video card upgrade help.

franpa · Post by **franpa** » Sat Nov 10, 2007 6:14 am

Generic /Gigabyte/Leadtek/ASUS

which of these brands are good? im looking at a geforce 8800GTS 320mb from MSY.

Post by **odditude** » Sat Nov 10, 2007 11:40 am

Not quite answering your question, but I'd highly suggest getting a 8800GT instead. It's a single-slot card that was released just this past week, faster than a GTS and cheaper to boot. (See: AnandTech, HotHardware, [H]ardOCP, etc.)

As for brands, I have no issues with ASUS, XFX, eVGA, MSI, Foxconn... At the moment, it's highly likely that all of the boards are manufactured by Foxconn (or another OEM) anyway; the other vendors just label the cards and apply a custom cooler if they so choose.

franpa · Post by **franpa** » Sun Nov 11, 2007 12:50 am

its memory interface is lower then the GTS, however im not too knowledgeable when it comes to the various aspects of a video card.

from anandtech

The transition to PCIe 2.0 won't be anything like the move from AGP to PCIe. The cards and motherboards are backwards and forwards compatible. PCIe 1.0 and 1.1 compliant cards can be plugged into a PCIe 2.0 motherboard, and PCIe 2.0 cards can be plugged into older motherboards. This leaves us with zero impact on the consumer due to PCIe 2.0, in more ways than one.

so, pcie 2.0 is backwards compatible?IE: 2.0 cards work in 1.1 motherboards?

Clements · Post by **Clements** » Sun Nov 11, 2007 1:17 am

8800GT 512MB >>>>>>>> 8800GTS 320MB. The 8800GT makes the GTS series effectively obsolete.

PCI-E 2.0 cards work in PCI-E 1.0/1.1 slots.

franpa · Post by **franpa** » Sun Nov 11, 2007 1:28 am

Clements wrote:8800GT 512MB >>>>>>>> 8800GTS 320MB. The 8800GT makes the GTS series effectively obsolete.

PCI-E 2.0 cards work in PCI-E 1.0/1.1 slots.

ah cool thanks , and yea thats the impression I'm getting too

thanks guys i might just get that instead of the GTS... does anyone know how big the card physically is?

Post by **odditude** » Sun Nov 11, 2007 1:43 am

Same length as a 8800GTS, just with a single-slot cooler instead of a dual-slot design.

Edit: You might want to read the reviews I linked to in my original reply - all of these questions are answered in them.

franpa · Post by **franpa** » Sun Nov 11, 2007 3:37 am

yep ill finish reading them now.

Cyrus · Post by **Cyrus** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 1:22 am

You should keep in mind that BFG, EVGA and XFX all offer lifetime warranty and their video cards are pre-overclocked to various degrees (such as BFG's OC2, EVGA's Superclocked, and XFX's XXX edition).

If you look around usually you can find the OC2/Superclocked/XXX editions for around the same price as normal ones.

And as everyone else said... you should get a 512MB 8800 GT instead of a 320MB 8800 GTS. Or if you want to spend less you probably will be able to find a Radeon HD3870 for a lower price. But I'm not sure if any companies which sell Radeon cards offer lifetime warranty.

franpa · Post by **franpa** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 3:23 am

yep im planning on getting a BFG 8800gt 512mb OC1 once another price drop occurs (hopefully) after the new 8800GTS is released on the 11th >.>