• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

What to upgrade to....

BoomAM

BoomAM

BoomAM

Soldato
Joined
5 Jul 2003
Posts
16,206
Location
Atlanta, USA
Hi.
By the end of next week, my system will have the following specs (just a change of processor really):

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800
Abit AN8 Ultra.
2Gb GeIL Value PC3200 CAS 2.5 (4x512Mb).
Connect 3D Radeon X800XL 256Mb PCI-E.
80Gb Hitachi SATA2.
2x250Gb Hitachi SATA2.
Lite-On 16x DVD.
Lite-On 8x DVDRW.
2x Samsung 172X 17” TFTs.
Antec TrueBlue 480W Rev1 (20pin).
Logitech MX1000 Wireless Laser Mouse.
Apple ProUSB Keyboard
Onboard AudioMax 7.1, outputs to Cambridge Audio AV Receiver & some 5.1 Medusa headphones.

Im fairly confident in saying that short of running at rediculus resolutions that with a good graphics card i'd handle almost anything i could throw at it.

The thing is, what graphics card would be recommended to replace my X800XL?
I take that the GX2s need a SLI mobo to run?

Thanks in advance all.
 
Reasonably flexable really.
Depends on what im getting for my money really.
Im thinking around £250.

I havnt really been keeping up with tech news lately apart from the big announcements, so i dont know what sort of video card would be best paired with my processor.
 
You won't be running at ridiculous resolutions with 17" TFTs.. I would go for an X1900XT or if you want to save a bit, go for an X1800XT:)
 
I was looking at those two cards tbh.
Im tempted by the ATI because im lazy and dont want to reinstall everything. lol.
 
You can use Driver Cleaner to remove the ATI drivers totally without having to reinstall if you fancy a change to the green side:)
 
So nVidia have cleaned up their act a bit now have they in regards to driver uninstallations?
Hmm.
The 7900GT looked interesting to me, as its the same 'physical' specs as a GTX, just clocked slower.
 
BoomAM said:
So nVidia have cleaned up their act a bit now have they in regards to driver uninstallations?
Hmm.
The 7900GT looked interesting to me, as its the same 'physical' specs as a GTX, just clocked slower.
Click to expand...

7900gt are very good cards aswell but have a high failure rate so i would stick with ATI for now (not a fanboy):)
 
Another consideration is noise. The stock ATI coolers are quite loud arnt they?
 
Last edited:
maximum resolution for 17" is 1280*1024 isn't it? so i say go for X1800XT and replace stock cooler with VF900 and overclock it, should still be below £200
 
BoomAM said:
Another consideration is noise. The stock ATI coolers are quite loud arnt they?
Click to expand...

Nope. It's only when the pc starts up, they will spin at full speed for 2 seconds and as soon as the screen shows up, they spin down and cannot be heard and stay that way. Under heavy gaming and load. They do spin up a little but only create a small "whoosh" sound which isnt noticble over the standard case fans :)
 
BoomAM said:
Another consideration is noise. The stock ATI coolers are quite loud arnt they?
Click to expand...

In a quiet rig they are pretty noisy, even at the idle speeds. But then again I can barely hear my case against the background noise, so I guess it's relative to how quiet (or not!) the rest of your PC is.

They definitely use more power and create more heat than their nV counterparts though. That's the main reason I went for a 7900GT over an X1800 :)

Suman
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom