2x7900 GT vs. 8800 GTS

[aaronjb]

Looking for a little advice from those who have a similar setup. I'm thinking of parting with my SLI 7900GT setup and going with an 8800GTS. Is this a good trade-up in terms of gaming performance? I mainly play Oblivion and racing sims (GTR2, etc.), with an occasional FPS thrown in. I've seen benchmarks indicated similar performace between my setup and one 8800GTS, but in some cases the 8800GTS pulls ahead.

Is this a decent upgrade, or should I save for an 8800GTX? I understand that there my be a new G80 part with a reduced die size coming out soon (8900), but I imagine they won't be as cheap as the 8800 parts are.

I do my gaming at 1920x1200. Anyone have experience with an 8800GTS in, say, Oblivion? Also, I'll have to ditch the water-cooling for the video cards if I go to an G80-series card. What's the noise like on the stock 8800 cooler?

Any advice is appreciated - thanks!

 

[fabulouscoops]

The oblivion benchmarks I have seen show a single 7900GTX beating 2x7900GT in SLI. Also any Ati X19xx card will do better. Although the data is older and does not include the 8800's I have to think that moving to a single 8800GTS will be a good upgrade.

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=2746&p=1

 

[ChinStrap]

i know you have your 79gt's clocked a bit higher with the 1.5 volt mod and such - but most 8800gts's clock really nice.

:HERE:is a link to tom's hardware VGA charts. these charts can give you a good baseline for almost every setup these days... they just can't do 8800's in SLi (yet) there is an ok choice of games too...

imo- i would do the 8800 upgrade. right now you can get a : Stock eVGA : for 400$ after MIR. with eVGA you could always use the set-up program. and us that 400 toward a gtx

 

[One Bull]

The 8800 GTS will fairly beat your 7900GT setup. A single card alos oc's better and you won't have to deal with sli anymore. An 8800GTS is a good upgrade.

(BTW, where did you hear about the 8900?)

 

[nvidiaOCmaster]

8800GTS fo' sho

SLI isn't worth it ATM, when the 8800's are cheaper, sLI will be worth it again.

Youll be verry happy with a 8800 card. GTS or GTX

 

[Rattle]

8800gts is not only faster but better IQ across the board

 

[aaronjb]

Thanks for the replies. That link to the VGA chart at Tom's is nice for a quick comparison.

I think I've made my decision - I'll try to swing an 8800GTX. Now it's time to take out the old cards, clean them up and put them in the classifieds.

 

[meionm]

Also, I'll have to ditch the water-cooling for the video cards if I go to an G80-series card. What's the noise like on the stock 8800 cooler

This observation from my 8800gtx, with no gaming cooler is silent, while gaming is loud.

 

[Rattle]

if you cant swing a gtx feel good about a gts they overclock like mad and you can get right up there with stock gtx performance.

 

[Angel-of-Sorrow]

My eVGA 8800 GTS KO ACS3 on 60% fan speed is extremely silent. I don't hear it over the other noises being emitted. At 60% fan speed, my GPU on NVIDIA Monitor only registers around 55/57c, maybe a bit lower when it's been idle for a while. With a window cracked open, I can get it down in the 40's on idle.

When the fan is on 100% though, you can hear it pretty well. But it's no where near unbareable levels.

 

[barnesd]

Had just ordered a 7900GT but having read this thread I cancelled it and ordered a 8800GTS instead, it wasn't even _that_ much more expensive.

 

[downer]

how about just the fact that the 8800 series supports dx10

 

[aaronjb]

Yeah, I'm really looking for DX10 support. And I want to get rid of my 7900s while they still have monetary value and are still useful to someone else.

 

[aaronjb]

Does anyone own an 8800 GTX/GTS from eVga with the ACS cooler? Does it keep the card substantially cooler in practice?

I won't be water cooling this beast, so I'd like the best-performing stock cooler I can find.

 

[ChinStrap]

i just have the stock eVGA 8800gts, with fan speed set to 70% duty in riva she runs about 58*C on a 3Dmark06 load.