holy crap 8800 GT smokes

[BaneNWN]

Just laid in my new 8800 GT 174,866 Aquamark score my minimum FPS was 104.3 with the x1900 it was minimum 41.3 damn this thing doesnt slow down for nothing.

GFX score 35'133 compared to 21k for the x1900xt
CPU score 17'392 vs 11k for the 5600+

Unreal improvement i gained 80 FPS overall ill bench some other tests tonite and see what i get like 3dmark 06

[G07H1C]

Might want to set your eyes on a couple more gigs of ram, some of those marks are way up there, definitely high end now! I'm curious about your "3dmark 06", let us know.

[Mochan]

Hell yeah the 8800GT is smoking. The scary thing is the 4800 is apparently even hotter!

I can't help but think though that Nvidia will release another trump in a few months time, they have had enough time to prepare another lineup (9800 series) before ATI released their Ace, I am sure Nvidia wouldn't have released the 9800 series if they didn't have a 10800 series thing up their sleeves to spring on AMD once AMD played their hand.

[Aku]

OMG, he's gonna be crowing until the end of the year. Congrats on your big new rig.

[BaneNWN]

Might want to set your eyes on a couple more gigs of ram, some of those marks are way up there, definitely high end now! I'm curious about your "3dmark 06", let us know.nah i feel like the sweet spot for ram right now is 2 gigs ive heard of more problems with slowdown using 4 gigs then anything.probably by the end of summer ill slap a couple 2 gig sticks in here will see

[G07H1C]

I hear ya! Sweet rig dude!

[BaneNWN]

11803 in 3dmark06 does that seem low to everyone?hmm might be something weird going on here

[PapaSmurf]

Bane the X1900 club misses you, I'm still hanging around in it.

[G07H1C]

11803 in 3dmark06 does that seem low to everyone?hmm might be something weird going on here

No, that is not low, actually that is quite impressive - if I'm not mistaken!

[BaneNWN]

well ive decided im going to build up on what i have.i got a decent mobo however it doesnt allow me to overclock so thats step number 1.then im going to get me an after market cpu cooler my minimum goal is 3.6 gig hoping for 4 but not sure my ram could handle that its not cheap ram by any stretch but mismatch 1 gig samsung and 1 gig buffalo.my 8800 GT runs alittle warm idle like 55-60 ceclius and underload i pinch 80 celcius so i downloaded rivatuner and keep my gpu fan running at 50% on windows startup so now i stay between 50-52 idle and dont go much past 70 celcius load.ive used riva tuner before but never got this indepth with it,it sure is a nifty little tool.setting fan speeds to kick in if your gpu reaches certain temps is a poor mans aftermarket cooler but it works nice.

This cpu was made for overclocking otherwize i wouldnt even bother.I think some guy on another forum got 4.7 gig out of it and 4 gig on air is not uncommon.Its nice to know at the very least another gig of proccesor speed can be had before upgrading down the road

[BaneNWN]

One thing i dont really know much about is RAM i might have just scored 2x2 gigs of crucial ram for 88$ that sound like a deceent deal?its ddr 2 800 what i have now is 667 but only have 2 gigs so instead of buying 2 more 1 gig sticks of 667 mhz does the added 133 mhz ram speed make a huge difference?

[Mochan]

Well it does actually, but depending on your board you probably should have opted to get 1333 if your board allows it. What board did you get?

[G07H1C]

I'm a firm believer that you can never have to much RAM! Did you get (2) 2 gig sticks or (2) 1 gig sticks, the only reason I'm asking is because some of the lower cas latency is still selling at higher prices (2x 1gig stick $88), either way DDR2 800 mhz is faster. If you found (2) 2 gig sticks for that price, nice deal.

Like Mochan stated, if your mobo can actually handle the 1066 - 1333 ram, it is even faster!

[BaneNWN]

I'm a firm believer that you can never have to much RAM! Did you get (2) 2 gig sticks or (2) 1 gig sticks, the only reason I'm asking is because some of the lower cas latency is still selling at higher prices (2x 1gig stick $88), either way DDR2 800 mhz is faster. If you found (2) 2 gig sticks for that price, nice deal.

Like Mochan stated, if your mobo can actually handle the 1066 - 1333 ram, it is even faster!

My mobo can only handle 800 mhz and i got 2x2 gig sticks for $88 so thats 4 gigs total.I got an executive series mobo there good mobo's just not alot u can do with them as far as overclocking.Later on down the road ill get an asus mobo or something that overclocks well but for now i figured id just get the ddr 2 800 ram.ill just save the ram i got now for backup

[G07H1C]

Good deal! My mobo can only handle 800 mhz also, very little with oc'ing. 4 Gigs of DDR2 800 will work great with the rest of your set up. You will continue to see some differences, but I'm not sure that you will see them in your benchmarks, in games you should!

You have definitely upgraded to a nice rig!

[BaneNWN]

Good deal! My mobo can only handle 800 mhz also, very little with oc'ing. 4 Gigs of DDR2 800 will work great with the rest of your set up. You will continue to see some differences, but I'm not sure that you will see them in your benchmarks, in games you should!

You have definitely upgraded to a nice rig!

Im trying lol.like ive said before ive always been a generation late on things and well its worked out i guess i just reached the point where i feel like i want solid stuff i make decent money now and its time i can finally get any game i want and not have to look and see what i need to run it.I ran crysis today 1680x1050 res everything set to high including shadows and shaders and never dropped below 27 fps.just by turning the shaders to medium my FPS jumped to a low of 88 fps to a high of 125 fps its crazy how much the shaders affect framerate

[G07H1C]

I know what you mean, Ive always been on a budget, most of the time I have to settle with the next best! That's ok though!

It's amazing what they have done with graphics over the years, seems like yesterday nVidia & ATI were still testing pixel rendering, shaders, antialiasing, and light! Now, it's what can't they do with the technology!

Your set, there is no doubt, and I believe you will like your RAM too!

[BaneNWN]

Brand New Crucial 4GB 2x2GB PC2-6400 DDR2 Memory For Desktop PC

Brand New, Sealed in Retail Box,

Never Opened, Never Used, Not Refurbished.



Also Compatible with PC2-4200 /533mhz and PC2-5300/667MHZ DDR2 Systems.



Specifications:



* Capacity: 4GB
* Module Number: 2
* Memory Socket: 240-pin DIMM
* Type: 240-pin DDR2 DIMM
* Speed: PC2-6400 800Mhz
* Latency: 6
* Signal Processing: UNBUFFERED
* Error Checking: NON-ECC
* Voltage: 1.8V
* Configuration: 256MB x 64
* Warranty: Lifetime Limited

$83.95 + $9.99 shipping = $93.94

I always thought ram was ram but who knows anymore

[G07H1C]

No, RAM is not just RAM. (1) It is a good deal! (2) Some people like & use only buffered ram, not real sure why. (3) Cas Latency is a bit high, standard is 5, I have 4, the lower the better & the more expensive in most cases!

[BaneNWN]

No, RAM is not just RAM. (1) It is a good deal! (2) Some people like & use only buffered ram, not real sure why. (3) Cas Latency is a bit high, standard is 5, I have 4, the lower the better & the more expensive in most cases!

so do you think since the latency is 6 should i not get it?u got me kind of worried now i dont want crap ram if its going to studder for me playing games.id have to look at the latency of the ram i got now.ive had no problems with this ram so im kinda hoping it has a latency of 6 so then ill know the new ram will be solid lol

[BaneNWN]

ok the memory i got now is cas# latency 5 clocks well i guess getting one thats faster but with 1 higher latency isnt a good idea?

[PapaSmurf]

As G07 said, the lower the catency the faster the information will flow. It's sort of like you're ping in an online game. The higher the number the worse it gets.

As in terms of the actual benefit of it. When I last bought Ram I just got Cas Latency at 4, because it's supposed to be better the lower and as G07 pointed out the standard is five. As to the actual difference in performance, I can't think that it would be much. Again the real deal with the RAM is more how much you have of it. For instance if you could get 2 Gigs of ram with a CL of 6 or 1 gig of ram with a CL of 3, clearly you'd go with the two 2 gigs. If you know that you're going to get a set ammount of gigs no matter what, I'd just go for the deal. If you can find something with a lower CL at maybe a couple bucks more i'd say go for it, but in my personal experience I haven't noticed much of a performance difference.

Keep in mind I really don't test for it either, but yea.

[BaneNWN]

well ive decided against the ram ill buy 1 more gig alittle later on but i read that windows xp doesnt support 4 gigs of ram it only reads up to 3 gigs or something so getting 4 gigs right now would be a waste.i really only wanted 4 gigs for hosting purpouses so ill just settle for 3 cause im really not wanting vista right now i think that supports 16 or 32 gigs.windows xp home which is what i have only supports 3 gigs

[G07H1C]

I believe that XP Professional recognizes 4 GB of RAM, you may not see all of it because of certain hardwares and video cards utilize from 500MB to 1.5GB in some cases (gaming rigs), so without going into great detail, because I'm no expert - I would recommend using the 4GB. This is my opinion, and 3 GB will work just fine!

Only other comment is that the difference seems to be 32 bit operating systems vs 64 bit, the latter will allow some ungodly amount of RAM - say 128GB or some ****!

3GB is fine nonetheless!!!

[ceevee]

that's a mighty fine upgrade there, Bane! i guess its the season for it lol. don't bother with 4g ram just yet unless you're going Vista. XP will work wonders with 3g as many have said. so 3 is plenty for now and they're dirt cheap too.

never ever go generic with the RAM. ever..

[PapaSmurf]

I should have also put that in my last post. When I was last upgrading I remember reading about how XP only allows for 3Gigs. I'm currently running a set up with 3GB of RAM with the CL at 4 and man if I ever saw a performance increase. Granted my X1950XT came into my system at around the same time, but hey games run pretty smooth even at full settings with the newer games. If you're sticking with XP I'd go with 3GB. My current set up is two 512MB sticks and two 1GB sticks to give me three. I think it spreads and evens out the way really well when actually putting it on the mobo into the mem slots because of the way RAM reads. Just things to keep in mind.

Give us some screens when you actually have the system in place though.

[BaneNWN]

i seem to have a problem.i dont think im running full spec with my cpu.its only registering at 1993 mhz in cpu-z but then it will make a quick jump to 2998 mhz the FSB jumps back and forth between 6 and 9 but it stays on 6 for like 10 seconds then jumps to 9 for like 1 second.I dont know whats going on here but i think i been running at 2 ghz all along.this is weird

[BaneNWN]

nm i found the problem i guess intel has a feature that when your idle it lowers the FSB to lower power consumption and to keep your cores cool