9800gtx vs 9800gx2 vs 260gtx?

[Taker254isback]

Hey guys I have a lil comparison question for you maybee you can shed some light for me.I have a E2180 Pentium D 2.0 Ghz 1mb cache OC to 3.2,4GB of DDR2-667 Mhz ,Corsair 750TX PSU on a P5N ASUS MOBO- running Vista x64,and a Samsung 19" 1400 x 900 resolution.What video card should I go for? 9800 GTX,9800GX2 or just go for a 260 GTX?These are my choices cuz of the resolution and size of my monitor,I think going for a 295 would be overkill and a waste of money. Im not to fond of AMD cards(even dough i heard wonders bout the 4850 and 4870).Im running a 9400GT(unfortunately its fake cuz its only has 64-bit chip when its supposed to have 128) but it runs the games from yesteryear pretty impressively but its time to bump it up and these rants and raves over "CRYSIS" and "FARCRY" are driving me nuts and I gotta see em´for myself.Im having issues choosing,since theyre all in the same range now....atleast on Ebay.I was even considering going for a ol´8800 Ultra...gimme your opinions guys.I have a 300$ bankroll.

[UZ7]

The 9800GTX would be good for your setup. The GX2 is nice but driver support is still buggy on the GX2s. The 260 will be somewhat of an overkill if you're going to play on those resolutions but then again you'll be good for another 6months-1year of gaming (future-proof). If you go for the 260 you will have some bottleneck and you won't be seeing its full potential till you get a faster CPU or an OC of 3.4-3.6GHz.

Your current OC shouldn't bottleneck a 9800GTX. Any of the cards is fine, the 9800GTX will play Crysis and FarCry2 on high settings on those resolutions. A 260 will run it fine at highest resolution. The 9800GTX is good for todays games, the 260 will pretty much outlast the 9800GTX so its pretty much up to how much you're willing to spend.

[Taker254isback]

Thanx alot UZ7! I was already leaning towards the 9800 gtx hence my resolution.Should I consider the 9800 gtx+ OC?and what about the 4850 or 4870?I hate ATi I really do but poeple keep telling me that for the money,pound for pound theyre better than a 9800gtx,even the OC+.Theyre all in the 200$-250$ range.

[UZ7]

Well going to the red team the HD4850 is comparable to the 9800GTX in terms of performance and the HD4870 is noticeably faster than the 9800GTX but it also runs a lot hotter( with that much stream processors running.. lol) so you need to either improve the cooling or keep the stock fans at mid level speeds (louder).

With the 260, price range $240-$300. (future proof, fast card, some bottleneck)
With the 9800GX2, price range $250+. (still expensive, good card, buggy drivers)
With the 9800GTX, price range $150-210 (good to have 1gb version, nice card, runs very cool and mature drivers)

With the HD4850X2, price range $300+ (runs hot as well, good card just lack driver support)
With the HD4870, price range $180-250 (good to have 1gb version, nice card, runs very hot)
With the HD4850, price range $140-200 (really good alternative to the 9800GTX, nice card, runs mild-hot temps)

The rest of the cards 4870X2, 280, 285, 295 are all going to be $300++

********************

This is going to be a little mixed suggestion, the 9800GTX or the 4870/4850 will be good cards and really big improvement over your current card. They will run perfectly for your resolution and run the games you want at a high setting. You can save half of that paycheck and buy a 22" for about $150~ and running at a 1680x1050 resolution those cards above will still run fine.

Other things to consider. If you go with the the 260 though, you can save up later on to up grade the CPU and the Monitor and your card will still be good for another year or two. Heck the 9800GT/GTX were updated 8800s which what.. came out 2007? heh so upgrading the engine you can buy a new body/tires later... or buy a good engine and buy tires for it .

[gamerk2]

The GX2 is getting better, but falls victim to SLI bugs single card setups will not run into. If you can find one near the $200 range, its still a good buy.

[Taker254isback]

thanx alot guys you guys r are the man,since i got a nvidia chipset ima stick to a 9800gtx and maybee run sli and get 2

[Charliew87]

I was in the same possition as you are. I used 1440 reso too so i figured the GX2 or GX260 would be overkill, but when I got my 9800GTX+ I got a flawed model that had to be downclocked to 760mhz (775 original) to actually work good.

I changed it for a GTX260 and I couldnt be happier. The GTX260 isnt THAT much more expensive and it performs on a totally different level as far as I can tell. I run Farcry 2 at absolute max with 4x AA with the same performance as I had at 1280x1024 @ high , 2xAA on my 9800GTX+.

Crysis Warhead @ Enthusiast 1440x960 , 8XAA-Q at a playable framerate (and im picky ).


Never ASUS graphicscard for me again, Im guessing that stood for a part of the performance difference too. XFX really is top of the line, but I have yet to try the BFG ones too .


+1 for the GTX260 imo, and you can upgrade your mem to 800mhz later on

[Taker254isback]

you guys know a good spot online to get good prices on cards?

[Crisis66]

I'd go with the 9800GTX or even 9800GTX+ with your rig. Both are very nice cards are should meet most of your gaming needs.

In regards to a site to check prices, the one everyone uses is newegg.com

http://www.newegg.com/

[Taker254isback]

really charlie? so u would recomend a 260? thats what UZ7 is telling me,hes saying that the 9800 will do good for my setup but that in the long run the 260 is gonna pay off.thanx for that info thats helps alot since u know where im comming from.

[Taker254isback]

newegg? thanx ima click your link as we speak

[Taker254isback]

So many choices!!! What to choose??!! Where do i go??!! Where do i start??!! Wow!!! Most importantly what do i want!!!???

[weebeast]

9800GTX for 19 inch

22 inch 260 GTX above GX2(gx2 is slower)

[gamerk2]

Originally Posted by weebeast

9800GTX for 19 inch

22 inch 260 GTX above GX2(gx2 is slower)

The GX2 typically runs close to the much more expensive 280, but runs out of steam at high resolutions. Typically, the GX2 will get a higher average framerate, but will have lower minimum rates than the 260 will.

If your considering SLI'ing a 9800 (+), you might as well get the GX2. At your resolution, it fits with what you want. That being said, due to its occasional issues, I wouldn't spend more than ~$250 on one, max, and the 260 is an overall better package.

[DSK]

Originally Posted by Taker254isback

So many choices!!! What to choose??!! Where do i go??!! Where do i start??!! Wow!!! Most importantly what do i want!!!???

I have owned > 9600GT,9800GT,9800GTX+,GTX260 (not in that order)

i would really recommend a GTX260 alot better card than i thought it would be but the 9800GTX+ was good for the price, overclocked well ran cool also.

if you want everything maxed with no FPS drop i would go GTX260 but as you have a Nvidia chipset the 9800GTX+ would be good to have it run in SLI which is a big bonus the reasons for buying a card makes you start going in circles lol.

It can be mind twisting to choose a videocard they all have ups & downs its annoying

now the HD4870 i have also owned it runs hot but once you have the fan @ 35% you are usually good to go i'v never had a big or very annoying problems with it or any ATI cards infact.

So my conclusion is get the GTX260 it will not disappoint you i could run crysis @ Ultra and still get a decent framerate with no AA @ 1280x1024.

And remember you can always go GTX260 SLI down the road

[weebeast]

Originally Posted by gamerk2

The GX2 typically runs close to the much more expensive 280, but runs out of steam at high resolutions. Typically, the GX2 will get a higher average framerate, but will have lower minimum rates than the 260 will.

If your considering SLI'ing a 9800 (+), you might as well get the GX2. At your resolution, it fits with what you want. That being said, due to its occasional issues, I wouldn't spend more than ~$250 on one, max, and the 260 is an overall better package.

same framerate in cod4 and 5 but GX2 gets pwned in crysis,crysis warhead,far cry 2

I got a 260 gtx now so i know which card is better

[Gromuhl'Djun]

So the GX2 seems to fail where it matters.... shame

for the OP's rig I would say the 9800GTX because it's much cheaper than the 260 and won't make much of a difference on that rig and 1440x900 (except in very heavy games like crysis)

[weebeast]

The gx2 is not bad in cod 4 and 5 but it in fc2 and crysis it has lower fps

In GRID it lags a bit(fps drops)

Its runs very hot! 60 degrees with fan set too 45% lol(idle temp)
My 260gtx runs 44 degrees with fan set too 40%(idle temp)

[slickric21]

I had a 9800GX2 before got my gtx 260 (55nm ssc).

I've posted this several times now all over the place but its true in my experience.
In games which you don't need more FPS (vs 9800gtx or 8800gtx) the 9800GX2 will churn out amazing framerates, eg games like COD4 - ones which run good anyway on cheaper/cooler/less power hungry cards.

In the games which you need the extra FPS eg Crysis, Farcry 2 the 9800gx2 bombs out big time.

I consider the GTX 260 an big upgrade over the 9800GX2.

Less heat, consumes less power, less noise, better driver support, smoother gaming (cos of more vram + wider bus)

[Taker254isback]

Ok guys the verdicts in ive heard enough ! And i have placed my order and this is what i got....
Not 1 but 2 gtx260´s,i got a deal for em´ $390 plus s&h and i got myself and extra 2gb of ram to go with it. Its a lil more than i wanted to spend but its better safe than sorry and after what i heard from you guys i shouldnt complain for a very long time and should be able to eat crysis alive.i looked at the 280s and 295s but they go for some serious dough.and i guess my next step is see if i can oc the cpu a lil further.im running 3.2 right now and i did get it to 3.4 but the core temp was really high so for safe measure i kept it at 3.2. I like to thank:
Uz7,gamerk2,charliew87,weebebast,and the rest of you that really came through,cuz this $hit is realy confusing if u dont know where to start lol
i even emailed albert at tigerdirect but i know hes a ati guy and he wouldove recomended a 4850 or 70 and again not that im hating on amd i just like nvidia.what ever happened to that logan dude? He was a real nvidia fan lol...thanx alot guys

[viren]

Late but better than never, i suggest go for 9800gtx+ and upgrade your processor instead.

[DSK]

GTX260 SLI FTW

[Taker254isback]

Lol your 22 mininutes late lol...next month im definately changing cpu.im going for a "pentium d ee,"3.73 ghz,diable bit,speedstep,4m cache,ht enabled.
The reason i stick with these older pentiums is that theyre practically core 2 duos but cheaper and theyre kookie overclockers.my current cpu which is a 2180 came stock at 2.0 ghz and i got it upto 3.4 like nothing on stock air.ive even heard reports of poeple hitting 4ghz stable on em but i have yet to see that myself.thats why i got my asus p5n cuz its go the sli capability and asus is really good for overclocking.i was gonna get a ds3r but it was morefor ati and i really wanted to run sli.

[DSK]

no no no dont get a Pentium D worse thing you could ever do !!

[Taker254isback]

Why you say that? A core 2 duo si the same crap unless i gofor a quad core or a phenom