nVidia 8800 GTX BFG: Get it now or later?

[Pako]

What are your guys thoughts? Is this card worth getting now or should I wait until there's actually a DX10 game out to play? My Dual X1900XTX's are giving me some grief so it's time to upgrade again.

 

[Eric.]

I'd go for the eVGA, personally. I hear that they have excellent customer support and you can trade in your eVGA cards to upgrade later.

Send the card my way first, I'll let you know whether its worth keeping or not.

Edit: Have you measured your case? If it isn't a full tower there is a chance that it won't fit without some modifications. I think it is around 11" long, but you'd better check Newegg for sure.

 

[Pako]

I haven't measured it, but there should be enough room..., might have to move a hard drive or two around. Still using the Antec P180 case.

 

[PLmatt91]

The new 8600GT is a lot better for the price I think. And if you do SLi with those two cards, I'd think it equals one 8800GTX or a little less. And you have really got to see the size of the 8800GTX's... They're mighty huge man.

 

[Pako]

Are you still using the P180 Case?

 

[PLmatt91]

Nope

I actually bought a Lian Li case since I liked the style a little more better. But still, visit www.HardForum.com and check it out there, people say their 8800's just fit their cases but they aren't too pissed off since it's so powerful

 

[xAkirax2004]

BFG's = Crap. At least for me. Their heatsinks are worthless and the GPU runs real hot. I tried calling them, but the wait was a minimum 2 hours. Yuck.

I got a 6800GT OC awhile ago and it gave me nothing but grief...Bought a X850XT and never had a single problem with it (Sapphire.)

 

[Burnout]

eVGA has the aforementioned upgrade program, so if you're looking to upgrade there is really no reason to wait.

A bit off topic, but what are the current specifications of your system?

 

[Pako]

System specs here. Well...not sure on the eVGA, but the BFG should be here tomorrow.

 

[Revolution.]

The new 8600GT is a lot better for the price I think. And if you do SLi with those two cards, I'd think it equals one 8800GTX or a little less. And you have really got to see the size of the 8800GTX's... They're mighty huge man.

Matt, a pair of 8600GTs would be a step down from X1900XTX Crossfire.. a fairly large step too
@Pako - Enjoy the new card! You should grab an Athlon X2 6000+ to go with it, they're pretty cheap these days
EDIT: Actually, scratch that, I didn't notice that you were using Skt939 rather than AM2.
Well, enjoy the card anyway!

 

[G.T]

Yeah. From the looks of things, the 8600GT/GTS isn't a particularly impressive card. You're better off spending on a single 8800GTX than buying a pair of 8600s. Maybe they would perform better in DX10 games, but I wouldn't bet anything on that...

The 8800GTX is a monster of a card. 👍

 

[Flerbizky]

Yeah. From the looks of things, the 8600GT/GTS isn't a particularly impressive card. You're better off spending on a single 8800GTX than buying a pair of 8600s. Maybe they would perform better in DX10 games, but I wouldn't bet anything on that...

Nope - Gaming wise, the 8600GT is only slightly ahead of the 7600GT - Where it really shines though, is when playing HD movies - I upgraded my 7600GT yesterday with a 8600GT and I am more or less in shock. I seriously doubt that any sub $1000 player (HD-DVD or BR) will look better...

Verdict - If you want to see your movies in 1080p shine - Go for the 8600GT - Awesome Awesome picture Quality (and as promised, it really does take some load off the CPU)

 

[G.T]

Yeah, I meant in the "gaming" aspect (until an updated driver may makes things better). But yes - HD content is supposed to be great through it. 👍

 

[standard235]

Keep in mind the eVGA stepup program only lasts 90 days.

Wait big guy, the 8800 Ultra is coming out!

 

[Pako]

Here's some shots from the install.





I wonder what two of these will do? I do have a premium SLI board laying around.....

 

[G.T]

If you buy two then your system will be unrivaled... you'll be literally doubling the performance!

Check out the benchmarks on this page:

http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/391/25/

Back to current technology versus complexity... we now are at NVIDIA's G80, GeForce 8800 GTS & GTX. We run one chip with 681 Million transistors with multiple clocked domains within the chip. The Stream processors run at 1350 MHz, the generic core at 575 MHz, the memory at 2x 900 MHz. We can place two of these cards next to each other and double up rendering power (two chips) by placing it in SLI mode. We now have a card that can cope with both DirectX 9 (or lower) and DirectX 10 and we now also have a card that not only is a feast to image quality yet also offers give or take x2 performance over the last single chip high-end product (7900 GTX). Quite frankly, that's a lot to swallow. With the additional horsepower you can do a lot of tricks. 16x AA, high-range HDR with AA, improved IQ, decode 1080P HD streams and yeah even calculate physics or other generic purpose functions on a GPU.

Although, I suppose you may need to upgrade your +4800 to see a full advantage.

 

[Pako]

If you buy two then your system will be unrivaled... you'll be literally doubling the performance!

Check out the benchmarks on this page:

http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/391/25/





Although, I suppose you may need to upgrade your +4800 to see a full advantage.

Might need a new power supply also....

I was trying to get 3Dmark06 installed on Vista but I seem to be having issues. I'll post some of my bench marks if I get it installed.

Some of the early DX10 demos look pretty good. I'm downloading this one now:
http://www.download.com/3000-7563-10635191.html

 

[Solid Lifters]

Nope - Gaming wise, the 8600GT is only slightly ahead of the 7600GT - Where it really shines though, is when playing HD movies - I upgraded my 7600GT yesterday with a 8600GT and I am more or less in shock. I seriously doubt that any sub $1000 player (HD-DVD or BR) will look better...

Verdict - If you want to see your movies in 1080p shine - Go for the 8600GT - Awesome Awesome picture Quality (and as promised, it really does take some load off the CPU)

Glad I just came in to read this.

I've been thinking of getting a new PC for some time. Since I'm tired of waiting for the great stuff to finally all come in, I decided to get a HP with a 7600GT built inside. I think I'll wait some more, though.

I want a great HD PC that will work great with my Sony 1080p Bravia LCD. No DVI, so I'll need a HDMI to DVI adapter. I want awesome HD videos and OTA HD shows on my PC. I want it HDCP compatible if I decide to get a HD DVD drive.

So, the 8600GT has Purevideo HD? I hear that's what I need for the best HD PC viewing. What else do I need to look out for?

Can anybody recommend a PC that's ready to go (Dell, HP, Sony, Gateway) that will give me what I want?

 

[Pako]

Don't be too excited to jump into the "Vista HDPC" bandwagon just yet. With Front-end driver issues, some of the advanced features are not available as I am finding out because of driver issues. Time will smooth things out, but it's not there, yet. Out of the four you listed, I would rate Dell and Sony top contenders with HP and Gateway as third or fourth place choices. Components are components, but Dell and Sony seem to build better boxes. So price out with what features you want and what speed, etc and go for it.

You could always....... build your own, we all know how much you love working on PC's.....

 

[Solid Lifters]

Don't be too excited to jump into the "Vista HDPC" bandwagon just yet. With Front-end driver issues, some of the advanced features are not available as I am finding out because of driver issues. Time will smooth things out, but it's not there, yet. Out of the four you listed, I would rate Dell and Sony top contenders with HP and Gateway as third or fourth place choices. Components are components, but Dell and Sony seem to build better boxes. So price out with what features you want and what speed, etc and go for it.

You could always....... build your own, we all know how much you love working on PC's.....

I installed a new sound card on an old, old PC years ago. I almost went insane. Never again.

It's not so much the installing and fitting. It's the 'getting this damn thing to work!' that I have trouble with. I'm just too much of a 'plug'n play' kind of dude. No patients.

I watched a guy buy a bunch of parts and put the entire PC together in like 25 minutes. Just as the show was over, it all worked. I know that'll never happen for me, but I'm still interested in doing it. I just plan to take all the parts to a PC dude to install everything and get it running for me.

You know how long I've been waiting for everything to fall into place? What, four years, now? Why are PC people seemingly so smart, yet so stupid? Four years!? Come on, man.

So, I still have to wait and deal with my PC not being able to play HD mp4 files, or record my guitar playing decently. Great.

 

[Pako]

I installed a new sound card on an old, old PC years ago. I almost went insane. Never again.

It's not so much the installing and fitting. It's the 'getting this damn thing to work!' that I have trouble with. I'm just too much of a 'plug'n play' kind of dude. No patients.

I watched a guy buy a bunch of parts and put the entire PC together in like 25 minutes. Just as the show was over, it all worked. I know that'll never happen for me, but I'm still interested in doing it. I just plan to take all the parts to a PC dude to install everything and get it running for me.

You know how long I've been waiting for everything to fall into place? What, four years, now? Why are PC people seemingly so smart, yet so stupid? Four years!? Come on, man.

So, I still have to wait and deal with my PC not being able to play HD mp4 files, or record my guitar playing decently. Great.

I hear ya and feel your frustrations. Remember the good ole days of 2" analog?



I had my PC crash in the middle of recording a client some 4 years ago. I since went out and bought a Mac solely for recording and haven't had problems since. The Mac is a appliance. I ONLY use it for recording, and my PC's for everything else. The Mac is about as plug and play as you get...might be an option if you have specific needs.

 

[Solid Lifters]

I hear ya and feel your frustrations. Remember the good ole days of 2" analog?



I had my PC crash in the middle of recording a client some 4 years ago. I since went out and bought a Mac solely for recording and haven't had problems since. The Mac is a appliance. I ONLY use it for recording, and my PC's for everything else. The Mac is about as plug and play as you get...might be an option if you have specific needs.

I once had a Mac. Didn't care for it. I'm trying to be one again, but I don't like what they offer. I seem to have better control over what I want with a PC.

Anyway, if you see a decent PC with NVIDIA "Extreme HD" and "PureVideo HD" and is HDCP compliant for just over a C note, let me know.

 

[Pako]

I'll keep my eyes out...

 

[standard235]

I installed a new sound card on an old, old PC years ago. I almost went insane. Never again.

It's not so much the installing and fitting. It's the 'getting this damn thing to work!' that I have trouble with. I'm just too much of a 'plug'n play' kind of dude. No patients.

I watched a guy buy a bunch of parts and put the entire PC together in like 25 minutes. Just as the show was over, it all worked. I know that'll never happen for me, but I'm still interested in doing it. I just plan to take all the parts to a PC dude to install everything and get it running for me.

You know how long I've been waiting for everything to fall into place? What, four years, now? Why are PC people seemingly so smart, yet so stupid? Four years!? Come on, man.

So, I still have to wait and deal with my PC not being able to play HD mp4 files, or record my guitar playing decently. Great.

These days it's so easy. Uninstall old graphics drivers, reboot. Install new drivers. Put card in and tell BIOS to use it for Video....

Unless you're trying like a MX440 on Vista/XP or something.... but why?