New video card... what to buy? - Fury-Tech Forums

**Tekime** · #1 (**permalink**) 04-28-2008, 05:16 PM

Looking at new video cards and trying to decide what to get without wasting too much money. Thinking about a 8800GT or 8600GTS, what are you guys running right now?

P.S. Upgrading from the 6600GT in sig

Synthetic · #2 (**permalink**) 04-28-2008, 07:02 PM

Running the 8800GT right now. Just got it so I haven't really put it through the trenches yet. Of course I'm running it on a 2008 Mac Pro with 8-Cores so my game choices are limited. At least until I get boot camp set up with XP. I have been using it to render and what not in Final Cut Studio 2, and from what I've seen it's a nice little beast. I am coming from a ATI x800 Pro.

**Technophile** · #3 (**permalink**) 04-28-2008, 07:34 PM

I'm still running a ATI x800 Pro right now, but I just ordered a 8800GTS off Newegg yesterday. I got the MSI NX8800GTS 512M OC GeForce 8800GTS (G92). It was only $20 more than the 8800GT version. It's got a few more stream processors and a bit higher clock speed than the GT... But mainly I went with it because the cooler setup looks better. It looks like it'll actually blow the hot air out the back of the case as opposed the GT one that looks like it's just going to blow it all over the place. $195 after mail in rebate seemed pretty good to me. It also comes with the game Witcher for free, which I haven't read much about, but the trailer made it look pretty cool.

Man I can't wait to play Bioshock!! I bought the game months ago but my x800 doesn't support pixel shader 3.0 so I haven't been able to play it at all!

Damn Synthetic I am envious of your Mac Pro.

Have you played around with VMWare Fusion at all? You're supposed to be able to run Windows apps right along your Mac stuff. In other words, they're not confined the Windows desktop in the VM. Looks fucking awesome. I'm hopefully going to be able to do the hackintosh thing with my new build and I can't wait to try it out.

**Tekime** · #4 (**permalink**) 04-28-2008, 08:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Synthetic

I have been using it to render and what not in Final Cut Studio 2, and from what I've seen it's a nice little beast. I am coming from a ATI x800 Pro.

I've been using Blender and would love to get faster renders, but I think I'm mainly CPU limited at this point. Good to hear though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Technophile

I'm still running a ATI x800 Pro right now, but I just ordered a 8800GTS off Newegg yesterday. I got the MSI NX8800GTS 512M OC GeForce 8800GTS (G92). It was only $20 more than the 8800GT version. It's got a few more stream processors and a bit higher clock speed than the GT... But mainly I went with it because the cooler setup looks better. It looks like it'll actually blow the hot air out the back of the case as opposed the GT one that looks like it's just going to blow it all over the place. $195 after mail in rebate seemed pretty good to me. It also comes with the game Witcher for free, which I haven't read much about, but the trailer made it look pretty cool.

Sweet, thanks for the info it's exactly what I needed. So that's the main difference between the GT and GTS? My last two cards have been MSI, and that price isn't bad either. Definitely interested in how that goes - I probably won't order for a few weeks anyway.

Bioshock looks cool.

**Technophile** · #5 (**permalink**) 04-28-2008, 09:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tekime

Sweet, thanks for the info it's exactly what I needed. So that's the main difference between the GT and GTS? My last two cards have been MSI, and that price isn't bad either. Definitely interested in how that goes - I probably won't order for a few weeks anyway.

Bioshock looks cool.

Well from what I've read the original GT beat the snot out of the original GTS... More stream processors and a higher clock. You definitely don't want the original GTS. The new GTS (G92) is supposedly about 10% faster than the GT and also runs cooler. Before rebate the GT is about $200 and the GTS is about $220, so you're paying about 10% more to get a 10% faster video card that also runs cooler. And, since this one is blowing out the back of the case, it'll keep the temp in your case down as well. That's how I look at it anyway. Just make sure if you get a GTS you get the newer G92 version. Both the GT and GTS (G92) are pretty kick ass from what I've read though.

**Tekime** · #6 (**permalink**) 04-28-2008, 09:42 PM

Gotcha. PCI Express 2.0 x16 and SLI support too (not that I'll ever actually use it...). Looking good.

MSI cards used to come with 8-10 games and apps - usually full versions too. Looks like these days they're down to just a driver CD!

**Technophile** · #7 (**permalink**) 04-28-2008, 10:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tekime

Gotcha. PCI Express 2.0 x16 and SLI support too (not that I'll ever actually use it...). Looking good.

MSI cards used to come with 8-10 games and apps - usually full versions too. Looks like these days they're down to just a driver CD!

Yeah... From what I hear SLI is only giving about 20-30% more speed. If you have money to burn and can get a MASSIVE display and two of the FASTEST cards and put em in SLI it's probably pretty fucking awesome. But maybe a year from now you'll be able to pick up a second 8800GTS for $30 or so and get a little extra kick.

8-10 games and apps, damn! A couple of cards I've gotten in the past have come with 1 or 2 OK games and maybe a couple useless apps. I think my x800 Pro came with a copy of the original Counter Strike (this was right around the time HL2 and CS: Source came out, so I wasn't all that psyched about it). These days if a card comes with one game it seems like a bonus to me.

**Tekime** · #8 (**permalink**) 04-29-2008, 03:13 PM

Was it nVidia that had a card you could chain way back in the day?

Yeah, last MSI card I got had 4-5 full games, video editing software, DVD software, and all full licenses IIRC. Oh well it's a tough market now I guess!

**Technophile** · #9 (**permalink**) 04-29-2008, 05:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tekime

Was it nVidia that had a card you could chain way back in the day?

Maybe you're thinking of 3dfx? The Voodoo2 was the one that could be chained if I remember right. nVidia bought 3dfx a while back so maybe their SLI is based on that tech.

Synthetic · #10 (**permalink**) 04-29-2008, 07:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Technophile

Have you played around with VMWare Fusion at all?

nah, im going to do it straight Boot Camp style. XP on it's own partition. I have a 320Gb drive and a 1Tb external. So I can use a good chunk for XP but it will propably be use mostly for games.

I've been playing with the Hackintosh for a few years. The PC in my sig (which I sold the other day) had the iAtkos w/Equate distro on it. Took me a few weeks to get it working right with the x800. Had to have the Quartz Extreme support to be able to get Final Cut to work. I spent so much time applying patches, updating kernals etc etc trying to get everything playing nice then FCP2 would work right. So I said screw it and actually bought one. So much easier to put XP on a Mac then the other way around unless you do what I think your doing and build a PC from known compatible hardware. You using insanely-mac.com?

Hey Tek, how is blender? I've been off and on with Maya, 3ds Max, ZBrush I have like 50 Digital-Tutors DVD's that have helped alot, and still do. Just wish I had more time to sit and play with them.