Best card for the the money (150-200)? I overclock

[d3v0]

So, since realizing what a failure an 8600gt is, I've since barbecued it and am now looking to buy a new video card. I'm not sure if I want to bother getting a factory overclocked model since I will most likely overclock it myself, and I also plan on purchasing an aftermarket cooling system for it to keep the temps down. My rigs specs are below.

Basically I want to know what you think would be the fastest card out there, with at least some overclocking ability, or if a factory overclocked card is the way to go.

I like EVGA, by the way :P

[thideras]

:welcome: to the forums!

If you don't mind ATI, you can pick up a 4850 in the 160-180 range. At higher resolutions, it beats out my 9800GTX. If you want to follow my review (it is incomplete as of now), check HERE (http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=570911)

From what little testing I've done with it, I'm impressed.

[benbaked]

I have to agree with Thideras, although recommending ATi in the nvidia section might be frowned upon :D, For under $200 I think the ATi HD 4850 is the way to go. For under $150, the nvidia 8800GT 512MB is the ticket. I've seen them as cheap as $120 after rebate. Both are excellent video cards, great performance for the price. It's a great time to buy video cards right now. :)

[d3v0]

Yeah I was aware of the possible problem of a 4850 being mentioned...I'd heard/seen such good things about it. I heavily favor an 8800gt due to the awesome overclocks ive seen done on it, but honestly, its awful old. I just need to suck it up and jump over to ati I suppose.

[necrokiller]

keep in mind that you might wana overclock/upgrade that cpu too. Just make sure there aren't any bottlenecks

[d3v0]

Yeah well I have an amd board, which I sadly will have to keep for a while. A 5200+ at 2.86ghz wont bottleneck a 4850/8800gt would it?

[thideras]

Yeah well I have an amd board, which I sadly will have to keep for a while. A 5200+ at 2.86ghz wont bottleneck a 4850/8800gt would it?That is an extremely vague question, you need to give much more information. Playing WoW at 1280x1024 with everything on low will be extremely CPU limited. Playing Crysis at 1920x1200 with everything maxed out will be extremely GPU limited.

We need to know what resolution and settings you would run with and what games.

[BlackEdition]

i have an 8800gt SLI set up currently (both cards are vanilla right now, i am going to be overclocking both...) i can tell you that it is a robust graphics solution for very cheap. they do run hot, so you definitely need to crank the speeds on the card fans (with rivatuner or ntune).

i was in the same situation... i bought 1 8800gt when they came out, and just added a second one. i already had an sli board, and adding the second card gave me a huge performance boost for much cheaper than it would have costed to change brands...

if you are comfortable with changing brands and getting a new mobo etc... ati is the way to go in terms of price/performance right now.

(you would only have to get a new mobo if you wanted to run in crossfire, though)

[d3v0]

That is an extremely vague question, you need to give much more information. Playing WoW at 1280x1024 with everything on low will be extremely CPU limited. Playing Crysis at 1920x1200 with everything maxed out will be extremely GPU limited.

We need to know what resolution and settings you would run with and what games.

I play wow at 1600x1200 atm. However, I am wanting to play Crysis/Bioshock at the minimum high settings at a similar resolution. With my 8600gt overclocked at stock voltages, I was getting 27 fps in the gpu test at medium settings, 0aa, and 1280x800 res.

I don't plan on running a crossfire config, or two video cards ever for that matter, since I would have to get a new psu as well, which doesn't really seem worth it yet.

[d3v0]

Also, PCI-E 2.0 is backwards compatible correct? I've heard it is. I'm wondering because my board is over a year old and isn't PCI-E 2.0. Will I lose performance since I am going backwards?

[Boomer0909]

just got my 9800gtx+ in the mail today ill let you know how i like it ( i couldnt bring myself to get the 4850)

[thideras]

I play wow at 1600x1200 atm. However, I am wanting to play Crysis/Bioshock at the minimum high settings at a similar resolution. With my 8600gt overclocked at stock voltages, I was getting 27 fps in the gpu test at medium settings, 0aa, and 1280x800 res.

I don't plan on running a crossfire config, or two video cards ever for that matter, since I would have to get a new psu as well, which doesn't really seem worth it yet.Even at 1920x1200 with everything maxed out I am still CPU limited in most places (in WoW). Other games should not be CPU limited at 1600x1200 with settings on high.

[e6600]

So, since realizing what a failure an 8600gt is, I've since barbecued it and am now looking to buy a new video card. I'm not sure if I want to bother getting a factory overclocked model since I will most likely overclock it myself, and I also plan on purchasing an aftermarket cooling system for it to keep the temps down. My rigs specs are below.

Basically I want to know what you think would be the fastest card out there, with at least some overclocking ability, or if a factory overclocked card is the way to go.

I like EVGA, by the way :P
honestly i think you should go sli with two 9600GT's on your m2n. either that or get a 4850

[BlackEdition]

8800gt sli is more potent then 9600gt sli, no?

(i will look for benches...)

[Essenar]

8800GT is better, and when volt-modded and overclocked, you'll receive even better performance than a 9600GT SLI set up.

Being that CPU limited, I would imagine going with an 8800GT will yield the best performance you can get. If you think of upgrading CPU then you can possibly go with a 4850.

Hands down- 4850 is a better choice than the 9800GTX, in every taste and fashion. The only game you might find that will yield better frames in 9800 flavor are games like Enemy Territories.

[BlackEdition]

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/geforce_9600_gt_sli_performance/default.asp

here is a link. bunch of benches, 8800gt in sli comes out on top. though it is going to cost a bit more than 200bucks...

[WorshipMe]

Read guys! He said his budget is 150 - 200 and 8800GT SLI setup is obviously more than he wants to spend.

[d3v0]

Trying to spend 150-200 here haha.

So with my current cpu, which I don't plan on changing for a while, what should I shoot for?

The Powercolor 4850, or the EVGA 8800gt? I mean ****, the 8800gt is 149.99 with a 20 dollar rebate right now on newegg, and the radeon is only 179.99. If there's a 50 dollar difference there that won't be bottlenecked at 1600x1200 by my cpu, then let me know!

[chrome-187]

at that higher res i'd recommend the 4850...especially if you want to turn up AA...single card wise the 4850 blows the 8800 gt away...and dont forget, ati video cards overclock as well..if it beats that card o/ced and its at stock, then o/ced it'll be that much faster.. :)

[IWasHungry]

4850

[d3v0]

So what I did was my own little benchmark test with a BFG 8800gt OC I "rented" from best buy. I basically ran 3dmark06 and crysis benchmarks and put all the stats into excel files. I then overclocked it (went from 625/1566/900 to 737/1846/1075 with no errors and a max temp of 68 C), filling in the results for that.

Tomorrow ill be returning this 8800gt and getting the visiontek 4850 at bestbuy and running similar tests and comparing the results afterward.

I run at 1680x1050 on my 20" widescreen LCD. So those huge resolutions arent going to be something ill worry about until I end up getting my 24" in a while.

[moocow]

Doesn't best buy charge a 15% restocking fee or something?

[d3v0]

*shrugs*

I've done it before, wasnt charged.

[ratbuddy]

Doesn't best buy charge a 15% restocking fee or something?

They should, when people do this, the card can't be sold as new anymore. Raises prices for all of us.

[chrome-187]

way to stick it to the fan =/

[d3v0]

Naw I returned the 8800gt today, no restock fee. Got the 4850.

So far, scored 200 pts lower than the stock bfg 8800gt oc on 3dmark06 (1280x1024, 0xAA) and 500 pts lower than the score I got when I overclocked the 8800gt to 737/1846/1075.

Crysis benchmarks at 1600x1200, 4xAA, high settings:

Bfg 8800gt factory oc: 19.67 average fps

Bfg 8800gt 737/1846/1075: 23.33 avg fps

Visiontek hd4850: 22.93 avg fps.

Ill be testing the overclocked (I hate the amd overclock tool, its why I like nvidia cards so much better. Rivatuner doesn't work for the 4850 yet and ccc sucks.) 4850 tonight after work to see how it scales. The 4850 runs hot already but I'm getting some AS5, and an arctic cooler s1 rev 2+ the turbo package to cool my card when I choose which to buy.

Anyway ill post the max overclock I can get with stock cooling tonight.

Atm, looks like the 8800gt is the best bang for the buck. Also it ran always below 70 on max overclock full load with stock fan at 100%

[repilce]

Even at 1920x1200 with everything maxed out I am still CPU limited in most places (in WoW). Other games should not be CPU limited at 1600x1200 with settings on high.

WoW is VERY cpu intensive especially if you have addon's and what not.
with my current cpu at 3.3 on a m2n-sli deluxe (not my current m2n32-sli d-lux)
with an xfx 8800GT @ 745/1862/2140 i was slaying WoW at 12x10 .. would imagine it would do quite the same at 16x12.. and sli them for the price right now.. but your board only has 8x sli.. downfall even at pcie 1.1 16x sli is way better performance.

and d3v0 you could wait another week or two if you could hold out till more 9800GTX+'s become available, prices across the board "should" be moving down more i would think..

[d3v0]

Waiting a week or two is possible. I can hang onto this best buy 4850 rental for a bit :)

By the way, if you go in and edit the fan speed in your user app data, the 4850 runs pretty average temps.

Anyway I'm excited to see what might happen with the 9800gtx+.

[d3v0]

So right now I have about one week to decide between an evga 8800gt ($129) and evga 9800gtx+($199) and find out which is the most bang for the buck on 1680x1050.

Basically if an 8800gt performs at 65% on all benchmarking and testing or better of the 9800gtx+ then ill go for the 8800gt. And if its less than 65% for systems similar to mine then ill be getting the 9800gtx+