Rig Pics

[Guest ProjectVirtue]

^Have you experience any heat related issues at all?

All the reviews i've read on the GX2 said that the exhaust fan was too small so the hot air ends up circulating back inside the graphics card and it gradually gets hotter and hotter. Lots of the review teams broke 90 degrees and it initiated auto shutdown =\

[Guest tommy96814]

i set the fan to run at 100% when it reaches 70c so i dont have thise problem. maybe they didnt? it normally dont get pas 70c until i run 3d program or game.

[dot1q]

tommy...

by any chance would you be selling any of your 8800gtx?

It doesn't seem like the gx2 scales too well when playing 25x16 with some AA. I'm assuming this is due to the narrower memory bandwidth and less memory (compared to 8800gtx). I'm going to try to pick up a second 8800gtx and possibly sell the gx2. If I can get increased performance for half the cost, I'm all for it (even equal performance is fine). Power usage and noise level isn't an issue. My 2 air conditioners make enough noise as it is to blanket any noise my computers make.

[CatGoesMeow]

tommy...

by any chance would you be selling any of your 8800gtx?

It doesn't seem like the gx2 scales too well when playing 25x16 with some AA. I'm assuming this is due to the narrower memory bandwidth and less memory (compared to 8800gtx). I'm going to try to pick up a second 8800gtx and possibly sell the gx2. If I can get increased performance for half the cost, I'm all for it (even equal performance is fine). Power usage and noise level isn't an issue. My 2 air conditioners make enough noise as it is to blanket any noise my computers make.

GT200 by June? start saving me lunch monies!!

Tommy - nice cards you sir have to much monies!!!

[dot1q]

^ Hopefully the GT200 will be the "real" next gen card. I'm tired of hoping and people have been speculating for a year now on how powerful the next card is going to be and we've been disappointed how many times now? For all I know it could just be 8800 series version 4 with yet again a new name. ATI really needs to step up cause its kind of ridiculous now how stagnant the high end video card market is. One thing I can say in favor of Nvidia's lack of competition is that the 8800gtx was really worth the 500+ pricetag. I don't think I've ever owned a video card for more than 6-9 months since the original Geforce cards. It's still a very viable mid to high end card even after 1.5 years since it's release.

I swear EA/Crytek is getting a kick back from Nvidia for making Crysis. Granted it isn't a must have game, it puts a sense of obligation for enthusiast gamers to create a rig which can perform as best as possible in it. At least with benchmarks, one can always argue it doesn't give a definitive representation of real world gaming, but here we have a real game which basically puts all video cards out to date on it's knees. There was always the satisfaction of knowing, one has the biggest, baddest, and latest setup which can crunch through any game at highest possible settings, BUT now we have this pos game called Crysis which always leaves this "void" of feeling like one spent all this money for a monster rig and it STILL feels like a mid range Dell consumer PC. I'm not saying one should obsess over a single game, but who knows what will come out next? I just think its crazy that you can go out and build a prosumer level Skulltrail system (which probably less than 0.00001% of gamers could realistically afford) and it STILL probably can't play this pos game at 25x16 with everything maxed out. To make matters worse.. it's not like Crysis is the best thing since Starcraft either. It's a mediocre game at best (IMHO). Just ranting.. xP

[Guest ProjectVirtue]

From what i've read, GX2 has a 1GB memory split into 2 512 MB DDR3 components.

It was outperformed by a 8800 ultra super clock which had 700-something MB of memory but the archetecture of it was done more efficiently. Except this only applied to REALLY high resolutions with the post processing effects. at lower to medium resolutions, the GX2 smokes the 8000 series.

I'm looking at 2 9600GT ko edition super clock in sli. The performence is quite good, specially when two of them only costs 400$. It outperforms a single 8800 ultra by about 30%, but the ultra is still 700$ for some reason =\

[dot1q]

From what i've read, GX2 has a 1GB memory split into 2 512 MB DDR3 components.

It was outperformed by a 8800 ultra super clock which had 700-something MB of memory but the archetecture of it was done more efficiently. Except this only applied to REALLY high resolutions with the post processing effects. at lower to medium resolutions, the GX2 smokes the 8000 series.

I'm looking at 2 9600GT ko edition super clock in sli. The performence is quite good, specially when two of them only costs 400$. It outperforms a single 8800 ultra by about 30%, but the ultra is still 700$ for some reason =\

Yeah exactly which is why I think I'm going to stick with 2 x 8800 GTX. The GX2 shows little to no improvement when stepping up from 19x12 to 25x16. It just scales horribly when going to such resolutions. I've read some performance reviews as well and it seems like GX2 SLI doesn't offer much more over a single GX2 either when playing at 25x16 (at least nothing mildly significant that would justify the cost). Spending another $320 seems to make a lot more sense than invest $1200 for 2 x GX2 which doesn't show nearly it's potential at 25x16. Granted post processing wouldn't be feasible in Crysis at such resolutions, I can definitely reap the benefits of 8800 over 9800 (memory benefits) with high AA/AF at 25x16 for almost any other game. If I were to stick at 19x12 then the GX2 single or SLI would make more sense and even then the cost might not be worth it as a 8800 GTX SLI would provide more than enough for any game on the market except for Crysis and would cost me significantly less to upgrade. Fortunately I was able to sell my card to a good friend for almost the same purchase price (he was going to get the GX2 anyway). M second 8800gtx is on the way and I should have it by later this afternoon. Overall, I just can't believe they cheaped out on the memory components of the 9800 series. It's not a real next gen card to begin with but at least "up" the specs across the board.

Edit:

Apparently now I have every unfavorable config/condition which makes SLI not work properly.

8800gtx in SLI

DX10 games

Vista x64

780i motherboard

I've tried every MB Bios version and drivers I could find. I can't get DX10 games to work properly. BSOD, hangs, auto reboots, etc. DX9 games aren't an issue. Apparently people who have 790i and/or 9 series cards don't have this problem (even on x64 Vista). *sigh* Can't win.

[Guest ProjectVirtue]

I dont see how that can happen =\

the guys over at gizmodo did a comparison review between DX 9 and DX 10 with a similar rig.

They had two 8800 GT's in SLI with vista home premium 64 bit, 4 gigs of 800 mhz ram, and a 780i asus striker motherboard.

They were testing Gears of War differences with DX9 and DX10.

I cant imagine its a Bio's version/driver issue, the 780i itself shouldn't be a problem since many teams have done tests with a similar system.

Could it be an SLI problem? try disconnecting one of the GTX and see if it works after that?

Or maybe...a DX10 file is corrupted? Most games have the option to toggle DX10 on/off.

check to make sure its not a software problem ?

[Guest Abnav]

i feel so dumb and poor in front of you guys

[dot1q]

I dont see how that can happen =\

the guys over at gizmodo did a comparison review between DX 9 and DX 10 with a similar rig.

They had two 8800 GT's in SLI with vista home premium 64 bit, 4 gigs of 800 mhz ram, and a 780i asus striker motherboard.

They were testing Gears of War differences with DX9 and DX10.

I cant imagine its a Bio's version/driver issue, the 780i itself shouldn't be a problem since many teams have done tests with a similar system.

Could it be an SLI problem? try disconnecting one of the GTX and see if it works after that?

Or maybe...a DX10 file is corrupted? Most games have the option to toggle DX10 on/off.

check to make sure its not a software problem ?

I tried everything. It seems many users have the same problem. I guess I wasn't clear enough in my previous post but yes it is an SLI only problem and it affects specifically 8800gtx (and other older 8 series cards I think) in sli. Apparently, its a very specific combination of parts. Users who once had the problem upgraded to 790i and boom their problem went away. There are no issues when not using SLI. Maybe its just the particular games? I only tried Crysis and Assasin's Creed. I guess I'll try other games as well. I know this to be a driver and/or bios issue because if I use the latest unsupported drivers with a tweaked install ini file, I get the games to run but I seem to have various other isues in both DX9 and DX10 so I uninstalled them.

[Guest MistahKK]

dangg where'd you get this from?

Ive seen these keyboards around actually.

[Guest se7en247]

My Computer

Specs:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ Windsor 2.4GHz

200gb HDD

160gb HDD

2gb Ram(1gb x 2)

Nvidia 9600 GT

Lite-On DVD-R/RW x16

GIGABYTE GA-M61PM-S2 AM2 Micro ATX Motherboard

Running Ubuntu 8.04

[Guest Tepper]

Haha, 9600GT is a tad overkill for Starcraft eh?

[Guest ProjectVirtue]

hey seven, wanna test the framerates for GoW on your computer for me?

I have a 7900 GT/GTO but only 3800 processor. I imagine the gap in between

3800 and 4600 cant be TOOOO huge, but the 9600 i wanna see =p

you a bisu fan? i see zerg on there =p

[awdark]

(50mhz and 33mhz!!)

(OMG bent pins!)

Look at that dual core power!!!

; sorry I dug them up and thought my ipod is faster than these chips!

[Guest Tepper]

O mang, 33Mhz?!?! hit the turbo button! -- I wish my computer still had the turbo button.

[Guest se7en247]

hey seven, wanna test the framerates for GoW on your computer for me?

I have a 7900 GT/GTO but only 3800 processor. I imagine the gap in between

3800 and 4600 cant be TOOOO huge, but the 9600 i wanna see =p

you a bisu fan? i see zerg on there =p

Yeah as soon as I get a copy of it i'll test it out for ya

And yes I am a Bisu fan...was is the Avatar that gave it away? lol Cuz it couldn't have been the sig hehehe

But Jaedong had to knock him out of MSL...damn you Jaedong

Haha, 9600GT is a tad overkill for Starcraft eh?

Pfft no way. I need a good video card, other video cards can't keep up with my APM! lol

[Guest ProjectVirtue]

^Sweeet, thanks

Jaedong took a fun out of the OSL also T.T

And boxer is just *sniff* my hero is dyinnnggggggg

from what i hear, savoir and july are taking a beating also D:

[awdark]

I was just a bit happy about how the wires ended up. I have seen better, but I was like weee most of the wires hidden behind the mobo!

Its a pity I dont get to keep it

[Guest Tepper]

Bwar, just swap the dvd drive to SATA (get rid of the ribbon cable) and ta-dahhh. cleanest case ever. or something.