nVidia 8800GTS 640MB

Anything gaming related that is not red and gooey goes in here.

Moderator: General Discussion Moderators

User avatar
Phosphoric Acid
Quixotic
Posts: 138
Joined: Fri Dec 15, 2006 07:12 pm
Location: England

nVidia 8800GTS 640MB

Post by Phosphoric Acid »

I was wondering if anyone has any idea/experience with this card, do you recommend it, or will it play the latest games at a good frame rate? Because I’m purchasing a pc that has this card, as well as these other specs:

Processor : Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 1066FSB 4MB Cache 64 Bit
Processor Speed: 4 x 2.4GHz
Memory: 2GB DDR2 667MHz Dual Channel RAM
Hard Drive: 640GB (2 x 320GB) Serial ATA II Hard Drive with 16MB Buffer
Sound: 7.1 Channel High Definition Audio
Motherboard: Intel P35 Chipset ATX Motherboard
Case/Wattage: Thermaltake Aluminium Full ATX Tower Case + Thermaltake 500W PSU

Opinions? Am i good to go...
User avatar
Willis

Master of the Mask
Lead Programmer

Posts: 872
Joined: Tue Aug 10, 2004 09:28 am
Location: Eau Claire, WI USA
Contact:

Post by Willis »

Great card, currently have one in my system.

Nvidia just released the 8800GT which is actually a little cheaper and performs a little better, but supply is incredibly limited still.
User avatar
Phosphoric Acid
Quixotic
Posts: 138
Joined: Fri Dec 15, 2006 07:12 pm
Location: England

Post by Phosphoric Acid »

Excellent. The reason why I asked is because I’ve heard that the 8 series GTS's are generally the slowest out of the GTX and of course the GT, but not a great deal compared to the GT. I was originally going to have the 8800GTX 786MB, but the model desktop got discontinued, leaving me to have this card (as well as a different desktop unit) instead.

Do you have any games at all that struggle with AA and AF settings on max (or even off for that matter)? Just so I’m certain it'll last a while. I had plans to get Unreal Tournament 3, but it does look as if it requires expensive as well as faster hardware.
User avatar
Willis

Master of the Mask
Lead Programmer

Posts: 872
Joined: Tue Aug 10, 2004 09:28 am
Location: Eau Claire, WI USA
Contact:

Post by Willis »

I typically don't play with AA/AF, but I've had no trouble with them off at 1920x1200 in just about any game.
User avatar
Phosphoric Acid
Quixotic
Posts: 138
Joined: Fri Dec 15, 2006 07:12 pm
Location: England

Post by Phosphoric Acid »

Thats pretty good. I'm right to assume you've set each games quality settings to the maximum possible?
Krypto
Cultist
Posts: 78
Joined: Thu Sep 14, 2006 05:12 pm

Re: nVidia 8800GTS 640MB

Post by Krypto »

Phosphoric Acid wrote: Processor : Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 1066FSB 4MB Cache 64 Bit
Processor Speed: 4 x 2.4GHz
Memory: 2GB DDR2 667MHz Dual Channel RAM
Hard Drive: 640GB (2 x 320GB) Serial ATA II Hard Drive with 16MB Buffer
Sound: 7.1 Channel High Definition Audio
Motherboard: Intel P35 Chipset ATX Motherboard
Case/Wattage: Thermaltake Aluminium Full ATX Tower Case + Thermaltake 500W PSU
You Sir are a very lucky man, You'll definately be able to play the likes of Bioshock and Medal of Honour Airborne (Which in comparsion to my system runs awful on minimum settings :cry:). If you have the two mentioned tell me how Bio runs on Max :)
User avatar
Phosphoric Acid
Quixotic
Posts: 138
Joined: Fri Dec 15, 2006 07:12 pm
Location: England

Post by Phosphoric Acid »

I'm cranking it up to 11! Here is what I shall be getting::

Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700 8MB Cache 64 Bit Processor
Processor Speed: 4 x 2.66GHz
Memory: 2GB DDR2 667MHz Dual Channel Ram (and i'll be adding an extra 1GB to make 3GB)
Hard Drive: 1000GB (2 x 500GB) Serial ATA II Hard Drive with 16MB Buffer
Graphics: Dual SLi nVidia 8800GTX 1.536GB PCI-E Graphics
Drive 1: 18x Dual Layer +R/-R/RW DVD burner
Drive 2: 16x DVD Rom Drive
Sound: ADI 7.1 High Definition Audio With Optical SPDif
Motherboard: nVidia nForce 680i Sli ATX Motherboard
Case/Wattage: Thermaltake Black Aluminium Case & Tagan Turbojet 1100W PSU

I know this is kinda crazy, but I seriously want to be future proof, and this is going to cost me a small £1825.95 ;) generally I don't think I’ll have any problems with bio shock at all, I mean, dual sli nvidia 8800GTX 1.5GB, can you say "holy f*cking cow"?
User avatar
Vuzeth
Deceptossum
Posts: 303
Joined: Fri Apr 07, 2006 11:41 am
Location: Russia

Post by Vuzeth »

RAM is underrated as always. I would go for 4x2Gb sticks of Patriot Extreme 800Mhz (they're not really expensive, $400 for all). With high RAM you'll be able to make virtual RAM-disks to maximize performance. It WILL boost performance HIGHLY since RAM bandwidth is about 5-6 gigabytes per second, HDDs are much slower.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramdisk
User avatar
Phosphoric Acid
Quixotic
Posts: 138
Joined: Fri Dec 15, 2006 07:12 pm
Location: England

Post by Phosphoric Acid »

Ghoste wrote:RAM is underrated as always. I would go for 4x2Gb sticks of Patriot Extreme 800Mhz (they're not really expensive, $400 for all). With high RAM you'll be able to make virtual RAM-disks to maximize performance. It WILL boost performance HIGHLY since RAM bandwidth is about 5-6 gigabytes per second, HDDs are much slower.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramdisk
My new system can only work with 4GB, and plus I can't afford to spend any more money, I’ve hit the limit there, plus the system is pre-built so I can't make any changes unless I buy hardware separately.
User avatar
Willis

Master of the Mask
Lead Programmer

Posts: 872
Joined: Tue Aug 10, 2004 09:28 am
Location: Eau Claire, WI USA
Contact:

Post by Willis »

4GB sounds more like an OS limit that a MB limit with the MB/CPU.... if you have 4 ram slots, and since you plan on adding to it, it must), it would be 4x2GB max = 8GB but only XP x64, Vista x64 or Linux x86_64 could take more than 4GB (easily).

That is one hell of a rig, slightly better than what I'm currently building I must admit, but I'm not doing crazy graphics, or even SLI, as I haven't been terribly impressed with it, it is usually more of a hassle.
User avatar
Phosphoric Acid
Quixotic
Posts: 138
Joined: Fri Dec 15, 2006 07:12 pm
Location: England

Post by Phosphoric Acid »

Ah wait, I’ve just found out mine can actually handle 16GB of memory, thing is I had to find that out myself, but even so, it'll be a while before I can buy anymore ram unfortunately. As for the graphics I’ll admit it is a tad over the top, but as its pre-built I can't do much about that, not that I’m complaining or anything, I’ll be able to handle just about any game for the next several years. Sli isn't exactly bad, its too much I’ll admit, but increases performance dramatically and as its already configured there’s no hassle (for me anyway).
User avatar
Vuzeth
Deceptossum
Posts: 303
Joined: Fri Apr 07, 2006 11:41 am
Location: Russia

Post by Vuzeth »

Its not good investment since new standards coming up soon. Such as USB 3.0, PCI-E 2.0 and P38 chip. By the middle of 2008 or luckily 2009 - your system will become a "middle-end" solution.
User avatar
DustyStyx
2D Artist
Posts: 2038
Joined: Wed Aug 11, 2004 02:12 am
Location: Salt Lake
Contact:

Post by DustyStyx »

Yeah, but that can be said at any given time for a PC.
User avatar
Phosphoric Acid
Quixotic
Posts: 138
Joined: Fri Dec 15, 2006 07:12 pm
Location: England

Post by Phosphoric Acid »

Ghoste wrote:Its not good investment since new standards coming up soon. Such as USB 3.0, PCI-E 2.0 and P38 chip. By the middle of 2008 or luckily 2009 - your system will become a "middle-end" solution.
Unfortunately I can't prevent the future. I've needed a new PC for a while now, I’m not waiting an extra half or whole year for those new bits of computer hardware/technology, because by that time something 'better' would on in development, it’s always been like that.
User avatar
Vuzeth
Deceptossum
Posts: 303
Joined: Fri Apr 07, 2006 11:41 am
Location: Russia

Post by Vuzeth »

...because by that time something 'better' would on in development, it’s always been like that.
No doubt. But the technology evolution is more a step-by-step process. And its on you to decide whether next technological step is large enough to wait or not.
Post Reply