Gfx Card choice

SS-89 · 14 May 2007 at 15:23

Hi need some help deciding what card to get with the below system i'm going to build:

Core 2 Quad 6600
4GB Corsair XMS2 Dominator, DDR2 PC2-6400
Asus P5N32-E SLI
400 Gb Seagate SATA300
300 Gb Seagate SATA300
Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer
OCZ GameXStream 700w
Antec P182
(Dual layer dvd rw etc....)

Anyway my main concern is the gfx area, see i want to play crysis in all its glory, and as its dx10 and there are no real dx10 benchmarks to test how well the 8800gtx and the 2900xt(though ive been put off this particular card) is it better to get a 320mb 8800gts (cheapest ive found for £178 inc vat) or a 640mb 8800gts (£214 inc vat) and then upgrade to the new 8900 or 2950 series when they are released...(hopefully with gd dx10 performance)

shine · 14 May 2007 at 15:26

Depends on what resolution you will be gaming at. Anything upto 1280 x 1024 and the 320 MB version should be enough.

tsj · 14 May 2007 at 15:27

SS-89 said:
Hi need some help deciding *** card to get with the below system i'm going to build:

Core 2 Quad 6600
4GB Corsair XMS2 Dominator, DDR2 PC2-6400
Asus P5N32-E SLI
400 Gb Seagate SATA300
300 Gb Seagate SATA300
Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer
(Dual layer dvd rw etc....)

Anyway my main concern is the gfx area, see i want to play crysis in all its glory, and as its dx10 and there are no real dx10 benchmarks to test how well the 8800gtx and the 2900xt(though ive been put off this particular card) is it better to get a 320mb 8800gts (cheapest ive found for £178 inc vat) or a 640mb 8800gts (£214 inc vat) and then upgrade to the new 8900 or 2950 series when they are released...(hopefully with gd dx10 performance)

What resolution will you be gaming at?

Btw rumor has it that Crysis will struggle even on the current top-end hardware

SS-89 · 14 May 2007 at 15:31

tsj said:
What resolution will you be gaming at?

Btw rumor has it that Crysis will struggle even on the current top-end hardware

Ill be playing at 1280*1024 atm prob get a larger monitor later on. Yh i assumed crysis would struggle on the current top end hardware, so a 320mb gts would be my best bet and then upgrade to the next gen hardware later on?

I dont want to shell out £370 on a 8800gtx only to find out i cant play crysis on full.

Will i be able to play supreme commander on max with a 320mb gts? i dont mind the extra £35 for the 640mb if performance is better.

Also ill be playin on vista and ive heard the 8800 series vista drivers are pretty poor, any truth to that?

tsj · 14 May 2007 at 15:34

SS-89 said:
Ill be playing at 1280*1024 atm prob get a larger monitor later on. Yh i assumed crysis would struggle on the current top end hardware, so a 320mb gts would be my best bet and then upgrade to the next gen hardware later on?

I dont want to shell out £370 on a 8800gtx only to find out i cant play crysis on full.

Will i be able to play supreme commander on max with a 320mb gts? i dont mind the extra £35 for the 640mb if performance is better.

Also ill be playin on vista and ive heard the 8800 series vista drivers are pretty poor, any truth to that?

Not sure about Supreme Commander but if I were you I would go for the 320Mb for now anyway as your only gaming at 1280x1024. Crysis and Supreme Commander should play on both at medium or high settings.

SS-89 · 14 May 2007 at 16:14

Which one? 320MB XFX 8800GTS XXX, or 320MB BFG Technology 8800GTS OC2

tsj · 14 May 2007 at 16:48

SS-89 said:
Which one? 320MB XFX 8800GTS XXX, or 320MB BFG Technology 8800GTS OC2

I'd go for the BFG because I've heard they've got better support.

shine · 14 May 2007 at 16:53

SS-89 said:
Which one? 320MB XFX 8800GTS XXX, or 320MB BFG Technology 8800GTS OC2

I got the BFG 320MB OC version and very impressed. There's no point in paying extra for the OC2 as its just slightly more overclocked than the OC. You can overclock it yourself.

Sinny · 14 May 2007 at 16:57

get a 7300gt, it will play FEAR and most mid range DX9 games on high settings, stalker on medium settings, then when the second gen nvidias come out, you will have enough to maybe go sli

.

thats what im doing anyway but only 1 second gen.

SS-89 · 14 May 2007 at 17:13

shine said:
I got the BFG 320MB OC version and very impressed. There's no point in paying extra for the OC2 as its just slightly more overclocked than the OC. You can overclock it yourself.

The reason i was more inclined towards the XFX is because the stream processors are overclocked to 1.5ghz from 1.2Ghz and i believe atm its not possible to overclock those manually, i read a review and it translated into a 40fps difference over the reference 8800gts in coh at my resolution with 4*aa and 16*af, i know the results may not be entirely true but generally performance is better and for an extra £25-30 im most likely going to go for the XFX.

Thanks for all the help, much appreciated.