OK i'm building a new PC and cant find anywhere that compares the 8800 GTX to the 9800 GTX i know somtimes goin for the newer card is often not the best choice so i was wondering if anyone knew about this i will be putting either to SLI but as they are both pretty much same price got me confused.

Ok sorry but found some reviews, only to be more confused lol http://www.legitreviews.com/article/686/1/ thats the review i read it appears to me that the 9800gtx is better but the conclusion says its basicly a lie?

Help :-P

Thanks Justin

I think the 8800 series is still the top of the line.

Although they are similar in price today the 8800's have been reduced from @ $700 a year ago.

We are talking about the top of the line:

8800GTX 768MB VRAM

8800Ultra 768MB VRAM > 1GB VRAM

8800GTX XXX 1GB VRAM

The 9800's do not exceed 512MB VRAM nor do they exceed the bus speed of the top 8800's.

"The GeForce 8800 GTX has a 768MB frame buffer with a 384-bit bus and the just released GeForce 9800 GTX just a 512MB frame buffer on a 256-bit bus."

Again the Ultra or GTX XXX is at 1GB.

I am not a technician but there are plenty of reviews and commentaries out there.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&n...800gtx+9800gtx

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&n...00&btnG=Search

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&n...q=8800+gtx+xxx

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&n...x+&btnG=Search

etc.

Check out Tom's Hardware The Best Gaming Graphics cards for the Money: April 2008. It's updated each month and makes a good read.

personally, if I had to pick between the two, i think the 8800 the 9000 series seems a bit underpowered, however, i will never have to have that choice, im a big ATI fan, 3870 x2 is rating excellent performer for 150 bucks less then the 9800 x2, for at least equal if not slightly better performance. but in the end, its your computer, and your system, and you need to make sure that whatever you purchase you need to be happy with. if you like nvidia, go nvidia, if you have to have the newest, go with the 9000 series, if not get the 8800, from what ive been reading the 9000 series is based on the same foundation as the 8000 series, same 65 nm GPU, same base technology just with what nvidia considers and upgrade (and may be, not bashing it) and fancier packaging.

Thanks for your replys on this i ended up finding a real good price on an XFX 8800GTX XXX 768mb version £200 to be precise so naturally i grabed 2 of these now i'm stuck with no PCI-E slot/s :-D

Whats a good affordable £50 - £100 board that will run these cards, i'm thinking putting the Q6600 in it also... i'm upgrading my pc so may aswell do the whole caboodle planning on keeping my 2 ide HDDs 1 sata and 2 DvD drives but the rest is being changed lil help and advice greatly appreciated

You will need a new PSU as well. It needs to be PCI_E 2 SLi Ready as well as Quad Core Ready.

With those two cards I'd suggest a minimum wattage of 750. I'd go with 1,000 myself.

One thing you will find with new motherboards is that they have gone to one IDE channel.

They expect people to use SATA drives now. So you are limited to two IDE drives or else you need to get a IDE PCI Controller card. Theses are fairly inexpensive.

Next you need an SLi Ready motherboard. This will most likely have three PCI_E 2 X 16 slots. Two @ 16and the third @ 4 for a potential Physics card.

I am unfamiliar with UK shopping options but from this site I will pick a few:

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/sto...&show_all=true

This one contradicts my previous statement as it does have two IDE channels plus SATA. It has two PCI_E X 16 slots as well:

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/sto...ory_oid=-28009

I would go to the manufacturers web site to verify details. Verify for example that both PCI_E X 16 slots are PCI_E X 16 - 16. Some boards reduce the second slot to PCI_E X 16 - 4. Also verify that they support PCI_E 2.

That web site has a very limited selection.

Can you link to an online store that you know of in the UK?

If so we can view more choices together.

The best and cheapest site i know of is www.ebuyer.com where i usually buy most my pc stuff

Okay. Thanks. I'll look at it this evening and pick out a few things.

This is basically the same board we saw at PCWorld:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/125082

You will note here the PCI_E spec:

2 x PCI Express x16
- Single VGA mode: x16 (Default)
- SLI mode: x8, x8

This board's technology is a couple of years old. It is not PCI_E 2 and it reduces the GPU speed to x8 in SLi.

On the positive side are the 2 IDE channels plus the price.

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This board is totally out of your budget but I just thought I'd show it. This would be considered todays "state of the art" in motherboards:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/142919

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This board is only slightly over your budget but will give you the maximum benefit from your graphics cards:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/132813

This only has the one IDE channel as do most newer boards.This technology is just a year old. I have used these boards with good results.

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Here is one in your budget but again the second PCI_E slot is limited:

1 PCI Express x16, 1 PCI Express x16 ( X4 mode )

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/129126...oduct_overview

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Here is their full list of boards:

http://www.ebuyer.com/search/?intStoreID=2&intCatID=14

Just from the first few pages you may find this board to be the cheapest utilizing the full potential of your graphics cards:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/132813

Everything I see so far under that price reduces the GPU multiplier on the second card slot. I have only looked a few pages however. Keep looking and see if you find anything.



Here are their PSU's:

http://www.ebuyer.com/search/?intStoreID=2&intCatID=149


Something like this would be ideal but I am guessing the price is going to surprise you unpleasantly:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/132289

You do need SLi Ready and Quad Core Ready (if you are going to quad core). Those graphics cards require two 6 pins a piece or maybe even a 6/8 depending on the model. That means the PSU needs 4 x 6 pin leads or 2 x 6 & 2 x 8. For the CPU it needs the 8 pin rather than the older 4 pin ATX.

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Here is another:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/134694

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Again many pages to browse through.

Keys are at least 700 Watts. SLi Ready. Core Duo (if not quad core) Ready. 2 x 6 pin / 8 pin PCI_E. In other words 4 leads. You can see on your cards if they are 2 x 6 or the 6 / 8 combination.

WoW that is real helpful i didnt expect so much detail, thank you very much for this i decided to go with the
ASUS P5K AiLifestyle Series iP35 Socket 775 eSATA 8channel Audio ATX Motherboard
Coolermaster RealPower 700W Modular PSU - SLI Ready
Corsair 4GB Kit (2x2GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 XMS2 Memory Non-ECC Unbuffered CL5(5-5-5-18) Heat Spreader