Which Graphics Card?

**frogbeastegg** · 09-04-2006, 21:39

I got the wrong thread. I meant to post in my own topic. Oops. That's me and my several tabs doing several things at once again :sigh: Would be nice if there was a way to move this accidental hijack over …

I got the AGP 7600gt. Drivers are games dependent, but usually there's one set which stands out as being particularly good for most games, just as there are occasional sets which are notorious for having problems. Usually. I just want a decent set to install at the start, so I don't have to go and fetch another set and update them after the installation. No idea what drivers will come with the card, but from my experience with my last three cards the bundled drivers are likely to be a bit outdated and not so hot. If it were an ATI card I’d know what I want; I haven’t looked at nvidea drivers since I replaced my old geforce 3.

**Beirut** · 09-04-2006, 22:04

Originally Posted by frogbeastegg

I got the AGP 7600gt.

Oh... you got the 7600 card Orangat was talking about. Not the 7800 I was recommending.

That's ok, that's ok. I know he's smarter than me... I'm sure it's a very good card and you'll enjoy it a great deal.

I'll, uh... be in the Backroom drunk thread if you're looking for me... Sniff.

**Master_Thief** · 09-04-2006, 22:04

Don't worry about the hijacking. You've simply revived my thread which isn't such a bad thing, especially as i'm finally on the verge of ordering the new card i've been pondering over for weeks. Its the same one as yours, so let me know what its like if you could. Cheers.

**Master_Thief** · 09-04-2006, 22:06

Two posts in the same minute. How did we manage that?! Don't worry Beirut, beer sooths all wounds.

**frogbeastegg** · 09-04-2006, 22:20

:Passes Beirut a nice cup of sake: You nearly had me persuaded, and in fact one of the main reasons I chose the 7600gt is because it was so similar to a card you are obviously very happy with. In the end the deciding factor between the two was the cost; very similar, and with one £80 cheaper. I'm really eager to see the kind of difference you described when you made the swap from your own 7800 pro. I've even taken a few screenshots so I can compare :feels a bit sad now:

Master Thief: I shall.

**Beirut** · 09-05-2006, 01:45

Originally Posted by frogbeastegg

In the end the deciding factor between the two was the cost; very similar, and with one £80 cheaper. I'm really eager to see the kind of difference you described when you made the swap from your own 7800 pro. I've even taken a few screenshots so I can compare :feels a bit sad now:

80 pounds cheaper? That's a considrable sum.

In all truth, if Orangat say it's a good card, then more than likely it's a good card. I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

Looking forward to your positive review.

**DukeofSerbia** · 09-06-2006, 18:13

Originally Posted by frogbeastegg

I got the AGP 7600gt.

How you found it? Only model in market is from Leadtek and it's impossible to buy it! On newegg.com is always out of stock.

Originally Posted by frogbeastegg

I'm really eager to see the kind of difference you described when you made the swap from your own 7800 pro.

Such card doesn't exist. Only 7800GS for AGP. nVidia never had Pro in names of cards, only ATI.

**Master_Thief** · 09-06-2006, 21:18

Froggy got the card from www.overclockers.co.uk which is a british website, though it is possible to have the product shipped to countries in Europe. I've also ordered the same card from there. I haven't found it anywhere else. I'm not sure if Serbia is covered by the company but if you're interested it might be worth checking out.

**frogbeastegg** · 09-07-2006, 19:57

Beirut and I both had Radeon 9800 pro 128MBs.

The card arrived on Tuesday. I fitted it that evening, a smooth enough process barring the fact I didn't know that it takes a bit of time for the card to start working, so a black monitor does not invariably mean the card isn't in place properly. I didn't get to test it until yesterday morning, a quick 20 minutes before work. The results were ... disappointing. The driver install must be bad. I'm using the latest officla drivers. It did crash during my first attempt to install, but the subsequent install over the top of the unfinished install went fine; I had it overwrite everything.

I got glitches in both games I tried; black speckles in CivCity: Rome, and the occasional funky red/orange/flame coloured sprite infantry in BI, along with a unit of invisible cavalry. I was using the Goth mod, but I'd been playing it with my old card without such issues, so I know it relates to the new one. BI did look better and performance smoothed out nicely, but it wasn't the big leap I had expected and still I have to leave some settings turned off/down. CivCity: Rome still looked ugly, though I was using a slightly lower resolution than my LCD's native one because 1280X1024 is bugged. That wouldn't have helped.

Got to be the drivers. Got to be. Else I've been sent a 7600GS in disguise.

Oh – and for those who said I couldn’t have AGP and PCI Express slots, I do. One big white one, and two smaller ones. If only I had thought to check the board; I had forgotten the motherboard has all the slots labelled with nice useful lettering.

Anyway, I'm going to try removing and reinstalling those drivers.

**Geezer57** · 09-07-2006, 21:07

Froggy, new graphics cards often need to seated, unseated, reseated many times before they make good connection with the contacts in the expansion slot. There's often oxidation on those contacts, and the seating/reseating process cleans that off.

For your driver problems, I recommend Driver Cleaner Pro (http://www.drivercleaner.net/professional.php). It's free, has good instructions, and works well to eliminate any "residue" of old alternative (ATI) drivers.
I also like the Omega Drivers (http://www.omegadrivers.net/nvidia.php), they have many optimizations already performed on them (you can choose between Quality and Performance installs).

**Cebei** · 09-07-2006, 21:52

How long do you think current 1gb sli nvidia 7950s will last? Can I still be able to play newer games 4 years later?

**x-dANGEr** · 09-08-2006, 07:14

Gah poor Froggy.. Discouraging news.. (BUt.. I'm sure I will get a huge leap if I change to anything from my 5200.. Right..)

P.S. Please say right 0-i

**Geezer57** · 09-08-2006, 17:51

Originally Posted by Cebei

How long do you think current 1gb sli nvidia 7950s will last? Can I still be able to play newer games 4 years later?

If the past is any indication, you'll be struggling to keep up with newer games four years from now.

Four years ago, Pentium 4 Northwoods (w/ single channel memory controller i845G chipsets) were fighting it out with AMD Athlon XP's on NForce2 mobo's, mostly in the 2.5/2.8Ghz performance rating range. 512Mb of RAM was considered a lot. The newly-released ATI Radeon 9700 Pro was the just-crowned King-of-the-Hill (see article: http://www.tomshardware.com/2002/08/...ro_/index.html).

A setup like that, without upgrades, would be pretty handicapped today. Still fine for general-purpose computing, and playing older game titles, but outdated for the newest generation games. I like to step a bit back from the bleeding-edge hardware, and focus instead on less-expensive alternatives that still offer almost as much performance. Instead of two GeForce 7950GS2's at over $1000, why not select a pair of 7900GS's for about $400, and put the savings in the bank. Then in two years or so, you'll have an upgrade fund available for whatever "best bang for the buck" hardware is being offered.