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]

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]

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]

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]

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.

 

[Ch3tan]

I've had cards from both over the years, I don't go by loyalty I go to whichever is offering me the best product at the best price.

And yes ctuchik performance does come into it, the card that is faster now in benchmarks tends to be the one that lets you turn all the fancy options on and play at a higher res for longer into the future.

As for reliability, I have never had a graphics card die on me.

Bad advice telling Bahu to go for anything but a 4850 or 4870 right now. It's like advising someone to not get a core2duo.

 

[Raven]

Same as Chet really, I used to use radions but I am now on my second Nvidia having just upgraded from a 365 (i think) to a 512 GTS and I am very happy with it, not had a single problem with it or the drivers. Not really had any problems with either actually except for the odd graphics glitch in Crysis with the older card.

Its nice to see ATI making a comeback the same way I hope AMD do in the processer wars and If i was to buy a new card today it would probably be an ATI.

 

[Sar]

The only Ati card I ever had was a Excalibur IceQ 9800 Pro. Did its job for a year and then burnt out. Otherwise, I've been a 3dfx->Nvidia loyalist throughout since 1996.

 

[Helme]

The thing with the 4800 cards is that they perform pretty much equal or better to the nVidia cards, but depending on cards 20-40% cheaper. So it's kinda stupid for your own wallets sake to not go with the card giving most performance for £ spent.

That and the fact that every G92 card seems to suffer from faulty manufacturing making nVidia lose money for the first time in 5years trying to replace all the cards.

--

It's funny to see how many had "problems" with ATi cards tho and not a single one mention the total bullshit that is the GeForce4, 5 & 7 mid-series, it's really quite puzzling seeing people mention how every card they got from ATi seems to have broken, that's quite odd really. My older 9200 Radeon is still in use by my father, my other 9600 Radeon is still in use by my brother while I actually threw out my GeForce 7600 card because I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemies.

Yet I can understand why nVidia commands so much loyalty, the 8800 cards were good and still are good, the 4800 cards are basically ATi's 8800s.

In conclusion: Brand loyalty is the most stupid thing to have in a field that shifts monthly in performance. Go for the best priced product, and at the moment that is without a single doubt the 4850/70.

 

[Helme]

Something to add btw; I just read that the 4800 cards have outsold nVidia 200 series by a 4:1 ratio, and looking at the reports of problems online with the cards, I must say I'm having much trouble finding any. If that isn't proof enough how solid these cards I don't know what is.

 

[Kryten]

So far the only remaining issue is the fan speed one, which is easily fixed - lots of solutions around, i.e. using RivaTuner and the likes.

 

[clarkejust]

I have the 8800GT and vista 32 nvr had a single problem with it DX10 i play a lot of MMo.s and the combo suits me down to the ground had 7600gt sli before that have a sli mobo but just run 8800GT dont need a second atm