Shall I or Shall I Not? Help needed!

paul1980 · 2 Jun 2006 at 19:08

I am currently stuck in the dark ages with an NVIDIA FX5950 Graphics card. I have £400 quid to splash out on an upgrade.

I am looking at getting a PCI-E mobo and a 7900 GTX card.

The problem I am having is that I am really unsure about what to do? Shall I wait till the DX10 cards come out? Someone please guide me.

Cheers

Mikey1280 · 2 Jun 2006 at 19:12

DX10 cards probably wont be out for 6-12 months, I wouldnt bother waiting tbh

fenderbass86 · 2 Jun 2006 at 19:12

MB-087-AB Abit KN8 Ultra nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-087-AB) 1
£49.95 £49.95
GX-112-SP Sapphire ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-112-SP) 1
£214.95 £214.95
Subtotal £264.90
VAT £46.36
Total £311.26

DBSE_Snake_XE · 2 Jun 2006 at 19:13

Well, it looks like DX10 won't hit fully until some time next year, so if you're looking to play games before then, you may as well upgrade now. With a PCI-express board, you'll be able to upgrade in future, should you need it.

Darkwave · 2 Jun 2006 at 19:17

fenderbass86 said:
MB-087-AB Abit KN8 Ultra nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-087-AB) 1
£49.95 £49.95
GX-112-SP Sapphire ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-112-SP) 1
£214.95 £214.95
Subtotal £264.90
VAT £46.36
Total £311.26

Delicious.

Seconded.

paul1980 · 2 Jun 2006 at 19:29

Cheers for replies. Think I'll go ahead and order on Monday.

Is there a big difference between the ATI X1900 XT mentioned above and the 7900 GTX?

kbc · 2 Jun 2006 at 19:34

paul1980 said:
Cheers for replies. Think I'll go ahead and order on Monday.

Is there a big difference between the ATI X1900 XT mentioned above and the 7900 GTX?

The ATi card beats the 7900GTX in terms of power requirements and noise, unless you of course go for the nicer silent X1900XTs.

When I say "beats" I mean - the ATi card has "higher" power consumption and noise output.

Darkwave · 2 Jun 2006 at 19:34

It'll outperform the 7900GTX in a good few games and is generally cheaper.

easyrider · 2 Jun 2006 at 19:36

I would get an 7900 GT and put the extra saved towards another gig of ram rather than spending the most part of your budget on a GFX card.

2 GIG will be better in game and you can always clock that GT.

A 7900 GTX or x1900 in a system with 1 gig of ram is an unbalanced system in my book.

so look at the overall spec of your pc and take this into account before jumping in with top end cards.

easyrider · 2 Jun 2006 at 19:39

Exsomnis said:
It'll outperform the 7900GTX in a good few games and is generally cheaper.

The 7900 GTX will out perform the x1900 in a good few games to.
This should be mentioned so the op can make a balanced choice.

The GTX will run cooler and use less power and will be silent so its worth checking your power supply to see if its up to the job of running a X1900.

Chances are if you get a GT or GTX your power supply will be fine.

paul1980 · 2 Jun 2006 at 19:48

I think I'll go for NVIDIA really. As I have a AKASA PAXPOWER 400W power supply.

Just a case of whether to go for a GT or a GTX. Decisions decisions.

Easyrider I thought 2 gig of Ram caused more problems these days when running a 32 bit windows system???

OzZie · 2 Jun 2006 at 19:49

Why not just go with the x1800xt 256mb at £165?

Has to be bargain of the year.

easyrider · 2 Jun 2006 at 20:07

paul1980 said:
I think I'll go for NVIDIA really. As I have a AKASA PAXPOWER 400W power supply.

Just a case of whether to go for a GT or a GTX. Decisions decisions.

Easyrider I thought 2 gig of Ram caused more problems these days when running a 32 bit windows system???

No two gig of ram does wonders for your load times and games get a 7900 GT and another gig of ram.

Then you will have a well balanced nippy system.
Then overclock that GT too for even more performance.

paul1980 · 2 Jun 2006 at 20:10

What will I need to OC the GT? Does it need another Cooler or does the stock cooler do the trick?

What GT do peeps recommend for OCing?

Darkwave · 2 Jun 2006 at 20:10

easyrider said:
The 7900 GTX will out perform the x1900 in a good few games to.
This should be mentioned so the op can make a balanced choice.

That's a logical conclusion to what I said, yes. I didn't say otherwise so stop being so defensive all the time.

By the way, I thought you were ignoring me? :rolleyes:

I think it'd be better for both of us if you actually did what you said.

easyrider · 2 Jun 2006 at 20:12

Exsomnis said:
That's a logical conclusion to what I said, yes. I didn't say otherwise so stop being so defensive all the time.

By the way, I thought you were ignoring me?

I changed my mind....

To call a gfx card delicious is to entertaining to miss! lmao

Priceless!

easyrider · 2 Jun 2006 at 20:15

paul1980 said:
What will I need to OC the GT? Does it need another Cooler or does the stock cooler do the trick?

What GT do peeps recommend for OCing?

Download coolbits and do an auto detect.

Did auto detect on my old GT and got 580/1760 no problem.

The thing with the GT's is they overclock so fantastically good the VF 900 Is the cooler of choice!

Darkwave · 2 Jun 2006 at 20:15

easyrider said:
I changed my mind....

To call a gfx card delicious is to entertaining to miss! lmao

Priceless!

Are you over eighteen? :confused:

I seriously doubt it.

LoadsaMoney · 2 Jun 2006 at 20:26

In that case then when you keep saying that if you volt mod, and overclock the 7900 GT it will beat the x1800 XT, can you please say that the x1800 XT also overclocks well, as its obvious that a volt modded overclocked 7900 GT will beat a stock x1800, and that aint fair is it.

easyrider · 2 Jun 2006 at 20:29

LoadsaMoney said:
In that case then when you keep saying that if you volt mod, and overclock the 7900 GT it will beat the x1800 XT, can you please say that the x1800 XT also overclocks well, as its obvious that a volt modded overclocked 7900 GT will beat a stock x1800, and that aint fair is it.

Loadsamoney,

I never mentioned volt modding the GT in this thread,

Just overclocking it.