8800GT and X1900XT

[kbc]

Hi, Is it worth upgrading my noisy Sapphire X1900XT 512MB to one of those 512MB 8800GT?

I'm pretty outdated in terms of graphics card... but will there be a significant performance boost in gaming? Is it worth that £170 for an upgrade? Not sure how much my current card would fetch. I game at 1680x1050.

 

[[YG]Bug-Eyed]

I'm in the exact same position as you mate.

Most games run OK [some have to drop to med details] - but I'm not sure if the current 8800 cards will offer sufficient boost to justify increase to Vista and DX10.

Wondering whether to wait for the next gen cards to come out?

 

[cassper1]

Hi, I did exactly the same upgrade last week, sapphire x1900xt 512 to bfg 8800gt oc 512.. I game at 1280x1024 so I can only comment on this resolution... Even though x1900xt 512 used to be one hell of a card, 8800gt definitely packs much more beef. In terms of raw power it is 15-50% faster, depending on a benchmark setup (res, AA, AF). You'll definitely notice the difference, but only in the latest titles. x1900xt 512 used to shred everything before them. I'm not sure how much you'd get for it though, I think a fair price would be somewhere around price of a new x1950pro which is 20-25% slower. Beware - if you think x1900xt 512 was hot and noisy, you'll see what a real heat and noise is with 8800gt. 92C on the core during gaming - I can't wait for a decent aftermarket cooler for 8800gt to hit the market...

 

[kbc]

Beware - if you think x1900xt 512 was hot and noisy, you'll see what a real heat and noise is with 8800gt. 92C on the core during gaming - I can't wait for a decent aftermarket cooler for 8800gt to hit the market...

Is it really that noisy ??? Hmm, that's one of the core reasons I was looking to upgrade the graphics, to kill the horrible noise from my current ATI card. The 8800GT doesn't suffer from the "100% fan scenario" as with the 7800GT, do they?

 

[cassper1]

If you want to beat the heat (as the card blows hot air inside the case - my core temp has increased by 10C! with 8800gt), you've got to manually increase the fan speed. On the stock speed 29% the fan is inaudible, but the card is baking hot and so is the system. In order to keep the temps down you need to spin it right up to 50-60%. And at that speed the fan is extremely noisy - I have Antec P182 with four 120mm fans installed, and 8800GT on 60% is twice as noisy as all of them together.

 

[plasticmekon]

Or just buy an Accelero S1?

 

[cassper1]

Accelero S1 is not 100% compatible with 8800GT... It only fits for a GPU, the rest is a makeshift solution (memories, power components). With the heat these parts produce I don't want to rely on DYI. The only 8800GT dedicated cooler announced so far is Thermalright HR-03GT, but it's not on the market yet.

 

[LoadsaMoney]

GT will obliterate your x1900.

 

[El Jimben]

Is it really that noisy ??? Hmm, that's one of the core reasons I was looking to upgrade the graphics, to kill the horrible noise from my current ATI card. The 8800GT doesn't suffer from the "100% fan scenario" as with the 7800GT, do they?

Depends on the rest of your setup, I've just gone from a x1900XTX to a 8800GT and I can't even hear the thing whereas I could always hear the ATI card even when it was idle. In terms of temps, my new card idles at 50 degrees which is only 5 degrees more than the old one and under load I've seen it hit about 80 degrees. I don't think that's too bad considering I'm letting the fan do it's own thing

 

[LoadsaMoney]

I cant hear mine, exactly like my GTS was, silent, i only hear it for about 4 seconds on switch on when it runs full pelt, mine idles about 55, and goes to about 83 underload.

 

[kbc]

Hmm... obliterate the X1900? I want...

The rest of my setup is noisy... the chipset fan on my board releases a consistent whine. I can hear my X1900XT spin up a lot of the times even on desktop mode - Vista. Now why is it still on pre-order...!

 

[n3x]

I cant hear mine, exactly like my GTS was, silent, i only hear it for about 4 seconds on switch on when it runs full pelt, mine idles about 55, and goes to about 83 underload.

ditto, no noise at all + my overall temps have decreased quite a lot since i swapped out the gts... not exactly sure why this is though

 

[subzero]

My 8800GT is silent,the only time i have heard it in operation was once during a stressful session in crysis,using a custom config,so i was pushing it a bit..