Upgrading worth it?

I currently have (2) XFX GeForce 7950GT 512MB cards and am considering upgrading to (2) 8800GTS 640 cards.

About how much of a performance increase should I see?

I cannot seem to locate many sites that perform comparisons between different generations of vidcards to show the possible performance increase so I thought I'd ask here.

Sorry I didn’t reply sooner, RI is killing me these days – although that opty is a good chip – the only thing that can fully utilize the 8800’s is the new core architecture, and even then it needs to be <3GHz – you would not doubt notice an increase in performance if you up graded. IMO you would still be held back.

/sidenotes.
My Pentium D @ 3.75GHz and a single 8800gts I scored 8140 in 3dmark 06

My E6600 <3.5GHz and a single 8800gts scored over 11K in 3dmark 06

Yea even with the cards you have right now you will get a Boost in every bench mark . If you upgrade your system and leave the gfx . For the same price of 2 8800's you could get a killer Intel system . The New G0 steppings are cooming out verry soon . Some ES versions are doing 4ghz on a stock hsf . Those might be cherry picked .

But even a e6420 will do @ least 3.2ghz DDR2 is cheep right now but going to go up soon . bilistix 8000's and a sli mb (nvidia) and you will be rocking

What resolution are we talking here?

||Console|| said:

Yea even with the cards you have right now you will get a Boost in every bench mark . If you upgrade your system and leave the gfx . For the same price of 2 8800's you could get a killer Intel system . The New G0 steppings are cooming out verry soon . Some ES versions are doing 4ghz on a stock hsf . Those might be cherry picked .

But even a e6420 will do @ least 3.2ghz DDR2 is cheep right now but going to go up soon . bilistix 8000's and a sli mb (nvidia) and you will be rocking

Click to expand...

Yeah I hear ya. However, my upgrade cycle is a little different these days. I'll usually get a decent vid card combo, then during my next upgrade cycle get a new CPU/mobo/RAM. It happens to be time for my Vidcard upgrade so I'm gonna have to go that route.

Thanks for the info

The performance gain a C2D would give is minimal at best in gaming, with your current cards or new ones. You'll see a nice gain in performance for sure going to 2x 8800's.
In older games a C2D would give the biggest boost in performance because they tend to be more cpu dependant, but will you actually see it? People cannot physically detect anything more over 50 fps, so going from say 150 fps with an Opty to 160-170 fps with a C2D won't be noticeable.

I went ahead and ordered (2) GeForce 8800GTS 640MB Superclocked cards this morning. I should have them by 03 July.

This should serve me well for a minimum of 6-9 months, which will give me time to determine what path I want to take when I upgrade the CPU/MOBO/RAM.

ChinStrap said:

Sorry I didn’t reply sooner, RI is killing me these days – although that opty is a good chip – the only thing that can fully utilize the 8800’s is the new core architecture, and even then it needs to be <3GHz – you would not doubt notice an increase in performance if you up graded. IMO you would still be held back.

/sidenotes.
My Pentium D @ 3.75GHz and a single 8800gts I scored 8140 in 3dmark 06

My E6600 <3.5GHz and a single 8800gts scored over 11K in 3dmark 06

Click to expand...

But what was the graphics scores, 3DMark06 suxor because it takes the CPU speed into the score when it should only measure how the cpu effects 3D, not numbers crunching that will not effect games. What are your scores in 3DMark05 in comparison?

The_Iceman said:

The performance gain a C2D would give is minimal at best in gaming, with your current cards or new ones. You'll see a nice gain in performance for sure going to 2x 8800's.
In older games a C2D would give the biggest boost in performance because they tend to be more cpu dependant, but will you actually see it? People cannot physically detect anything more over 50 fps, so going from say 150 fps with an Opty to 160-170 fps with a C2D won't be noticeable.

Click to expand...

you kno i hate it when people say you "CANT SEE OVER some super low ammount of fps" in this case 50fps... i can tell the difference between 75 and 85 fps without problems... let alone 50 and 150.

that opty probably wouldnt hold a 8800 back tons but it would hold it back. a similary clocked c2d will yeild a decent performance boost.

The_Iceman said:

But what was the graphics scores, 3DMark06 suxor because it takes the CPU speed into the score when it should only measure how the cpu effects 3D, not numbers crunching that will not effect games. What are your scores in 3DMark05 in comparison?

Click to expand...

The 3dmark 05 scores imo are not worth remembering and I have long since deleted those ORB links.

I don’t own the D920 anymore (it’s now in my Parents computer) I can’t run these tests with that CPU any longer. But I can clock my e6600 down to stock and then compare it to an overclocked run. for these runs SLi is enabled and the GPU overclocks will stay the same. 651/1020.

E6600 @ 2400MHz

3Dmark 06: 11,114 points.
SM2: 4931
Return to Proxy: 40.287fps
Firefly Forest: 41.901fps
SM3: 6119
Canyon Flight: 70.687fps
Deep Freeze: 51.692fps
CPU: 2135
Red Valley 1: .673fps
Red Valley 2: 1.083fps

My personal Record 3dmark 06 Run.

E6600 @ 3722MHz

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=2271551

3Dmark 06: 16,003 points.
SM2: 7545
Return to Proxy: 60.951fps
Firefly Forest: 64.797fps
SM3: 7774
Canyon Flight: 77.298fps
Deep Freeze: 78.175fps
CPU: 3315
Red Valley 1: 1.047fps
Red Valley 2: 1.679fps

The proof is there, especially SM2 performance. These 8800’s love being feed the fastest CPU cycles they can get.

nd4spdbh2 said:

you kno i hate it when people say you "CANT SEE OVER some super low ammount of fps" in this case 50fps... i can tell the difference between 75 and 85 fps without problems... let alone 50 and 150.

that opty probably wouldnt hold a 8800 back tons but it would hold it back. a similary clocked c2d will yeild a decent performance boost.

Click to expand...

x2

I enjoy running with vsync on, I made the mistake of playing around with the setting for cod2 one night and got hooked on vsync locked.

When I have my monitor running 60 Hz and 75 Hz I can notice a HUGE difference in the 15fps. I finally feel like I am at a level of performance I like. I can play cod2 maxed out with my SLi setup and that’s something I couldn’t do with just one.

There is also a noticeable difference between having my CPU @ stock and overclocked.

ChinStrap said:

x2

I enjoy running with vsync on, I made the mistake of playing around with the setting for cod2 one night and got hooked on vsync locked.

When I have my monitor running 60 Hz and 75 Hz I can notice a HUGE difference in the 15fps. I finally feel like I am at a level of performance I like. I can play cod2 maxed out with my SLi setup and that’s something I couldn’t do with just one.

There is also a noticeable difference between having my CPU @ stock and overclocked.

Click to expand...

yup vsync makes things sooooooo nice, i hate tearing, but this is why i also dislike lcds as the highest refreshrate i have seen on a lcd is 75hz... and im not willing to give up 10fps because of a monitor.

nd4spdbh2 said:

you kno i hate it when people say you "CANT SEE OVER some super low ammount of fps" in this case 50fps... i can tell the difference between 75 and 85 fps without problems... let alone 50 and 150.

that opty probably wouldnt hold a 8800 back tons but it would hold it back. a similary clocked c2d will yeild a decent performance boost.

Click to expand...

Sorry, that's physically impossible, limitations of the human eye and brain.
Besides, I hate screen tearing so I always use vsync, in which case you are capped at your monitors refresh rate, in most cases 60 to 75 fps is all you ever need, unless you like screen tearing......???

You must not game. When the fire fight is up close you can tell a difference, big time. Espe with Vsync on.