Hello , I was wondering if I might gather a few of your opinions. ( which I greatly value )
I recently upgraded from an AMD 3700 ( 939 ) Geforce6800GT system. Components of choice were E8400
4 gig Crucial and EVGA 9800GT Super clocked. I am happy with the performance. I ran an old version of 3dmark on my old system before teardown then on the new after build. Score went from 6,000 to 32,000. lol I know the program was designed before this technology but it's still funny. The 8400 is fast and I can now play my games on high settings. My question is , Fry's has the 9800GTX on sale for the same price as my 9800OSC. Since it's only been a week should I go exchange it ? Where does the 9800sc rank ? Is this a good card ? I want max fps and I plan on going SLI in a few months. Something else to consider is that they have a 8800GTS for slightly cheaper. Any advice would be appreciated.

If anyone has any benchmarks for the 9800 super clocked vs. 9800GTX that would be saweet


Thanks in advance !
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if you don't lose any money... then do the exchange

I meant I purchased a 9600gt superclocked. Is this a given that I should go trade it in and spend $30.00 for the 9800GTX ?

9800gtx far outperforms 9600gt, I'd say it's worth $30.

Thanks for the quick reply Dagger. Well I went and picked up the 9800GTX. Let me first say , this is a big , power hungry card. I have a full tower and it barely fits. Anyway , while at Fry's someone noticed me carrying it and felt the need to offer his $0.02
" Why are you buying that , ATI4850 smokes it". Without further elaborating on his comments , is this true ?

One other thing. After installing the 9800gtx I ran 3dmark06 and it came back with a score under 10,000. How is this possible with E8400 , 9800GTX and 4 gig of corsair twinmx ? I haven’t oc'd yet but still , shouldn't the score be higher ?

Thanks again !!!!

The 4850 is a bit faster than the 9800GTX - I'm not sure I would say it smokes it, but it has a definite advantage, and it grows when you add AA.

I checked a few benchmarks and it's pretty much back and forth depending on what game, res , aa off/on ... Aside from consuming 4 power dongles I am happy with this card.

Any thoughts / suggestion in regards to the low 3Dmark score ? The system was just assembled so I really have not tweaked anything. Still , initially I expected a better performance.

that score is seriously wrong. my 8800 gs gets 10200. is your psu up to the task? i know its unlikely because its a new system but that could be the problem. how is the game performance? if your frames are close to what you see in reviews then i would assume its a problem with 3dmark.
good luck!

That's a very good question. I am using the PSU from my old system. 500w Aspire . I planned on upgrading when I go SLI. Game play and FPS are good. occasionally I will see a slowdown for about 2 seconds. like everything is going in slow-motion however the image does not distort in any way. Should I pull out 2 gig and try again or would that not make a difference. Are there any resources or other sure fire ways to determine how taxed the PSU is ?

This is the same PSU I purchased almost 3 years ago. It's worked like a champ.


http://www.directron.com/as500wb.html

alright, the psu is not the problem, it has plenty of juice. second thing, when you benchmark, what are you running? most guys go into the task manager and delete the processes they don't need. i for instance only run 20 processes when benchmarking. make sure there isn't anti-virus or something running when you benchmark. also make sure that you are using the default settings, ie: 1280 x 1024.

Well that's good to eliminate that as a source. I wasn’t really into 3Dmark scores or anything like that, I just wanted to see where my new system ranked. After seeing the !! FAILURE !! I am now anxious to achieve a better number. Seems to be a good utility for testing tweaks to ensure a sound rig.

I didn't close any tasks. I will give it another run tonight. I think the main factor of the low score was the CPU test. Where it looks like the surface of mars with trucks driving all around. My FPS dropped to like 1-2. Let's see what another run does.



Also , would you please recommend a good board. I was looking at the EVGA 780i but understand they are having problems with it. Any experience wirth this MB ?

That "4850 smokes it" is a bit of fanboyism. A stock 9800gts/g92 8800gts perform about the same as 4850, although slower than a 4870.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/HD_4850/8.html

And 10k on 3dmark06 is way too low. Post a screenshot of results along with gpuz and cpuz information layed out like this, so we can see what's wrong.

As for the low fps on cpu test, it's normal. Each of those little bots is driven by an AI, so it's supposed to be taxing. I barely hit 4fps tops.

As for motherboard, 780i is as far as you can go while still keep sli. It overclocks about the same as p35. P45/x38/x48 oc much better, but do not support sli, x38/48 support cf. 600s nvidia chipsets have ram problems, but 700s are mostly fine.

I can tell you that the cpu test is insane. each one of the dots on the panel is a separate AI so it taxes your cpu like none other. 1-2 frames is pretty good. i average .44 frames in the first test with my e4400 overclocked to 2.66.

from what i have heard, the 780i doesn't like some brands of ram i think ocz and corsair. but that problem might be fixed so i don't know for sure. look at the reviews where you are buying. if they are positive you shouldn't have a problem. As a side note, EVGA has great service and warranties so that shouldn't be problem.
good luck on the test tonight!