's speeds).

Would you trust a biostar rebate and their warranty though? Do they even have warranty?

 

[AzN]

Originally posted by: BolleY2K
The 640 benefits a lot from overclocking. Example my system, 2GB DDR2-800 @44412, E4300@3.05 GHz, XP SP2:

8800 GTS 640 stock: 8796 3DMarks, Crysis 1280, everything high, no AA, 27-28 FPS in GPU-Test

8800 GTS 650/1000 (stable btw.): 11463 3DMarks, 33 FPS in Crysis GPU-Test

Overclocked I played through Crysis on everything high in 1280 without any major slowdowns - believe it or not, I didn´t expect that myself.

Regarding any comments about my resolution - I am still using a 21" Sony-CRT. ;-)

That's a monster overclock on your 8800gts. 650 core is rather unusual. Your 3dmark score beats my 8800gs but your Crysis bench doesn't. We have similar system except my cpu is E6300 OC 3.05ghz on a 8800gs.

3dmark 10906
Crysis 37.5 fps @ high.

 

[BolleY2K]

Then I got a good G80 I suppose - also cooling helps very much, I tweaked the cards cooler steps with RivaTuner and also have a tower with two 120mm Fans sitting right in the middle of the case blowing towards the read end and over the graphics card, one at the front and two at the back - supplying a constant stream of cool air through the case. The GPU never exceeds 70°C, not even overclocked, but 650/1000 is the absolut limit, 1 MHz more core produces artifacts, strangely 650 is rocksolid.

I am quite happy with that card, owning it for over a year now it is still fast enough for my games, and with prices for these cards so low, I always have the option to go SLI for cheap. Lets see, if it lasts as long (2,5 years) as my last card (9500Pro@9700) in my last system.

A friend of mine owns a 8800 GTS 320 and is playing Assassins Creed all the time, which runs fast enough and looks good enough in our opinion. I think the old GTS are not a bad buy for the price they are sold now.

 

[AnandTech Moderator]

Knock off the personal attacks. I have removed the four posts that derail this thread.
Please be courteous to each other, I won't edit this thread a second time.


esquared
Anandtech Senior Moderator

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Seeing as my thread somehow dissapeared even thouigh it did have pretinent info in it -_- I guess I have to repost that the 8800GTS 320 should do very well @ 1280x1024 as my X1900XTX ( which is slower ) plays CoD 4 @ 1280x1024 with max details and 16x HQ AF and 2x AA and I play STALKER @ 1280x1024 with max details and 16x HQ AF and 4x AA with no probs

 

[SneakyStuff]

I was browsing the hot deals forum and found a deal for a Zotac 640MB 8800GTS for $120 + $8 s/h. so... $128 total for a 640MB 8800GTS I'm considering ordering this tommorow afternoon, your thoughts? Seems like that solves the issue of having enough RAM for the future, and the cost is extremely friendly with my wallet seeing as how there are no rebates.

edit: Why do you suppose the core/mem are listed as 500/1600? that's 75/200 below the other stock 640MB 8800GTS

 

[SickBeast]

Get that 640mb card, it's a great deal!

As for the clockspeeds, you should be able to overclock any GTS to at least 600mhz. Mine can run at 665mhz if I run the fan at 100% in RivaTuner.

As others have said, you'll have no trouble running current games with that card at your resolution, even with 4XAA enabled. That's really the most important thing. Buying cards now for "future proofing" doesn't make much sense IMO.

The one caveat to buying that card now is that the 4850 could come out in the next few weeks and absolutely crush it for $200. It's not likely, but it could happen.