Im so confused about graphics cards

[mattgaunt]

Hey everyone

Can anyone just give an easy to understand of PCI-E graphics cards, what to look for? any recommendations, im looking to probably spend around £150 for a new build, the mobo im looking at will have 2 PCI-E x 16 slots.

What i dont get is the most up to date cards take PCI case slots, so is that why the mobo has such huge gaps?

the card im asking these quesitons about is this one that i just looked at

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-044-BG

is it worth gettin a card like this? or is it worth getting a cheaper card and waiting for this one to come dwn in price.

Help lol

 

[Boogle]

The motherboard has huge gaps because most high-end graphics cards take up two slots physicall (the cooler consumes its own slot). Additionally most devices you'll use are already built into the motherboard, things like gigabit network cards, high definition audio, firewire, lots of USB, SATA inc. RAID, and so on.

As for which card suits you - you'll need to tell us what games you play, and what size your monitor is

Graphics cards rarely come down in price, they often just get replaced with a new model. Having said that high end cards can sometimes come down by £100 or so over their lifetime. The card you linked to may drop by up to £50 just before NV release their new generation in 5-6 months.

 

[melbourne720]

you've picked a really good card there, assuming you game at 1280 x 1024 then there is very little (if anything) that card won't run at 16xAF, a little AA and all the details set to max.

Boogle has responded to all your other points well so I won't repeat it.

Enjoy

 

[Duff-Man]

The 8800GTS 320mb is a great card for the price - you'd do well with it. However, if I were you I would pay a little less and get one of the lower-clocked versions. You can overclock it yourself and there is little evidence that the higher clocked versions have higher maximum clockspeeds than the standard versions.

As for your other question I'm not sure what you mean, but here's a quick rundown of PCI-e.

Graphics cards need huge bandwidth, and so use specialised PCI-e slots with 16x and 8x lanes (yours has the higher speed 16x lanes). There are 2 of the slots in your motherboard so that you can add a second graphics card to run in sither SLI or crossfire (if you're going for a nvidia geforce card you will need an SLI compatible motherboard, not crossfire, to add a second card later. But don't worry about that for now). The reason they're so far apart is because many of the modern GFX cards have large coolers on them, and so the slots provide sufficient distance between the cards for reasonable airflow.

Regular PCI slots are on their way out, but there are plenty of things which still use them so they should still be present. The small slots you see are PCI-e 1x lanes (have 1/8th or 1/16th the bandwidth of the larger graphics card lanes). These are viewed as a replacement for PCI, and as newer hardware switches from PCI to PCI-e you will see more of these being used.

Hope that answers your questions.

 

[mattgaunt]

As for which card suits you - you'll need to tell us what games you play, and what size your monitor is

Well im planning on getting 2 19" DVI NEC monitors, as for the resolution i think its 1280 x 1024

Baically for games, im probably just wanting a card that will last a fair old time and be able to play all of the newest games, Im not a hardcore gamer, but i do like to just pick out the odd game knowing it will run on my machine, sooo . . basically im not too bothered about having everythin on high graphics but just be able to play all the games smoothly.

Thanks for the explanation Duff-man, so does the SLI mean that if i whack in 2 graphics cards that they share the work load between the 2 of them??

Jus not sure what this whole SLI and crossfire is all for

Thank you so much for the help guys

 

[Boogle]

I would stick with an 8800GTS tbh, maybe the 320MB version since DX10 lessens the requirement for lots of video memory. It'll last a pretty long time, especially if you don't want the highest detail around.

SLI & CrossFire does share the load between two graphics cards - but thats only for extreme users who want lots of performance with large monitors and bucket loads of AA.

 

[sidefxv1]

My impression of SLI\Crossfire is that the bang for buck isn't quite as good as it could be, and driver\game support for utilising it tends to lag behind a bit. I think you'd probably have a smoother experience with a single card. But them I haven't personally messed with it, so just an impression I get.

 

[jaykay]

As u have 2 monitors you wont be able to use sli or crossfire as thats for 1 screen only.

 

[mattgaunt]

So since i can't use SLI would it be worth buying a card that has more power behind it rather than technology for the SLI for the same sort of money??

I dunno if that makes sense but i jus guess if im not goin to use SLI then i might as well not hav it but on the same side are the SLI cards still the most powerful??

 

[LadFromWales]

Jaykay: So, a single card will allow you to hook up two monitors. Is it not possible to still hook up two monitors when using crossfire?

 

[Boogle]

Jaykay: So, a single card will allow you to hook up two monitors. Is it not possible to still hook up two monitors when using crossfire?

You can use up to 4 (2 on older CrossFire) monitors with CrossFire and SLI. You just enable SLI/CrossFire when you want to play an intensive game.

mattgaunt: Don't worry about CF/SLI, but the time your GTS isn't fast enough, the next card you buy would be faster than two GTSs in SLI.

 

[Duff-Man]

So since i can't use SLI would it be worth buying a card that has more power behind it rather than technology for the SLI for the same sort of money??

I dunno if that makes sense but i jus guess if im not goin to use SLI then i might as well not hav it but on the same side are the SLI cards still the most powerful??

I suggest you forget about SLI/crossfire, given your requirements. Also, in my opinion it's only ever worth considering with the top of the range models, for those who want extra power. In general, getting one higher powered card is more effective than having two lower powered cards in SLI.

I've used SLI before (in Geforce 6 and geforce 7 generations), and in my opinion it's not all it's cracked up to be. But that is besides the point for now.


I think I see where you're coming from with your question, but in the graphics card market at the moment ALL high end nvidia cards have the option for SLI (and all ATI cards have the option for crossfire). So there is no 'cheaper non-SLI equivalent' card available. So no need to worry about this

The area where you could pay less and not have the option for SLI would be in the motherboard, although increasingly all the good motherboards have 2 PCI-e slots and support for EITHER SLI or crossfire. If you know the motherboard you're getting, then post and perhaps we can help you there.

Given the resolution you're going to be running at, your estimated budget, and your requirements I think even more that the 8800GTS 320mb is probably an ideal choice at the moment.