Which graphics card to run 1920*1200?

[Jed Shields]

Hi guys,

I've just upgraded from a 19" 4:3 CRT to a Dell 2408 running at 1920*1200 and most of my games have slowed to a crawl with the bells and whistles turned on.

I'm running an Athlon 4400 X2, 2Gb RAM, 2x sli'd 7800GTXs. I'm going to be changing the mobo, cpu and RAM soon, but I think I need to get a graphics card asap.

I'm not convinced about waiting for the 9800 series as I don't think they're going to be a massive leap forward, although I'm sure the price will be.

To run things like COD4 at 1920*1200 with as many bells and whistles, what would you suggest I should buy?

Is this upgrade worth it or will my CPU be a major bottleneck and I may as well upgrade everything together?

 

[Jed Shields]

Well that's interesting - I hadn't even considered 2x 9600GTs. They get a great writeup in this test:

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/geforce_9600_gt_sli_performance/page11.asp

At 1920*1200 it beats the 8800GTX across the board. Does anyone have experience with this?

 

[Jed Shields]

Aha ... I'm guessing my Abit AN8 SLI fatal1ty is PCI-E 1.0

 

[Jed Shields]

They will still work on your board, but rember that if you play games that dont make use of SLI a 8800 will be faster.
Your rig is a fast enought to make good use of 8800gxt's in sli.

I assumed all of todays games make use of SLI?

 

[Jed Shields]

Thanks Drunkenmaster. It sounds like a single card solution has more potential across the board than 2 cheaper SLI'd boards, as the SLI might be better on some, but worse on others.

My gut is telling me that an 8800GTX is the way to go. I think they're around £250 now, which is within budget, but I'm sure that would plummet when the 9800GTX comes out - any idea when this is? Are we talking weeks, months? And how long before the next "proper" generation of cards?

The problem with PC components are that there's always something better coming out just over the horizon, but we never know exactly when :/

 

[Jed Shields]

Okay ... how does this plan sound?

Sell off my 2x 7800GTXs (not sure what I'd get) and buy 2x 9600GTs for £200ish

When I come to upgrade my CPU, Mobo and RAM (maybe 6 months) I can move my current Mobo, CPU and RAM to my wifes ageing PC. I'll then sell one of the 9600GTs (it should hold it's value reasonably well for 6 months or so), give my wife the other then blow another £200 or so on the next "best" graphics card option.

 

[Jed Shields]

Little bump.

The reason for the 2x 9600GTs over the 8800GTX is that I think they'll hold their value a little better and also when I come to offloading my old gear to my wife the 8800GTX is overkill, so I'd have to sell that and still buy something to replace that, whereas with the 2x 9600GTs I'd sell one and keep one.

Does that sound like the best solution?

 

[Jed Shields]

How does the 8800GT compare to SLI'd 9600Gts? I read that the SLI'd 9600GTs were really good ...

Of course, the single card solution means that I either keep a relatively epensive card for my wife when I upgrade, or sell it on and buy a new cheap card for her. That's why I'm more tempted with 2x cheaper cards, so long as they give me a decent performance at 1920*1200 for the time being.

 

[Jed Shields]

Is the 8800GT better than the 9600GT then? It certainly costs a little more ...

 

[Jed Shields]

I run cod4 at 1920x1200 everythin on max and I get around 60 fps.....the 8800GT will be fine until newer games come out that is lol

GT or GTS? It's GTS in your signature ...

 

[Jed Shields]

Ahhh ... I get confused with the old and new GTS versions. Talk about a confusing naming convention. nVidia haven't helped themselves there ...

 

[Jed Shields]

Jed Shields: Did you buy an nVidia 8800GT 512Mb yet?

Nope, not yet. Still not sure which way to go

 

[Jed Shields]

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17847741&highlight=any+game+username_helmutcheese

The are dozens of threads with the answer already m8.

Spie is gonna need buy more storage space with all the 100's of dupe threads, instead of peep using search.

TBH, mine has evolved a bit. I'm now trying to gauge what's best to go for short term until the next true generation come along wrt running games now and being able to recoup my costs when I upgrade the next time.

I need to offload whatever card I buy now to my wife, so I don't want to end up putting a super card in hers when all she really needs is something more basic. Therefore, if I go for 2x cheaper cards then only one needs to go into hers and I can sell the other one.

Alternatively, if I do go for an 8800GTX, then it's pointless (from a £ point of view) putting that into hers so I'd have to sell it and buy a cheaper one. I guess I'm just trying to figure out which option is best both financially in the long run and works well enough for 1900*1200 in the short term.

Options:

2x 9600GTs

Pros - performance, price, good chance to sell off without losing too much
Cons - running 2 cards, not all games take adv of SLI

1x 8800GTS 512

Pros - reasonable performance, price
Cons - is it enough to run with bells and whistles, would probably sell rather than hand down to wife, so might lose on resale

1x 8800GTX

Pros - performance, same price as 2x 9600 at the moment
Cons - resale value - when 9800GTX comes out will this plummet value?

Feel free to add any other options / comments

 

[Jed Shields]

Mate if your not even going to listen to what people have said why sould we bother helping? It's a pretty stupid thread anyway since most of the facts can be gained from an evenings googling, from there it's your choice.

Okay ... where to start ...

It's pretty clear that I have been paying attention. The question is not what is the best card available, it's what's the best solution for me with a number of variables ie if it's worth getting a premium card now and then try and sell it when the next gen come out, or get a mid range sli rig and pass one on to my wife when I come to upgrade to the next gen, or to simply get the best of the best now and forget about the next gen.

Nobody has mentioned 8800gts 512

I think you'll find that this was mentioned above by Platimum, amongst others....

thats why they have put 512MB, so you dont bother saying old or new, you say 8800GTS 512, etc (well people should)...

and anyone whos got more than a few brain cells cobbled together knows selling two midrange (9600gt's ) will be a bitch next generation

If you had actually read what I was suggesting, I mentioned about selling one and keeping one, therefore only losing resale value on the one card, while leaving a relatively cheap card in my wifes PC that doesn't need anything too powerful.

p.s
For your sake don't bother asking why not an 8800gts.

I almost had a go at you for this line ... "for my sake" ... dear oh dear.


I appreciate your help pointing out a card that you think holds it's value, but I don't appreciate the tone of the rest of your reply.

 

[Jed Shields]

Goldfinger - apologies if I took your post the wrong way, I guess that's just the way you come across - and it was easy to pick out the weak parts of your post

Big Wayne - I know it's not rocket science, but my wife needs to sign off the capital expenditure form

I didn't think the 8800GT would be able to handle the bells and whistles at 1900*1200? If it can, then this is the obvious choice.