What Video Card...

[HunterSeeker]

There is prolly a gazillion of these threads but I am to tired to go look for em all so bear with me ok?

Im about to recive my salary for the work I did this summer, and I thought of getting a new video card.

It needs to be better then a Geforece FX5200 though, and cost less then about 350 american dollars. Got any good suggestions?

 

[Malfunction]

Ok, well, you can probably pick up a Radeon 9800 Pro 256mb for that much money, or, if you can spend another $50, you can get an Nvidia 6800-GT for $400. Both will perform well, though the GT will outperform the 9800.

EDIT:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-361&depa=1

 

[bosox188]

The GT would be twice as fast as the 9800 pro, it's just about as good as the top of the line cards. But first, what's the rest of your system's specs? And what's your power supply? Gotta know that first.

 

[HunterSeeker]

Got 2.0 GHZ processor and 512 MB RAM. And a 120 GB HD. Umm, power supply? Never new that could be an issue... it is not like I get a limited amount of electricity from the electric company.

 

[DJ_Cheeba]

But the last couple generations of video cards do not get enough power from the AGP bus, so you need some extra power from the PSU. So a 350 watt or better is recomended for a 9800Pro, and a 6800GT will really need a 400watt or more. Hope that helps

 

[ATI4EVER!]

the 6800gt needs a minimum of a 500 watt powersupply. Its retarded.

Many people will argue this following point, but I know Im right.

the 9800 line has 8 deep pipelines. For 8 pipelines you shoyuld have a minimum of a 2.8ghz processor (or amd equivelent). Why? becasue the cpu has to give out all the insstructions to the videocard's pipelines (becasue the info goes through the puipelines), since your cpu falls below 2.8, it won't be able to issue enough instructions, when this happens the videocard has to dump out ALL THE WORK THAT IS CURRENTLY IN EACH DEEP PIPELINE AND START ALL OVER AGAIN. this will result in an incredible performance loss, about 55fps. It sucks. Don't argue against this point, Its been proved.

Instead of the 9800pro, get the 9600XT, although it is in the 9600family, it is able to out perform the 9700. It has 4 pipelines.

it costs 200 bucks. it will suite u better.

 

[Roland Deschain]

the 6800gt needs a minimum of a 500 watt powersupply. Its retarded.

Many people will argue this following point, but I know Im right.

the 9800 line has 8 deep pipelines. For 8 pipelines you shoyuld have a minimum of a 2.8ghz processor (or amd equivelent). Why? becasue the cpu has to give out all the insstructions to the videocard's pipelines (becasue the info goes through the puipelines), since your cpu falls below 2.8, it won't be able to issue enough instructions, when this happens the videocard has to dump out ALL THE WORK THAT IS CURRENTLY IN EACH DEEP PIPELINE AND START ALL OVER AGAIN. this will result in an incredible performance loss, about 55fps. It sucks. Don't argue against this point, Its been proved.


it costs 200 bucks. it will suite u better.

Pretty much, if you don't plan to upgrade your CPU and RAM, buying a 9800 (not even to mention a 6800), will just result in a bottleneck and then you'll be forced to upgrade to get better performance. The 9600XT will do a very good job of HL2 and also does a resonable job with Doom 3

 

[Jammydodger]

Thanks for the info ATI4EVER, interesting stuff.

 

[bosox188]

the 6800gt needs a minimum of a 500 watt powersupply. Its retarded.

Many people will argue this following point, but I know Im right.

the 9800 line has 8 deep pipelines. For 8 pipelines you shoyuld have a minimum of a 2.8ghz processor (or amd equivelent). Why? becasue the cpu has to give out all the insstructions to the videocard's pipelines (becasue the info goes through the puipelines), since your cpu falls below 2.8, it won't be able to issue enough instructions, when this happens the videocard has to dump out ALL THE WORK THAT IS CURRENTLY IN EACH DEEP PIPELINE AND START ALL OVER AGAIN. this will result in an incredible performance loss, about 55fps. It sucks. Don't argue against this point, Its been proved.

Instead of the 9800pro, get the 9600XT, although it is in the 9600family, it is able to out perform the 9700. It has 4 pipelines.

it costs 200 bucks. it will suite u better.

Umm sorry but you don't know wtf you're talking about here because the GT only needs a 300 watt psu. That's the minimum. And the 9800 pro and X800 pro minimum are also 300w. But it would help if we know how many watts your psu is and who made it. Open the side of your case there's usually a sticker on the psu saying who made it and how many watts. And I'm just gonna say again, you only need 300 watts for a 6800GT. Even the 6800 Ultra doesn't need 500 watts.

 

[Malfunction]

the 6800gt needs a minimum of a 500 watt powersupply. Its retarded.

Get your facts straight. The 6800 Ultra Extreme needs a minimum of 480 watts, not the GT. The GT is just like the x800 pro.

 

[bosox188]

And I've actually heard that the 6800 Ultra now only needs 380 watts. I read it in Maximum PC, they did a review of the 6800's and X800's.

 

[CrazedDingo]

The above post about 2.8 GHz or higher with the 9800 pro... Do you think that I could get away with a 2.6Ghz? Its in a POS Sony Vaio RZ 31G so the fan is ass and I dunno how it would OC.

 

[GreasedNeut]

But the last couple generations of video cards do not get enough power from the AGP bus, so you need some extra power from the PSU. So a 350 watt or better is recomended for a 9800Pro, and a 6800GT will really need a 400watt or more. Hope that helps

my old gt worked fine w/ a 350 watt antec

 

[HunterSeeker]

The 9600XT sounds fine. I prolly get that. Thank you.

 

[ATI4EVER!]

crazeddingo, it will work fine.

As for my previous post, I am sorry. I was thinkinh of the wrong card. I was thinking of the top of the line Nvidia card, i got confused. bosox188, i read maximum pc too!!!! YAY!!!!! I believe they said it was 480 watts, whuich is why ATI won the head2head. I corrently dont have the issue with me so i cant check.

My 9600XT is working really well with doom 3 on high with 1024x768 res. my specs:

1.8ghz pentium 4
768mb ram*
ATI radeon 9600XT
300 watt power supply

As you see, my cpu sucks, but the card still works really well.....and its running with AGP 4x!!!! not 8x. Unfortunatly, my mobo does not support 8x. I get about 30fps with doom 3 with the above settings.

*When I first bought my 9600XT i had 256mb ram, for some reason it performed WORSE then my previous 9100. I upgraded my ram to 768 (so i spent another 80 bucks on 512 mb) and it works awesome.

Remember that the 9600XT has only 4 deep pipelines.

Im guessing bosox188 already knew about the 8pipeline thing in maximum pc

Oh and just for info, the x800s and 6800s feature 12 (or 16? me forgot) pipelines.