Try unlinked....740/1800 and see what that gives you and no, the core speed is more important and shows greater benefits than the shader speed....but within reason, if you have to drop shaders by 50mhz+ just to get 5mhz on the core, then no but tinkering is required
^hmm...thanks once again. and i've been tinkering and tinkering the last hour or so
so i went 740/1750 before i saw your above post. so that's close enough to what you suggested. no artifacts (so i figured that was a shader issue if not a combination of things) but the game (Crysis) got jerky sometimes, froze for a split second a few times, and was giving me mediocre performance in general compared to before when i had a stable overclock. then the driver would crash :/
so i did a little googling and settled on 720/1660 and gave it another go. and everything is great
now before i go i just wanna talk about this card a little. if this isn't the best $110 i've ever spent on a computer part idk what is. i come from an FX5200/6600GT/8600GT/8800GS. yeah, the 7 series and first wave of PCI-E passed me by. but anyway, when I got my 8800GS it was quite a leap in quality and performance over anything i had before. i read how its 75% of an 8800GT, with an overclock and below 1680X1050 it could come close to a stock GT, and on and on
ok, so its a good card. it overclocked nice and all that. but for those who said it couldn't match an 8800GT, now i finally understand. I guess it comes down to those stream processors, ROP's, memory bandwidth, and w/e else
because all i can say is WOW after living with this card a few days. i read a post once where a guy said it has more "horsepower" then the 8800GS or 9600GT. at the time i thought 'wtf is he talking about?' because it sounded so vague and somewhat silly. but now it makes perfect sense
the card does have more "horsepower." or at least more torque. if it were a car. its hard to describe, but games play smoother even if running at the same frame rate. frame rates are more consistent and when they drop its not as noticeable. Crysis, COD4, and Call Of Juarez have benefited in particular as they run fairly seamlessly. GRID seems supercharged as well. and its always a nice surprise when i hit a part of Crysis that i expect to slow down or lag from past experience, and it just doesn't. the card just powers through
now, is that to say the 8800GS or 9600GT don't do the job? of course not. they do it great. but not as consistently well or as smoothly
case in point is Call Of Juarez. in DX10 i could go with the 8800GS and get 45 FPS+, give or take. at 1440X900. but the game played sort of plodding. best way i can put it. COD4 sometimes, too. or i'd get a bit of slowdown
but with the 8800GT everything is just smooth, no slowdown, and if it does it remains smooth to the eye. almost as if you have two cars lined up to race. while the 8800GS screams off the line with a fuss and some skidding and jitters, the 8800GT just pulls away smoothly and strongly and stays that way. it is a GREAT gaming experience to play with this card
so NOW i understand the difference for myself. this card may not be the "fastest" around today, but it feels substantial nonetheless. unbelievable for what i paid. i'm gonna have this card until who knows when? i run into a game I can't play with it. and i'm willing to go 1440X900 'cause my monitor scales well. so it'll be awhile
anyway i've ranted enough. i'm just so happy and impressed with my new 8800GT
here are my FINAL overclock numbers. definitely gonna stick with this:
720/1660/950