Upgrade from 8800gt

[polishtom]

I have a nvidia gefore 8800gt and i have no clue which card to get. I have been looking around and I cant really decide which card is better. Im looking for a card thats around 150-200 bucks and that can run smoothly. someone please help thank you 😀

 

[cheesesubs]

try 9600gt, it's cheap at the moment.

 

[kohd]

Providing the rest of your system isn't ancient, $150-200 can buy you a 5770 or 4890 ATI side or a GTX 260 nVidia side. Any of those would be a huge upgrade from an 8800GT.

 

[polishtom]

I have a q6600 2.40 GHz CPU with a P5N-E SLI motherboard

 

[cheesesubs]

I have a q6600 2.40 GHz CPU with a P5N-E SLI motherboard

oh i945 chipset.......it is highly chance your mobo only support pcie 1.0 ....so either any card at the moment able to work on your system....(4890/gtx260 require pcie 2.0 to function better performance, geforce 9 will still require pcie 1.1 or above)

other word...get a new rig......

 

[pepperman]

All current PCI-E 1.1 to 2.0 are backwards compatible with PCI-E 1.0 so you can pick any of those cards. I think the best bang for your buck right now would be the HD 4870.

$145 XFX HD4870
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150436

 

[stridervm]

Let's see.

These are the video cards that are generally considered to be faster than a 8800GT.

Radeon 4850
Radeon 4870
Radeon 4770
Radeon 4850x2
Radeon 4870x2
Radeon 5850
Radeon 5870
GeForce 9800GTX+
GeForce GTS 250
GeForce GTX260
GeForce GTX275
GeForce GTX280
GeForce GTX295

 

[pepperman]

^ Don't forget the 5770 and 5750

 

[raydog]

Why don't you just read Tom's best graphics for the money...and look at the hierarchy chart to make sure an upgrade is worth it. 8800gt's still a pretty good card.

Look for the October article soon
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-graphics-card,2404.html

 

[Bluescreendeath]

try 9600gt, it's cheap at the moment.

Why would he downgrade? 😵

 

[raydog]

Why would he downgrade? 😵

Exactly. 9600gt's a downgrade. Look at hierarchy chart.

 

[shubham1401]

You can get 5770 for cheap.It performs tad slower than 4870 bu hope to do well after driver upgrade.

Otherwise 4890 is a good card for 200$ (nearly)

 

[4745454b]

Because cheesesub has no idea what he's talking about. Nothing wrong with PCIe 1, nor is a 9600GT an upgrade from a 8800GT.

One thing to possibly keep in mind is you have a mobo that has more then one PCIe slot. This means you can use your 8800GT as a PhysX card if you want. While AMD provides a better cost/performance ratio, if you have vista you can't use one. Before you do this, make sure the games you play can take advantage of PhysX.

 

[nforce4max]

You can do sli for about $75 give or take and that q6600 won't fold like a lawn chair unlike my e6400. Some of the advice that I have seen in this thread is pathetic a 945 and a 9600gt what must he be smoking.

 

[cheesesubs]

Because cheesesub has no idea what he's talking about. Nothing wrong with PCIe 1, nor is a 9600GT an upgrade from a 8800GT.

9600gt isn't a downgrade of 8800gt. it is downgrade of 8800"GTS" which he doesn't have it..... it has better fabrication(65nm), and same buswidth(256bit) and better performance than 8800gt can offer. and most important is....less power hungry than 8800gt.

and the debate of pcie's backward competibility. i'm not saying pcie 1.0 can't support any newer graphic card. some chipset like g31 and nforce 610i can support pcie 1.0 to 2.0 but some cant. like older nforce 4 and i945. so simply it depands on the chipset. the problem is the "chipset". which he need to get a new system instead of just get a graphic card.

because i know what exactly i'm talking about.......

ps: i945 is the worst chipset in intel history and prescott + i945 is the worst combo ever....

 

[Mierin]

calling a troll on cheese, unless he's talking about only a 256 MB 8800 GT and not the 512.

 

[cheesesubs]

calling a troll on cheese, unless he's talking about only a 256 MB 8800 GT and not the 512.

how'd you prove i am a troll? tell me.

 

[4745454b]

By my ignoring you from here on out. You have no clue what your talking about, the 9600GT is slower then the 8800GT. It might be on a newer process, but how many stream processors does it have? (hint: not as many/enough) Good day sir, I pray you stop misleading people.

 

[cheesesubs]

By my ignoring you from here on out. You have no clue what your talking about, the 9600GT is slower then the 8800GT. It might be on a newer process, but how many stream processors does it have? (hint: not as many/enough) Good day sir, I pray you stop misleading people.

well just look up wikipedia, i may be wrong with 8800gt&9600gt, i was mistaken with 9800 gt. anyway.

btw he's mobo still cant run either geforce 9 or above, even pcie 1.1 like geforce 8 were still risky on that chipset. unless he wants to run these card with tons of hardware issue(as it may be fatal.).

so the conclusion is---he needs to change his mobo if he wants to get a newer graphic card because these graphic card require at least g31/35 or above to function probably(p45 would be much better).

 

[pepperman]

9600gt isn't a downgrade of 8800gt. it is downgrade of 8800"GTS" which he doesn't have it..... it has better fabrication(65nm), and same buswidth(256bit) and better performance than 8800gt can offer. and most important is....less power hungry than 8800gt.

and the debate of pcie's backward competibility. i'm not saying pcie 1.0 can't support any newer graphic card. some chipset like g31 and nforce 610i can support pcie 1.0 to 2.0 but some cant. like older nforce 4 and i945. so simply it depands on the chipset. the problem is the "chipset". which he need to get a new system instead of just get a graphic card.

because i know what exactly i'm talking about.......

ps: i945 is the worst chipset in intel history and prescott + i945 is the worst combo ever....

Just so you know, the P5N-E SLI (the board he has) is based on the Nvidia 650i chipset. It will run any current GPU without any problem at all, so long as the mobo isn't defective.

http://www.asus.com/Product.aspx?P_ID=KyHOsOKWujC2QguJ&content=specifications

 

[cheesesubs]

Just so you know, the P5N-E SLI (the board he has) is based on the Nvidia 650i chipset. It will run any current GPU without any problem at all, so long as the mobo isn't defective.

http://www.asus.com/Product.aspx?P_ID=KyHOsOKWujC2QguJ&content=specifications

i guess i mixed up with "ASUS P5LD2". thank you for correcting me.

 

[pepperman]

^ Anytime

 

[polishtom]

Just so you know, the P5N-E SLI (the board he has) is based on the Nvidia 650i chipset. It will run any current GPU without any problem at all, so long as the mobo isn't defective.

http://www.asus.com/Product.aspx?P_ID=KyHOsOKWujC2QguJ&content=specifications

whoa ok so i dont have to get a new motherboard right and if i get the gtx 260 i wont have any problems cause i want to make sure

 

[pepperman]

^ Yup, you'll be fine. Make sure your psu is at least 500 W (preferably at least a total of 36 amps on the 12 V rail). Also make sure you have at least two 6 pin PCI-E connectors on your PSU and/or you buy one that comes with adaptors.

 

[4745454b]

whoa ok so i dont have to get a new motherboard right and if i get the gtx 260 i wont have any problems cause i want to make sure

As I've been trying to say, you'll be fine. Don't listen to those who have no clue what they are talking about, PCIe 2 will work in PCIe 1, it will just have half the bandwidth available. This doesn't mean half the speed, it means it wont' be able to talk to the CPU as fast as the bus allows. Seeing as even the fastest cards have trouble filling PCIe 1, this isn't an issue. (similar to harddrives not being able to fill SATA 150MB speeds because they can only sustain 100MBps.)

As Pepperman said, make sure you have the connectors you'd need, and a PSU good enough to run whatever card. Other then that, you'll be fine.