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Which GTX Card to go for ?....another thread..

mcdermotx

mcdermotx

mcdermotx

Associate
Joined
29 May 2005
Posts
463
Sorry lads,
yet another GTX card question..

Looking to upgrade from a X1900XTX setup. I was up till recently using two of em in a Crossfire setup, but have decided to give it the boot (TBH, I've never been overly impressed with it......especially with the instability problems under Vista)..
I was planning on holding off until the new high-ends appear, but that doesn't look like it'll happen until next year now......so I'm looking for a single card setup which will allow me to play the likes of Ep2, TF2, Crysis etc etc, at the best level (or as close as normal spending will allow)..
Obviously this points me towards the GTXs and Ultras of this world, and I certainly want to go back to NVidia over ATI after past experiences with the 6800Ultra and 7800GTX, but I've neglected the graphics game for a while so I'm bowing to OCUK forum members superior knowledge right now..

Running an ASUS P5WDH Deluxe with 4Gb of Geil under Vista X64, so I'd appreciate people's tribal knowledge with any potential issues with such a setup..
Cards I'm looking at are the likes of :-

BFG GeForce 8800 GTX OC 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail

BFG GeForce 8800 GTX OC2 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail

BFG GeForce 8800 Ultra OC 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail

EVGA GeForce 8800 Ultra KO SILENT 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (768-P2-E885-AR)

EVGA GeForce 8800 Ultra SuperClocked SILENT 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (768-P2-E887-AR)


Looking for a good, fast, and hopefully quiet card (which is why "Silents" appeal to me, but obviously that may be marketing buzz).......not really wanting to overclock too much, as I'd really like to limit the heat in the system..

Sorry for the long-winded post (and the fact that most of these answers could be found elsewhere on the forum), but would appreciate any responses..
 
Personally I'd go for the BFG due to the lifetime warranty,I've got the BFG 8800GTX OC which I had to rma recently,completely my fault that the card died though.

I was adjusting a rattling dram cooler with the system running,one of the brackets came loose and dropped onto the GTX! Shorted the card in the process,extremely careless I know.

Anyway I whipped my full cover water block off and replaced with the original cooler,got an rma no,sent card off and had a brand new replacement within a week,no questions asked.(Card not bought from OC'UK)

I'm not suggetsing you'll be as careless as me but it's nice to know if problems do occur you'll get good support.

Card overclocks very easily too,650/2000 np,and if you intend retaining the supplied cooler,it's very quiet.
 
Cheers lads,
how do you find the default cooler on the likes of the OEM OCUK or BFG ?
The Ultras (albeit for extra cash) look to have a different cooler...so it'd be interesting to know which is which..

Even with the stock coolers, is there one GTX which is on the whole quieter than the others ?
Quite like the BFGs as I have an old BFG 7800GTX..
 
didnt even realise it had lifetime warranty! i was just looking at the specs. thanks for the info!

id rather go with a brand name, last time i bought an 'OcUK' card, really a Club3D, it went kapoot. brand name 4TW
 
smit101 said:
Personally I'd go for the BFG due to the lifetime warranty,I've got the BFG 8800GTX OC which I had to rma recently,completely my fault that the card died though.

I was adjusting a rattling dram cooler with the system running,one of the brackets came loose and dropped onto the GTX! Shorted the card in the process,extremely careless I know.

Anyway I whipped my full cover water block off and replaced with the original cooler,got an rma no,sent card off and had a brand new replacement within a week,no questions asked.(Card not bought from OC'UK)

I'm not suggetsing you'll be as careless as me but it's nice to know if problems do occur you'll get good support.

Card overclocks very easily too,650/2000 np,and if you intend retaining the supplied cooler,it's very quiet.
Click to expand...


Cheers Smit101,
how do you find the GTX on the whole....especially with 1920x1200 gaming ?
One of the reasons I disliked the the HIS X1900 was the intermittent rattle issue with the supplied cooler.......are there any GTX/Ultra worth avoiding that have a rep for something similar ?
 
Lifetime warranty is pointless.
hardc0re_tid said:
id rather go with a brand name, last time i bought an 'OcUK' card, really a Club3D, it went kapoot. brand name 4TW
Click to expand...
Too bad the brand name and the OEM 'OcUK' card is made in the exact same factory or whatever, the only difference is the name, packaging and the content included.
 
Jihad said:
Lifetime warranty is pointless.

Too bad the brand name and the OEM 'OcUK' card is made in the exact same factory or whatever, the only difference is the name, packaging and the content included.
Click to expand...

i wasnt putting the 'ocuk' brand name down, it was club3d. i have never heard of them before and tbh dont want to hear from them again. im not the only one on here who hasnt heard of them and has had something go wrong on them, ill stick with names like asus, bfg, msi etc
 
Jihad said:
Lifetime warranty is pointless.

Too bad the brand name and the OEM 'OcUK' card is made in the exact same factory or whatever, the only difference is the name, packaging and the content included.
Click to expand...

Indeed. Its not like if a card that is faulty and the gets shipped of to BFG and they stick a sticker on it, it then magically works.
 
mcdermotx said:
Cheers Smit101,
how do you find the GTX on the whole....especially with 1920x1200 gaming ?
One of the reasons I disliked the the HIS X1900 was the intermittent rattle issue with the supplied cooler.......are there any GTX/Ultra worth avoiding that have a rep for something similar ?
Click to expand...

I game on a 24inch dell which is the main reason for using a GTX,it plays everything I've thrown at it with ease,played a few of the newer gen games recently,stalker,Bioshock,R6 Vegas,Lost Planet etc all at max settings,gameplay very smooth in all cases.

I don't go crazy with AA 2x or 4x usually,higher if the game needs it but generally at 19x12 the jaggies are much less evident.

I moved over to the GTX from X1900XT crossfire after becoming disillusioned with the lack of crossfire support in the games I played,best move I could have made,the GTX feels light years ahead.

Not too sure about noise comparisons between different manufacturers,I watercool my card so its not really a concern for me,I initially ran with the supplied cooler though and it certainly seemed very quiet.
 
Cheers for the replies lads..
might just plump for one of the GTXs instead of the Ultras, and if need be, do a bit of overclocking (although I'm not a massive fan)..
I've been away from the graphics scene for a while so am I right in just assuming that the only difference between the two is clock and memory speed ?
The stock cooler does look different though..

Would be using it to primarily drive a Dell 24" and the likes of Bioshock, MOH, TF2, Ep2, Crysis, Assasins Creed etc etc etc etc.........so I would be hoping for a big enough jump over the X1900 (Crossfire or not)..
Not overly concerned with DirectX 10.1 incompatibilities as I think thats making a bit of a mountain out of a molehill, and when the time comes, we'll all be using something else !

Only concern left is the size (275mm).....will just need to open up the case to see if I can make room (I think the HDD bay in a Lian-Li PC-S80 may be in the way though:()
 
Ulfhedjinn said:
Yeah, it's he now. :p
Click to expand...

:D

To the OP, go for the OEM you'll hardly need more than one year warranty unless you plan on keeping it longer?. Even then the only way one of these things is going to die is from your carelessness when overclocking as evident with some people, or it arrives DOA :p. I'll be going OEM every time now. Less packaging to mess about with and less bits of paper floating about. OEM just how I like it. A bare card with a few chucked in cables and necessities no more :D.
 
Tom|Nbk said:
I'll be going OEM every time now. Less packaging to mess about with and less bits of paper floating about. OEM just how I like it. A bare card with a few chucked in cables and necessities no more :D.
Click to expand...
I've wished for ages that OEM graphics cards were more common the way you can get bare HDDs and CPUs in little boxes with no extras, pretty rare though and this is the first time I've ever ordered a properly OEM graphics card. Closest I've ever come before is the "Lite" retail boxes Sapphire used to do.

Maybe Gibbo can give take our feedback on OEM products and try to get OcUK stocking more stuff in OEM. :)
 
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