GeForce 7900 to GeForce 8600 GTS = no improvement?

[zanthor]

I'm interested in knowing how this panned out Sorrowharvester... updates?

[-silencer-]

The 7900 -> 8800 is BARELY an upgrade, on only saw a 10 FPS gain going 7900gt to 8800gtx...

I did too.. until I also upgraded the CPU/mobo/memory. 8800gtx is MUCH faster than 7900gt if cpu/memory bottlenecks are removed for 1920x1200 resolution at high quality settings. If you're running a lower resolution, you probably won't see much of a difference unless you crank up FSAA settings.

[sorrowharvester]

[quote='zanthor',index.php?page=Thread&postID=28831 #post28831]I'm interested in knowing how this panned out Sorrowharvester... updates?[/quote]
[quote]~ 4gb DDR2 PC6400 RAM
~ BFG GeForce 8800GT OC 512mb ($250 on sale at Best Buy!)
~ New Asus AM2 motherboard
~ AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor 6400+ Black Edition (3.2ghz) [/quote]Thanks for asking!

If you want to read the LONG version, it's here:
[url='http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=2821']Hellish Upgrade[/url]

Short version:
Everything finally worked out great. I dropped the MSI board and got an Asus one.
I had a lot of problems and finally realized that my powersupply was the issue. :cursing:
I got a 650w cooler master (after rebates it was $5 at Fry's!).

Addendum:
I started using Keyclone's maximizer instead of the wowmaximizer. I set up MaxFPS to 50fps and MaxFPSbk to 20.
Main runs in the 40s and alts run at a solid 20. In big cities: main runs at 20-35ish and alts hang around the 15-20fps mark.

So all in all, 1 machine, 2 screens, I'm very pleased.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Glad to hear it. I just dropped $1200 on the parts for a new main rig tonight, so I'm pretty jazzed about next week.

[sorrowharvester]

Glad to hear it. I just dropped $1200 on the parts for a new main rig tonight, so I'm pretty jazzed about next week.

Sweet man, let us know how yours goes as well

[MaxD]

I didnt read all of the posts so if it was said I am a dee-tee-dee but how video cards numbers work are. First number in this case 8 equals what series. The next number is the quality of the card from 1-9 The next 2 numbers are the modification numbers of that card. so 7950 > 8600. The 7950 is just a tad faster than some of the 8800s if I remember right. However the 8s do have advantages over the 7s especially if you are running Vista and want to take advantage of the DirectX10 graphics accelerator.

I went with the 8800gt and I like it. It it wasnt as cheap and on a single card slot I would have stuck with my 7950

[-silencer-]

I didnt read all of the posts so if it was said I am a dee-tee-dee but how video cards numbers work are. First number in this case 8 equals what series. The next number is the quality of the card from 1-9 The next 2 numbers are the modification numbers of that card. so 7950 > 8600. The 7950 is just a tad faster than some of the 8800s if I remember right. However the 8s do have advantages over the 7s especially if you are running Vista and want to take advantage of the DirectX10 graphics accelerator.

I went with the 8800gt and I like it. It it wasnt as cheap and on a single card slot I would have stuck with my 7950

No, the 7950 isn't even a tad faster than some of the 8800s. The first number is the series, that much is true. That's the architecture of the GPU. The 2nd number is now it relates to other models - within that series. They're usually separated by cutting the gpu/memory frequencies, number of shader units, memory bandwidth, and memory size. Aside from the 'low' model 200 or 300 models in the geforce series, which aren't designed for good gaming, the series number is usually always going to be an improvement over most models in the previous series.
Here's an example of how the 8800GT (not even GTX) destroys the 7950GT:
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3140&p=11
It's not even close - It's nearly twice as fast in all resolutions. Compare the slower GTS-320MB to the GT, and you'll see that the GTS is still much faster (around 50% faster) than the 7950GT. The numbers aren't as pronounced in tomshardware.com VGA charts, but the 8800GTS is still a faster card. If you step down to the 8600 (mid-level) models, the 7950GT is faster, but not by as much as you'd expect. I would never recommend that someone buy a top model card from a previous series when mid-level current series cards are available. That's like suggesting someone should buy a high end P4 D when mid-level E6300 Core2's are out for around the same price.. architecture improvements make a huge difference.