**Offical 8800Ultra owners thread** post pics and clocks.

[Richdog]

And because everybody predicted this response i shall justify my purchase by saying that yes you can reach these speeds by overclocking with a lesser rig but can you reach the speeds ill get when I overclock?

In all seriousness i earn a fair whack, ive got disposable income so its no big deal for me. I can afford to do it so why shouldnt i... Plus I was seriously getting upset with my AMD rig, constant crashing and unreliable. I needed an upgrade so i future proofed my rig for a few years by spending a little extra. I wont need to upgrade (hoping....) for a long time with this rig. And with Valve saying they are going to multi core their source engine, the writing is on the wall for multicore systems.

Anyway, if you'll excuse me im off to shamelessly play with my e-penis.

Your overclocks will be ~5% higher than a good overclocking 8800GTX/Q6600, and for about 50% more outlay. Puts it into perspective. I'm not dissing the rig, it's lovely and very high-spec, but I do feel a bit sorry for people who spend that amount on tech, I could afford it, but I find being savvy is so much more satisfying in the long-run. A heavily overclocked system that doesn't cost the earth yet performs like one that does is far more impressive than simply buying the fastest available, and is what overclocking is all about.

 

[straxusii]

Just now an Ultra is 530 quid.

For the same price you can get 2 8800 640MB GTS.

So assume you have 530 quid to spend.

You buy two cards, SLi them, and in a years later things aren't as fast as you'd like. You decide to go and buy a card and it costs you another 500 quid.

Or, you buy the Ultra, and in a years time you add a second Ultra for 300 quid.

I wouldnt buy an extra card in a years time when things are getting slow, by then there will be new cards with more features than just raw power.

 

[Curanir]

Your overclocks will be ~5% higher than a good overclocking 8800GTX/Q6600, and for about 50% more outlay. Puts it into perspective. I'm not dissing the rig, it's lovely and very high-spec, but I do feel a bit sorry for people who spend that amount on tech, I could afford it, but I find being savvy is so much more satisfying in the long-run. A heavily overclocked system that doesn't cost the earth yet performs like one that does is far more impressive than simply buying the fastest available, and is what overclocking is all about.

Couldnt argue with that, and to be honest i get damn nervous when overclocking - normally because ive just spent a small fortune on the kit and get worried im about to fry it.

First system i bought from OCUK was an Athlon 1400 (i think) and i blew the chip in the first 60 secs of powerup - why? Because being new to building systems from scratch i didnt know about the need to cool chips.... no cooler = fried CPU.

Not going to justify buying it, dont really need to, only person i need to get approval from is the missus who lets me indulge my geek hobbies If i had the time to spend I'd buy the slightly lower specced stuff and OC just like everyone here thinks it should be done. However, I'd prefer to spend time playing games and working on other stuff rather than fiddling with the guts of the machine. I bought the kit to use, not to spend time tweaking. Buying the fastest i could just means i dont need to worry too much about tweaking and if i feel the need to i can do it later. I guess its about what you bought it for. I needed a rig for testing software - business and for playing games - pleasure.

Now please i dont want to get into a full on rant with people about this, but having read through all the posts on this thread i thought it might be worth hearing a different point of view. We dont all want to achieve speed the hard way, and (please dont take this personally anyone, just responding to the overall mood of this thread) if it makes some people feel slightly superior because they have proved they can push their rigs harder and faster than me then by all means do it. Me? Ill take the softer easier route anyday


Now actually what i wanted to ask, before i got into that rant (waiting for flame!) is what is a reasonable score on 3d Mark 06. Mines 12444 (without overclocking, just default settings) which puts me in the top .01%. Now just wanted to get some comparison from people.

 

[Richdog]

First system i bought from OCUK was an Athlon 1400 (i think) and i blew the chip in the first 60 secs of powerup - why? Because being new to building systems from scratch i didnt know about the need to cool chips.... no cooler = fried CPU.

lol, you seriously built a rig and didn't put a cooler on the CPU? That's kind of hard to believe.

 

[The Halk]

I wouldnt buy an extra card in a years time when things are getting slow, by then there will be new cards with more features than just raw power.

In that case you wouldn't buy 2 GFX cards now and SLi them. You'd buy 1 Ultra.

 

[queamin]

Originally Posted by Curanir
And because everybody predicted this response i shall justify my purchase by saying that yes you can reach these speeds by overclocking with a lesser rig but can you reach the speeds ill get when I overclock?

In all seriousness i earn a fair whack, ive got disposable income so its no big deal for me. I can afford to do it so why shouldnt i... Plus I was seriously getting upset with my AMD rig, constant crashing and unreliable. I needed an upgrade so i future proofed my rig for a few years by spending a little extra. I wont need to upgrade (hoping....) for a long time with this rig. And with Valve saying they are going to multi core their source engine, the writing is on the wall for multicore systems.

Anyway, if you'll excuse me im off to shamelessly play with my e-penis.

If you can aford it good for you, it is upto you how you spend your money and nobody elses

 

[Curanir]

lol, you seriously built a rig and didn't put a cooler on the CPU? That's kind of hard to believe.

Well it was several years ago. Previous to that my experience was with CPUs with integrated coolers. Id worked on servers only not desktops. Lot older, lot wiser.

 

[straxusii]

In that case you wouldn't buy 2 GFX cards now and SLi them. You'd buy 1 Ultra.

Not for £530 you wouldnt unless you were nuts!

Actually looking at reviews coming in for the 2900xt I think you would buy 2 of these rather than an ultra for £530

 

[The Halk]

Not for £530 you wouldnt unless you were nuts!

Actually looking at reviews coming in for the 2900xt I think you would buy 2 of these rather than an ultra for £530

I bought an 8800 GTX and a waterblock for it. It came out at about 530 and I'm not nuts

 

[raja]

OK time to upgrade yet again, 2 x msi 8800 ultras for benching, I had 2 gtx's, one that was volt modded took a major rock t dump. So the gtx now goes under phase/cascade, while the ultra's will be oc'ed on high end water cooling, stock on the msi's is around 660, hoping for 700 plus unmodded... absolute lunacy of course, but that's what benching does to ya...

I must be the first loon in the thread with 2...

I was hoping to see some air oc's, but all I can find is all you super shrewed ocuk boys sticking where it makes sense...

am I in for a you idiot you could have oc'ed your gtx's to ultra's, I bet I am, but then again I will oc the a3 silicon higher, does that justify the expenditure? no it does not even come close...lol

be cool
Raja

 

[Duff-Man]

I must be the first loon in the thread with 2...

Having 2 Ultras doesn't make you a loon - it just makes you someone with a lot of disposible income.

But moving from 2 GTXs up to 2 Ultras... I doubt I could justify that however much cash I had

Enjoy your slightly higher benches, I guess!

 

[raja]

after the gtx died, I decided to keep one card on the benching rig permanently insulated for minus temps, and buy 2 for my gaming rig, the bay comes in handy for selling stuff at a pretty good return so long as you time it right... depends what I manage to kill while benching though...

wonder if I'm eligible for any of that duff beer....

regards
Raja

 

[raja]

My ultra does 729 on water for benchmarking, unmodded. The gtx needs an overvolt of around .05 to reach 714. I have not run the ultra on cascade or phase yet, gtx hits an easy 822 when cold single stage at around 1.45vgpu. The ultra's are cruising to 900+ @ -70, definately a benchmarkers card... Next up dual cascade runs in sli, unit is being built....


regards
Raja

 

[agnes]

my rig atm - dont ask about the mess, all explained in the thread lol

clicky

ags

EDIT: just realised 8800 ultras only lol.... ignore post

 

[Azza]

Wheres Clone? He has got one.

 

[andyr]

My ultra does 729 on water for benchmarking, unmodded. The gtx needs an overvolt of around .05 to reach 714. I have not run the ultra on cascade or phase yet, gtx hits an easy 822 when cold single stage at around 1.45vgpu. The ultra's are cruising to 900+ @ -70, definately a benchmarkers card... Next up dual cascade runs in sli, unit is being built....


regards
Raja

Hi Raja , does the ultra take the same waterblock as the gtx

 

[fornowagain]

Hi Raja , does the ultra take the same waterblock as the gtx

There's no dimensional difference between the two cards.

 

[andyr]

There's no dimensional difference between the two cards.

Thats good to hear , what clocks do you recon you would get out of a EVGA GeForce 8800 Ultra SuperClocked under a waterblock ? would it invalidate the warranty on an Evga card ?

 

[raja]

Don't think it would invalidate on the EVGA cards, all Ultra's seem to hit 690, even on air if the case circulatiuon is good, on water you'd be able to game at that 24/7 perhaps even more...

I use an MSI ultra atm, good price for the guaranteed 647 clock, 660 set gives 647 actual, Ultra bios's still seem to have the stepped clockiing even the EVGA ultra bios, unlike the acs3ko GTX bios...

regards
Raja

 

[helmutcheese]

EVGA GeForce 8800 Ultra SuperClocked

- GeForce 8800 Ultra core running at 655MHz
- Shader Clock Speed of 1660MHz
- 768MB GDDR3 Memory running at 2250MHz

Pushed it to artifact free in ATI TOOL at 695/2350, dont want to mod cooling as I am signed up for STEP UP, I did run the fan 100% using Rivatuner though.