graphics card for high resolutions

[noisecrime]

Hey,

Well, unsurprisngly posting here about getting a new system. Yesterday i thought i had it all figured out, at least on the graphics front in going for 512mb 8800GT or new GTS model. That was until I figured i'd treat myself to my first 24" 1920x1200 monitor. Now i'm wondering if i need to 'upgrade' my choice of card?

Currently i'm using a 1280x1024 and 1600x1200 CRT's (with a 6800nu). I intend to ditch the 1600 as its pretty much borked and switch to a new 1920 along with the 1280 ( I like the ability of running dual monitors regardless the individual resolutions). Although out of my price range, i'd also like to be able to support a single 2560 monitor, should i ever need to for future work requirements.

So what card should i be looking at, would a 8800GT still be viable?

Do i need to consider switching to SLI? I'd rather avoid it if possible, graphic cards seem to be my weakness in terms of failure rates so having two just doubles the chances of one or more breaking

Something else i'm wondering about is the power usage, esp with SLI. It feels a little extravegant, not mention wasteful to need 1000w just to power ones PC. If I need say a 750w PSU does that mean constant power being used or will it drop down considerably when idle? The reason i ask is i tend to leave my machine on for 24hrs at a time, so would be rather destressed to think its drawing so much power constantly. Any thoughts?


A little background for further information.

My current system P4 2.6Ghz, 6800nu (was OC but had issues) is pretty ample for my general work needs, but now I need a multi-core system in order to run some propritary 3D and really want to start running larger resolutions. So i'm looking at getting a whole new system.

In terms of usage, I'd like to take the oppertunity to get back into some PC gaming, an obvious choice being Crysis, but also eagly awaiting Spore. However I have no qualms falling back to just the 1280x1024 crt for that, if necessary, but naturally would love to be able to play less intensive games (say ET:QW) on the 1920 monitor.

However the main use of the machine is for work, which usually revolves around developing 3D applications, although sadly never to level of the current tech and generally aiming for lower specs than the development machine. In the future this might change, but of particular interest now would be the ability to develop for larger resolutions such as 1920 or 2560.

thx

 

[Darg]

No need to bother with SLI. I'd wait for the new ranges of cards from both ATi and nVidia then have a look through the benchmarks on them to see what works good at 1920.

Should be less then 3 weeks.

 

[noisecrime]

Thx

Not sure about waiting for the new cards. As i understand it nvidia will only focus on the top range, which i'd rather avoid buying and I wouldn't go ATI for personal reasons.

Some people have mentioned price drops when the new cards come along, but is that really worth waiting for? I mean if a 8800GTS drops £20 its not really worth it, but if it drops £50 then maybe. Also how long does it take for these drops to filter through?

You see I'm desperate to get winXP installed on the new system, which as far as I understand means getting it before the end of this month? So thats one reason not to wait too long.

 

[The $6m Dan]

With the PSU, it only draws from the mains what it needs. So when the PC is idle it uses significantly less than when you're gaming.
If you want to try and cut down on your electricity bill, look for a PSU that says something like 80% efficient as it means it will be at least 80% efficient across a wide range of power draw.
And a good quality 600W supply should be enough for most systems, even an SLi setup. There really is no need for kilowat PSUs.

 

[noisecrime]

Thx Dan,

I figured that would be the case, but wanted to double check.

Interesting that you say a 600w supply should be sufficient for SLI. I had assumed if a card required something like 450w, then two in SLI would need double that. You appear to be saying thats not the case? To help my understanding could you elaborate on why that is?

Just thought of another question.
When a graphics card states a max resolution, such as 2048 x 1536 is that per monitor? I think it must be since my current set up is using well over that amount of total area (1280x1024+1600x1200). So if a 8800GT can support 2560 x 1600 does that mean it will have no problem running 2, 1920x1200 or for that matter 2x 2560x1600?

 

[The $6m Dan]

There is no standard for measuring how much power a PSU can deliver and some of the cheaper PSU brands use dubious means of arriving at their claimed figures. So the GFX manufacturers overstate how much power is needed in order to cover themselves.

Here is a thread where people are saying how much power their PCs draw.
Search the forums for some more threads and you should soon see that a good quality PSU around 600W should be enough for most situations.