GPU..needs clearing up

[sunderz]

GPU.. help.

hey guys ill start with my speck:

X38-DQ6
C2D E6859 3.00GHz
2Gig of ram
Sapphire HD 260 PRO
EarthWatts 500 Watt power supply


now my questions are pretty basic to start with as it's just a basic working set up to run the things i need fast, i've never overclocked.

im looking at upgrading my GPU and ram arouond september time ready for my final year at uni. i have been looking at the 4870 possibly in crossfire and 8gig of 1066Mhz ram (and changeing to 64XP)...im am contenplateing getting a Physx card for gameing unless thay are really not need at all for the price??

but i dont wanna upgrade to find that a week later something will come out that is more useable (saw the thread about Dx10.1) but with these upgrades ill need to get a new PSU aswell i just need some pointers of what to get whats good recomended etc..

regards
chris

 

[sunderz]

i now im asking other things but grafix but i dont i guese the 4870 is pretty good and a jump up from my Sapphire HD 2600 PRO?? i can currently run crysis on med grafix and runs perfectly but anything more and it's jerky. i also do a lot of 3d design pro engineer and ailias studio work allong with photoshop etc... will this upgrade help the speed of rendering with that too??

regards
chris

 

[sunderz]

after seeing the devil may cry benchmark thread i thought i'de run it... well kinda amusing wathcing the pitifull FPS. well you can see for yourselfs..

it was set to standard and reselution 1440x900

 

[Seldarine]

I would go with the 4870, you will notice a massive difference compared to your current card. Not sure about going crossfire though with your powersupply, even though your x38 board is pretty much designed for that.

Also ive heard rumours they are trying to include GPU acceleration in the next version of photoshop so that will obviously help you there.

 

[Seldarine]

yeh and ass for a seperate physx add-in card dont bother. physx is owned by nvidia now and no longer make seperate cards since it is handled by the GPU. Both amd and nvidia have some form of acceleration in this manner with amd using the havok method.

Like the original add-in card 3d accelerators of the 1990 they soon became contained in the main graphics card, as have physics acceleration.

 

[sunderz]

ahh okies was looking at the BFG one from OcUk...as well as the 4870's mentioned above... but would the grafix card take some strain off the rest of the system makeing it run better??