MSI GeForce 8800GT NX8800GT at Newegg.

2/21/08 - EDIT - See my new thread in General Gallery for photos and comments

Well, this was $219 ($199 after MIR) when I added this item to my cart a few minutes ago. But apparently it increased $10 WHILE I WAS CHECKING OUT and Newegg charged me for the new $229 price. I emailed them immediately to complain - we'll see how far that gets me. It's sorta my fault for not re-revieing my order before hitting submit. But still. Kinda shady.

Any way, this looks like a cheap and promising 8800GT. Unlike most of the 8800GT's I've seen with aftermarket coolers, the fan on this one seems to be a variable speed fan. A reviewer mentioned something about 50% fan speed, and unlike the other 8800GT's with the 2-wire fan leads, this one appears to have a 3 or 4-wire fan lead (based on this pic).

Jay

when that happened to me, i called newegg in the middle of checking out and got a credit for the original price. they are responsive, so maybe you'll luck out and they'll credit your account. good luck.

I just heard from Newegg - they're going to credit me back the $10. Their customer service is still the roxxors (or whatever the kiddies are calling it these days).

That's a PWM fan for sure, the cooler looks like a Zalman ZF1000.

It does look a little like the ZF1000. MSI actually makes another 8800GT card with the ZF1000, the "Zilent" version, just to throw a little confusion into the mix.

If you compare pictures of the two cards, some differences are obvious. See the 1st picture on this site for a shot of the MSI NX8800GT "Zilent" with the Zalman ZF1000.

Compare that to this top-down product picture from Newegg of the card I ordered.

The version I bought (not the "Zilent" version with the Zalman heat sink) has a larger heat sink, with a slightly different shape, with larger diameter heat pipes, with heat pipes that extend out further from the core, and with wider-spaced heat-sink fins. The version I bought omits the 2nd heatsink on the voltage regulators, and apparently all the ram sinks. The Zalman version has a different fan (more blades, skinnier blades).

I should get mine on Wednesday. I'll take pics and report on noise Wednesday night.

Jay

tag for later

i've set my eyes on that video card for a few days. it's one of the cheaper 8800GT yet with decent factory OC AND aftermarket coolers.

Received my card this afternoon. Physically very high quality. All the pictures I took are terrible (damned point-and-shoot flash), so I'm going to try to re-do them later with some better lighting and a tripod.

I'll also do some temperature testing with and without the plastic shroud, since it comes off very easily. But right now, GPU-Z 0.1.7 reports core temp 28.5 C and PCB temp 27.3 C. Everest Home Edition reports GPU: 36 C and GPU Ambient: 27 C. Nvidia driver reports core temp: 36 C.

First of all, the rest of my system is:
- PSU: FSP Green PS FSP400-60GLN 400W
- Motherboard: Asrock 939Dual-SATA2
- 1GB Geil PC3200 DDR
- CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3000+ @ 2.2GHz
- Seagate 7200 RPM SATA desktop drive

Previous GPU:
- nVidia 6800GS with Arctic Cooling NV5 Rev.3
- (forgot to measure system power consumption)

With the MSI 8800GT, measured power consumption with kill-a-watt:
- peak while booting: 117 watts
- idle in windows desktop: 95 watts
- peak while running 3DMark 06: 178 watts

It's a little louder than my 6800GS with the Arctic Cooling NV Silencer, but not terrible. It's definitely not silent, and it's easily the loudest component in my system. Right now, I can handle that considering the frame rates it's pushing.

Performance increased tremendously. I went from 2653 3D Marks with the 6800GS to 6597 3D Marks with the 8800GT. The CPU test killed me - I averaged ZERO fps! Sheesh.

Good thing Oblivion doesn't care about 3DMark. With the 6800GS I had to run pretty ugly to get decent frame rates. For giggles, I maxed all eye candy (at native res 1680x1050) except AA and achieved ... 6 FPS outdoors standing in grass. With the 8800GT I'm averaging mid 30's with the same settings. Dips into the 20's and peaks in the 50's. This is all outdoors.

Overall, I'm very happy so far. More later...

jay

Thinking about getting this as I've regained interest in PC gaming

I got a 7300GS w/ the Zalman fanless heatsink now which just doesn't cut it... but of course, it's QUIET

How is the sound relative to other components? Louder than an idling 3.5" multi platter HDD? Louder than a Nexus fan at 7v?

I feel like this is the performance I want, but am nervous about the noise

Nothing cares about it. Benchmarks really are only good for testing what you just tested, changes to an existing system and stability.

LOL, yeah, except thousands of deluded PC "enthusiasts". Aside from Oblivion, I'm excited to try out Fake Factory's Half Life 2 hi-rez texture packs. If you're a HL2 fan, you have to check these out.

I edited the original post - I've posted additional photos and comments in a new thread in the General Gallery. Please post further comments in that thread.

Thanks!
Jay