New Graphics Card

Citrus said:
Thanks, I was looking at the 3870.

That card may be the one I get now, should I pay the bit extra for the 512?

Also, my computer is quite a small Dell Dimension. My dad say that it might not fit, is this true? (Currently have an ATI X1300pro)
Click to expand...
Depends if you play at higher resolutions or not. A few games use more than 256mb of VRAM anyway but when you go up to maybe 1600x1200 and above that other games start using a more VRAM. Up to you.

Does your PC use half height cards? Or was your dad referring to the length of the card? The 3800 and 8800 cards are ~9 inches.

CptStern said:
ffs the 8800GT now has a new stock cooler

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=168200


who wants to bet my recently purchased 8800gt will have the old cooler?
Click to expand...
Would be too bad... But at least you would have a 8800gt in your hands. :p
Tomorrow...maybe.
 
I'm gonna open it up to put more RAM in soon, so i'll find out a little more then ;)
 
Cool. Make sure you have a 6pin power connector on the power supply and room for it sticking out of the card.
 
finally recieved my GT last night ..couldnt install it cuz a friend came over to play graw2 ...stupid friends!!!

oh and today being the day I install it is also the day that the faster better 8800gts 128sp was released ..at $100 more than what i payed I'm not overly disappointed ..but still kind of irksome
 
I have the X1900GT and I will probably never buy another ATi card. Disappointing performance is an understatement. Now it won't overclock anymore. It's shit, though to be fair, my processor and ram is shit too, so which is to blame for what performance problem is beyond me.


The x1900Gt can do 'simultaneous HDR and BLoom'!!11

,,,... but, your framerate will suck ass, so... you won't be able to play with either of them on after all. :rolleyes:

At least I can't anyway.


By the way, the Ati drivers won't turn your fan up even if the card starts cooking, and maintains it's ~22% fan speed. So I use ATI Tool (not to be confused with ATI Tray Tools)to adjust fan speeds according to temperature.
 
so I install my new 8800gt last night and then reaslise I uninstalled Crysis demo; I have nothing that will really tax my new card so i start up the ETQW demo crank up the details, max out the AA etc ..start the game and ...it looks exactly the same as it did with my 7800gt ..wtf? sure the details are sharper but you really dnt notice it while trying to kill your opponent ...btw hadnt played in almost 2 months but racked up 55 kills in my first round ..people really suck at the game for some reason ..i counted 9 kills of the same player with my anti-vehicle cannon-thingy ...all in a row ..I was doing something else till noticed this guys name ome up over and over ..so I watched him and he basically ran at my anti vehicle thingy every single time hoping to dodge it and run into the base area ..he never made it past the area representing the AV's furthest reach ..you'd think he'd try a different approach/tactic after the first few times


anyways, I'll try crysis tonight ..on my 7800gt it ran at low settings at 800 x 600
 
Yeah, I never notice graphics in MP like I do in SP. Although if something looks really poor in MP then that catches my attention and bugs me. Like really blurry textures on large surfaces.
 
ya I dont have a problem with how it looks (I'm a fan of the game) ..I just expected some additional eye candy for my new vid card ..no one wants to think they just spent $300 on a lateral upgrade


Asus said:
Yeah, I never notice graphics in MP like I do in SP. Although if something looks really poor in MP then that catches my attention and bugs me. Like really blurry textures on large surfaces.
Click to expand...

what gets me is that id made such a big deal about megatexture and in the end it looks no better than traditional way of doing things ..it was supposed to allow for uber textures, instead it looks just as bad if not worse

i did notice roaming shadows from overhead vehicles ..that was nice for a change, although when crossing certain textures it made the shadow look like a weird sort of wired cloud
 
ya framerate is the most important thing in mp games ..I can live with some choppiness in sp
 
Better is better though... amirite?

Don't feel bad, because I spent $350 and expected Oblivion to play flawless with max settings when I upgraded from a 9250 PCI card to a X1900GT PCI express card.

The difference was small actually, and I regretted even upgrading.. at least to that card. I was proud of myself for holding out on an upgrade for so long, I thought the difference in graphic power would be enormous, but it was a huge disappointment.


I know I need better ram and CPU as well, so take that into consideration.

Better is better though, but If I would have held out a bit longer I could have scored an 8800.

The way I feel, I will never buy ATi again, unless something drastic changes. I've owned two ATi cards, and both have been somewhat of a nightmare. I know the grass is always greener, and since I've never owned an Nvidia card, I don't know of it's faults, besides what I've heard. However, on an XP PC, I think I should be good. I'm going to hold out for a while and get one of Nvidia's new cards probably.
 
when I upgraded from a 9800pro to a 7800gt for oblivion I noticed a huge difference ..from something that resembled a slide show to playable at max settings ..except aa and what the hell was it that you couldnt run at the saame time on nvidia cards but could on ati cards? extra fuzziness 2.0 or something or other
 
Im now set on saving up for an HD3870. Problem is I dont know whether it'll fit in my system :hmph: Anyone know how I can find out the size of my current card and this new one i'll be getting?
 
Wait longer between upgrades. I'm on a 2+ year old laptop with a 6800go, will probably upgrade to a new desktop sometime in spring. I'm pretty certain the difference will be noticeable.
 
3870 will take up 2 slots. Although the both 3800 cards and the 8800gt are the same length (I believe they are 9 inches long).
 
the 8800gt is as long as my 7800gt and it fits with a bit of room to spare ..and my case is a mid-tower which I find kind of cramped ..so long as the hd cage isnt in the way you should be fine
 
I'm gonna contact ATI later today to check about whether it will fit in my system. I'm also gonna try and find out when they will have enough 3870s to meet demand (meaning a possible price-drop).

I'm not sure whether I have 1 slot or 2 slots. How can people run 2 of these in their PC? That would take up loads of space.
 
It does. 4 slots for 2 big cards. But then again most other stuff is onboard any more (sound,network,USB etc).
 
I just Step-Up'ed my 8800GTS 320MB to a 8800GT 512MB. Now to obtain a list of back-ordering buyers to "eliminate" those before me.
 
did you pick it up locally? I couldnt find anything in TO, ordered from ncix in vancouver
 
Pc Pro have just done a review on both the Alpha Dog 8800GT & HD3870.

The 8800GT got:

Performance:
5/6

Features + Design:
6/6

Value:
6/6

OVERALL:
6/6 with "Recommended" + "A list" badges

------

The HD3870 got:

Performance:
3/6

Features + Design:
5/6

Value:
3/6

OVERALL:
4/6


------


The reviewer was constantly praising the 8800GT and putting down the 3870, saying that the 3870 "could not handle the new generation of games". He didn't mention that the ATI card will run better than the 8800 on the Source engine at all.

Should I trust this and sway from the 3870?
 
I read that the 3870 runs every Source game better.

I dont know whether to spend the extra on the 8800 or go as planned with the 3870 :(
 
ya I used to shop down there back in my mac days ..it's a little out of the way for me now ..I can usually get everything at a comparable price in markham, richmond hill or even ncix ..best of all when ordering from ncix you dont pay provincial sales tax, which can save quite a bit on big purchases ..plus they pricematch
 
The 3870 on average is slower than the 8800gt. But it is also priced lower. The value is similar.
 
Citrus said:
8800 | 1

8800 | 2

8800 | 3

What's so much better about 2 & 3 ?
Click to expand...

1 has a core clock speed at 600 mhz and a memory clock speed at 1.8 ghz
2 has a core clock speed at 640 mhz and a memory clock speed at 1.9 ghz
3 has a core clock speed at 670 mhz and a memory clock speed at 1.95 ghz

I personally would purchase 1 and make it into 3, I am assuming it would go to those speeds easily even on stock cooling.

oh and 1 has GDDR3 memory as opposed the other 2 use DDR3, dunno what's the difference but, I believe it wouldn't be a whole worlds difference.
 
Thanks, I might buy "1" and then overclock it a little.
 
If price isn't an worry, then GeForce 8800 GTX 640 MB. Can run Half Life 2 in max settings and STILL maintain 120 FPS.
 
There are so many makes of the 8800GT.

I really don't know which to choose :/
 
I was able to find an evga 8800GT at my local Fry's Electronics. 6 of them actually.
 
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