Switch from ATI to Nvidia?

[Dashik]

Ok so I need to upgrade my system to allow me to play Armed Assault and FSX and some upcoming new games at decent ish rates on my Dell 2407 at 1900 x 1200. FSX is the Priority and I know its getting a performance patch shortly.

Currently running 2 x ATI X1900XT in Crossfire on an A8R32-MVP Deluxe with an AMD Opterion 170 @ 2.65Ghz, 4Gb Crucial Ram.


so I have 2 options.


1. Get an Intel C2D E6600 and new motherboard, 2Gb ram and keep the ATI cards.

2. As option 1 but got for an Nvidia 768MB EVGA 8800GTX KO Superclocked PCI-E 2000MHz GPU 626MHz 128Streams Dual DVI-I/HDTV ACS3 Arctic Cooling or similar.


If I go with option 1 then I'll get an Asus P5WDG2 WS Professional i975X and Ram to suit and wait to see how ATI's new card does.


However i'm thinking that it might be worth going the Nvida route for a change and If I do that then its a little more complex.

I have 2 x WD150 Raptors and 2 WD500GB Hdd's and need/would like to keep the Raptors raided.

I plan on running Vista Ultimate (probably 32 bit for ease of driver availability).

So for overclocking and getting water cooling later in the year (air cooled to start) what board/ram would suit the Nvidia 8800 and the E6600?

Thanks guys.

I'll post this in the CPU section as well.

 

[melbourne720]

8800 GTX, while you can still get good prices for your x1900XTs

 

[Jakus]

The Grass is always greener !

Sit on the fence a while and see what DX10 Gaming really brings us over DX9

If You really got to do it, proberly a 680 board and a pair of 8800GTS is the way to go a single GTX is not enough of a step up from Your Crossfire ignoring the DX10 aspect

 

[VeNT]

does the 8800 work on vista yet?

 

[Jakus]

Flight simX a MS game and the only DX10 game has yet to be Patched ! all this DX10 BS annoys me, 8800 vista drivers ATI may well be prudent in hanging back with their R600

 

[Dashik]

Settled on the following,

Arctic Cooling (AC-FRZ-7P) Freezer 7 Pro Socket 775 CPU Cooler 105994 Invoiced
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 (2.4ghz) Socket 775 FSB1066 4MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor
ASUS P5W DH Deluxe SKT 775 dual-core Core2Duo Conroe ready Crossfire 8channel audio ATX
Corsair 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-6400 (TWIN2X2048-6400C4D) DOMINATOR


Arrives Tommorrow

 

[LoadsaMoney]

does the 8800 work on vista yet?

Nothing does yet, thought everyone knew that.

 

[jim5000]

I think I will be switching from ATI to nvidia next graphics card upgrade. What are the Nvidia drivers like, control panel wise? I really like the Catalyst control centre as it was so easy setting up video playback on various moniters etc. Is the Nvidia one as effective?

 

[RDM]

does the 8800 work on vista yet?

Mine was working from about a week after Vista launch when I installed it. Of course I am only playing Supreme Commander, Vanguard and UFO:AFterlight at the moment. All at 1920x1200 and getting pretty acceptable results.

 

[Mortster]

I think I will be switching from ATI to nvidia next graphics card upgrade. What are the Nvidia drivers like, control panel wise? I really like the Catalyst control centre as it was so easy setting up video playback on various moniters etc. Is the Nvidia one as effective?

Recently I switched from an ATI X1900 XT to a 8800GTX.

I used to loathe the CCC from ATI with a passion (although I think recently ATI have increased performance of the CCC). I just used to find it far too clunky in comparison to the orignal control panel.

The CP from NVidia is a breath of fresh air in comparison. (it doesnt use the dreaded .net framework for one!), and is simple and clean.

Currently NVidia are going through a rough patch with drivers though. At first Vista was neglected, but now they seem to be focussing all effort onto Vista, and it's the XP drivers which, at 97.92 dated 10th Jan, are in dire need of a offical WHQL update.

I had big reservations with going from ATI to NVidia (I had previously owned a 9800, x800, x1800 and x1900) but I'm glad I did. As long as NVidia keep focussed on driver updates and, eventually, keep to the regular monthly driver updates as promised !

EDIT - The biggest, and only thing, I miss from switching to 'green' is the lack of an ATI tray tools equivalent. That was a good program indeed.

 

[Durzel]

What sort of score do you get in 3DMark currently?

I have the same setup as you except I already have an E6700 which I've tested at stock & overclocked.

 

[Mortster]

What sort of score do you get in 3DMark currently?

I have the same setup as you except I already have an E6700 which I've tested at stock & overclocked.

hi there, in 3dmark06 score = 10731 (97.92 drivers)