9800 GT vs. 8500 GT

[Ataris21]

I'm looking into buying a new video card, but I have to go cheap, nothing over $120 really. So I was wondering if getting a 9800 GT I found on Newegg is worth it over the 8500 GT. I've done hours upon hours of research over video cards (tech savvy), but it would be helpful to see if anyone would have an idea of the kind of performance increase I could get.

 

[rolli59]

9800GT is way faster than 8500GT(which could barely be called a gaming card)

 

[Ataris21]

That's what I assumed--I laughed when I found out that the 8500 was considered a mid-range card....

Also, is 1 GB of RAM over 512 MB of RAM worth a slight performance cut in clock? It seems to me like the better clock speeds would be better than the higher RAM.

 

[Mousemonkey]

It is indeed, the 9800GT cannot take advantage of 1GB of RAM.

 

[Ataris21]

Thanks guys, but one last question: there are two mostly identical cards, except one has DDR3 with a 6-pin and the other has GDDR3 without a 6-pin. I thought GDDR3 was better, but the 6-pin might mean it's underclocked....

 

[rolli59]

You only start gaining from 1GB at higher resolution like 1920x1050. Many of the lesser cards (8500GT) do not have the gpu power to utilize that amount of memory.

 

[Ataris21]

Well, at the moment, I can play Oblivion at 1024x768 on Medium settings and still have pretty crappy framerate. So, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't need a ridiculously high resolution. XD

But which card would be better in this case?

 

[rolli59]

GDDR3 = DDR3 means the same on a GPU. 9800GT should all have external power connection (6pin)

 

[Ataris21]

Alright, well, thanks for all of the input. In the end, actually, I think I'm going for a Radeon 4670. Same specs, cheaper price, drivers are horrible, but hey.

 

[jaguarskx]

I believe there is an Eco (Green) version of the 9800GT which requires less power, hence the lack of a 6-pin connection, but it is also less powerful.

 

[Ataris21]

Yes, you are correct, I wasn't sure if it was less powerful or not, though. I think I'll pick the Radeon, though.

 

[jaguarskx]

The HD 4770 and HD 4850 are both within your price range and will give you significantly better performance. The HD 4770 consumes significantly less power than the HD 4850 and is on average about 6% slower.

Below are two performance comparison charts for Fallout 3 which uses the same engine as Oblivion (minor tweaks) which you can use as a comparison to the 9800GT and HD 4850 (knock off about 6% for the HD 4770):

You can max out the graphics settings at 1280 x 1024 and still manage to get about 50fps. Just food for thought...

 

[Ataris21]

Thanks a lot! I'm definitely getting the Radeon, then.

And, BTW, being able to max out the graphics at ANY resolution would be a new thing for me.

 

[jyjjy]

Yeah, either the HD4670 or spend the extra money for an HD4770 or GTS 250. The GTS 250 is the most powerful card of the 3 but make sure your PSU can handle it. The other 2 are quite low power in comparison.
Even the HD4670 is several times more powerful than your old card fyi.