View Full Version : Nvidia 8800 Ultra!
One man's search for frame rates and eye candy has ended.... For a little while...
Yep I just splashed out on the best Nvidia card around. Now I just need to pay the Visa bill i'll be getting.
http://au.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=2&l2=6&l3=442&l4=0&model=1651&modelmenu=1
Konovalov
07-23-07, 04:20 AM
Curious as to how much you paid ozzy dollars for the Ultra? Surely you didn't buy it from that damned Harvey Norman chain? ;)
I'm actually waiting for Nvidia to come out with their 2nd generation DX10 cards that hopeflly will perform even a little better whilst using less power and generating less heat.
Jimbuna
07-23-07, 06:29 AM
Very nice :rock: :up:
Puts my 7800GS to shame :oops:
mr chris
07-23-07, 06:37 AM
Am very happy with my Nivida BFG 8800 GTS 640 Mgb goes through SH3/GWX and Company of Heroes at full settings like a knife through butter.
The best £230 i ever spent.
I'm interested what you paid in AUD as well as where you got it. Very tasty piece of kit. Cheapest I've seen is $1045
Two supplementary power cables:o. How many watts is it sucking?
JSLTIGER
07-23-07, 08:41 AM
Am very happy with my Nivida BFG 8800 GTS 640 Mgb goes through SH3/GWX and Company of Heroes at full settings like a knife through butter.
The best £230 i ever spent.
I have an eVGA version of the same card which I got for $320...I love it to death! After I checked nTune I found out that they put a superclocked version in the box by accident too (576MHz core instead of 500MHz, 850MHz memory instead of 800MHz)!
mr chris
07-23-07, 08:43 AM
Am very happy with my Nivida BFG 8800 GTS 640 Mgb goes through SH3/GWX and Company of Heroes at full settings like a knife through butter.
The best £230 i ever spent.
I have an eVGA version of the same card which I got for $320...I love it to death! After checked nTune I found out that they put a superclocked version in the box by accident too (576MHz core instead of 500MHz, 850MHz memory instead of 800MHz)!
Now that is some good luck:up:
antikristuseke
07-23-07, 09:24 AM
Why did you buy the ultra instead of a GTX, i mean the difference in clock speed is marginal at best while the price difference isnt. Besides if you overclocked a GTX to ultra speeds you actualy get the shader part of the core to run faster while paying less and your warranty would still be intact in reality since there is no way for someone to tell if you overlcocked or not. Though congradulations on a sweet card.
I paid Au$1090 which was pretty cheap. I was thinking of getting the GTX but that was $675 and the Ultra is a fair bit better than it.
Problem is it's crashing my PC! :damn:
I'm pretty sure it's heat related but also a problem with the card as it's not showing the GPU fan. (NVIDIA has a tool where you can boost the speed the fan runs.) Going to take it in today to see if a differant rig has a differant outcome.
Hopefully I just need to boost my cooling. But I have a feeling the card is dodgy.
I played a few games and before they crashed my PC they ran absolutely awesome. SH4 on full looked simply amazing, Oblivion finally ran great plus I can turn all gfx options to full. FSX didn't run great maxed out but I expected that.
I just need to figure out what is wrong! :nope:
geetrue
07-23-07, 06:53 PM
If it didn't run FSX on max forget it ... I want to see those animals in Africa being chased by my helicopter before I die :lol:
If it didn't run FSX on max forget it ... I want to see those animals in Africa being chased by my helicopter before I die :lol:
It ran on max better then my old setting with my 7600. I think i need more ram for better performance in it. I have 2gb but that's not much anymore.
Plus i heard that MSX will run much better in Vista.
geetrue
07-23-07, 07:15 PM
If it didn't run FSX on max forget it ... I want to see those animals in Africa being chased by my helicopter before I die :lol:
It ran on max better then my old setting with my 7600. I think i need more ram for better performance in it. I have 2gb but that's not much anymore.
Plus i heard that MSX will run much better in Vista.
Vista only see's up to 3GB, but that's still a lot better than 2GB. :yep:
Vista only see's up to 3GB, but that's still a lot better than 2GB. :yep:
??? :doh:
You mean my Vista Ready MOBO which supports 4gb of Ram will only be able to have 3gb?
Why are microsoft so stupid?? Or do I need special MS RAM to get more than 3? :roll:
JSLTIGER
07-23-07, 08:12 PM
Vista will only see up to 3GB if its the 32 bit version, but it will see more if its the 64 bit version. This has more to do with the limitations of 32 bit addressing more than anything else.
SUBMAN1
07-23-07, 08:15 PM
If you don't mind, load up a game of Armed Assault, and choose the single mission in the Cobra gunship (convoy strike) on max detail. I'd like to know if upgrading from a x1900 XTX is worth the $$$. That mission, where you start by getting out of a Humvee can still bog my machine to the 10-15 FPS territory.
-S
Vista will only see up to 3GB if its the 32 bit version, but it will see more if its the 64 bit version. This has more to do with the limitations of 32 bit addressing more than anything else.
AH I don't need to worry then.
One of my friends got the 32 bit edition. I told him not to as the fact his PC is only 32 bit (with AGP) he won't really get any benefit from Vista. Just wait until you have a 64 bit proc and get Vista 64....
Why buy MS software twice?
SUBMAN1
07-23-07, 08:31 PM
AH I don't need to worry then.
One of my friends got the 32 bit edition. I told him not to as the fact his PC is only 32 bit (with AGP) he won't really get any benefit from Vista. Just wait until you have a 64 bit proc and get Vista 64....
Why buy MS software twice?
This is not totally true. You will be able to load the system / kernel into the 4th GB. This frees up the entire 3 GB to software that you want to run. At least you are learning. Friend of mine came by last week and said that he has been running 4 GB for months. Funny thing is, he didn't know about the /3gb switch and has been using really only 2 GB the whole time! I about died laughing because he challenged me on the fact that he can't use it all without that switch! I told him - don't listen to me, call up x (a joint friend who works on Vista) at Microsoft and ask him! :D
Hmm - strange he never called me back on that??!!! :smug:
-S
If you don't mind, load up a game of Armed Assault, and choose the single mission in the Cobra gunship (convoy strike) on max detail. I'd like to know if upgrading from a x1900 XTX is worth the $$$. That mission, where you start by getting out of a Humvee can still bog my machine to the 10-15 FPS territory.
-S
Sorry subman don't have that game. Looks pretty good and it's on the list but i'll probably wait until it's a discount title, i've spent a bit of cash on the PC this month already! :yep:
geetrue
07-23-07, 09:41 PM
Sorry subman don't have that game. Looks pretty good and it's on the list but i'll probably wait until it's a discount title, i've spent a bit of cash on the PC this month already! :yep:
That was a months pay for me, but I've done crazier things than that :lol:
kiwi_2005
07-24-07, 01:39 AM
wow a 8800, my dream card, at the moment im running 7800GTX and 6600 on 2nd pc. Wait for Crysis to come out then run it on highest settings should look awesome! Game out now i hear will put your card to the test is Ghost Recon 2 Advance Warfighter never played it tho, but i hear its a good benchmark.
antikristuseke
07-24-07, 04:40 AM
I paid Au$1090 which was pretty cheap. I was thinking of getting the GTX but that was $675 and the Ultra is a fair bit better than it.
Problem is it's crashing my PC! :damn:
No, for that price difference it really isnt a fair bit better, but meh. It could be crashing your pc because your PSU is unable to coap with the load its put under, what kind of a unit are you runing?
Konovalov
07-24-07, 07:03 AM
It could be crashing your pc because your PSU is unable to coap with the load its put under, what kind of a unit are you runing?
Yep, could be. Might be some cheap and nasty PSU.
My Seasonic M12 600w has done the business faultlessly over the last 8 months. :smug:
SUBMAN1
07-24-07, 02:12 PM
If you don't mind, load up a game of Armed Assault, and choose the single mission in the Cobra gunship (convoy strike) on max detail. I'd like to know if upgrading from a x1900 XTX is worth the $$$. That mission, where you start by getting out of a Humvee can still bog my machine to the 10-15 FPS territory.
-S
Sorry subman don't have that game. Looks pretty good and it's on the list but i'll probably wait until it's a discount title, i've spent a bit of cash on the PC this month already! :yep:
I hear ya. When you get around to it though!
I'm almost tempted to upgrade my card just to play this thing with more detail!
-S
I paid Au$1090 which was pretty cheap. I was thinking of getting the GTX but that was $675 and the Ultra is a fair bit better than it.
Problem is it's crashing my PC! :damn:
No, for that price difference it really isnt a fair bit better, but meh. It could be crashing your pc because your PSU is unable to coap with the load its put under, what kind of a unit are you runing?
Meh, depends what money is worth to you....
I got a new 800w PSU as I needed the two supplimentary 6 pin cable to plug into it.
Nothing wrong with power. I'm getting it tested and will find the results today.
OK so I just found out the card is ok, looks like the ASUS model isn't 100% compatible with the NVIDIA drivers as ASUS use a better GPU Fan then the default one. If anyone gets one in the future make sure you use ASUS drivers and get a program called Riva Tuner to boost the cooling on the card a bit.
Now I have to wait to get home so I can test it out myself. Adding some extra cooling to my rig just in case.
Konovalov
07-25-07, 03:08 AM
OK so I just found out the card is ok, looks like the ASUS model isn't 100% compatible with the NVIDIA drivers as ASUS use a better GPU Fan then the default one. If anyone gets one in the future make sure you use ASUS drivers and get a program called Riva Tuner to boost the cooling on the card a bit.
Now I have to wait to get home so I can test it out myself. Adding some extra cooling to my rig just in case.
I am really confused by the explanation given as to the problem. :-? :-?
Asus make the card but I thought that the 8800 Ultra follows the same Nvidia reference design just as almost all the 8800 series cards do. Also the drivers thing doesn't make sense.
I wonder if it is just bad cooling within your case? :hmm:
Konovalov
07-25-07, 06:16 AM
The card that you linked to in your first post which you have purchased is exactly the same one reviewed here: http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=9309&page=4
Please note on is page of the review what Nvidia Forceware drivers were used with the Asus 8800 Ultra: http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=9309&page=7
Your card is based off the Nvidia reference design and should hae no problem working with the Nvidia Forceware drivers. Just make sure you match the drivers to te OS you are using be it XP or Vista. Hope this info clarifies. :know:
I really wonder if perhaps your case thermal management is really poor and that your already warm running 8800 Ultra is doing nothing but sucking hot case air across your cards heat sink before exhausting it out the back of your case? :hmm:
Do you have any pics of the internals of your case? What case do you have? How is your cale management? How many fans do you have in your system? What type of fans are they and how are they set up inside your case?
Yeah my explanation was what the guy at the PC shop told me. I soon figured for myself he knows nothing....
The problem is a common one for nearly all 8 series owners. The Nvidia drivers don't allow you to boost the fan speed up (which you should be able to do) so it's permanently running at 60%. There is a slider bar in a program that you get for Nvidia control panel called NTUNE which is greyed out.
Apparently the new beta drivers solve this problem but I've had no luck. So basically what is happening is i'm loading up SH4 and other games, the card fan stays at 675 rpm for the whole time resulting in the GPU to heat up rapidly and shut my PC off.
I could get better cooling in my system but as I believe once I can get the fan to function correctly it shouldn't be a problem.
All I can say is i'm not happy with NVIDIA right now. People on the Nvidia forums can get the problem fixed with the beta drivers but it's not helping me at all. Most likely going to format to see if that helps.
Konovalov
07-26-07, 03:52 AM
Glad that you found the source of the problem. That really is rubbish of Nvidia. :nope: :nope: You would expect that when you buy their premium product that it would operate at least within it's specification. Not good at all from the green giant. :down:
I hope that you manage to resolve it otherwise I would ask for a full refund and return it for an 8800GTX overclocked card which can be had for cheaper than the Ultra version. Good luck. :)
New update-
After testing on XP32, XP64 and Vista 32
NO DIFFERANCE!
I've tried all drivers including beta and bundled ones. Tried third part fan control programs. Nothing works.
Took the PC back yesterday and they are at a loss. :88) I've told them about 10 times to run the copy of stalker I have installed on it so they can see it crash during the intro movie yet they still haven't done it. They keep saying stability tests show it to be working. Even though i've told them i've DONE THE TESTS aswell!!
Morons. So this will be the second day without my rig and over a week of it not running games. Could be worse I know but I have things that need doing on my PC... WORK!!! I actually had to do banking on my Wii the other day.
All I want is for them to acknoledge the card is a dud so they can swap it over. I can live using my old 7600 until they sort it out but nooo.
/end rant.
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