[HELP] 8800GT versus 9800GT

[Bahumat]

How much better is the 9800GT than the 8800GT?

I think the 9800GT uses 2 6-pin plugs? If so I will need to get some sort of Molex to 6-pin adapter I think as I only have 1 6-pin plug on my PSU

OcUK GeForce 9800 GT 512MB SILENT GDDR3 HDTV/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail

[Bahumat]

Fudzilla - Geforce 9800GT has two 6-pin connectors

The upcoming Geforce 9800GT card will have a major difference compared to Geforce 8800GT. It will have dual 6-pin power connectors that really mean that the card might need more power.

[inactionman]

TBH I'd suggest you get a 4870, it's a much better card, and shouldn't suffer from the alleged fatal flaw that all Nvidia cards based on the G92 chip has.

[Bahumat]

Originally Posted by inactionman

TBH I'd suggest you get a 4870, it's a much better card, and shouldn't suffer from the alleged fatal flaw that all Nvidia cards based on the G92 chip has.

What's that flaw please? ALso I hate ATI, currently have an X1950 Pro

[TdC]

indeed. I have an 8800GTS/512, and am now worried it's going to make a black hole before CERN does o0

[Ch3tan]

Originally Posted by Bahumat

What's that flaw please? ALso I hate ATI, currently have an X1950 Pro

How irrational of you. Why do you "hate" ati? The x1950 is a very good card, I have one and everything runs fine. If you want the best bang for your buck then ATI is the way to go right now. The 4850 and 4870 are cheaper, and not as big and loud and powerhungry as any of nvidias offerings. Oh and faster too.

[Helme]

I really find the whole hate ATi thing odd, seeing as how they totally dominated nVidia before the 8800 cards, and how they are once again on the top with the 4800 series.

Oh and while their drivers are "bad", they are nowhere near "responsible for 45% of Vista's crashes" bad like the nVidia ones.

Get an 4850/70, the 50 has about the same price as an 8800GT but performes alot better, and so far the only game mine has had ANY issue in whatsoever is Mount & Blade, which I assume none on this board even played

edit:

For some performance reference; my HD4850 has so far played Crysis on full @ 1440x900 with over 40 FPS and 1 or 2 dips here and there most likely caused by my 6 year old HDD's.

Assassin's Creed on 1440x900 with everything full including 16xAF and 8xAA.

Bioshock, also maxxed. CoD 4, maxxed with 75 fps being the lowest. Warhammer online, maxxed(altho im not really sure how much of the gfx options are turned on in the beta yet, as most gfx settings doesnt seem to do anything).

WoW maxed(yes it doesn't look or sound like a very demanding game, but running a Black Temple raid with 8xmulti sample actually is pretty demanding due to the heavy usage of shaders in the game).

And the impressive part about this is that I'm using it together with an Athlon X2 5000+ OC'd to 3GHz, 2GB ram and as previously mentioned 6 years old IDE HDD's, all for the price of £105.

Oh and it runs on 1x6pin, I can't hear it while the box side is open and sitting next to it, and it's also quite small compared to the 8800 cards, think it's actually about 5CM shorter.

[inactionman]

Link: Nvidia 55nm parts are bad too - The INQUIRER

Not sure how true this is but it is plausible, plus Nvidia haven't started suing yet....

[Draylor]

Originally Posted by inactionman

Not sure how true this is but it is plausible, plus Nvidia haven't started suing yet....

Its the Inquirer, truth is often in short supply. Add to that the author responsible is among their worst.

That said assorted companies are putting out BIOS updates which do nothing other than increase fan speeds - something definitely isnt right.

[Kryten]

Can only agree with getting a 4870 instead tbh. Far better cards for less money, the drivers/software is better, the performance is leagues ahead, as is visual quality.
Otherwise there's not a huge amount of diff from a 9800 to the 8800's, especially being more or less the same card.

[Bahumat]

I just worry because all I ever hear about ATI is "Shit Drivers". I over the past 5ish years have found there's always been a game where I could run it on a Nvidia, but my ATI friend struggled or found issues with Drivers etc. (Rest of the PC being very similar as is OS etc).

You know when you see something on ebay and you are not sure whether to buy it because it looks a little bit dodgy...well thats how ATI make me feel

[Sar]

Well I do know my 8800GT (and 7600GT prior to it) have trouble with the video subsystem in Vista and Linux - intermittent blinking when changing resolution that carries on for over a minute at times.

No such problems in XP at all though, which leads me to think it's a driver problem...?

[Kryten]

Turned around. Nvidia's drivers are awful now. For instance, see that TV Out port on your card? Might as well not, because your drivers wont...

ATI's drivers have improved tenfold. It's a different story in Linux but that depends on your usage. Things change, and it's always important to keep that in mind, otherwise you could just end up with a turkey due to brand loyalty. Never worth it.

[Helme]

Another thing to take into consideration regarding drivers is that ATi updates monthly, nVidia every 3rd month or so(if even that) so if there's any problems, it will get fixed alot faster.

[Ctuchik]

Originally Posted by Ch3tan

Oh and faster too.

this always makes me giggle whenever it comes up as an argument.

yes it might be faster on paper, but in 99.9% of the cases theres no telling the difference between the top brands unless theres something HORRIBLY wrong with the card(s) you are comparing with.

so unless you are going to be needing every bit of power the cards has to offer, and then some. comparing speed caps really isnt doing much use.

but prices on the other hand....

but me, like Bahumat isnt a fan of ATI, mostly because my last 3 attempts at using one has ended up in a burnt up grafics card. nvidia has never done that to me so i stick with those insted.

currently have a 6800GT thats running every game i have pretty much flawless.