8800 gts superclocked on sale...should i buy it?

[belgolas]

That is a good deal but I wonder if that means a price drop is happening?

[b1lk1]

I doubt it, but I would only buy this card for DX9 use and lower res since it struggles with texture memory problems, especially over 1280X1024 resolutions. I owned a few 320MB cards and it is a crazy fast GPU, but the lower memory cripples it for high resolutions.

[JD]

Works pretty well for me a 1680x1050. Sure I might not get all the AA and AF but I don't mind. Basically doubled my 3DMark06 score from my 7900GTO.

However theres a serious flaw with the NVIDIA drivers which results in the memory becoming full and not refreshing. Thus the computer relies on the hard drive resulting in poor performance. NVIDIA said they would fix this by September. Alt-Tab is currently the way to fix this as it forces the video memory to refresh. I only experienced this in FarCry x64, with 8xQ AA and 16x AF forced through NVIDIA control panel, and it was only near the last level.

I paid $340 (I think) on June 29th for the card. Amazing how much cheaper it is now.

[Dr.Frat]

320MB is horrible. Get at least 512MB

[Amon]

Originally Posted by Dr.Frat

320MB is horrible. Get at least 512MB

What the honest f**k are you talking about?

[JD]

Originally Posted by Amon

What the honest f**k are you talking about?

People are obsessed with "more memory = better video card". Which in most cases its totally not true.

I'm pretty sure my 8800GTS 320MB is faster than a lot of the 512MB cards out there.

[enaberif]

Originally Posted by jdrom17

People are obsessed with "more memory = better video card". Which in most cases its totally not true.

I'm pretty sure my 8800GTS 320MB is faster than a lot of the 512MB cards out there.

More video is better as long as the drivers and everything works well because its less work on system memory for textures and such.

[JD]

My point is if you have an slower GPU say a 8600GTS, 512MB GDDR RAM isn't going to do anything for it. 256MB would probably give the same performance. It only really matters once the GPU can actually render everything in the memory quickly.

An 8600GTS with 512MB is not faster than a 8800GTS with 320MB. Even if you compared the 8800GTS 320MB to the 640MB, theres very little difference in performance. The main boost only really comes when your running a high-resolution or really cranking up the AA/AF. If you can afford a 24" LCD, then you should be buying an expensive video card anyways.

My point is, video memory isn't everything. You need a decent core/GPU as well. That's always been my logic...

[KnSKranky]

http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/pro...0081500&catid=

Look at this deal for an X1950pro, this is an even better deal than all of those regardless of it being a 256mb card. It will beat the pants off any of the others except the 8800gts. The 7950gt/512 is on for $279 too.

[Gamashinoch]

dunno where you guys are seeing a deal? i'm seeing $449 at Futureshop for a 8800GTS at that link. I think they noticed their boo boo. And that price is just ridiculous (but the norm at that shitty store). IF it's too good to be true it prolly is when it comes to hardware at that place.

Also, if you skim through old reviews (maybe newer who knows) the 320mb versions pretty much keep up to the 640mb versions of 8800GTS. I should know since i did the research myself when i bought mine.

Also at NCIX you can get the vanilla 8800 GTS 320mb for 289. That's not that bad. i honestly won't buy another pre-overclocked/superclocked card. My 7900GT was one and now it's dead. If I were running water cooling then sure....i'd grab one.