Is this the right Video Card?

[IFF52nd]

I posted my new build a few days ago then realized (thanks to Condor) that the video card I ordered and received is a PCI Express 1.0 card.  My new mobo (Asus P5E) supports PCI Express 2.0.
I realize that the card will work but is the PCI Express 2.0 standard really the way to go or will I not see that much difference with the card I received.
The new video card I have received is: BFG Tech GeForce 8800GTX 768MB 384-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16.
I have an RMA ready to go from Newegg but if the difference I see from 1.0 to 2.0 is nil then I will hang on to this card.
I'll use the computer for games and office stuff.
Thanks for any input you folks can give me.

BeDee

[HomeBoy]

IFF,
Oh, Condor is just trying to stir up trouble!   

Actually, this is a bit of a debate going around.  Personally I think it's more hype than reality.  After all, these cards are hardly able to fully use the (1.0 version let's call it) PCI-e bus (evidenced by the fact that two 8800's running in SLI gain you but a small percentage in performance) and now they double the bandwidth of PCI-e with 2.0.  If they weren't using all the bandwidth with version 1.0, how is doubling the bandwidth going to do anything for you?  I could be wrong of course but that's just my ole hillbilly logic.  My recommendation is to hang on to what you've got.  That's a very fine video card there.  Besides, what would you exchange it for?  A quick look at newegg, I only see GTs and GTSs and none of them with near as much memory as you've got.  You'd have to go to a series 9 to really get into the beef and that's a chuck of change.  The GTX is a good bit more powerful than either the GTS or GT.  Now, I'm quite sure in time all this will change and 2.0 will be what SATA is to IDE but I don't think that time is now.  Unfortunately you've gotten caught on the boundary of technology.

Obviously it's your call and what I've said is nothing more than my opinion.  I hope you don't decide just based on what I've said but I am telling you what I think which is what you asked for.

You might want to look through that troublemaker Condor's thread where he started this and read Baldegl's et. al. comments on the subject.

Good luck.  Hope you make the best decision.

-hb

[IFF52nd]

IFF,
Oh, Condor is just trying to stir up trouble!   

Actually, this is a bit of a debate going around.  Personally I think it's more hype than reality.  After all, these cards are hardly able to fully use the (1.0 version let's call it) PCI-e bus (evidenced by the fact that two 8800's running in SLI gain you but a small percentage in performance) and now they double the bandwidth of PCI-e with 2.0.  If they weren't using all the bandwidth with version 1.0, how is doubling the bandwidth going to do anything for you?  I could be wrong of course but that's just my ole hillbilly logic.  My recommendation is to hang on to what you've got.  That's a very fine video card there.  Besides, what would you exchange it for?  A quick look at newegg, I only see GTs and GTSs and none of them with near as much memory as you've got.  You'd have to go to a series 9 to really get into the beef and that's a chuck of change.  The GTX is a good bit more powerful than either the GTS or GT.  Now, I'm quite sure in time all this will change and 2.0 will be what SATA is to IDE but I don't think that time is now.  Unfortunately you've gotten caught on the boundary of technology.

Obviously it's your call and what I've said is nothing more than my opinion.  I hope you don't decide just based on what I've said but I am telling you what I think which is what you asked for.

You might want to look through that troublemaker Condor's thread where he started this and read Baldegl's et. al. comments on the subject.

Good luck.  Hope you make the best decision.

-hb

Thanks for the reply.  Actually my thanking Condor was genuine, I didn't catch the PCI 2.0 bit when I was ordering after looking at all the cards available.  I have noticed that the 9xxxx series of PCI 2.0 cards are considerably less than what I paid for this card.  But, they are also 512mb vs. this cards 768mb. 
It is stated by Newegg that this cards core clock is 626mhz vs the standard 575 mhz).  Also, I assume I can put in in the 2.0 x16 slot ok.
I've got 7 days to return so I hope other folks out there have some input.
Thanks again for your input Homeboy.

Bedee

[Condor]

Plase, Please, don't look to me for any expetise. Actually, BaldEagl pointed  out this issue but I think he may be in the steep phase of the learnig curve just like us. 

Here is an excerpt from a Tom’s hardware review of the 8800GT that convinced me that the PCI-e 2.0 vs 1.0 (or is it 1.1?) will make no difference to me.

“Finally, the GeForce 8800GT introduces PCI Express 2.0 support, which will double the bandwidth (moving up to a bi-directional 8 GB/s) with an X38 motherboard. This won't change anything from a gaming point of view, but could be more interesting for workstations, professional software or applications using Nvidia's GPGPU CUDA. It remains, of course, fully compatible with PCI Express 1.0.”

[BaldEagl]

The 8800 GTX is still the gold standard of video cards with memory bandwidth somewhere north of 80 Gb/s.  The best of the PCIe 2.0 cards barely get over 60 Gb/s.  The current 9600's are all in the budget range ($150-180).  The 8800 GT's and GTS's approach the GTX's performance at a considerable savings but still don't match it.

Beyond that, the GTX is a 1.0 card.  You're putting it into a 2.0 slot so there's nothing constricting it's performance. 

I'd keep what you have.  Any change will be a downgrade.

[IFF52nd]

I appreciate the advice from all of you guys.  I'm going to keep the card and drive on with the build. 

Salute,
BeDee

[HomeBoy]

The 8800 GTX is still the gold standard of video cards with memory bandwidth somewhere north of 80 Gb/s.  The best of the PCIe 2.0 cards barely get over 60 Gb/s.  The current 9600's are all in the budget range ($150-180).  The 8800 GT's and GTS's approach the GTX's performance at a considerable savings but still don't match it.

Beyond that, the GTX is a 1.0 card.  You're putting it into a 2.0 slot so there's nothing constricting it's performance. 

I'd keep what you have.  Any change will be a downgrade.

Absolutely agree BaldEagl.

However, from what I've been reading on Guru3d and overclock.net,  there are guys trading in their GTX SLI's for the 9800GX2.  I think that's a bit silly.  I think it is a mistake to chase the tech boundary like this.  With beta drivers, high temps and all the rest, it's just not worth it to me at least.  It does appear though that the GX2 is eventually going to become the new gold standard unless it gets eclipsed by the next thing before maturity.  That would not surprise me at all.

And have you heard of these quad SLI configurations?  Give me a break!  Four $600 graphics cards in your computer!!  Yeah, right!

I agree with you that the GTX is still the top dog.  I also believe that the GX2 and PCI-e 2.0 is future but we are certainly not there yet.  Actually, this is a great time to get a good deal on a GTX.

Glad you settled on the GTX BeDee.  I'm sure you'll love it.

You're a bunch of smart dudes!  I'm learning a ton from your posts.  Thanks for that

[BaldEagl]

I just noticed that the 9800 GX2 was available after responding to this last night.  It makes no difference in my recommendation however, it seems I predicted this just a few days ago (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,228252.45.html).  It just happened much sooner than I anticipated.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Currently it looks like the 9800 contains no true architectural changes and it's just a marketing ploy. Nvidia is holding off development because ATI can't currently respond to their top products so they gain more profit by manufacturing large masses with the old process.

So it looks like we're going to have to wait past 9800 to see the next big leap in GPU processing power - if ATI hopefully gets it's next version right.