8800GT Official Reviews

[GoldenTiger]

thats a ridiculous score
thats like equal to my 8800gt slied with a E6600 at 2.4 ( 400x6)!!!

screenies dude...

hmm i thin i posted the sli scores here somewhere..

I do have antivirus/etc. running, but it still seems very low... maybe my CPU speed/RAM speeds are just not high enough right now?

SLI @ speeds in image (eVGA 8800GT 512's):


My current overclock:

[theteamaqua]

lol yeah Crysis really stresses ur GPU more than anything ... imo its a stress test for GPUs ....

i was able to bench 3dmark06 @ 776/1944/2100, but for Crysis stable i can only go 740/1890/2100 ... thermalright 03 regular does a pretty good job tho, i was like 70+C in Crysis, and now just 49/50C MAX in Crysis

ill prolly get the new HD 03 GT for my 2nd card, and that will be my 1st card (cuz my 2nd card is still stock ), so: 1st card HR 03 GT, then 2nd card HR 03 regular

[GoldenTiger]

Nice aqua, .

[theteamaqua]

heh yeah heres my best run so far: 19146

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=3619031

Q6600 @ 3.9, DDR2 1000 4-4-4-12, cards were @ 756/1890/2100 .. sigh my 2nd card gets wayyy too hot ...

[GoldenTiger]

I think my PSU may not be enough after all... because here are my scores:

600core/1500shader/1800ram: 14893
675core/1674shader/1950ram: 15349
736core/1836shader/2100ram: 15437

Could I be running into CPU limits?

I can't figure any explanation other than that, which could be causing this. You'd think an overclock of those levels would provide a larger performance increase than that, no? Anyone have any thoughts? People seemed to think it might not be enough (Corsair HX 520w) yet others thought it would be... I hadn't tested lower speeds until just now so I assumed it was just a slow CPU causing the lower score than I expected at my top overclock. However, with the low scaling here, I'm thinking otherwise .

Q6600 @ 3.15, 1.53v
2x eVGA 8800GT KO 512MB in SLI, with Thermaltake ND1 HSF's
2 hard drives
eVGA 680i NF68-A1 SLI motherboard
4x1GB RAM sticks
7 120mm case fans, plus two 80ish-mm fans that the aftermarket coolers use
Optical drive
X-fi sound card
Corsair HX 520w PSU

[Eddie3dfx]

Your poor gpus are being held back by the corsair 520

This is my score with an x3210 now clocked back at 3500 thanks to gigabytes $139 p35 inte motherboard

Single Gt 15447

http://service.futuremark.com/orb/re...0&UID=11898882

The proper score for you should be very high 18's to 20k

GoldenTiger, I had the same exact problem with 2 8800gts card only scoring 14,300 when one would score 12900
Games would sometimes have high fps and sometimes not. Once I switched from the corsair 520 to the 700watt gamestream, the problems went away.

[GoldenTiger]

Your poor gpus are being held back by the corsair 520

This is my score with an x3210 now clocked back at 3500 thanks to gigabytes $139 p35 inte motherboard

Single Gt 15447

http://service.futuremark.com/orb/re...0&UID=11898882

The proper score for you should be very high 18's to 20k

GoldenTiger, I had the same exact problem with 2 8800gts card only scoring 14,300 when one would score 12900
Games would sometimes have high fps and sometimes not. Once I switched from the corsair 520 to the 700watt gamestream, the problems went away.

I unplugged an optical and HDD to see if the score would budge, but nothing happened... so while that's a (small) amount of evidence the PSU's enough, I'm not quite convinced it's not the PSU causing the problem. Because of that, I think I will be ordering a new PSU this weekend... I actually found an "inexpensive" PSU that was reviewed nicely: newegg's housebrand, "Rosewill" 750w, for $125 shipped. I may go with that, but I'm gonna go check the price on the PSU you're using. Gamestream = OCZ, correct?

Here's the one I am looking at:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...37;2bRX750-D-B

Jonnyguru, among the major sites, has a good review of it.


EDIT: Popped timings down to 5-5-5 1T, and score went up to 15971... at least it's something :p... gonna look around at PSU's and then order one, I'm pretty convinced it's the PSU causing the problem.

[theteamaqua]

afaik SLI works poorly atm .... with Q6600 @ 3.5GHz , DDR2 900 my 24/7 clocks, and with GT SLI i got ~ 16.5k .... forgot the card was oced or not

many with a Q6600 @ 3.6GHz , single GT oced easily scores 15k .... so yeah SLI does work, just not very well ....

anway i was playing crysis , dunno what happened but my temp tops @ 48C.. wow thermalright HR 03 regular is really good ... i dont think ill water cool these ... i guess room temp is a bit lower in the morning, and heats up in the afternoon

[GoldenTiger]

Mmmmm... gah, I may just try to borrow a PSU if I can think of a friend with one or something, otherwise just leave it... some seem to think my system's fine if not very good on power, others think it's too low. I really wasn't planning on spending the cash for one right now, so I'm trying to cling to the thought that it's fine.

[theteamaqua]

yup SLI runs like crap ...

single card, Q6600 @ 3.5 , single GT @ 756/1944/2100 (hmm, changed driver from 169.02 to .04, my core clock went down 15MHz, oh well ...) 2 x 2DDR2 900
with tons of crap running in background ....

3dmark06 score: 15767 ....

http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/195/3dmarklf8.jpg

and i need 3.9GHz with GT SLI to get 19k .... SLI is not working well.....

[GoldenTiger]

Wow, guess it isn't just me then ... hope they fix up the drivers soon.

[Ub3r-L33ch]

Hey guys how can I be sure my system is using both cards? I only got like 93xx in 3DMark06. I have an older AMD setup but I figured I'd still be a little higher than that. The cards are at 700/1750/2000. When I run the NVIDIA monitor only GPU2 seems to heat up, leading me to believe SLI isn't working.

I'm going to be upgrading mobo/cpu/RAM in a month or so but I started with the graphics cards because I felt they would be more beneficial right now for games.

Anyways, could use some help/advice on this SLI setup, it's my first one...

Thanks

[GoldenTiger]

There's a way to make it show the load balancing for each card... lemme google and I'll edit the post in a minute with the info.

EDIT: There should be a checkbox on your SLI tab from what I found that says "Show GPU Load Balancing", I don't see it on mine though on Vista 64 with 169.02 drivers.

[Ub3r-L33ch]

There's a way to make it show the load balancing for each card... lemme google and I'll edit the post in a minute with the info.

EDIT: There should be a checkbox on your SLI tab from what I found that says "Show GPU Load Balancing", I don't see it on mine though on Vista 64 with 169.02 drivers.

SLI Tab where? NVIDIA control panel? I can't seem to find it lol

[GoldenTiger]

SLI Tab where? NVIDIA control panel? I can't seem to find it lol

That's what I found through google, yes. If you don't even have an SLI tab, your SLI probably isn't detecting both cards even, I think it only shows if the system detects two cards to let you enable it in the first place.

So guys, do you think the vGPU mod at say 1.2-1.25v would work for me with this cooling? Also, should I sink the MOSFET's/etc. with RAMsinks?

[Ub3r-L33ch]

That's what I found through google, yes. If you don't even have an SLI tab, your SLI probably isn't detecting both cards even, I think it only shows if the system detects two cards to let you enable it in the first place.

Device Manager shows 2 8800GTs installed, and the NVIDIA monitor shows GPU1 and GPU2, so it is recognizing them somehow, just not letting me enable SLI for some reason .. hmm. I'm using the 169.02 drivers as well.

[GoldenTiger]

Device Manager shows 2 8800GTs installed, and the NVIDIA monitor shows GPU1 and GPU2, so it is recognizing them somehow, just not letting me enable SLI for some reason .. hmm. I'm using the 169.02 drivers as well.

This is a silly question, but ummm... did you put the SLI bridge on? It sounds like it should be working, . If so, try reinstalling the drivers maybe? I know some motherboards previously required jumpers or whatnot to enable SLI also, might want to look into that if you haven't already as well .

[Eddie3dfx]

I have a killawatt meter that I plug my computer into.
The 2 8800gts combined with a slight quad overclock was too much for my corsair 520.
It would be at 470+ during 3dmark and spike into the 500's

http://www.clubit.com/product_detail...temno=A6276522
$92 after rebate. It's a great price and great psu!

[Ub3r-L33ch]

This is a silly question, but ummm... did you put the SLI bridge on? It sounds like it should be working, . If so, try reinstalling the drivers maybe? I know some motherboards previously required jumpers or whatnot to enable SLI also, might want to look into that if you haven't already as well .

Yeah I did put that on, I tried it in both directions, although I don't think it matters which way you put it on. I looked in the manual for this board and all it says to do to enable SLI is connect the SLI adapter and "Enable SLI in the BIOS" ... I've only seen like 2 settings that mention SLI and tried them in every configuration I can think of. I will try reinstalling drivers.

[GoldenTiger]

I have a killawatt meter that I plug my computer into.
The 2 8800gts combined with a slight quad overclock was too much for my corsair 520.
It would be at 470+ during 3dmark and spike into the 500's

http://www.clubit.com/product_detail...temno=A6276522
$92 after rebate. It's a great price and great psu!

Foul tempter!

... as much as I really wish I didn't need to, your numbers show it's gotta be at or near its limit currently, which can't be good for my PSU anyway, let alone the other components, possibly even performance-wise. I'm gonna go pull the trigger on that PSU or the Rosewill as soon as I get back from a late dinner . I think I'm just trying to think with my wallet, not my head :p.

[GoldenTiger]

Just plopped in an order at the 'egg for this:

http://www.jonnyguru.com/review_deta...122&page_num=4
"Rosewill" (newegg brand) RX750-S-B

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...37;2bRX750-S-B

I prefer to order from the 'egg, and since rebates seem to be hit or miss I figured for the same price, they both are good PSU's, I may as well go with that one.

Thanks Eddie, I'll let you know on Tuesday how it works (it'll ship Monday and come overnight since it's coming from their NJ warehouse ).


EDIT: Oh my... didn't realize newegg carried this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139006 It's the new 750-watt version of the HX 620... cancelled the other one's order, gonna order this after I get feedback .

[Diverge]

I just modded my thermaltake ND1 to fit my 8800GT, here's some crappy pics from my cell phone. It fits perfectly now with no need to mod the card.



here's my highest 3dmark score so far (756/1836/1053 - peak temp 64°C):



crysis benchmark @ 1920 x 1200, all settings high -no AA (756/1836/1053 - peak temp 68°C):



edit:
newest high score - 14789 (756/1890/1053 - peak temp 64°C)

[GoldenTiger]

Nice, Diverge... I tried drilling but it wasn't working, so I just modded the card :p.

Well... hmmm... I fiddled some and came up with this (~1.485v actual vcore after drooping) (RAM timings: 1:1, 5-5-5 1T) (note: SLI *is* enabled, despite what GPU-Z proclaims):




I don't know what to make of it now :p... there is more headroom for the CPU/FSB that I haven't tried pushing on fully yet. That means the PSU probably has more headroom... but then again, someone who had a similar-draw config told me they had a 500+ watt draw during load with that kind of system, while I know the Corsair HX 520w is under-rated power-wise, it still seems a stretch. I'm now at 16,415 3dmark06 .

[Diverge]

Nice, Diverge... I tried drilling but it wasn't working, so I just modded the card :p.

all you need is 2 cuts with a hacksaw (after removing the heatsink portion out of the cooler)

[GoldenTiger]

all you need is 2 cuts with a hacksaw (after removing the heatsink portion out of the cooler)

LOL, why didn't *I* think of a hacksaw ?

Ya know Diverge, I noticed we have about the same clocks... and I also noticed something in your 3dmark window... my SM2.0 score is IDENTICAL essentially to yours, while the HDR/SM3.0 score had a huge boost with the SLI (you're running a single card, correct?). Maybe the drivers aren't up to snuff yet, and that's causing the really low score... because that's just too coincidental if you ask me :p.