Newbie - Choosing a Graphics Card

[helishark]

Hey guys Im building my first computer and have all the stuff installed except for the CPU, RAM and a Graphics Card.

Setup is as follows:

580W Hyper Type R PSU
Asus A8N32 - SLI Deluxe
1GB Corsair XMS
AMD 4400 X2
300GB SATAII Diamond Max Plus 10

Guys Im really stuck on the graphics card choices. I really want decent graphics performance but but dont want to spend an absolute ton.

Do I go for a 7900GTX (possibilty of SLI in future)

or

X1900XTX and stay with the single card solution?

I take it an X1900XTX will be ok on my A8N-32 SLI Deluxe mobo will it?

Cheers for any advice.

Sharkie

 

[wellibob]

If you have any sense, you should get the best VALUE graphics card, not the top one. X1800XT or 7900GT.

 

[easyrider]

welcome to the forums.

For starters I would have gone for 2 gig of ram.

But either the x1900 xtx or 7900 GTX are on par with each other.I would go 7900 GTX because you have a sli mobo and at least it gives you the option of the SLI.Even if you wont do it the option is there if you find a gtx in the future.

Plus the 7900 GTX is better IMO due to heat,power draw and noise.Its silent running and cool as a cucumber!

hi wellibob long time no hear!

 

[helishark]

Thanks guys, yeah im looking to upgrade to 2gb of ram soon, I just got the 1gb to get the system off the ground first. Then hopefully if i dont mess anything up I can start to tweak it.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[easyrider]

Thanks guys, yeah im looking to upgrade to 2gb of ram soon, I just got the 1gb to get the system off the ground first. Then hopefully if i dont mess anything up I can start to tweak it.

Thanks for the advice.

you might be forced to 2 T timing with four sticks and the x2 4400 so keep that in mind.

Better to have 2x 1gig stix than 4x 512mb stix

 

[ACESHIGH]

Can i also suggest you look at the X1800XT 256 at £170. Bargain price for a great performing card (quicker than a 7900GT) & will keep you playing untill you want to upgrade to a DX10 card, i would say.

 

[div0]

Can i also suggest you look at the X1800XT 256 at £170. Bargain price for a great performing card

agreed

superb value for money!

 

[Teknodeamon]

id go for the 7900 gt overclocks better than the x1800xt and is way way way cooler.

 

[toxic]

personally....for the same price as a 7900GTX you can get a 7900GT or x1800xt....send back your 1Gb RAM and order 2x1Gb sticks. Its much annoying when you have the dogs of a GPU but still get jerky gameplay beacuse you dont have enough RAM. 2G of RAM smooths out most of the latest games totally...BF2, FEAR etc.
Failing that...decide on how much you want to spend on a graphics card first...if you have the money for the best...just get one.

 

[okimanoob]

you might be forced to 2 T timing with four sticks and the x2 4400 so keep that in mind.

As stated the Asus will not run 4*512mb sticks of RAM @ 1T - currently there is only the new DFI RDX200 MOBO that allows 4 sticks @ 1T command rate.
However, you will not see a great deal of difference between 4 sticks and
2*1gb in most scenarios (apart from running benchmarking tests).
Think hit is reported to be roughly 2-3% loss so not a big difference.

 

[Darkwave]

Can i also suggest you look at the X1800XT 256 at £170. Bargain price for a great performing card & will keep you playing untill you want to upgrade to a DX10 card, i would say.

Seconded.

Edit: Thirded.

 

[2bullish]

Get the X800 buy £20 worth of gpu cooling, then when you upgrade when DX10 hits you can pop the old hsf back on and bang it out on ebay, keep the funky gpu cooler and jobs a good'n

Edit fourthded (sic)

 

[crashuk]

580W Hyper Type R PSU
Asus A8N32 - SLI Deluxe
1GB Corsair XMS
AMD 4400 X2
300GB SATAII Diamond Max Plus 10

well i wouldnt buy a new chip yet ill wait for the new amd chips coming out, and have all 4 1gig sticks running @1 T ,but if u cant wait then this.
X2 Dual Core 4200
2 gig ram @1t 2sticks
sata
1800 or 7900gt