Sold some old PC stuff on eBay so got some funds, only £100 or so, but looking at getting an 'upgrade' for my 8800GS. So I thought 9800GT, but what about an older generation 8800GTX card - which is bettter in your opinion? Thanks
9800GT will use less electricity and is single slot. I don't know about folding performance but gaming-wise the 8800 GTX is a reasonable amount faster and it has the added bonus of more memory
Neither, 4850's can be had for well under £100 now and even a 512MB 4870 can be had for under £110, both we be considerably faster than a previous generation nVidia card.
Whilst the ati cards may be faster at gaming, I assume HoistaWheelie is more interested in folding performance since it is within the 'Custom PC and bit-tech Folding Team' forum, in which case the NVidia cards will provide more ppd.
Well an 8800GTX has 128 stream processors vs 112 for the 9800GT but the stock shader clock favours the GT by 150MHz. You can play the OCing lottery if you like, since extra stream processors mean a greater potential but you would need a monster OC on the GTX to beat a modest OC on a GT. All in all, the 9800GT is the better choice imo. If you are happy to go with second hand older generation cards though, the 8800GT is the same as a 9800GT and you can find some bargains on ebay which should give a healthy chunk of change from 100 quid.
I got both cards and the 8800GTX produces about 800-900 more PPD than the 9800GT BUT the 8800GTX will use more power.
go for 1 of these beauties http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials...0+SONIC+216SP+PCI-E+2+?productId=36731:thumb:
Looks like the Aria deal sold out, unfortunately. I don't how much it was at Aria, but you can get a GTX260(216) for around £130 from CCL.
If you remomove the "thumb" from the end ot the link Mr Gumby provived, it works, was £115 at Aria. http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Other+products/896MB+GTX+260+SONIC+216SP+PCI-E+2+?productId=36731
How can the 9800GT be better than the 8800GTX, deadpunkdave? You even state that the 9800GT is the same as the 8800GT, and there's no way that the 8800GT is better than the 8800GTX, nVidia's flagship at the time. Did I misread your post?
No, I don't think you misread, I think I just explained poorly. For folding, an 8800GTX will be better out of the box but if you overclock both cards then there's a good chance that the GT will be better. I've got 2 9800GTs and 2 8800GTs and the worst overclocker among them has a shader clock of 1700MHz, up from 1500MHz and the best one is at 1820MHz, and that's with the crappy coolers that came with the cards. At those speeds I get more ppd than a stock 8800GTX would give me. The question becomes how well the hotter running GTX overclocks. Generally, the limit for stability on those is around a 10% OC. Now, what follows is NOT scientific in the least, but I have found that to first order it gives a useful guide as to how a card will fold. Please don't flame me for it (though feel free to point out the limitations), this is just something I use. Taking the number of stream processors and multiplying by shader clock speed gives: Heavy OC (1800MHz) 9800GT: 201600 Medium OC (1700MHz) 9800GT: 190400 10% OC (1485MHz) 8800GTX: 190080 Stock 8800GTX: 172800 Stock 9800GT : 168000 For the GTX to match the heavily OC'ed 9800GT, it requires a shader clock of 1575MHz which is a 17% OC. With some aftermarket cooling you might reach that. This is what I meant by playing the OCing lottery; if you get a good GTX and manage to OC the nuts off it, it will beat anything a GT can come up with, but with the GT you have a better chance of getting a big OC. The above measure does not scale exactly to folding performance but like I said, I've found it to be a good guide. In fact, with the GTs, a 20%OC has yielded around a 15% boost to ppd.
Can see your logic there very well Deadpunkdave buttttt having played a lot myself with both cards the 9800GT's become very unstable and dies (killed & RMA'd 2 now) with heavier overclocks! My BFG OC2 8800GTX I have the shaders clocked at 1612mhz = 206336 which blows the doors off any of my 4 x 9800GT's, they cant even come close to the GTX now matter how hard I push em! The 8800GTX does produce more heat granted but crank the fan speed up which I can bearly hear on 100% and your sorted, my does not go over 70 degrees in a normal room in an Antec 902 case. Plus folding aside the 8800GTX absolutely kills the 9800GT in every game
Thanks coola, I'm now scared to death that I'm crippling my cards And... wow, that's a monster clock speed on a GTX, kudos. I guess they have had some undeserved bad press or maybe most just won't take the fan to 100%.
No worries bud, the good old 8800GTX is still quite a capable card for its age Ive had the shader clocked that high for over 6 months now and its not complained yet, not had the balls to push it any further though haha
