kpo6969

9600GT = 64SP
I'll stick with the 8800GT

SoloSolider

First off I don't understand why every company keeps putting 1 gig on their cards it has already proven ineffective past 512MB with a 256 Bit interface. Second this card is complete crap MSI is gonna charge about 300 dollars for this card when you can get a 8800GT SSC for the same price and it's better on all levels. If you know a little bit about computers you can over clock the SSC further. Personally I have 2 8800 SC and have them BIOS mod-ed to the SSC edition and have run them that way 24/7. I can easily squeak out another 20-50Mhz out of the core and about another 20Mhz out of both the shader and the memory. While I might have gotten lucky with my cards I still believe that 9k Series so far is nothing but a name change. 1 Gig of ram was already proven ineffective on the 8800GT to boot. The new cooler by EVGA looks nice and sounds like its nice too but I think these companies still fail to realize that people with Dual graphics cards those double wide monsters just are too close together and in the end generate more heat with less airflow. My cards running COD 4 on full graphics never get over 65 C, thats with a volt mod.

Summary: Buy 8800GT SC their still the best bang for the buck.

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Everyone with a powerful rig should at least look into Folding@Home and do at least one Work Unit to contribute to the cause its free. Go Team Overclock.net!! Team Code: 37726

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Fox_Smash

Great,always loved MSI cards!

relic2279

Man, I got into a flame war couple years ago with some fool telling me I didn't need 256MB a ram on my 6600, and that it would be 7-8 years before video cards could use 512. Yes, most games now cannot use a gig of ram. But a year or two from now? Possibly less? I gaurentee there will be games AND programs which could utilize that ram. CUDA anyone? I think a gig of ram a year or two ago would be a poor investment. But now? I think it will extend the useability of your card and possibly add too it as next gen games come out.

EDIT: The exception to this rule are the ones who have the cash to buy a new card every time a new series is released. I usually go a couple years before major upgrades.

~R

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CrazyHeaven

There will be games that can use 1 gig ram. You are right. But by then I will have a new video card to go with said games.

relic2279

The 9600GT's aren't even out yet, and people are saying that the 8800GT's are better cards.

Who knows what the 9xxx series is capable of yet. Who knows what nvidia has done to the architecture of the chip. Possible huge DX10 improvements, CUDA enhancements, HD improvements, ageia physx etc.... There are possibly added features on the card that haven't been announced (or enabled) yet as nvidia likes to hold things back until either perfected, or threatened by ATI.

I'm sure the card will perform increasingly better with driver updates over the next 12 months. I don't forsee the 8800GT making any huge jumps with driver enhancements as the technologys been out for quite awhile. Why is it, that nobody looks ahead? Also, why is it people knock new technology? (exception 6xxx series).
As far as 1 gig of ram on a videocard, see my previous post.


~R

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G|F.E.A.D|Killa

they need to make a solid Nvidia green one. not the PCB green but the bright and vibrant nvidia green.

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I heard Ford is coming out with heated bumpers in 2010 so your hands don not get cold while pushing it.

relic2279

This is totally off topic, but I mentioned the 6xxx series earlier and that got me thinkin.

Since that was a big jump in videocard tech, and probably the most successful to date, I wonder if the new consoles (xbox360 and PS3) had something to do with it. People always assume they benifited from that technology but maybe it was the other way around.

Maybe Sony and MS knew what they wanted in their GPU's, and ATI + NVIDIA had to make it happen. I'm sure they make more money from MS and Sony then you may think. If the money is right, I'm sure they would devote huge amounts of resources to research and devolopment. And since the xbox&ps3 were designed and planned a couple years before they were released, the benifit of that development of GPU technology could have been what sparked the 6xxx series (and ATI's similar cards, which were delayed though if I recall).

If my guess is correct (and I could be totally off base here cause I don't have the facts, and I'm usually an ignorant fool when it comes to tech) then we may see another huge jump in video card technology a year after plans/specs for the next gen consoles are released. The PS3 was delayed due to it's bluray I recall, not because of GPU shortages. So my wierd little tangent still is in play. Anyone care to comment or correct my mistakes?

Oh I apologize for this being totally off topic, I just felt like posting some thoughts... :P

~R

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nathris

1. Its not that we might not need 1GB soon, its that its been proven MANY times that 256bit cards don't have the bandwidth to use 1GB, thats why the 1GB 2900XT uses a 512bit memory interface.

2. The 8800GT is a 9 series card in everything but the retail name, its a G92 based card, and the 9600GT is a G94. They use the exact same architecture except that where the 8800GT has 112SP the 9600GT has 64 SPs, other than that the only other "improvement" is that nVidia is adding an optional DisplayPort connector.

3. The 9600GT has been benchmarked several times, and it has been shown to perform about as well as an HD3870 in most situations.


We aren't going to get a true next gen card until the G100 based 9800GTX which will sport twice the SPs as it's predecessor and have DX10.1/SM4.1 support.

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Leck

Everyone go buy an 8400 and shut up