Video card

[peabody]

Question for any computer gurus, I have a Gigabyte Geforce 7600GS, just not enough for this game, tried to add ROW and just too slow. Stock game plays ok but not at high quality.

Looking at:
EVGA 320-P2-N811-AR GeForce 8800GTS 320MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail

1x Winner of Customer Choice Award - Desktop Graphics

• Chipset Manufacturer: NVIDIA
• Core clock: 500MHz
• DirectX: DirectX 10
• DVI: 2
• Model #: 320-P2-N811-AR

$114 plus shipping after $30 rebate

and

MSI NX8800GTS 320M OC GeForce 8800GTS 320MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail

• Chipset Manufacturer: NVIDIA
• Core clock: 575MHz
• DirectX: DirectX 10
• DVI: 2
• Model #: NX8800GTS 320M OC

$119 plus shipping after $30 rebate

Anyone familiar with either of these cards or brand. I am not familiar with either brand so I don't know if it's a good idea or not. The difference I notice is the core clock is higher on the MSI.
Any help greatly appreciated.

Peabody

[Quillan]

EVGA is a good card maker. A lot of their cards have long warranties, some lifetime depending on the model. However, assuming you can afford it, I'd recommend this one instead:

EVGA 512-P3-N801-AR GeForce 8800GT 512MB 256-bit

The 8800 GT has significantly higher performance than the 8800 GTS, in fact it's very close to the 8800 GTX, while costing a good bit less. The top end version is about $215 after rebate, but overclocked from the factory. It runs 50 Mhz faster on the core, so I don't really think it would make a lot of difference. Either the GTS or the GT are good cards, it's just a matter of how much you're willing and able to spend on it.

As for MSI, they make good motherboards, but I don't know anything really about their video cards. I have an EVGA card myself, and have nothing but good things to say about it.

[Khourieat]

Agree with the above on the 8800GT, the other thing I like about it is that in the future, rather then buying a whole new card for it I can just buy a really cheap duplicate and SLI it up (assuming your system is SLI capable), and for hopefully what will be $50-$100 get a substantial performance boost with existing hardware, rather then having to sink a nother $250 on a new card.

[Zantham]

The 8800GTS will present a significant improvement over the 7600GS. I haven't used many MSI cards, but check the warranty info on the eVGA card, it may come with a lifetime warranty.

Make sure your power supply can handle the increased power load that card will bring, and that you have the proper power connector also.

The MSI card is overclocked and is the faster card of the two, and is only a few dollars more.

Just a recommendation you might want to check into a card with a bit more memory, most cards nowadays have 512MB video or more, 320MB is actually conssidered a bit on the low side. Maybe an 8800GT, or a 8800GTS 512MB?

[Rockin Robbins]

And I can testify that they honor the lifetime warranty with incredible customer service. My cards were victims of the far eastern electrolytic capacitor caper, where a long-time employee of the world's leading producer stole the plans and sold them to a competitor. Unfortunately for the criminals, the victim had altered the chemical composition of the electrolyte so that it was unstable over time. The capacitors worked fine for a period of months and then......boom!

First one card went boom...


I had no idea whether I had done something wrong or not. They could have told me anything because I didn't know about the Asian espionage yet. I bought my cards before the lifetime warranty, but they said, "send it in and we'll be glad to send another."

Three weeks later, on the day I received the replacement, I heard a sound like the cracking of the whip from hell. After changing my underwear , I found the second card had blown a single capacitor. Back to the ole RMA procedure again.

This time for my trouble I received a free upgrade to a 7900GS. There went my SLI setup! But the single card was slightly faster than two 7600GTs and lowered my power drain.

You can't ask for better customer service than that!

Put me down as a vote for the EVGA 8800GT.

[Capn_Sinky]

I had a PNY 7600, stunk like cheese. Would lock up anytime any heavy graphics started. Took it back to the guys in the blue shirts and got a ATI 1600 Pro. It did really good until I got my new 22" WSHD monitor, and it could'nt handle the workload. Went back to the guys in the blue shirts and went to the closeout shelf and they cut me a really good deal on a BFG 8500GT. Had a couple of reward dollar certificats and a couple of gift cards that santa brought me (for just such an emergency) and wound up getting the card for $49. Whoo hoo, I love a good deal.

Will run stock SHIV maxed out even with the time acceleration set above 3000.

Only bad thing is now I don't have time to finish my ice cream before I get another contact on radar or hydrophones.

Oh well, good luck with the cards need to return to the Sea of Japan, "Warp factor 7 Mr. Sulu"

[peabody]

Thanks guys for all the input, I just looked up the GT and it is almost $100 more then the GTS, so I'm not sure I can go that route. (I am retired- I was tired yesterday and I'm re-tired today ) I looked at the charts for cards at Toms Hardware and the GT does get better fps than the GTS in most cases, but didn't is some games. (never would have thought that if you hadn't mentioned it, I figured GT then GTS then GTX ) Problem is I am not familiar with the games so I wouldn't know why the difference. Now I just have to make a decision before the rebate runs out. And the GTS is SLI ready too. My motherboard isn't. Another point the GTS is PCI-e X16 the GT is PCI-E2.

Peabody

[Zantham]

Another point the GTS is PCI-e X16 the GT is PCI-E2.

This won't affect anything, the PCI-E2 slot is backward compatible. You can run a 8800GT in your current slot, and a person that has a PCI-E2 could run a GTS in his slot as well.

The biggest thing is that the GT has 512MB, the GTS you showed has 320MB. If you are running lower resolutions the GTS will be just fine (tho the GT will be faster still, just less noticeably so). At higher resolutions (say 1600x1200 or higher) the GT will start being 'more faster'. The same is true if you expect to run higher levels of AA in your game.

[peabody]

Originally Posted by Zantham

This won't affect anything, the PCI-E2 slot is backward compatible. You can run a 8800GT in your current slot, and a person that has a PCI-E2 could run a GTS in his slot as well.

The biggest thing is that the GT has 512MB, the GTS you showed has 320MB. If you are running lower resolutions the GTS will be just fine (tho the GT will be faster still, just less noticeably so). At higher resolutions (say 1600x1200 or higher) the GT will start being 'more faster'. The same is true if you expect to run higher levels of AA in your game.

That makes sense, more pixels to move around. Right now I am limited by my monitor to 1024X768 anyway. The 'which way do I go' for now is if I get the GT it is faster now, and E2 compatable for the next build and better choice for the next monitor. But the extra $100 is now, and I am having fun with SH4 on the 7600GS so is it really worth it for me? Know what I mean? I only play two games Falcon4 and SH4 so , and I don't need it for Falcon that uses less Video card and more CPU than SH4. And compared to the 7600, at least the numbers I have seen, the GTS or the GT are miles ahead, not just a little step but a giant leap forward. I could get a $69 card and be way ahead of what I have. It would be a stupid move but that's an example. Even going from a 7600GS to a 7600GT is a big improvement. So looking at an 8800GT is like looking a a Ferrari after driving a Chevy. The 7600GS is all I need other than for playing and adding ROW to SH4, so how much do I really want to spend to play one game?! But that Christmas money is burning a hole through my desk drawer and I have to spent it!!!!!!

Peabody