Will the GX280 do the job...?

[paul778]

I've just bought a GX280 and I'm wondering if it was the right thing to do...

My setup for the past couple of years has been a Q6600 with 4GB of RAM. For graphics card I have been using a LeadTek Winfast PX8800GTS (640MB) and have been using this to drive two screens: my main one at 1920x1200 and another at 1600x1200. This has served me pretty well over the last couple of years. I've been mainly playing source games (CS:S, TF2, L4D) and although it struggles sometimes it normally gives relatively acceptable performance.

However in the last couple of weeks this has really struggled with TF2 and I often drop down to single digit frame rates. At first I thought it was the driver but I've driver cleaned my PC, defragged it, reinstalled drivers a number of times and to be honest I think it's just advances in gameplay. I often play on large maps with large populations (Badwater Basin for example) and this can really slow me down. In the end, I think it's just time for an upgrade...

I managed to get in and order one of those EVA GX280 SCs that were present over the weekend. What sort of performance improvement would you expect to see based on this - is this sufficient for comfortable 1920x1200 gameplay?



A couple of other questions:

1. how noisy is this card? Is the card being too loud grounds for return?
2. should I get a second low powered graphics card to run my second display to reduce the graphics overhead? If so, could this be my existing 8800GTS on a dual PCIX-16 motherboard? (I believe I cannot SLI two different cards)

cheers,

Paul

 

[[timko]]

My old 8800GT (no X on the end, just the GT) didn't even break sweat at the same resolution so either something else is eating up your processors cycles or you've applied way to much AA and AF

Are you using the Source game's builtin fps counter to show the frame rate?

 

[paul778]

My old 8800GT (no X on the end, just the GT) didn't even break sweat at the same resolution so either something else is eating up your processors cycles or you've applied way to much AA and AF

Are you using the Source game's builtin fps counter to show the frame rate?

These figures are without AA/AF and using net_graph. I've spoken to some guys that I play with and they have had similar problems since the Engineer updates, so it may be something with the engine. Have no problems with L4D.

In any event, my machine struggles with WIC and GTA4 so I'm happy with the paying for the update. The main question is whether the update will be significant....?

 

[thepeganator]

Over twice as good, you've got a good upgrade.