Wait for a more OC'ed 9800GTX and GX2?

[Pennarin]

XFX, BFG, and EVGA are getting OC'ed versions of these two cards, with ever increasing core and memory clock speeds. Nice. Yet....how does a noob determine if getting all that OC power out of such a card will be wasted due to the limitations of his rig's specs?

In my sig are the specs I intend to have. Can anyone tell me what are the top specs of a card I can use with the rig described there? Be it 9800GTX or GX2.

(Imagine zero rig OC'ing on my part.)

[henzo]

All of the factory oc cards are just plain old regular cards with a flashed bios to the new clock speeds. In some instances, a "vanilla" or regular stock clocked card will actually oc better than a factory oc'd card.

If I were you, I would save your money and wait for the new batch of next gen cards slated to release in july-ish. They should bust out with 512bit interface so the performances should be alot better than the current cards.

[Pennarin]

What new card gen? ...series 10?

[thideras]

What new card gen? ...series 10?9900 :)

[ratbuddy]

Course, if you go EVGA or BFG you can step up.. Grab a GX2, it's gonna spank a 9800GTX. I actually suggest getting the vanilla version. I spoke with someone at EVGA, and they said basically they 'sorta' bin the cards: some are tested, and if they make the higher speeds, they get that BIOS and sell for a bit more. If they don't make SSC speeds, they try for KO speeds, and if they don't make those, they go for SC speeds, and if it fails all of those, it goes as vanilla. Here's the thing though, all cards are going to make the SC or KO speeds with a GX2, and probably GTX as well, and they only test enough cards to satisfy demand for the OC versions. The majority of the cards are never 'binned' at all. They are basically charging you money for a card that's been proven to run at those OCs, but pretty much ANY card will.. I've never heard of a GX2 that won't make 675 core, and it's something like 90 bucks less for the 'plain' version...

[Pennarin]

Interesting news tidbit :)

Q: What card specs should be looked at to see if the card will be too powerful to be used with a specific CPU or mobo architecture?

[ratbuddy]

Interesting news tidbit :)

Q: What card specs should be looked at to see if the card will be too powerful to be used with a specific CPU or mobo architecture?

Your monitor resolution. Basically the higher the resolution and details/AA/AF you use, the less your processor matters.