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2900XT Upgrade, Enough Power?

Dougiebabe2003

Dougiebabe2003

Dougiebabe2003

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Joined
31 Oct 2005
Posts
746
Location
South-West
Hello all,

K, thinking of upgrading my graphics card (X850XT PE) as it's a bit outdated now (only due to no SM3 and DX10) I can still play MOST of my games on near full graphics at a res of 1400 x 900 so im not too fussed about the extra FPS.

I run Vista Ultimate & I've heard that it looks 'even better' with DX10 and SM3, anyone confirm that this is true?

Firstly I would like to know if people think that the upgrade is worthwhile?

I have found only A SINGLE game that won't run and that is because it needs SM3.

And my second question is this, will my rig run it?

I only have a 485W Enermax Noisetaker PSU, is this enough power?

I belive this only has one PCI-E rail and the card needs two but I do have a convertor so I can have two PCI-E rails but is this ok?

Other specs can be given if needed.

Any help most welcome.

Cheers!
 
Your PSU has 32 amps on the 12v so it will be good enough for the 2900 and enermax are solid PSU's and can take some heavy loads. Using the PCIE converter will be fine. If you could post up the rest of your specs it would help as you could be running a quad at 4Ghz and five HD's and then it would be debatable if your PSU could do the job.
 
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RavenUK said:
Your PSU has 32 amps on the 12v so it will be good enough for the 2900 and enermax are solid PSU's and can take some heavy loads. Using the PCIE converter will be fine. If you could post up the rest of your specs it would help as you could be running a quad at 4Ghz and five HD's and then it would be debatable if your PSU could do the job.
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I did read somewhere that the amps on the 12V rail are important but never knew why or what or when...

Cheers for replying, that's helped me a lot!

My spec is:

C2D E6600 Over @ E6700
3 HDD's
2 Optical

I thought it should be enough but think It might be getting close.

Next upgrade is a new case and PSU ;) , no where near enough money this time round though.

Cheers!
 
Could just get a 640MB GTS as they use quite a bit less power, but I think 32a should run a 2900XT with the rest of your system easily.
 
Its a simple choice 2900 or the gts 640mb .Both cards will give you what your looking for i would say.Depends on whats on offer at the time if u ask me price wise.When i got my 2900 it was cheaper than the gts .Now i think there alittle less not sure.But with the new drivers (wont go into benchmarks BS and start flame) i am happy at last with the card.
 
Dougiebabe2003 said:
Now i'm gonna ask the bad question aren't I....

What can Nvidia offer for EXACTLY the same price... or less?

Cheers!
Click to expand...

Go for the GTS!, both are good cards the GTS uses 40-50w less power and you should be fine with a GTS on that PSU :)
 
If you're looking forward to DX10 then I'd go for the 2900XT. It should run on your PSU and it will perform a bit better then the 640 GTS in DX10 and it already outperforms it in most applications in DX9. For the extra £5 or so you're getting a better performing card and better driver support :)
 
Dougiebabe2003 said:
Too be tottaly honest I don't know... Someone said that Vista looks and goes better....? :confused:

I think he mentioned games but back then I didn't have Vista....
Click to expand...

at the moment vista is running games much faster than xp...
 
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