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7950gt 512 or 8800gts 320?


L4g

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Hello everyone!

So, I am looking at stepping up my graphics card from my 7950gt to an 8800gts, but the 640mb is looking a bit out of my price range, and I was wondering if I would be missing the extra graphics ram during the practical lifetime of the 8800. I do have an asus m2nsli deluxe mobo, and there looks like there is enough space down there for 2 8800s, though they would be running in 8x by 8x sli mode :S. I would be using this for gaming, but that is about it. Anyone have thoughts in this?

Thanks for reading!

l4g

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Why do you want to upgrade? Are you really topping out a 7950gt 512? I'd have to doubt that you are, especially on an AM2 rig.

 

Honestly, you'd probably get a lot more performance out of keeping the 7950 and upgrading to a C2D board and chip.

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Honeslty, framerate didnt do much for MOST games moving from an Opteron 165 @ 2.7 to an E6600 @ 3.2 when i did my first core 2 upgrade, however overall system performance DID have a very noticable improvement. At the time i was running a 7900gt KO SC (that i had an "accident" with and RMAed to get this 7950GT as a replacement). Now to talk 7900gt vs 7950gt vs 8800GTS 320/512 at 1600x1200 res or lower the 8800 stomps the other options. No questiosn asked. If you want more gaming power then it's certainly the upgrade to make, of course then you'll want to get the rest of the system up to par etc etc. The bad thing is at stock clocks my old 7900gt ko sc actually out performs my 7950gt ko sc in many situations :( reason being not all games have a need for massive amounts of video memory and in the case of these cards there's a 180mhz effective mem speed hit with ony a 20mhz core clock increase (again "stock" assumptions here for these cards, even though the 7900gt was stock @ 580 core :))

 

So, in reality, both options will give you the best performance gain, just in different areas. The 8800gts can still put up great numbers running even the lowest of the core 2s which compare to the upper side of AMD atm.

 

Now giving the fact that you said step up I'm assuming with great certainty that you have an eVGA card nearing your 90 day limit, I say go for it. You'll be putting alot more cash into the CPU option they were talking about above and not seeing the improved framerates you want (with the exception of CERTAIN CPU intensive games).

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that is actually a really good point cchalo! If you have the EVGA step-up program, go for it! But buying a 8800GTS all out wouldn't really justify the money spent IMO.

:withstupid: Agreed. If you've got the eVGA step-up option, then it is probably worth it. But if not, I don't really know how much more video performance you need on that system.

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Guest christopher3393

Sound advice given above. I'd wait. In the next 3 weeks there will be a lot shaking in the graphics card biz from both AMD/ATI and Nvidia. I think the 8800GTS 320 will still emerge as one of the best price/performance choices for mainstream gaming, but we may see its price come down, depending on supply. Can't see any compelling reason to upgrade now unless particular game(s) you love have demonstrated performance advantages w/ 8800GTS 320. On the other hand, as mentioned above, if you are running up against an EVGA step deadline, go!

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ok, so first of all: thank you all for your thoughts! While I am looking at the step up deadline, I bought my 7950 at the end of february, so I still have a bit of time, which is why I am asking now =D. from what i can find on the internet, the 2900 hd is to be released around mid may, and i am definitely going to wait until near the end of my deadline before i upgrade, as the price will go down over time as well as (hopefully) as a result of the 2900. the real question i have here is am i going to be missing that 200 or so mb of ram?

So again thanks for all your thoughts!

-l4g :ph34r:

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the real question i have here is am i going to be missing that 200 or so mb of ram?

So again thanks for all your thoughts!

-l4g :ph34r:

What resolution are you gaming at?

Also, do you play with AA/AF enabled?

Edited by Celcius

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I'm always gonna say go with the DX10. Because you'll spend a decent amount on the non dx10 card, and then in a year or so you'll have to respend it all over again just to keep playing the newest games at good resolutions and detail and all.

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I'm always gonna say go with the DX10. Because you'll spend a decent amount on the non dx10 card, and then in a year or so you'll have to respend it all over again just to keep playing the newest games at good resolutions and detail and all.

 

:withstupid: I'd have to agree to for the same reasons. Also in a lot of cases the 8800GTS 320mb is only 30-40 dollars more then the 7950GT.

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