Video Card upgrade advice needed

Cartho · 22 Apr 2007 at 19:54

Hi all
I was just looking for some thoughts really.
My situation is that I am a poor student who cannot afford to spend much more than £150 on a new video card.

I also CANNOT use a DUAL SLOT video card thanks to Dell's incompetant case design... :mad:

Otherwise I wouldnot be posting this and would be saving for the delightful 8800 GTS 320 MB

I was so looking forward to the 8600 GTS, however it has come out and by all accounts it is a shocker of a card for the price they are asking.

Now I have had my eye on the 512MB Sapphire X1950 PRO for some time now, but then another part of me is saying "don't buy that, because it is a DX9 card and so it would be a waste of money"

What do you guys think? Wait and see what the R600 midrange cards are like? Say "to hell with DX 10" and buy the X1950 PRO?

My current card is in my sig and it is the PCI EXPRESS version of it, NOT the AGP one

got any thoughts?

C64 · 22 Apr 2007 at 19:57

The 1950 pro will see you alright for a good while dx 10 games wont be mainstream for ages yet i think.
I'm sticking with my 7600gt until a decent dx10 card appears shall we say the next 7600 gt.

melbourne720 · 23 Apr 2007 at 09:07

x1950 Pro is pretty much your only choice to see an improvement over your current card whilst staying single-slot.

Cartho · 23 Apr 2007 at 09:11

yeah that is what I am thinking.
DX 10 will not be a necessity for quite a while yet...
Very tempted at the moment!

bonsc · 23 Apr 2007 at 11:50

Am still trying to upgrade my pc but its a struggle picking one part from the other.I don't know if its worth getting one of these 8800 GTS 320 or just get a x1950 Pro for now and wait and see what the dx10 cards run like when the dx10 games come out

melbourne720 · 23 Apr 2007 at 12:50

bonsc said:
Am still trying to upgrade my pc but its a struggle picking one part from the other.I don't know if its worth getting one of these 8800 GTS 320 or just get a x1950 Pro for now and wait and see what the dx10 cards run like when the dx10 games come out

If you can afford it, get it. The 8800 GTS 320MB is good vfm as a DX9 card. Hardly any DX10 code has been run in public, just one demo from nvidia, so who knows if any of them are good at DX10?

Cartho · 23 Apr 2007 at 12:54

Is the Sapphire X1950 PRO 512mb edition a good card?
512MB is impressive on a single slot card, but they managed it with the 7950 GT I suppose....

I know the X1950 PRO are in general superb sets of cards, but has anyone got the X1950 RPO 512mb from Sapphire who can give me some info about its performance and heat and noise etc?

bonsc · 23 Apr 2007 at 13:04

melbourne720 said:
If you can afford it, get it. The 8800 GTS 320MB is good vfm as a DX9 card. Hardly any DX10 code has been run in public, just one demo from nvidia, so who knows if any of them are good at DX10?

Ye sort of if i can make my mind up what mobo to get

melbourne720 · 23 Apr 2007 at 13:13

bonsc said:
Ye sort of if i can make my mind up what mobo to get

P5B, P5N, DS3P or DS4 - any other questions?

bonsc · 23 Apr 2007 at 14:18

melbourne720 said:
P5B, P5N, DS3P or DS4 - any other questions?

am not sure if to go with a 680i or a 650.Apart from the 2x16 sli what other benifits as a 680i have over ever the DS3P or P5N-E

Darkwave · 23 Apr 2007 at 14:20

Screw DX10, 90% of the people who bought G80 bought it for DX9 and the other 10% are too quick on the draw.

X1950Pro will last you quite a while yet.

AWPC · 23 Apr 2007 at 14:28

Cartho said:
Is the Sapphire X1950 PRO 512mb edition a good card?
512MB is impressive on a single slot card, but they managed it with the 7950 GT I suppose....

I know the X1950 PRO are in general superb sets of cards, but has anyone got the X1950 RPO 512mb from Sapphire who can give me some info about its performance and heat and noise etc?

Yeah I bought one a week or so ago for my HDTV PC (P4 670J@ 3.8Ghz).

Noise=Silent
Heat=33C Idle rising to 40C under heavy load so runs very cool.

Performance=Do not have any FPS figures for you but can confirm that @ 1360x768 I can run the following games with Full AF + 4xAA + vsync on + HDR if supported)and they are all very smooth (I would notice if not as I am gaming on this rig on my 40" HDTV from 3ft away!!!).

Far Cry
HL2 + Ep1 + Lost Coast
Prey
Doom3
Quake4
Splinter Cell Chaos Theory

Think that for the money (£135 on OCUK) it is the best deal right now on a DX9 card with 512MB Ram (very important for the high res textures & best image quality as some 256 cards run out).

Only really negative thing I can think of is that all ATI cards when running on a HDTV do not have any settings to control non 16:9 aspect ratio games so if you like an older title which has no hacks to enable 1360x768 then you are forced to run 1024x768 stretched to fill the 16:9 HDTV. If you connect a TFT the settings to have black borders @ the screen sides are enabled but connect a HDTV and they disappear!!

melbourne720 · 23 Apr 2007 at 15:08

bonsc said:
am not sure if to go with a 680i or a 650.Apart from the 2x16 sli what other benifits as a 680i have over ever the DS3P or P5N-E

There is auto overclocking of the PCI-E bus (don't need, just set it manually), two ethernet ports for 'First Packet' (don't need, just don't torrent and online game at the same time). When I got my 680i I wanted an NVidia chipset (as I have a nforce4 already) and the 680i was the only around at the time. If I was buying now, I'd get the 650 SLi (and probably the Asus one).

Nothing wrong with the 680i though, other than the price

bonsc · 23 Apr 2007 at 15:53

melbourne720 said:
There is auto overclocking of the PCI-E bus (don't need, just set it manually), two ethernet ports for 'First Packet' (don't need, just don't torrent and online game at the same time). When I got my 680i I wanted an NVidia chipset (as I have a nforce4 already) and the 680i was the only around at the time. If I was buying now, I'd get the 650 SLi (and probably the Asus one).

Nothing wrong with the 680i though, other than the price

I know there abit to much realy but saying that i have seen the Asus 680i for £130.

melbourne720 · 23 Apr 2007 at 15:57

bonsc said:
I know there abit to much realy but saying that i have seen the Asus 680i for £130.

Not bad but the 650 SLi is still 60 quid cheaper - that is another 250GB hard drive!

bonsc · 23 Apr 2007 at 16:01

melbourne720 said:
Not bad but the 650 SLi is still 60 quid cheaper - that is another 250GB hard drive!

I dident think upgrading would be so hard i thought it would be easy and a month later am none the wiser ,all i need is a
Mobo
Cpu
Memo
Videocard
psu and my by a case

Cartho · 23 Apr 2007 at 16:01

AWPC said:
Yeah I bought one a week or so ago for my HDTV PC (P4 670J@ 3.8Ghz).

Noise=Silent
Heat=33C Idle rising to 40C under heavy load so runs very cool.

Performance=Do not have any FPS figures for you but can confirm that @ 1360x768 I can run the following games with Full AF + 4xAA + vsync on + HDR if supported)and they are all very smooth (I would notice if not as I am gaming on this rig on my 40" HDTV from 3ft away!!!).

Far Cry
HL2 + Ep1 + Lost Coast
Prey
Doom3
Quake4
Splinter Cell Chaos Theory

Think that for the money (£135 on OCUK) it is the best deal right now on a DX9 card with 512MB Ram (very important for the high res textures & best image quality as some 256 cards run out).

Only really negative thing I can think of is that all ATI cards when running on a HDTV do not have any settings to control non 16:9 aspect ratio games so if you like an older title which has no hacks to enable 1360x768 then you are forced to run 1024x768 stretched to fill the 16:9 HDTV. If you connect a TFT the settings to have black borders @ the screen sides are enabled but connect a HDTV and they disappear!!

Thanks very much for this!
I game at 1280 X 1024 on a 17" TFT Dell Ultra Sharp flat pannel monitor....
I think my mind is gradually being made up! Just need some money now

melbourne720 · 23 Apr 2007 at 16:09

bonsc said:
I dident think upgrading would be so hard i thought it would be easy and a month later am none the wiser ,all i need is a
Mobo
Cpu
Memo
Videocard
psu and my by a case

Akasa Eclipse 62 Aluminium Case - No PSU
(£93.99)

EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS SuperClocked 320MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail
(£211.49)

Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-520HXUK)
(£70.49)

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C5 800MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400DC)
(£99.86)

Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.80GHz (800FSB) - Retail
(£82.24)

Asus P5N-E SLi nForce 650 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
(£82.24)

Total : £653.17

Job done.

bonsc · 23 Apr 2007 at 17:05

melbourne720 said:
Akasa Eclipse 62 Aluminium Case - No PSU
(£93.99)

EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS SuperClocked 320MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail
(£211.49)

Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-520HXUK)
(£70.49)

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C5 800MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400DC)
(£99.86)

Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.80GHz (800FSB) - Retail
(£82.24)

Asus P5N-E SLi nForce 650 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
(£82.24)

Total : £653.17

Job done.

Thanks for that m8 i should have said for one reason or another my budgets been knocked down to between £500 to £560ish

melbourne720 · 24 Apr 2007 at 09:05

bonsc said:
Thanks for that m8 i should have said for one reason or another my budgets been knocked down to between £500 to £560ish

No worries, easily fixed:-

Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3P (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
(£88.11)

Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.80GHz (800FSB) - Retail

EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS SuperClocked 320MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail
(£211.49)

Akasa AK-ZEN-01-BK Zen Black Case - No PSU
(£29.36)

Enermax Noisetaker 535W EG565AX-VE(W) SFMA ATX2.0 SLI Compliant PSU
(£58.74)

OcUK 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400 800MHz DDR2 Dual Channel Kit
(£82.24)

Total : £563.87