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Need a recommendation

Spectral

Spectral

Spectral

Associate
Joined
30 Jun 2005
Posts
57
I have the following system:

Athlon 64 3400+
1GB PC3200 RAM(might be 2GB in a few weeks)
SBAudigy 4
250GB SATA HDD

Up until recently it had a Radeon X800XL in it, but that has passed away. So I'm after a replacement. I am quite into gaming but cannot afford to replace the other components in the PC. So I'm after a graphics card that will allow me to get the best frame rates and video quality while not being so powerful that the majority of its power is being wasted due to the other compnents. I was planning on getting one of the 320MB Geforce 8800GTS cards but have been told elsewhere that they are too powerful and would be a waste in the above system. So I thought I'd ask here. What is my best bet, a 8800gts or something in the 7900/7950 range? Also with regards to the 7900/7950's, what models are the best ones? The whole GT/GS/GTS/GTX/Ultra/Pro,etc always leaves me with an headache.

Thanks in advance
 
if you can wait 15 days the 8600 series will be out, otherwise go 4 an 8800gts its the best choice atm imho but it will be bottlenecked by your cpu
 
By how much would it be bottle necked though? I dont want to go for a £200 8800GTS when on my system something in the 7900 range for £120ish would give me exactly the same performance.
 
bottleneck....i hate that word, especially regarding graphics cards because its so often misused. sure a conroe would be benificial for gaming but your pc will be by no means slow with one, and it'll still be so much faster (think 70% faster than an x1900/7900gtx) when using FSAA and lets face it.....who doesnt?
 
So an 8800gts wouldn't be a waste of money then? I had pretty much made my mind up to get one and then was told with my current system I shouldn't.
 
any cpu thats not dual core will pretty much bottleneck a 8800, But..

because the 8800 is such a good card, even with a few bottle necks, it would still blast any other card into oblivion :cool:

its only when you run somthing like 1680x1050 resolution with a low spec Cpu, that a 8800 would bottleneck, if the game is a verry high graphic game..

even then, it would still get more fps than you would ever want on any game
 
Thanks for the info, I think I'm going to fo for an XFX or BFG 8800GTS. Any recommendations on which? I'm obviously not going to get one of the overclocked models, I just like the 10 year warranty,
 
Spectral said:
Thanls, I cant find delivery info on the site, any idea on the delivery costs on a gfx card?
Click to expand...

Cost me £8 for my X1900 last year from here. ;) Cheap as chips :D

You should also hunt for a decent overclocking X2 3800+ that can hit 2.6Ghz at least and hopefully in the 2.8Ghz - 3Ghz+ region. Shouldn't cost much at all and your new GTS will enjoy it more than your single core.

I'm not saying you need too. I'm just suggesting a cheap upgrade for you to get the best performances from your new hardware.
 
I really cant afford a new CPU, especially considering it would also include needing a new motherboard and RAM. I didn't really want to be forking out for a new graphics card, but the fan on my old one broke and the replacement cooler wouldn't fit it. I presume Asus changed things around a bit on their X800XL.
 
Well if you cant afford new cpu, wait 2 weeks then buy 8600 & the extra 1gb DDR = respectable gaming experiance for you. :)
 
Whats the estimated price on that card? Also not sure I want to wait, been without a working gfx card now for around a month and its driving me crazy. I am planning to get more ram anyway, its just going to me a month or 2.
 
Well if your getting ram with money set aside & you wait for 8600; card is expected to retail somewhere between £120 to £150 if rumors are anything to go by. :) So you could pick up 3700+ (take it your mobo s939?) aswell for that little extra boost (o/c it to 2.7'ish), since they are so very cheap and then sell the 3400 on auction site to make a little back... :)

If i was you id get some tacky old flee bitten card 2nd hand for peanuts to tide me over the short wait. ;)
 
Nope, my Mobo is a sckt 754 so that'd need upgrading too. I dont have money set aside for ram, I only have around £200ish spare atm. I was going to start saving again to pick up some ram in a few months. A new CPU,RAM and motherboard better than the ones I have would come to more than that and still leave me without a gfx card. I'm only getting a new gfx card out of necessity since my X800XL broke. If it hadn't I would have happily carried on using that for the next year at least.

Would I actually notice a huge difference between the 8800gts and 7900GT on my system? I'm kind of tempted just get get a 7900GT for around £120 and use that for a year or 2.

Edit: How good is the EVGA 7950GT KO SUPERCLOCKED 512MB PCI-E? That can be had for around £150
 
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You sid that it was the fan on the GFX card that broke does that mean the card still works but is overheating????

If so why not save a lot of money and get a after market cooler.

Can pick up coolers for around £20 and continue to save to get other bits in a couple of months. That way you will be able to pick up a 8600 and also upgrade the other hardware aswell.

Win win ;)
 
Claire Drew said:
You sid that it was the fan on the GFX card that broke does that mean the card still works but is overheating????

If so why not save a lot of money and get a after market cooler.

Can pick up coolers for around £20 and continue to save to get other bits in a couple of months. That way you will be able to pick up a 8600 and also upgrade the other hardware aswell.

Win win ;)
Click to expand...

I already tried that, it seems Asus changed things around on the card and it didn't work. The placement of the pads didn't line up to the ram and the power connector for the fan was much bigger on the replacement cooler than the one on my card. So having already wasted £20 on that I decided just to get a new card.

I realise getting new components would improve performance but I cant afford it, this isn't a planned upgrade, its getting a replacement for a broken card. I can't just keep spending money on the PC
 
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Well I'm going to order sometime today or tomorrow. I haven't fully made my mind up though, I've not been able to find much of a comparison between the 320MB 8800GTS and the EVGA 7950GT KO SUPERCLOCKED 512MB PCI-E. Would I get the same performance from both or enough better to warrant £50 extra from the 8800GTS. Bearing in mind that I can't upgrade the rest of the system, with the possible exception of the ram, but even that would be months off.
 
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