Two nice new 8800GT cards

[skimike]

I figured I would post these since they go above and beyond the normal reference 8800GT cards most companies are producing.

The EN8800GT/HTDP/1G from ASUS comes equipped with 1GB GDDR3 rather than the typical 512MB.

This ECS 8800GT features a very nice cooling solution that keeps the GPU much cooler than NVIDIA's reference design. Not sure how well it fits in an SLI configuration as the dimensions of the card are not listed but for silent PC rigs, a passively cooled 8800GT is amazing (although you can opt for the fans for additional cooling).

[knite16]

So this might be a dumb question and I figure I know the answer, but is one 8800GTX 768MB or two SLI GTs better? (I don't believe my PCIx are 2.0) Also, I've got a 750w Power supply. Will that be enough to run them both or don't they require the extra power the GTX does?

[skimike]

750 watts is enough to drive a pair of 8800GT cards. This trend in enormous power supplies is extremely silly as, if one were to tax these 1000+ watt power supplies to their maximum, they'd draw more current than the typical 15 amp circuit in a household can provide, thus tripping a breaker or blowing a fuse (if people still use fuse boxes anymore).

2 8800GTs in SLI is significantly faster than 1 8800GTX in situations where SLI matters (high resolutions or obscenely taxing games or both).

[Koji]

I would buy one of those GT's except for 3 reasons.

1. Money

2. I noticed that they dump their heat back into the system where as the other 8800's send it out the back. Not sure how much of an issue that is but my core temps are already pretty high. Wouldn't want to risk anymore.

3. My 8800GTS run all games i've come across bar Crysis on Max and Crysis ran on High fine. So i'd rather wait until i feel i need an upgrade and look at what is about then.

Saying that the benchmarks on these GT's are remarkable for the price. I can see them selling like hotcakes after christmas when all the teen's get money off their aunties to spend spend spend .

[Shade]

I'll be getting the new GTS when it comes out... Slightly better performance, less heat problems, for only a small amount of extra money

[Toya]

as above poster put. if you were going to get 2 cards an exploit the SLi, get the GTS's not the GT's. GT's suffer from heating alot more than the new GTS. also as far as performance goes, you really wont see a huge gap in quality with 1 GTX an 2 GT's if im honest.

ive been on a PC with both GTX(mine lol) an my friend nay nay who has 2 GT's in his PC.

so if you going to do anything do the following

if can afford it that is :P

1: x2 GTS
2: GTX
3: x2 GT (2 GTs an the setup an reliability put it to 3rd instead of joint 2nd in my books)

[skimike]

The GTs don't suffer from heating issues anymore than the GTSs or GTXs. With reference coolers, all those cards run at ~90C under full load with ambient room temperatures of 24C/75F which is well within tolerance for the cards. Hot as hell, yes, but within specifications. I don't like when people say "that sounds hot to me" when they haven't read the thermal specs for the card because they're usually basing their "feelings" on some other older video card that doesn't behave the same way (I'm not accusing you of that - I just see it on the forums constantly, people doing things like comparing their 6600 to an 8800 and claiming the 8800 is too hot).

The GTs make use of the new G92 core while the new GTS SSC (112 stream processors) still makes use of the old G80. The 8800GT at reference design speed and 8800GTS SSC superclocked card run approximately neck-and-neck in most games (Company of Heroes and Oblivion seem to favor the 8800GT) but the 8800GTS SSC costs ~$400USD whereas the basic 8800GT costs ~$250.

Here are some reviews:
EVGA e-GeForce 8800 GTS SSC 640MB Review
EVGA 8800GTS 640MB (w/112SPs) SSC Edition Review - Hardware Canucks

[Toya]

i meant if they just had the standard PC with such cards in with SLi going on. ive had to deal with it at work due 2 over heated cards as well. an i dont mean old crap.

SLi is known to cause alot more heat than single cards u know that, but also the PCs suchas ultima series PCs (found at OCuk) are built with the fact ppl with those PCs will be using SLi. where as if u put SLi in a average computer now, its likely if you have the PC on for extended amount of time (gamers only course :P)
that it may over heat over long term.

[AznKenshin]

Gahh, what happened to my post? But yeah I swore I piosted somewhere on this thread. Yes, the 8800 cards dominate and I like your short summary on them.

What I'm thinking right now is picking one up and using it for Crysis, though xD

[BaGGs]

I dont know but i dont like the new GT cards.
Both ATI and Nvidia.
They have VERY slow memory and i doubt they can be as good as my ati 2900 xt although the can produce dx10 graphics.
Most of these new GT's have like 256 MB of RAM which runs at 256 bit(i saw one at 128 bit as well)
Me thinks its a trick to get some income during x-mas season so they can have something to invest on developing the high end products later.

[skimike]

Memory bandwidth isn't the only factor that defines a card's capabilities. Have a look at the relative performance of ATI's HD2900 XT (memory bandwidth of 106GB/sec if I am not mistaken) versus the 8800GT (57.6GB/sec for the reference card):

VGA Charts 2007 | Tom's Hardware

Here we see the disparity in performance. The 8800GT clearly trumps the 2900XT by almost twice as much.

[Toya]

basically, graphics cards as like PCs. they only work as well as their worse component. so if u go cheap expect crap. if you fork out good amount you get your moneys worth more often than not.

[BaGGs]

Originally Posted by skimike

Memory bandwidth isn't the only factor that defines a card's capabilities. Have a look at the relative performance of ATI's HD2900 XT (memory bandwidth of 106GB/sec if I am not mistaken) versus the 8800GT (57.6GB/sec for the reference card):

VGA Charts 2007 | Tom's Hardware

Here we see the disparity in performance. The 8800GT clearly trumps the 2900XT by almost twice as much.

True but when i got my 2900 xt it cost me 150 euros less than an 8800 gtx, so basically what u must buy is what u need, not what's better than something else.

[skimike]

So the 128SP 8800GTS's were released either yesterday or today. They are, in fact, based upon the G92 core (so I can eat some of what I said earlier - I forgot the G80 112SPs were just an interim between the 96SP G80 and 128SP G92) which should prove... interesting for anyone that picks up a new card in an effort to use it in SLI with an old card by the same name. They should have gone with 8850 or some other identifier. In any case, it should be a great card to pick up for several months to come. NVIDIA plans on releasing their next-generation flagship D9E "enthusiast/expensive" card in February and, if they follow tradition, the mainstream SKUs will follow a couple months later. I've heard next to nothing on D9E performance yet but I have to wonder how they can possibly get any faster unless they widen the data paths to both GPU and memory. If they follow past performance leaps, however, they'll somehow find a way to be twice as fast as the previous generation.

[AznKenshin]

Guys, quick question. In SLI, will two different video cards work? ATI's way is different (the only way I know) because you need a Crossfire Edition card and a Crossfire-enabled card.