8800gt vs 8800gt oc2?

[damour007]

Hi,

I'm buying that card today.. but is there a really big difference for 50$ more for the oc2$. thanks

[joe74509]

Get a 8800gt with non-reference fan design.
You can always overclock the 8800GT higher than stock GTS by using rivatuner or ntune.
There are many good 8800gt with improved fan/heatsink, just avoid reference-design cards as they will reach 80~90 c full loaded.

[bclagge]

There is no point in ever spending more money on a card that is "OC." Overclocking is easy and relatively harmless (at least for GPUs). You can be sure that whatever overclock they have achieved you can match it with no problem.

[Sincreator]

Actually there is kind of a point to a OC edition. The OC editions come pre-overclocked, which will be covered under the warranty. If you buy a regular GPU and OC it, and something goes wrong, then that will void the warranty. I agree with what your saying though, it is pretty safe to just OC yourself, but there are some people out there that really dont want to take any chances.

[bclagge]

If you buy a regular GPU and OC it, and something goes wrong, then that will void the warranty.

Not if you buy XFX...... You have a good point though

[D-Hunter]

Not if you buy XFX...... You have a good point though

eVGA, BFG and XFX all offer that warranty. I buy overclocked, because I suck at overclocking. Every time I overclock I can never get more than 10Mhz on anything before stuff becomes unstable (temps around 30C).

[AnubanUT2]

Buying Pre-Oced means that you don't have to worry about voltage mods which is what you have to do to reach the speeds these OCed cards have and operate without any problems. If you try to just OC a standard version to the level of the OCed cards without doing a voltage mod as well usually your game won't be as stable at the higher frequencies and it will crash more readily while it won't crash at all on the OCed at the factory cards.

So if you are not a modder on that level and you want top of the line performance then yes you should buy one. But if you know how to perform voltage mods on a vid card then there is no reason at all since you'll be able to OC a standard card to the same levels usually.

[[YS]Alienz]

Wrong.
Overclocking on a good-branded video card such as EVGA will NOT void the warranty. EVGA's policy explicitly says that all overclocking is under warranty as long as you do not replace fans or thermal paste. So if you plan on overclocking, check the manufacturer's warranty in detail and need be, give them a call.

Personally I have a EVGA 8800GT stock with the reference design. Some may argue that it has a bad fan and that is true unless it is tweaked. Using Riva Tuner to set the fan the card runs at 56C idle and gets to around 75C (80tops briefly) however my case airflow is bad as I only have a single 80mm exghaust fan. I'm assuming that once I put more fans for a better airflow, the temps will go even lower.

Do not go for an overclock edition however DO go for one with a good fan on it provided it is within a $20 price difference. Any more than that is an overkill in my opinion as a stock fan is fine for most things. A 8800GTS's speed can be reached with overclocking without much trouble so I'd say go for a 8800GT stock with a good fan if you can find one.

[AnubanUT2]

Actually you don't voide the EVGA warranty by replacing the fans on the 8800GTs ... I replaced mine and checked and as long as nothing was damaged during the installation your card is still covered.

[bclagge]

Buying Pre-Oced means that you don't have to worry about voltage mods which is what you have to do to reach the speeds these OCed cards have and operate without any problems. If you try to just OC a standard version to the level of the OCed cards without doing a voltage mod as well usually your game won't be as stable at the higher frequencies and it will crash more readily while it won't crash at all on the OCed at the factory cards.

So if you are not a modder on that level and you want top of the line performance then yes you should buy one. But if you know how to perform voltage mods on a vid card then there is no reason at all since you'll be able to OC a standard card to the same levels usually.

I have to disagree. I don't claim to have a ton of experience. I have, however OCed a 7600 GS that comes stock with 400mhz core. I OCed it with one driver to the max Rivatuner allowed which was 600mhz. Later a driver update required me to lower the OC to 575mhz to maintain stability. The BFG 7600 GS OC has a core clock of 420. Obviously this card does not have an amazing stock overclock. But I would guess that other cards are equally overclockable, and that card manufacturers will go with a far safer OC than is easily achievable W/O a volt mod.

[Harmatia]

For a card like the 8800 GT, which runs hot and will need better fans, you are better off getting a version with a different fan design-- if it comes overclocked, power to you.

[AnubanUT2]

I have to disagree. I don't claim to have a ton of experience. I have, however OCed a 7600 GS that comes stock with 400mhz core. I OCed it with one driver to the max Rivatuner allowed which was 600mhz. Later a driver update required me to lower the OC to 575mhz to maintain stability. The BFG 7600 GS OC has a core clock of 420. Obviously this card does not have an amazing stock overclock. But I would guess that other cards are equally overclockable, and that card manufacturers will go with a far safer OC than is easily achievable W/O a volt mod.

You can disagree all you like my friend ... the newer cards are a lot different than the older versions and already operate at very high clock speeds. 650Mhz in some cases. So to get any higher ... I mean significantly higher you have to do voltage mods at this level. Its not the same as going from 400mhz to 600mhz because there was a lot of headroom before but not now with people wanting to push cards past 700Mhz clock speeds and over 2000 memory clock speed. These are facts for this generation of Nvidia cards (8xxx series and above). But you don't have to believe me ... when you finally get around to upgrading your card you try pushing it even 100mhz over what it is currently clocked at and let me know what happens for you.

[bclagge]

Actually I have an 8800 GT 512mb. It comes stock 600 mhz and I have already gotten it to 700 for a day. I just turned it back because I don't see the need to reduce the life of my card when it's fast enough at the moment. I just checked the BFG website again and their OC 8800 GT 512 is 625 mhz vs 600 standard. Maybe BFG just really sucks at overclocking.

All I am saying is that you can OC a standard card without volt modding equal to or higher than the OC models. Thus, I stand by my point that an OC model is not worth the extra cost. Perhaps you would like to show me a link to any 8800 OC model and I will match the overclock.