XFX 8800GT 512MB - Alpha Dog Edition

So I need a video card TODAY, now actually haha... I was going to go with the 3870, but not a single store here has them, but someone has one of these XFX cards, I will be playing Crysis, Cs:s, TF2 mostly will this card handle these games fine @ 1680x1050 ?

600 MHz on the core and 1.8ghz on the mem.

$275 in the box

Amazing card. I had one for about a month then I ripped a mosfet off so I picked up the 256 alpha dog. Both are great cards, but neither will handle crysis at above 1280X1024 above medium.

Not to mention, its XFX so you get a warranty if you fudge it up by ocing, and you can install aftermarket cooling.

edit:when I overclocked my 512 to 750/1700/1200 I got 45FPS and only dropping to 30 @ high and 1280X1024 4XFSAA. 256MB only drops to 20FPS and keeps at 35fps stock, and the same as the 512 when OCed to the same clocks.

the 8800gt 512 well play crysis fine for crysis standards at 1680x1050 or 1600x1200 on high settings.

cheers have it right in front of me right now so going to install within the next 15mins


going to this from an x1900xtx so im very excited

so fast, mind you my cpu is probably bottle necking it somewhat.

so how do you guys overclock the 8800gt ?

I know off this write-up, no disrespect to the writer but that is for noobs and is also not foolproof.

Agree that you need to find max OC of core first, then shaders, then memory seperately. After you have determined the individual OC combine it and you will probably have a BSOD of nVidia driver failure which is to be expected, back down the core a bit and try again, if it fails, back down the memory and it should be OK

As far as stability testing you need ATI Tool (latest version) and a OpenGL rendering tool called FUR

Use Rivatuner only to OC core/shaders/memory, use ATI Tool to test for artifacts & stability (scan for artifacts). DO NOT use ATI Tool for OC purposes. Run FUR after each OC step up (do increments of 20, 5-10 will take forever) as the program stresses not only your GPU but also your CPU which is what you want to test, total system stability not just GPU.

Run the "hairy cube" of ATI Tool and FUR's "hairy donut" for about 5 minutes to heat up the GPU core, the scan for artifacts, note the starting time, you will see the stop watch at the bottom of AT Tool resetting if it finds an artifact.
If it runs artifact free for 5 minutes then you are OK.

The 8800 GT memory controller is kinda weak so be carefull with OCing the memory, DO NOT go over 1000 MHz.
The ultimate test for GPU memory is to run 10 loops of 3DMARK03 Battle of Proxycon (you need full version)

After all of the above you still need to know if your OC is gaming stable, run 10 loops of Crysis Benchmark Tool at your monitor's native resolution, if it passes you are good to go

Brolloks wrote this for me when I was OC'ing my 8800GT, it helped me a lot.

yeah lol, ive overclocked cards before, just nothing recent from nv, the most recent thing ive had from nv is a 6600....

just need to know the program, thanks.

nvidiaOCmaster said:

Amazing card. I had one for about a month then I ripped a mosfet off so I picked up the 256 alpha dog. Both are great cards, but neither will handle crysis at above 1280X1024 above medium.

Not to mention, its XFX so you get a warranty if you fudge it up by ocing, and you can install aftermarket cooling.

edit:when I overclocked my 512 to 750/1700/1200 I got 45FPS and only dropping to 30 @ high and 1280X1024 4XFSAA. 256MB only drops to 20FPS and keeps at 35fps stock, and the same as the 512 when OCed to the same clocks.

Click to expand...

So its pretty much covered ? no matter what I do to it ? Other than smashing it with a hammer of course haha. I love warranty

ran 3dm06, i can clearly see i am limited by my cpu, my score was 6093 @ 675/975 / not sure what the shaders were @.

just ran it again @ 700/1000/1750 and my score is. 6093..... what is the problem with that ? and how is it possible ?

PhysX said:

ran 3dm06, i can clearly see i am limited by my cpu, my score was 6093 @ 675/975 / not sure what the shaders were @.

just ran it again @ 700/1000/1750 and my score is. 6093..... what is the problem with that ? and how is it possible ?

Click to expand...

Yep you are bottlenecked pretty hard!

You will have to upgrade to a Core 2 or X2 to get the max out of the card.

haha well i guss in a few months i can do that, then just pick up another one of these and throw them into sli P

I must say, this card is pretty bad ***

69aa7

Oc'd from 600/900/1500 --->730/1100/1825

and thats on the stock cooler.

PhysX said:

I must say, this card is pretty bad ***

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/69aa7/

Oc'd from 600/900/1500 --->730/1100/1825

and thats on the stock cooler.

Click to expand...

I heard you shouldn't take the memory over 1000 on that card.

why not ? I havent seen any problem,s been running stability for a good 15mins so far.

PhysX said:

ran 3dm06, i can clearly see i am limited by my cpu, my score was 6093 @ 675/975 / not sure what the shaders were @.

just ran it again @ 700/1000/1750 and my score is. 6093..... what is the problem with that ? and how is it possible ?

Click to expand...

Yeah you are bottlenecking the heck out of that card. Stock with a Q6600 I get ~13k and no OC'd card.

jeebas, need to pick up a new mobo and cpu i guess...

8800GT can be very cpu dependent. I tried running one with an Athlon 64 at 2.1ghz and then 2 in sli and there was almost no difference in performance.

PhysX said:

why not ? I havent seen any problem,s been running stability for a good 15mins so far.

Click to expand...

I was told that the 8800GT didn't have that great of a memory controller on it and it's not very safe to take the memory clock that much over 1000. But I could be wrong.

PhysX said:

I must say, this card is pretty bad ***

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/69aa7/

Oc'd from 600/900/1500 --->730/1100/1825

and thats on the stock cooler.

Click to expand...

Double-check that vRAM clock w/ 8+ loops of 'Battle of Proxycon' in 3DMark03. I bet you'll find you're not quite stable at that speed.

I'm still not sure if the over-1000 will kill the RAM, but that's what warranties are for, right!?

I was able to get slightly better results by under-volting the vRAM (and by design memory controller). For me 1.84v yielded the best results (1056). It was a constant tweak job trying not to go too low on the volts as that would cause lock-up, and trying not to go too high as that would cause memory avalanche. Of course, volt-modding is an entirely different animal, and you can forget about your warranty if you go that route. I'm mainly just trying to give you a little background info on the vRAM.