9600 GT vs. 8800 GT

[Legolewinsky]

I can't decide on which one to get. I'm going to be using it to play games like Crysis, and I'm not sure if the 9600 is powerful enough. any advice?
I don't really want to spend too much, and I noticed that the 9600 is quite a bit cheaper. is it worth spending the extra for an 8800 GT?
here are the specific ones i'm looking at, in case that helps at all

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130328
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130318

[Ajmukon]

money means a lot in the computer world.

if it is cheaper, it is LESS performing. (generally, there are exceptions) (mostly true with graphic cards)

it you want performance, get the more expensive card.

[odannyboy000]

I'd go with the 8800gt.

[jlreich]

I just went through the same quandary over these two cards just a couple of weeks ago. After going through the benchmarks and several articles I opted for the 8800GT, in fact the exact card that you linked to.

Overall, the 8800GT has about a 12% performance gain over the 9600GT according to the benchmarks. Worth the extra $25 in my opinion. Although they are both are great bang for the buck cards, you need all you can get when it comes to games like Crysis.

I have been quite happy with my 8800GT. You will need Riva Tuner to boost the fan speed to keep it cooler. This is true for both cards though.

I have not yet picked up Crysis. I have been trying to decide on getting Crysis or Gears of War. I will probably end up getting both at some point, but which to get first? :p

Here are some stats that I have gotten from my current games at stock speeds in win XP.

Oblivion- around 50+ FPS outside for the most part, with occasional drop to around 30 in certain circumstances. Everything on max with the exception of leaving internal and external shadows on their default settings, which is perfectly fine with me. :cool: Anything inside isn't even a challenge for the card. ;)

COD4- Pretty much the same deal as Oblivion when out in the open and there is everything going on. Lots of smoke, explosions, and fighting going on everywhere. When you are running through town between buildings and such you easily reach well over 100 FPS. I have noticed that the explosions are much better than my old 7900GS. I now get a distortion of the surrounding air when grenades and such go off. :cool: That would be the new shader support that the old 7900 series doesn't have I would guess.

HL2: Lost Coast video stress test- Average of 167 FPS. OC'ing the cards core speed 25MHz brought this up to 189 FPS.

Need for Speed: Carbon- With everything maxed it never dropped below 100 FPS.

E6750 2.66GHz currently @3.0GHz
Gigabyte EX38 motherboard
4GB Corsair XMS2 DDR-800 @900MHz
88000GT - stock speeds

With everything at stock speeds I got a 3Dmark05 score of just under 18000. I haven't done it again with everything over clocked yet. Or with 3dMark06.

[jlreich]

I forgot to mention I have a standard aspect 19" LCD with a native resolution of 1280x1024. If you run at a higher resolution it will make difference.

[Legolewinsky]

Okay, thanks a lot. And while I'm at it, I heard that ATI is better. Is this true?

[jlreich]

No not really. Have a look at Tom's Hardware Guide (http://www.tomshardware.com/graphics/index.html). Read the "The Best Gaming Graphics Cards for the Money: March 2008" article. It will give a good run down of the various offerings out there right now and may help you decide on what will work best for you.

[Legolewinsky]

thanks a lot! that really helped!
oh, and why exactly is intel better than AMD?

[jlreich]

Well, that question can lead down some long dark roads. Do you have a couple months to spare? :p If anyone remembers the long in depth threads with Saphalline all I have to say is... pipelines. :eek:

In a nutshell, since the release of the Core/Core2 architecture Intel has been the hands down champ in the CPU department. Without going into detail about why lets just say pretty much all the benchmarks have put Intel on top by a wide margin ever since. If you look on the left menu at the link to Tom's and find the CPU charts you will find the Intel E6750 dual core does as well or a little better at most tasks than the latest Phenom quad core AMD has just released a little while ago. A dual core that has been out for awhile that does as well or slightly better than the latest quad?! Enough said I would think!

Don't get me wrong, I am actually an AMD fan. And there CPU's are good. But there is no question right now which of the big CPU manufacturers are the best.

I do look forward to when AMD gets their act together and their spider platform matures. Or they move on to something better.