BF2S Forums Graphics Cards ~ Newer ones aren't impressive, what do we do now?

SLI,  or maybe crossfire?

Last edited by KEN-JENNINGS (2008-03-26 19:40:49)

ReDevilJR wrote:

I currently have an 8800 Ultra, and it cooks pretty hot at idle and under load. I was in hopes for a new card that could overcome my card, with consuming less power with higher speeds...

9800GX2 isn't an improvement much of any in games such as Crysis (Actually worse in some cases), and it would be difficult to put an after market cooler on (Besides water-cooling)   Not to mention the stock cooling appears to be poorly designed.

9800GTX/S are of higher speeds, but lacks a lot of memory.

So, would it be wise to wait out this phenomenon or to get an after market cooler to OC my card to hold me out for a while?

After market Coolers:

This

And

This.

Thanks for your suggestions.


I have a P-35 Board, so no SLI.

get the 9800gx2 and send the ultra my way
ill pay for shipping

aimless wrote:

I would go for the new cooler. The Ultra still is an amazing card.

That's what I was thinking, and it's not like there's any word of any different cards coming out.

Your 8800 Ultra will likely satisfy your needs for now. Perhaps invest in an external watercooling kit to reduce noise, although I'm not sure what this will do in terms of temperatures as I know graphics cards can run pretty hot. If it isn't going over 65-70c idle it's not too much to worry about. Although I have looked at little information so the resistors etc in the 8800 may be able to handle hotter temperatures.

RivaTuner will not change voltages.

Don't overclock an Ultra. Your performance gains by overclocking will be minimal even if(!) you're able to get shader stability at higher clock speeds. An Ultra is an overclocked 8800 GTX, sort of, so overclocking it is risky with little or no performance gains. IMO 8800 Ultra's are the best card available at the moment (and yet overpriced to), because of memory bus-bandwidth and shear texture filling ability. Ultra's scale a little better than ATI, if you've got the cash, when multiple cards are used. The only way I could possibly play Crysis and get at least 25-30 FPS on high @ 1920 x 1200 resolutions is by doing 780i (or 790i) and 3-Way SLI.

My 3Dmark06 score went from about 18,000 to about 18,800 when I OC'ed my Ultra's with rivatuner (a very good program, I must say). But, the heat/temp. went through the roof(!). These cards run HOT! That's about a 4% performance boost. 4% of 30 FPS = a 1 frame per second increase. Big fucking deal. It was such a small boost and the shaders became a bit unstable. I noticed some peculiar pixel glittering that wasn't there before and I could not FEEL that there was an appreciable difference in basic FPS, so I reset them back to their default settings.

Whatever you do wont satisfy you - IMO. You want what I want. A better graphic solution. It doesn't exist. The 2 best looking games I have right now are Crysis and Gears of Wars (PC version). And both games push my system beyond the GFX-card's ability. I have to make compromises (on image quality in both games): like no AA... or setting a couple; a few; shaders or textures to a lower spec than I really want, etc.

To get a real OC performance increase with your Ultra - you'll need to freeze your system in liquid nitrogen. But that's not a solution. Or, you'll just have to suffer through and wait till a Nvidia 10,000 series card or maybe something new from ATI that I simply don't know about.

ReDevilJR wrote:

kylef wrote:

Your 8800 Ultra will likely satisfy your needs for now. Perhaps invest in an external watercooling kit to reduce noise, although I'm not sure what this will do in terms of temperatures as I know graphics cards can run pretty hot. If it isn't going over 65-70c idle it's not too much to worry about. Although I have looked at little information so the resistors etc in the 8800 may be able to handle hotter temperatures.

I see.. well it idles at 60, goes into the 70's during gaming. I just figured I can OC to possible boost some more FPS in some games. While maintaining great temperatures. (Hoping for lower than 60 during game play)

Just another quick question, Do I need to touch anything in the BIOS when over clocking (Voltage wise)? Or will everything sort itself out when I use Rivatuner to OC the card. Thanks again guys.

What!?!?  It only goes into the 70s?  For a modern high end graphics card that is nothing.  You don't need to start worrying until you find your way into the 90s.  The only reason for changing out the cooler would be if it is getting quite noisy when the fan speed kicks up.

topal63 wrote:

Don't overclock an Ultra. Your performance gains by overclocking will be minimal even if(!) you're able to get shader stability at higher clock speeds. An Ultra is an overclocked 8800 GTX, sort of, so overclocking it is risky with little or no performance gains. IMO 8800 Ultra's are the best card available at the moment (and yet overpriced to), because of memory bus-bandwidth and shear texture filling ability. Ultra's scale a little better than ATI, if you've got the cash, when multiple cards are used. The only way I could possibly play Crysis and get at least 25-30 FPS on high @ 1920 x 1200 resolutions is by doing 780i (or 790i) and 3-Way SLI.

My 3Dmark06 score went from about 18,000 to about 18,800 when I OC'ed my Ultra's with rivatuner (a very good program, I must say). But, the heat/temp. went through the roof(!). These cards run HOT! That's about a 4% performance boost. 4% of 30 FPS = a 1 frame per second increase. Big fucking deal. It was such a small boost and the shaders became a bit unstable. I noticed some peculiar pixel glittering that wasn't there before and I could not FEEL that there was an appreciable difference in basic FPS, so I reset them back to their default settings.

Whatever you do wont satisfy you - IMO. You want what I want. A better graphic solution. It doesn't exist. The 2 best looking games I have right now are Crysis and Gears of Wars (PC version). And both games push my system beyond the GFX-card's ability. I have to make compromises (on image quality in both games): like no AA... or setting a couple; a few; shaders or textures to a lower spec than I really want, etc.

To get a real OC performance increase with your Ultra - you'll need to freeze your system in liquid nitrogen. But that's not a solution. Or, you'll just have to suffer through and wait till a Nvidia 10,000 series card or maybe something new from ATI that I simply don't know about.

I understand where you're coming from, but if I get the new heatsink/fan, my temps should drop a lot. Allowing more OC'ing room, possibly allowing for stability at higher clocks.    I have no intention of ever getting SLI..   So, I was thinking this could possibly hold me over until the new cards come out..

Okay, I think I'm going to order the heatsink/fan combination for several reasons:
1) Lower temps of graphics card.
2) Have some overclocking room to run Crysis (And some future games) smoother.
3) Much better than stock HSF

STILL ONE LAST QUESTION BEFORE I DO THIS!
When placing the heatsinks on the Graphics card, Do I need to spread the AS5 on the GPU thoroughly, or will it spread evenly? And how much, same amount as I would on the processor, a BB size?
(I'm assuming I need to spread it manually as I need to put Ram heatsinks on first.)

Once again, THANKS!!!

Last edited by ReDevilJR (2008-03-30 17:43:46)

GC_PaNzerFIN wrote:

ReDevilJR wrote:

Okay, I think I'm going to order the heatsink/fan combination for several reasons:
1) Lower temps of graphics card.
2) Have some overclocking room to run Crysis (And some future games) smoother.
3) Much better than stock HSF

STILL ONE LAST QUESTION BEFORE I DO THIS!
When placing the heatsinks on the Graphics card, Do I need to spread the AS5 on the GPU thoroughly, or will it spread evenly? And how much, same amount as I would on the processor, a BB size?
(I'm assuming I need to spread it manually as I need to put Ram heatsinks on first.)

Once again, THANKS!!!

I recommend spreading it evenly over the GPU just to make sure. Use same amount as you would for a CPU. (just enough, not too much).

Word, that's what I was thinking. Thanks man.