8800GT ... what issues?

[somecallmeTim]

After finding an eVGA 8800GT "superclocked" in-stock, buying it, installing it, I read countless horror stories in here about over heating, fires, death of the neighbor's puppies, driver issues, artifacting, noise, lack of performanace, and so on I was a bit worried.

The card got here days before the rest of my "moslty" new system so I thought I would give it a run in the old rig giving my trusty BFG7800GT a break:
AMD Opteron 175 @ 2.4 GHz
4 x 512 Ballistic PC3200
ASUS A8N-SLi Premium
Seasonic S12 550w PSU
and various SATA HDs and DVDR

I run DC, shut down, install the 8800GT, boot into safe mode, reboot and then install the drivers. This was on an old install of XP Pro ... so I was wondering what was going to happen. Well, I was blown away. No issues. BF2 ran smoother than it ever did, Crysis was nice and smooth. I didn't notice any difference in any HL2 based games since the 7800GT was plenty for those. NWN2 was nicer, ET:QW ran smoother.

Was I missing something that everyone else seems to have gotten? I expected my system to burst into flames and my framerates drop to FX5200 levels. Never happened.

So, I build the new rig with the 8800GT:
AMD 5000+ Black Edition
Gigabyte S series 570 SLi mobo
2 x 1 GB Ballistix PC6400
same S12 PSU
same HD's, and a spiffy new Samsung SATA DVDR

I loaded Vista Ultimate 64 bit on it, patched, rebooted, more patching, more drivers, more updates -- you know how it goes. I reinstalled all my games and apps, patched them as well and once again, I am just not seeing all the "issues" that everyone else seems to be reporting. The GPU stays cool, framerates are nice, I have the eye-candy cranked up, it's all running smoothly. I'm completely impressed with my 8800GT.

To make things WORSE... I removed the nVidia drivers and updated the new WHQL drivers and guess what... things got BETTER!

Well, that about wraps up my story -- sorry that there was no horror in it and I reported a great experience with my 8800GT. My 10yo daughter is enjoying the old rig with a fresh install of XP too... We killed a bunch of critters together last night on a private Lineage 2 server (yah, it's an older MMO, but it's free and we have fun). Not the biggest tax on the card, but I'm ran on my 20" WS at 1680x105 "maxed" and her on the 32" LCD HDTV at 720p (text was too small at 1080i) -- the "old box" is also my Media box.

Anyone else have a good experience with their 8800GT, or is this a fluke?

 

[plywood99]

I think most people have the same experience as you. But the "Squeaky wheel gets the grease" so to speak...


Ply

 

[Battleneter2]

Anyone else have a good experience with their 8800GT, or is this a fluke?

I am a little baffled by you post, as above most people have no problems with there GT or G92 GTS.

You have to remember people are likely to seek help in a Hardware forum WHEN they need help and have a problem, people are far less likely to create a "no problem thread". Ratio of People having problems opposed to those with no probs maybe 50/1?, no real idea but thats my guess.

 

[somecallmeTim]

I am a little baffled by you post, as above most people have no problems with there GT or G92 GTS.

You have to remember people are likely to seek help in a Hardware forum WHEN they need help and have a problem, people are far less likely to create a "no problem thread". Ratio of People having problems opposed to those with no probs maybe 50/1?, no real idea but thats my guess.

It was the other way around for a few weeks -- 50 "omgthissucks" to 1 "wow" thread. I know the squeaky wheel makes the noise, and I thought I would do a nice long post on how well the card works. Then again, I don't have the budget to buy a quad core Intel "top of the line" rig and then complain when I don't get a 50% Overclock.

It's not always about asking for help because something is broken -- there is the "wow" it worked threads, along with "how can I do this better". I'm used to seeing those as well, but on a couple of days it was all "omgthissucksiwantmymoneyback" threads.

 

[farfromhome]

I don't have a 8800 GT myself, but I for one am glad you made this thread. With all the threads that have been made about the problems with it, I almost was beginning to think that the video card ate babies after each stellar benchmark run.

That said, I have a motherboard that people are having lots of issues with, the GA-P35C-DS3R (note the 'C'; DDR2/DDR3), and after I got it all set up, it has been the epitome of stability for me. Although I'm scared to update the BIOS at this point.

 

[abcdelight]

I have a new XFX 8800GT that's been great. It stays cool and doesn't get too loud. However the units with the smaller fans can be loud and undercooled. Adopting new things often has its thorns which is why I wait a bit and don't jump on things the first week they are out (thanks ASUS for that lesson). So the 8800GT is nice unit - but the first ones buggered and to be avoided imo . Fans:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...jI25mU&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1-4n2mJurA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQNiaPz8GNQ

 

[termite]

Yep I received my 8800GT on Monday, and it's been puring along nicely since. I have it water cooled (with an old Maze5 of all things) and the temps do not get above 34C after a few hours of COD 4 on max settings. I was actually socked at the performance increase I received after replacing my 7900GT's (SLI) to the 8800GT. So no issues here.

 

[biggles]

OP: what are your load temps? I'm loving my BFG 8800gt but the temps got pretty high before setting up rivatuner fan profiles. As in over 100 degrees C in Crysis! Still, the card has shown no signs of failure yet. With the fan profiles I can keep it under 80 degrees C at all times.