How much of an ungrateful barsteward should I be?

WJA96 · 17 Feb 2009 at 22:16

Big.Wayne said:
You got a GTX280 in place of an 8800GTX and your not jumping for joy?

WJA96 said:
It was, I was quite literally doing a little dance with joy.

Big.Wayne said:
Man, you had so much bad luck with hardware you actually don't see your luck has turned hehe!

It's not about luck. On the 1st of February I had a system that would do 25000 3DMarks. Today I have a system that will do 22500 3DMarks - so it's not an upgrade, it's a downgrade.

I'm not knocking BFG, they have done completely the right thing in my eyes - they have swapped my card out for a much better one, and I wouldn't buy any other brand of card now, but the system is slower as a result of the RMA.

If I'm complaining about anything it's that I specifically told them up front that I was running SLI and that, if at all possible, I wanted another 8800GTX. I was told I would get a same-card replacement.

psychas · 17 Feb 2009 at 22:18

u should look at game benchmarks not in 3dmark

i bet theres is loads of games that single 280 can beat 88gtx in sli

WJA96 · 17 Feb 2009 at 22:20

psychas said:
1. keep 280 and 8800gtx run gtx as physix card but u will be wasting electricity as not many games have it yet but 8800gtx will still use power. even if theres no phisix enabled. so basically u will have a card that does not increase performance just eats electricity

Slower than what I had = Fail.

psychas said:
2. Sell 8800gtx get 280 then sli them. great performance but requires fair amount of power. same again increase of electricity bill.

Not to mention the extra £200 it will cost for a water-cooled GTX280 over a water-cooled 8800GTX = Fail

psychas said:
3. sell 8800gtx settle down with one 280. witch would use less power then 8800gtx sli setup will safe u few quids from electricity bill . go to the pub and drink the profit u made from 8800gtx

Still slower than what I had = Fail, but full marks for services to the brewing industry.

WJA96 · 17 Feb 2009 at 22:22

psychas said:
u should look at game benchmarks not in 3dmark i bet theres is loads of games that single 280 can beat 88gtx in sli

But not in CUDA. This isn't my games rig. I have a tri-SLI system if I want to play games, but most of what I'm doing is in CUDA.

Big.Wayne · 17 Feb 2009 at 22:27

WJA96 said:
It's not about luck. On the 1st of February I had a system that would do 25000 3DMarks. Today I have a system that will do 22500 3DMarks - so it's not an upgrade, it's a downgrade.

WJA96, in the politest possible way I think you have become seperated from reality!

3DMarks means *nothing* except to Pro-Benchers, ePeenies and Teenagers!

Giving you the benefit of the doubt (of course) I can only think your approaching this from the angle of a Pro-Benchmarker in which case why are you not running Tri-SLI or Crossfired HD4870 X2's (slacker TBH!).

In the cold light of day you have a more valuable GPU . . . and dare I say a single 8800GTX would be enough for your modest gaming requirements!

So to sum up, if your really gearing up to break some 3Dmark records you need better GPU's (as I'm sure you know!) and if your starting to dabble in High-Def gaming I think you can do better than circa 2006 GPU's in SLI!

thepeganator · 17 Feb 2009 at 22:32

If you haven't spoken to BFG about this yet then you don't deserve to be posting this thread.

Tell them what happened and they might give you another one or maybe send you two gtx260s or something.

Stop complaining till you talk to them.

moremoney · 17 Feb 2009 at 22:36

Why not just swap your 280 for my 8800.

excitedly waiting to here from you,

yours faithfully.

WJA96 · 17 Feb 2009 at 22:36

I'll ignore the first bit, because I'm obviously not getting this across. 3DMark is a synthetic benchmark, but it is a consistent basis to compare teh graphics performance of two systems, especially one based on the same motherboard and CPU.

Big.Wayne said:
Giving you the benefit of the doubt (of course) I can only think your approaching this from the angle of a Pro-Benchmarker in which case why are you not running Tri-SLI or Crossfired HD4870 X2's (slacker TBH!).

I have a tri-SLi system too. And I'm looking at a tri-SLI GTX 295 system in April when the new tax year comes in. No slacking here.

Big.Wayne said:
In the cold light of day you have a more valuable GPU . . . and dare I say a single 8800GTX would be enough for your modest gaming requirements!

In any light, I have a slower system, and I'm not using it for gaming.

Big.Wayne said:
So to sum up, if your really gearing up to break some 3Dmark records you need better GPU's (as I'm sure you know!) and if your starting to dabble in High-Def gaming I think you can do better than circa 2006 GPU's in SLI!

I'm not gearing up to break any records, but for what I'm using it for (distributed computing), the system is less productive. And the 8800GTX may well be a circa 2006 GPU, but 2 of them still beat one GTX 280.

WJA96 · 17 Feb 2009 at 22:37

moremoney said:
Why not just swap your 280 for my 8800.

excitedly waiting to here from you,

yours faithfully.

Is it a factory water-cooled BFG 8800GTX H2OC?

Nope. didn't think so.

WJA96 · 17 Feb 2009 at 22:40

thepeganator said:
Stop complaining till you talk to them.

I'm not complaining. I've never knocked BFG, in this thread or anywhere else. I'm just stating a fact. I have a better single GPU and worse performance than I had before with SLi. Hence the thread title.

Big.Wayne · 17 Feb 2009 at 22:42

He's not complaining!

Walter is just getting peoples opinions, I think he feels a bit guilty for having some luck when there is so much hardship and suffering going on around him!

I'm a gamer (almost Pro honest!) and I'm struggling along using integrated graphics atm!

Adapting to my situation I find myself playing Half-Life:Source! :eek:

Being a natural *Optimist* I am chuffed that I am able to get this classic game running at 1920x1200 with smOOth frame rates, always wanted to play this game!

Hopefully this gives you some perspective Walter! :cool:

WJA96 · 17 Feb 2009 at 22:47

Big.Wayne said:

Wayne - send me your address in Trust and I'll send you something better than that

moremoney · 17 Feb 2009 at 22:51

WJA96 said:
Is it a factory water-cooled BFG 8800GTX H2OC?

Nope. didn't think so.

Sorry i was just joking.

The same as i thought this whole thread was a joke, i mean, complaining about an upgrade.........would you refuse an airline upgrade to buisiness.......no you wouldn't, but i am sure you would say .... but that ain't the same thing.

With your upgrade you could get the exactly same setup with a minimal amount of work, but it sounds to me like you can't be bothered and you would still be better off financially.

Meaker · 17 Feb 2009 at 22:54

Sell both an buy a 4850X2 or similar?

thepeganator · 17 Feb 2009 at 22:57

I was saying stop complaining about your worse performance, not what you got, I can see you're grateful.

Big.Wayne · 17 Feb 2009 at 22:57

WJA96 said:
I'll ignore the first bit, because I'm obviously not getting this across. 3DMark is a synthetic benchmark, but it is a consistent basis to compare teh graphics performance of two systems, especially one based on the same motherboard and CPU

Yup I kinda understand, I still use 3DMark as a quick gauger!

WJA96 said:
I have a tri-SLi system too. And I'm looking at a tri-SLI GTX 295 system in April when the new tax year comes in. No slacking here.

Well I guess if I had a money tree and lots of time I may have a play with £2500 worth of kit . . . I think Pro-Benchmarking is as trivial as any trivial pursuit can be, as long as the people enjoy it and win some prizes then why not?

WJA96 said:
I'm not gearing up to break any records, but for what I'm using it for (distributed computing), the system is less productive. And the 8800GTX may well be a circa 2006 GPU, but 2 of them still beat one GTX 280.

Ah fair enough, I did read your post the other day about GPU's being the new *super-computers*, I didn't consider the folding/CUDA angle, I don't really know much about using GPU's for anything else than gaming!

From where I'm sitting your kit has become worth more £££ although you may need to do a little shifting around . .

If your really into this CUDA stuff why not sell the old 8800GTX and put the money towards a second GTX280?

Almost like BFG have subsidised your new SLI upgrade . . lucky git! :cool:

gizmoy2k · 17 Feb 2009 at 22:59

Well i recently went from a 8800GTX SLi setup to a GTX280 and although it is a small performance hit, i found most games smoother overall with a more consistent frame rate and less stuttering,
Also, which is a non issue for you, it drastically reduced my case temps!

unclepablo · 17 Feb 2009 at 23:01

Firstly, what an interesting thread! Full of the usual nonsence and people not reading what's actually be written by the author - but also some nice balance!

My advise would be to explain, in exactly the same way, to BFG and see what they say. If you phrase it correctly, there is no reason to think they'll see you as ungrateful - even if the forum's might

jigger · 17 Feb 2009 at 23:38

WJA96 said:
It's about 10% slower - about 2500 3DMarks. It only matters because I blew £1000 on graphics cards in September 2007 and now I have a slower system as a result of one dying and the manufacturer doing the right thing in sending me a MUCH better card, it just happens to be incompatible with my old SLi setup.

3D mark means nothing really.

What games do you play ? they cant all be slower unless you only go for the SLI optimised ones.

WJA96 · 18 Feb 2009 at 00:38

moremoney said:
Sorry i was just joking.

The same as i thought this whole thread was a joke, i mean, complaining about an upgrade.........would you refuse an airline upgrade to buisiness.......no you wouldn't, but i am sure you would say .... but that ain't the same thing.

With your upgrade you could get the exactly same setup with a minimal amount of work, but it sounds to me like you can't be bothered and you would still be better off financially.

Yes, sorry, I was having a sense of humour failure. Apologies