Gigabyte 8800GT 512mb, surprisingly good perofrmance

[pieman109]

I picked up what I thought was a "B" grade 8800gt 512mb today, ocuk model, but was surprised to find a complete gigabyte 8800gt 512 with the zalman style cooler fitted. Nice I thought, a bit like the asus ones that ocuk was punting out a few weeks ago. Anyways, slung it in, tested in a few games, crysis, warhead, COD4, etc and found it performed exceptionally well, far better than my old 8800gt it seemed. I had a look in rivatuner, nvidia Ntune and evga precision tool and all these apps showed the following settings:

core 700, shaders 1700, memory 950.

Nothing spectacular with the memory, but I don't ever recall seeing a shader speed that high or the core that high for that matter. I've just been on the gigabyte site and found this card, also a review, and its a factory overclocked versh, with those with those settings being factory set. Also theres an app whereby I can raise the core voltage a tad to about 1.1v-1.2v and overclock even further, going by this site I was reading the review on.
I certainly wasn't aware that gigabyte did any overclocked gear, but I'm very impressed with this card, thing goes like the clappers.
Anybody else have any experience of these versions of 8800gt 512 cards?

 

[Rroff]

Thats fairly decent - if you can get 1.2v you should hit atleast 750 stable on the core if not 800!

Most of my 8800GT cards max out around 1750 on the shaders with the exception of my gainward card that does something like 760/1830.

 

[pieman109]

Thats fairly decent - if you can get 1.2v you should hit atleast 750 stable on the core if not 800!

Most of my 8800GT cards max out around 1750 on the shaders with the exception of my gainward card that does something like 760/1830.

Thats good to know, maybe I was being a bit enthusiastic considering what I paid for it. nevertheless, the evga overclocked versh only has the core at 650 and not 700 like this thing and the voltage "hud" as they call it looks a peach to use, that hardware forum site got theirs up to around 750 on the core and reckon with using the hud voltage tweaks, it might go to nearly 800 on the core.
One other thing, even when hammering the card in crysis and warhead, the temp never went above 55c load and it idles at 42c, thats in a average temp room.

 

[OCOCOC]

Thats good to know, maybe I was being a bit enthusiastic considering what I paid for it. nevertheless, the evga overclocked versh only has the core at 650 and not 700 like this thing and the voltage "hud" as they call it looks a peach to use, that hardware forum site got theirs up to around 750 on the core and reckon with using the hud voltage tweaks, it might go to nearly 800 on the core.
One other thing, even when hammering the card in crysis and warhead, the temp never went above 55c load and it idles at 42c, thats in a average temp room.

It looks like the Zalman fan is the real hero. Cos the ref. 8800GT could only do 735MHz max. on core without increasing volts as far as I can remember.

 

[steve258]

Yep, a year on and it's still a good card. With a bit of voltage bump they are known to do 750+ core, although mine only managed 745 but it wasn't the factory overclocked version.

Glad you enjoy it, how much did you pay for it in b-grade just out of interest?

 

[pieman109]

Yep, a year on and it's still a good card. With a bit of voltage bump they are known to do 750+ core, although mine only managed 745 but it wasn't the factory overclocked version.

Glad you enjoy it, how much did you pay for it in b-grade just out of interest?

Ooo...bit pricey, worked out at £92 inc delivery. I was trying to get me hands on a s/h one but they'd all but dried up on the MM so I ended up getting this one from the "sale" section. I was expecting just the card, but it came "as new" with all the accesories supplied.
As said, I'm surprised that this one was clocked from the factory as high as it is and comes with an app to raise the core voltage.

 

[willhub]

Think the best that can be done on the core with an app is like 1.15V.

 

[pieman109]

Think the best that can be done on the core with an app is like 1.15V.

Had squint at this "hud" thingy and found it goes to 1.2v on the core

 

[willhub]

Had squint at this "hud" thingy and found it goes to 1.2v on the core

Hmmm, either that is recent or even setting that only gives it 1.15V or something around that, if it has been that all along them damn!, might have got my GT abit higher than 700 on the core

 

[Rroff]

Think its only that model of the gigabyte - most 8800GT only do 1.1v via BIOS editing.

 

[Cyber-Mav]

Hmmm, either that is recent or even setting that only gives it 1.15V or something around that, if it has been that all along them damn!, might have got my GT abit higher than 700 on the core

that gigabyte software to alter the voltages has been around since the introduction of the card. the gigabyte 8800gt uses a voltage overdrive chip to provide up to 1.20v to the core. i have this very card although i dont use the voltage overdrive or the gigabyte gamer hud software since i dont like 3rd party apps. stock voltage on the gigabyte 8800gt is 1.10v.