8800 GS SLI update

[canttouchthis]

well one of my 7900GT cards dropped a cap (not even sure how it went through physical damage). I tried to ghetto solder it back on, but it failed miserably and I lost the isolating plate for it. Long story short, I'm going to end up with a new card. Well, I thought why not make that two?
I got an xfx Newegg.com - XFX PVT88SFDDU GeForce 8800 GS XXX 384MB 192-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards
and an evga Newegg.com - EVGA 384-P3-N851-AR GeForce 8800 GS 384MB 192-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards
I went with different manufacturers so I could get the rebate on both.
They have different speeds, but they're the same card. I've already created a custom bios to start the clocks at 680/1400/850 (1700 effective). They should be good.

From what I could see, at ~700mhz the GS will beat the GT in several benches (well it's nominal, it's about on par). So it should be good. I've only seen one decent review of the card, and I hope they do well in SLI (it wasn't covered in the review).
At any rate, I'll probably update when I get them monday/tues and then Do a proper review with an SLI portion. I'll have a 7900GT (stock and speeds that put a 7900GTX to shame), an 8600 GTS and that card to compare against.

All of this will be done on my
4x512mb ddr400 cas 2.5 ram (forget ram speed, but it's linked to my fsb)
ABIT deluxe SLI-32 Nf4 mb
X2 3800+ @ 2.80 ghz (at like 1.45 v) w/ zalman 9500
600 Watt Ultra PSU (these cards use less power than my old ones)
2x160gb sata II drives.

if anyone has any experience with these cards let me know, I'm dieing to test them out.

[canttouchthis]

oh and I know my cpu is a little dated, but it didn't make sense to spend money yet. About the only thing I'll see a major increase in is 3dmark 06/vantage/other synthetic. Not many games are really cpu bound, and I'd have to spend close to 500 to really see a difference (I'd need a new cpu/mb/ram (s939 uses ddr400)).
and if a mod wouldn't mind adding this to my last post I wouldn't mind, it wouldn't let me complete the edit because it'd been more than 15 min. oh and thanks to davie who deleted my last double post :P

[bishop]

um... if two cards with different clocks are in sli then it defaults to the lower clock speed but can be turned back up with a utility such as riva tuner or ati tool pretty easily.

we can compare to my sli XFX 8600gt xxx's

[canttouchthis]

lol I know. I wrote that whole thing up on overclocking. However, that's normally the case, but not with the 8800GS cards.
They're driver limited at 680mhz core, and rivatuner and atitool can't get around it. Flashing the bios can.
I'll make sure they're both capable of running it, and save the old bios roms on a floppy rom.

oh and shader isn't always supported on all cards, like the 8600GTS. Flashing is the easiest way to remedy this.
But yeah, I'm no nub to the sli scene :P and yeah, and it does that for vram too, if you apply the proper registry hacks. It's much easier to reflash though, and it'll work under any OS.

Lol yeah, not gonna be much of a match. Your setup is probably close to my 7900GT @ 650/900. I'm still proud that I bought 7800GT cards for 300 used, had them replaced when one died with 7900GT cards, and then vmoded them to GTX voltage and GTX clocks. lol @ almost breaking 10k 3dmark06 with sli and an x2.

oh and I checked shipping, and the XFX gets here friday, and the EVGA will probably get here monday. I'll have a good weekend to test it alone.

[bishop]

very cool and informative. looking forward to seeing your results.

ive gotten my cards higher than that, if i volt mod them i could probably go a lot higher. little nervous about volt modding them though, ive read the guides but dont competely understnad some of the things they talk about.

[Fumanaz]

Sorry I saw this late, but I hope this helps out.

I found a BFG 8800GT OC 512MB card for a great price and a great rebate. The thing that is different about this is that you can get 2 cards and 2 REBATES for $30 a piece. 2 of the same cards and a rebate for each one. That is a $60 total rebate to allow you to get a new game.

Check it out.
BFG GeForce 8800 GT OC Video Card - 512MB GDDR3, PCI Express 2.0, SLI Ready, (Dual Link) Dual DVI, HDTV, Video Card BFGE88512GTOCE at TigerDirect.com

[canttouchthis]

ah yeah I've seen some of the GT cards. I'll end up paying $65 and $90 for both cards, and the GS can outrun the GT when tweaked slightly, so I should be happy, but thank you for the link.

And yeah I didn't do the hardcore volt mods, just a basic +.2v and that's GTX voltage, so I could go pretty much as far as my chip would. Because one card died I've found I can push my one card further because SLI A) has this affect B) that chip could've been held back by the other one (IE it has 750 max, other has 650, you need to run at 650).

[canttouchthis]

K I got the XFX XXX card friday, and the EVGA should be here monday. I'm in the process of reinstalling everything because my primary HDD was causing BSODS. I tried updating all my drivers, etc, but I'm convinced it's a hdd error. I'll get some clean results. I did run 3dmark 06 with 2.4ghz cpu, stock gpu, ram at like 230 (460 effective). Got like 8500 points, which isn't bad. 06 is really cpu bound, and I expect one of the 8800GS cards will easily trump my two heavily modified 7900GT cards when tweaked. pics and whatnot to come.

[nbcfiggy]

well i'm running 8800 gt's in sli and it's pretty good. i did have a little trouble with the fans not adjusting automatically at first, but that was fixed. i got the cards that fumanaz talked about. although i got them before the rebate. guess i should've waited. anyway i don't have 3d mark 06 but i have vantage and i got a score of p4684. if you're getting your speeds up to those of the gt then you should have around the same score as i do. for playing games, though, it is more than enough. enjoy your sli.

[Fumanaz]

That sounds great! You will be up and running before me. I still have not ordered the cards. I have to wait until Monday, but I will still get the rebate. Can you suggest any other benchmark programs? I know the 3D mark is a good one and I did not know about vantage 'til now.

[canttouchthis]

yeah vantage is decent but you need dx10 cards, and vista. I'm running xp still (it's what was out when I bought my parts way back when). Stock I get around 7300, but I have a horrible stock cpu bottleneck. Doing more benching now.
Some good benchies are
3dmark 06
3dmark 05
3dmark 03 (not cpu bound, so good for graphical gains measurement)
aquamark (old, but still a decent one. Getting dated).
hl2 lost coast.
cs:S
FEAR
crysis with the timedemo.
any games you have using fraps to benchmark.

[canttouchthis]

with slight overclocks, and 2.7ghz cpu I get about the same score my 7900GT cards got when super overclocked. EDIT: which is mid/low 9k.

[Fumanaz]

Thanks BRO!

[canttouchthis]

yeah np. Got my EVGA card today. I've made my bootdisk and I'm in the process of flashing. Oh and to clarify, the ~9.2k score of 06 and 14k of 05 was with one card. With two I should dominate. I'll do more testing tongiht, as I'll be surfing soon.

Oh and on a side note, I had to dissassemble my PSU because I had my fan die. I just plopped an old 120mm in and it fits fine. Was actually originally from a different ultra psu (mine is ultra).