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Confusion reigns!

Thorien

Thorien

Thorien

Associate
Joined
11 Jul 2007
Posts
540
Location
England
Hello chaps!
My first Post!
Forgive me if it sounds a bit basic but I'm a tad confused. :confused:

I'm running an Amd X2 4800+ (at stock - not very clear about this overclocking business!), with 2 gigs memory (4x 512) and a socket 939 MB.
OS is win XP pro, and currently have a gigabyte 7800GT Graphics card, which seems to work with all my games so far fine (COD2, LOTRO etc).

Was thinking of maybe upgrading graphics card, but i'm not sure if firstly it's worth doing? Will I notice much difference in gaming? Also how do I go about doing it? Buy another 7800gt and sli or upgrade to an 8800gts etc?
Will I be able to use a dx10 card on a windows xp pro machine? or would i need to then upgrade MB, Processor, memory etc (A route I can't afford to go down...) Also is a DX10 card that much better again? Is the difference actually noticebale on the games available at the moment or on new releases coming soon?

As you can see I'm in a bit of a muddle and not sure what to do, maybe I should just stick with what I have and upgrade the whole machine in a years time or so when I get Vista (with service pack 1 or 2).

HELP! ;)
 
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I am happy at the moment but was just wondering will upgrading make a big diffrence? Also if so, then what's the best way to go?
 
The difference will be absolutely massive going to an 8800 GTS (i wouldn't get another GT and go SLi), as you can see here from this A64 and 8800's Performance Review, also you can use a Dx10 card in XP just fine, only means you will be using it as a Dx9 card as you have to get Vista for Dx10, but i wouldn't let that put you off as they give amazing Dx9 performance as well.

As long as you have a Decent PSU, 400-500w thats got about 28a or more on the 12v rails then you'll be fine, they are amazing cards, and welcome to the forums. :)
 
Thanks for the advice! I've got a seasonic PSU (think its 500 or 550w) so that should be ok then. Will have a good read through that review now also.

Didn't realise I could run a Dx10 card as dx9 on xp! That's great, means I can upgrade graphics and leave the MB and CPU etc for another year or so :D

Thanks for the welcome also, look forward to learning a lot from the experience of you guys on the forums! ;)
 
Thanks for the welcome guys! :)

Having read that article linked in the above post by loadsamoney, I think I'll go probably go for an 8800gts as this wont be bottlenecked by my x2 4800+ plus its cheaper than a gtx! This should do me until I do a full upgrade of O/S and MB, Cpu, memory etc etc....

One other question though guys....

At the moment I have fitted an after market fan and heatsinks to my 7800GT as the fan that originally came with it was really noisy and squeaky. The fan I put on now is much bigger and quieter but takes up an extra pci slot in space.
Would I need to do the same with an 8800gts or are the standard fans large and quiet?
Any further help appreciated!
 
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I had a pair of BFG 7800gt's and moved up to my 8800gts 320mb and even that made a significant difference. From a single 7800gt the gains would be massive.
 
One more question, didn't think I should start a new thread for this :

Does coolbits still work on nvidia cards for overclocking them? I use coolbits at the moment on my 7800gt and it works well and is easy to use, is this fuctionality still there on say an 880 gts / gtx?
 
Welcome to the forums Thorien.

You're in for a stonking card by the way. It's got bad boy gaming written all over it ;).

One thing I wanted to add to this is that you should take a little time and try and learn a little bit about overclocking. Your CPU at about 2.5 - 2.8Ghz would see a great boost overall and your GTS will like it.

I'm not saying you need to but it would be beneficial to you. Also once you learn it it's like riding a bike, you'll never forget. If you can find the time to try it then you will start to have some fun seeing your system grow more powerful as you learn more.

Also you have all us to help you when you need it :cool: .

Enjoy your card with AA & HDR together, superb image quality and all the eye candy you could want and at sweet frame rates. ;)
 
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