Time for an Upgrade? 8800GT - ???

[craigwhiteside]

I have been contemplating upgrading my current 8800GT, do you think its worth upgrading to get the extra FPS in current games?

I know the only game i cant play on high if crysis is at 1920x1080, though a mix of medium, and some high balances it out.

Is there any upcoming / other games that require more Graphics processing power than Crysis, if so when?

 

[r9]

I have been contemplating upgrading my current 8800GT, do you think its worth upgrading to get the extra FPS in current games?

I know the only game i cant play on high is crysis at 1920x1080, though a mix of medium, and some high balances it out.

Is there any upcoming / other games that require more Graphics processing power than Crysis, if so when?

I replaced my 9800GT aka 8800GT with 4850. 9800GT was running the games just fine.

 

[DOM]

might wanna upgrade your cpu or get like a 260GTX

 

[craigwhiteside]

might wanna upgrade your cpu or get like a 260GTX

But to what end?, what game cant i run at relatively high settings?

 

[DOM]

huh you lost me

with the 260 ?

 

[craigwhiteside]

Im basically asking whether its worth upgrading now, or wait until i cant play a game at relatively high settings then upgrade (as i can at the moment with the 8800gt and crysis).

So it wasnt specific to the 260GTX.

 

[ShadowFold]

I would upgrade the CPU first. Get a E8400, or Q6600 if you can find one!

 

[DOM]

well if you cant only play that one game at high then you should wait and upgrade your cpu and ram

 

[HolyCow02]

well if you cant only play that one game at high then you should wait and upgrade your cpu and ram

+1.. if crysis is the only game you own that you can't play at high... no need for a new gpu.

 

[CH@NO]

yeah, 8800GT are practically equal to the 9800GT that are a mainstream card and perform very well on today games.

If you only say that your card doesn't run the shitty crysis then there's no need to make an upgrade, even the newest GTX295 can't run crysis maxed aout at highest resolutions, you'll need a HD4870 to do the job and will be bottlenecked by your CPU. It's better to upgrade that CPU of yours for a e8400 (e0) or a Q6600 (g0)

 

[xu^]

even the newest GTX295 can't run crysis maxed aout at highest resolutions, you'll need a HD4870 to do the job and will be bottlenecked by your CPU. It's better to upgrade that CPU of yours for a e8400 (e0) or a Q6600 (g0)

So your saying that a gtx295 "can't" run it maxed out but a hd4870 can ?

 

[CH@NO]

So your saying that a gtx295 "can't" run it maxed out but a hd4870 can ?

sorry...no, I don't mean that.

I say that a GTX295 can't handle Crysis playing at highest res. using max quality, I dunno remember the exact max. res., and he uses a 22" monitor, so I think using a HD4870 will do the job, I just try to evidence that even the high-end models (and high-ended priced) can't handle that game, and using an HD4870 could help him using a 22" monitor.

It's just I'm from Mexico and some times I messed up a whole idea when I write It.

 

[Frizz]

lol even low end cards today handle pretty much every game but crysis and maybe some shitty console ports.

8800GT is still mid ranged for sure, no need to upgrade! But if you decide to upgrade anyway I'd reckon go with a gtx260 or 4870 1gb to see some real improvements.

 

[DrPepper]

I went from an 8800GT to a gtx260 and it knocks the 88 out of the water in terms of performance.

 

[craigwhiteside]

yea, may upgrade on my birthday (april )

or save up for something else..

 

[Kursah]

I love my 260, but an 8800GT is still a pretty potent gaming card. I really do recommend the 2xx series of cards highly, they perform great. I have really enjoyed my card to the extent I have yet to find the max clocks on it because it's either folding or I'm gaming!

My G/F games on a heavily OC'd 9600GT that's been vmodded, it runs great but she's only running 1440x900 on a 19" widescreen lcd. I only game at 1680x1050, which for me is great for now, if I go any larger than my 22" monitor I'll have to get a larger desk lol!

Those e6400's are good processors, I saw in a post above someone recommended replacing it...if you do, don't get another dual...get a quad for a good price, even at that, not a big deal right now. But I would say if you could push a little more out of that 6400, open up your FSB a bit more that might help a little. At 3GHz though, that should be pretty sufficient for most games, there may be some games that are heavier on the CPU dependancy for emulated physics and such that might benefit from higher clocks, but I find 3-3.6GHz is a good sweet spot that is easily achievable.

4GB of DDR2 might help too, especially with more intense games. When that card needs to access textures from system memory and what-not, having more memory is definately a good idea. I'd definately recommend a decent 2x2GB kit, I've had great luck with both the G.skill 2x2GB 1000 and 1066, CL5, blue heatsink kits, both are great and very solid, very cool running and last I checked were around 50 bucks shipped on our side of the pond. Having memory capable of higher speeds might help with overclocking stability? I'm not sure of how that board OC's, but it seems to be pretty decent. Though 400-450FSB would be pretty good.

There's a few ways you could attack this, but I'd start with memory, reason being is on quite a few gaming rigs I upgraded to 4GB from 2GB whether OC'd or not, on XP, Vista and 7 all showed smoother gaming, faster loading, and overall an improved experience beyond just gaming. That 8800GT is a damn fine card, what kind of cooling do you have? Maybe you could consider improved cooling and a vmod if you haven't done so already? Again a lot of directions to go for sure, if Crysis is the only game giving you grief right now...for me that game wouldn't be worth upgrading a vid card for, but that's my opinion.

Though if you do get a GTX260, it will be a good experience I'm sure. They're great performers for the price, the drivers are pretty solid at least in my experience, and they are very overclockable.

 

[craigwhiteside]

I love my 260, but an 8800GT is still a pretty potent gaming card. I really do recommend the 2xx series of cards highly, they perform great. I have really enjoyed my card to the extent I have yet to find the max clocks on it because it's either folding or I'm gaming!

My G/F games on a heavily OC'd 9600GT that's been vmodded, it runs great but she's only running 1440x900 on a 19" widescreen lcd. I only game at 1680x1050, which for me is great for now, if I go any larger than my 22" monitor I'll have to get a larger desk lol!

Those e6400's are good processors, I saw in a post above someone recommended replacing it...if you do, don't get another dual...get a quad for a good price, even at that, not a big deal right now. But I would say if you could push a little more out of that 6400, open up your FSB a bit more that might help a little. At 3GHz though, that should be pretty sufficient for most games, there may be some games that are heavier on the CPU dependancy for emulated physics and such that might benefit from higher clocks, but I find 3-3.6GHz is a good sweet spot that is easily achievable.

4GB of DDR2 might help too, especially with more intense games. When that card needs to access textures from system memory and what-not, having more memory is definately a good idea. I'd definately recommend a decent 2x2GB kit, I've had great luck with both the G.skill 2x2GB 1000 and 1066, CL5, blue heatsink kits, both are great and very solid, very cool running and last I checked were around 50 bucks shipped on our side of the pond. Having memory capable of higher speeds might help with overclocking stability? I'm not sure of how that board OC's, but it seems to be pretty decent. Though 400-450FSB would be pretty good.

There's a few ways you could attack this, but I'd start with memory, reason being is on quite a few gaming rigs I upgraded to 4GB from 2GB whether OC'd or not, on XP, Vista and 7 all showed smoother gaming, faster loading, and overall an improved experience beyond just gaming. That 8800GT is a damn fine card, what kind of cooling do you have? Maybe you could consider improved cooling and a vmod if you haven't done so already? Again a lot of directions to go for sure, if Crysis is the only game giving you grief right now...for me that game wouldn't be worth upgrading a vid card for, but that's my opinion.

Though if you do get a GTX260, it will be a good experience I'm sure. They're great performers for the price, the drivers are pretty solid at least in my experience, and they are very overclockable.

lol big article kursah , yea the highest i can get on my current ram is 413 fsb (which im currently at for 3.3GHz), my ram at default is 667mhz, so i think im pushing it a lot for 826MHz (need to upgrade to 1066 to get some decent overclocking headroom), and about the 4GB, should i switch to 64 bit windows 7, or just enable PAE on my current 32 bit.

As for my 8800GT, it comes with the Accelero S1, with turbo modules so cooling is fine.

Since i got the new montor, i game at 1920x1080 for all my games (including crysis, though im still looking for a good config to play decently with that res)

 

[hat]

Hm, I can play crysis on very high, dx10 and everything and still get about 20 frames solid, and the 9800gt which I have is essentally an 8800gt overclocked a little... but yeah I see you run a higher res then me (my native res is 1440x900)

IMHO the only worthy upgrade from your card would be at least a 4870/GTX260 (or better, of course). But that seems like too expensive an upgrade for the gain you would get, but that's just my opinion.

If I was you, I would get some more, better RAM, and then switch to a x64 operating system. Surely you have some x64 disc "lying around" somewhere...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227298

 

[DrPepper]

Hm, I can play crysis on very high, dx10 and everything and still get about 20 frames solid, and the 9800gt which I have is essentally an 8800gt overclocked a little... but yeah I see you run a higher res then me (my native res is 1440x900)

IMHO the only worthy upgrade from your card would be at least a 4870/GTX260 (or better, of course). But that seems like too expensive an upgrade for the gain you would get, but that's just my opinion.

If I was you, I would get some more, better RAM, and then switch to a x64 operating system. Surely you have some x64 disc "lying around" somewhere...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227298

+1 on that

 

[cornhollio]

yea man ur video card is good, upgrade ur cpu because if u buy a new video card it will be bottlenecked by ur cpu

 

[DrPepper]

yea man ur video card is good, upgrade ur cpu because if u buy a new video card it will be bottlenecked by ur cpu

Won't his cpu at 3ghz only be slightly slower than yours ? I wouldn't call it a bottleneck yet

 

[Kursah]

lol big article kursah , yea the highest i can get on my current ram is 413 fsb (which im currently at for 3.3GHz), my ram at default is 667mhz, so i think im pushing it a lot for 826MHz (need to upgrade to 1066 to get some decent overclocking headroom), and about the 4GB, should i switch to 64 bit windows 7, or just enable PAE on my current 32 bit.

As for my 8800GT, it comes with the Accelero S1, with turbo modules so cooling is fine.

Since i got the new montor, i game at 1920x1080 for all my games (including crysis, though im still looking for a good config to play decently with that res)

Get some decent 1000-1066 ram, and at the 800-850 range at least you should be able to run 4-4-4-12 timings on rated volts, then when you have 4GB I do recommend x64, I use both x64 Vista and 7, I'll never go back to x86...no point. Utilize your 4GB the right way, in x64!

I don't blame you for wanting to play at that resolution, I bet it's sweet for sure! Is Crysis the only game atm that can't quite make the cut?

 

[craigwhiteside]

yup thats the only game
Well this ram is crappy, rated at 5-5-5-15 @ 667.... im amazed i got it to 4-5-5-14 @ 826 lol

and have to push the volts to 2.2 to get the overclock to stick

 

[Kursah]

Well I guess if you really like Crysis, then that's a good enough reason to upgrade for ya, I personally did not enjoy the game for very long, grew bored very quickly. I ended up getting a GTX260 for a couple of reasons, none of which were necessary. One was to put my 9600GT in the G/F's rig for better gaming on her PC, which she really appreciated, two was to get a card that would last me quite a while, so far running since July I've yet to find a game that kills my card at the resolutions and settings I run, including a brief run of Crysis. I'm hoping to keep it for at least another 6 months or more before replacing it, and really I think it'll be good for that stretch.

Though 4GB of ram will probably help in Crysis too, I would still say do that and x64 first, though at that resolution, you're probably knocking the bottom out of your frame buffer on the card and giving that GPU a lot to deal with, that is still a pretty strong card. Though with GTX260 prices falling more and more, you have a good reason to make the jump!

 

[CDdude55]

If you play at 1920x1080 all the time, yes a better card should do better.

The 8800 GT is a good card tho. If you want to play Crysis with all the goods, you will need at least a GTX 260(and even then at that res you more likely wont be able to play with everything on)