Which Graphics Card?

[Lemur]

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.

A setup like that, without upgrades, would be pretty handicapped today.

What the ... hey! You just described my rig! Except that the Radeon was added a year after I built it. Holy moly. And you're right, I was considered a crass fellow for putting a gig of RAM in it at the time.

Five years go by so quickly ...

[Ice]

Five years go by so quickly ...

If find every 2-3 years is a good guage, if you have the funds to buy a new one.

[Cebei]

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 Still fine for general-purpose computing, and playing older game titles, but outdated for the newest generation games.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.

Hello Geezer,

Many thanks for the suggestion. I was worried that the current laptop motherboards wouldn't support future graphics cards as there will be a some power gap between current and future gpus. Is there a motherboard you could suggest that will serve that need?

[doc_bean]

If find every 2-3 years is a good guage, if you have the funds to buy a new one.

That's what I used to think, but it seems hardware doesn't move as fast as it used to, and software (games) don't use full hardware potential until after a pretty long time, so 4-5 years is becoming viable for a game system.

[Lemur]

If find every 2-3 years is a good guage, if you have the funds to buy a new one.

I don't know, I didn't have problems until this year, with the advent of Battlefield 2, FEAR and Oblivion. Up until then, my Athlon with Nforce2 special sauce was humming along just fine. 2001 was a good year, know what I mean? And I added some thing as as I went along. In '03 I swapped out for a Barton core Athlon (happy overclocking!) and a Radeon 9700 pro (the price came down! Yay!).

With some minor facelifts, I've milked the same rig for five years -- almost six. Of course, I was lucky in that DX9 didn't change much in that time. The new DX10 thing has me unhappy and nervous, but I'm thinking perhaps I can ignore it for at least three years.

I've made up my mind. It's gonna be a DX9 rig, but I'll put in a bigger PS than I need now, just in case I want to swap to a power-hungry DX10 card in '08 or '09.

[Geezer57]

Hello Geezer,

Many thanks for the suggestion. I was worried that the current laptop motherboards wouldn't support future graphics cards as there will be a some power gap between current and future gpus. Is there a motherboard you could suggest that will serve that need?

Ahhh, laptops - that introduces a whole new level of confusion into the discussion. NVidia has their GeForce Go series, ATI their Mobility Radeon series, some of which fit into a proposed open standard (based on PCIe) called MXM (see info here: http://www.nvidia.com/page/mxm.html). But that standard hasn't really been widely adopted yet - it's still very much up to the individual notebook manufacturer. And you can be sure that cards intended for desktops will not fit.

At any rate, everything I wrote about pertains to desktops - it may (or may not) apply to laptops. You'll need to do more research, if you intend to purchase a mobile platform. Laptop graphics cards tend to be clocked to lower frequencies, have less RAM, and can only run dual cards together in a few, very select, platforms (see Alienware's offering here: http://www.alienware.com/product_det...de=SKU-DEFAULT).
Of course, it'll set you back about $4500 (whew!). As time goes on, however, the trend towards interchangeability will improve, so MXM should be a good bet for allowing future upgrades.

[Reenk Roink]

Here's what I'll be picking up in October, for the upcoming group of games I'm interested in (after quite a long lull going back to Rome): BFG Tech GeForce 7600GT for $150 ($120 with rebate)

[Ice]

Here's what I'll be picking up in October, for the upcoming group of games I'm interested in (after quite a long lull going back to Rome): BFG Tech GeForce 7600GT for $150 ($120 with rebate)

How is ur desktop treating you at uni?

[Reenk Roink]

It's not too bad actually, I've got it setup for the maximum space saving efficiency. The bulky CPU is just under the desk, and I have a LCD monitor so it's cool. Plus, with no TV in the room, there's more free space.

[Ice]

It's not too bad actually, I've got it setup for the maximum space saving efficiency. The bulky CPU is just under the desk, and I have a LCD monitor so it's cool. Plus, with no TV in the room, there's more free space.

Where are you living anyway? I'm up at Baits I.

I thinking about moving my desktop from my room at home to my dorm room. Right now I'm using a laptop, but I REALLY miss gaming.

[Reenk Roink]

South Quad for me.

As for moving you desktop in, it depends.

If you have an LCD monitor, it shouldn't be hard to manage on your desk.

I would say go for it. I'm in a standard double, and we have everything but a TV, and plenty of space. Of course, a laptop is a lot easier for college, taking it to classes and such, but I thought a laptop not worth the money. I don't use it to play games much at the moment, in fact, I've only played EB on/off during the entire summer, but since a few games I'm interested in are coming out this winter, that'll change.

[frogbeastegg]

I've reinstalled the same set of drivers (and windows. Long story. It had been ailing for some time and finally got too glitchy to be tolerated) and there's some improvement, at least in GothMod BI. Now it's performing a bit more like I expected ... except in cities; I still have to have buildings to medium and turn off some of the more intensive eye candy options like shadows off/down, and still it is a bit jerky. I probably need to go even lower, which feels wrong with this set up. But on open fields I can have antistrophic filtering on in the nvidia control panel, everything set to max save grass (my preference; it's off) with huge units and massive armies and it's smooth. This seems a bit strange to me, and I can't say I'm terribly happy - city battles are tedious enough already without being ugly and laggy. Still, at least there aren't any funky sprites or invisible cavalry, and I'm not needing to use near identical settings to my old Radeon.

Dunno if I'm expecting too much from this card, or if something still isn't right.

I haven't had chance to try any other games yet. It took me several days to get Windows reinstalled thanks to a succession of unwanted surprises.

[Master_Thief]

All graphics cards seem to have games that they really dont like, and I think that Rome is just one such game for the 7600 gt. I've tested my card with a number of games and Rome is the only game so far that has seen a decrease in performance (the fps is higher, but the shadows are messed up and the trees become covered with white boxes when viewed at a long distance). I think i've come to the conclusion that the 7600 gt is the kind of card that likes demanding games. Rome really isn't demanding by todays standards so it gets bored and under performs. Games like Oblivion on the other hand are exactly what it likes so it fully commits itself. This basically means that it will love Medieval 2 and, when you play that, you'll almost certainly be glad of your purchase.

[Cebei]

This is probably a difficult question, but how many years later will 1GB be considered as "minimum requirement" for the graphics cards?

[x-dANGEr]

Four/Five years I'd say.

[tibilicus]

well 64mb to around 128mb has been the minimum for around 4 years now so I would think of that.

[frogbeastegg]

All graphics cards seem to have games that they really dont like, and I think that Rome is just one such game for the 7600 gt.

I think I begin to agree, now I've had chance to test the card with a few other games. Other than RTW the only problem I've found is with CivCity: Rome; the black splodge glitches from my previous testing remain. However overall the game is looking and perfoming much better; now I am definitely getting bump mapping and the other fancy effects, which I wasn't with my first install. I put the glitches down to the game not liking this particular driver. Hehe, it's ironic - I brought the game now instead of waiting for it to be patched first in part to test out this card.

Roll on the M2TW demo :rubs hands together:

[Master_Thief]

Glad to see you've finally had some success . M2TW is going to be so damn good. I've been rubbing my hands together with anticipation so much i've started a small fire in my lap . But no worries cos i'm just so excited nothings going to bring me down...though a pint will sure help ease the pain..."bartender, another round please"

Enjoy you're new card froggy. ;)

[Gealai]

Seems that a lot of guys are happy about the

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

XFX GeForce 7900 Gs

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/384/1/

http://www.hothardware.com/viewartic...leid=868&cid=2

Looks like a great 199$ card..

The PcMag choses the GT version by XFX for their complete bang-for-buck PC

[Crandaeolon]

Found a Connect3D Radeon X850 Pro for 149e, and stress testing shows that it flashed without a problem to XT PE specs. I'd call that a bargain.

Edit: For anyone else trying this, be sure you get the Vivo edition of X800 / X850 pro. In other editions, the disabled pipelines are blocked in hardware - they can't be unlocked with a bios flash.

I agree that Nvidia cards are generally a better choice for upgrading an AGP system, unless you feel like trying your luck.

Edit: MTW2 is probably a very texture-intensive game, so going Nvidia might be the better choice here. Oh well, we'll see.

[Master_Thief]

Yeah, I'm loving my 7600 gt at the moment and would recommend it to anyone upgrading an AGP card (though not if they only want to play RTW).

[MSB]

If I had to suggest one lovely good value, low budget graphics card I would recommend the Nvidia Geforce 6200 256MB. It gives a reasonable quality of graphics and it's not very expensive. It's a perfect balance between good graphics and good value.

But, if you have a (much) higher budget I would recommend that you wait for the Geforce 8800 to come out. It will have Shader Model 4 and a much higher clock speed compared to any previous cards. However it will sacrifice all budget requirements for performance and visual quality. I'm no expert, but I would say it could cost up to £500!

[doc_bean]

Gamespot just did a videocard round-up, people looking for a new card might be interested in checking it out.

Be sure to read what it says at the top of the high end card page: they won't future proof your system. I keep saying it too, but few people seem to be willing to listen...

[Dutch_guy]

Gamespot just did a videocard round-up, people looking for a new card might be interested in checking it out.

Be sure to read what it says at the top of the high end card page: they won't future proof your system. I keep saying it too, but few people seem to be willing to listen...

Link would be great

[doc_bean]

It's not like it's hard to find.

[Dutch_guy]

It's not like it's hard to find.

Laziness I guess, heh

Thanks anyway.

[sharrukin]

I just got a Radeon X1800 GTO (cheap), instead of an x1600, and was wondering if this is a good card. The numbering sequence doesn't seem to indicate a better card, as I have seen people say that the x850 is better than the x1600. Is the X1800 GTO a decent card?

[Crandaeolon]

It's one of the best cards of the $200-250 price range, I think.

[Dutch_guy]

Good, exactly the thread I was looking for.

Well, it's that time my fellow orgahs, I'm going to replace my prehistoric videocard.

For those curious to what I have now, it's basically a GeForce 4 MX with AGP (you could buy one of these, at least 4year old, cards for about 20 Euro's now - maybe even less for all I know)

Obviously, for the newer games I'm going to need a better card, and have decided to pick one up.

Now I'm specifically looking at the AGP version of the GeForce 7600 GT. A good card, reasonably priced, which can last me at least a year or so depending of course on how well Vista and DirectX 10 are received. Anyway, I do have a couple of questions concerning this card, and videocards in general.

First of all, I have come across various variations of this card, a XFX version and a ''normal'' one (meaning the 7600 GT, without the XFX before the name)
Now what does the XFX mean exactly ? Is it even important to take into account ?

Secondly, I know my motherboard is an AGP version 3.0 (8x), but are there any other things to take into account when buying a vcard ? I have seen the word PSU (power supply unit) mentioned quite a few times, and I imagine it is of a significant importance. Would my standard Dimension (yes, yes... a Dell), which has a standard 250 W, be able to run the A7600 GT - or am I going to have to lay down another 40 euro's for a decent PSU device.

Last one; is installing a vcard or a PSU device a hard thing to do - I'm asking since I've yet to open my pc case...

Thanks in advance guys.

[naut]

I'd advise against nVidia for one reason,

nVidia + Total War = Problems