More GPU ?'s: X1600 CrossFire vs. 8800 GTS

[rezn0r]

since I've really been slacking on hardware in general lately, i have a quick question (which i think i already know the answer to but I wanted to double check here):

2 x Radeon X1600 Pro 512mb (CrossFire)

vs.

GeForce 8800 GTS 320mb

which would be better? I currently have the CrossFire setup running in my system, and my friend had the 8800 GTS sitting around gathering dust and he gave it to me while giving me back some other hardware he was borrowing. he says the 8800 will be an improvement (which I'm assuming is the case too) but I was wondering by how much? the loss of the CrossFire (which is probably useless to me anyway, I'll explain why below) and a whole lot of ram is making me wonder.

my cpu is most likely a bottleneck either way:
CPU: Intel Core Duo2 E6600 2.4Hz, 1066FSB (Dual Core) 4096K
Mobo: ASUS P5W DH Deluxe 975X, X-Fire PCI Express,1Gb LAN, WiFi,iEEE
RAM: 4GB PC6400 DDR2 800 Dual Channel

(this is from 11/06... the whole thing needs an upgrade)

the thing is, i'm big on consoles and the only games i even use my pc for at this point are FFXI & WoW - FFXI runs perfect and i don't see it being improved. i guess WoW could be bumped up in resolution/detail but i don't really care about it either way. i do have things like Crysis, etc. installed but I don't play them, they are more of a "let's see how it runs and go back to my 360" deal. i'm really just wondering about these two gpu setups for now.

if the decision is the 8800 by a landslide - anyone have any recommendations for cheap CrossFire mobos to toss into a 2nd system i have sitting around?

thanks all

[Tymon]

Well, first off, the GTS 320mb is a stupid buy, you should look for the 512mb model to compare, at the very least.

[rezn0r]

i realize that and i wouldn't buy it if i were actually spending any money, it was given to me and it's currently gathering more dust, just wondering if it'd be worth the 10 minutes it'd take to put it into my system

[Cephius]

Eh, not really worth it. The GTS is a newer generation of video card but its still old by today's standards and probably not worth putting into your system. I'd stick with the X-fire and when you're ready to upgrade, go all out and get a brand new modern card

[Shuemue]

ebay the GTS

[rezn0r]

hehe good call, ok thanks everyone

[levish]

my guess would be that the GTS would end up faster most of the time and by a significant margin

[rezn0r]

hmm anyone else with opinions or experience? i'm more curious than anything at this point, since he was nice enough to give me it. shuemue could have the right idea though in the long run, put that towards a real upgrade.

(and before anyone says it i agree that testing it out myself isn't that big of a project... was just bored at work far away from my hardware when i made the topic)

[Nakecat]

I have 8800GTS 320mb from last year 09/07 and i hate it even til today.

only time i don't get lag is when i'm in a place where not many people around, when i go to AH or some event like dynamis, my FPS drop to like 5, even after the 'fix' came out ... i only got 8 FPS. Main while, my ATI 1950 have no lag what so ever with my other computer.

I would go for ati card than nvidia, but i also heard that ati is having some driver issue with ffxi atm, might wanna check them out first before you buy it.

ps. i have vista x64 with 4gb ddr2-800 ram, e6850 cpu, so it's not system problem, it's driver issue.

[Khalil]

What you could do is get a modded INF for the 169.17 beta drivers. I have a 9800 GTX+ and running on the 169.17 beta drivers.

[Nakecat]

I can't use mod driver since i use vista x64, everything will need to be digital signed.

[Kohan]

Uhlikova osobn strnka - ReadyDriver v2 (EN)

This lets you run Vista x64 without the signed driver check. Just put it on a floppy disk and leave it in your computer at all times.