Graphics cards.

Felino · Post by **Felino** » Sun Jul 15, 2007 5:02 am

Having just cooked my 6600gt (preused) i am in the market for a new one.

Whats a good cheap one, that still gives good proformance, that has crossfire? (or ati sli, upgrading ftw.)

Yer right!

XPCportables · Post by **XPCportables** » Sun Jul 15, 2007 8:17 am

So I assuming that you have a PCI-E slot on your motherboard. If so, what kind of card are you after. Are we talking DX10 gaming, or just general purpose computing? Since you said crossfire, I am assuming that you want an ATi card.

Harshboy · Post by **Harshboy** » Sun Jul 15, 2007 9:06 am

It comes down to: Do you want DX10?

DX10: Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS 640 MB Model (OC, x16 PCI-E) $379.99 (After Rebate)
No DX10: Nvidia GeForce 7950 GT 512 MB Model (OC, x16 PCI-E) $249.99

Also, your OS matters. Windows Vista has crappy video drivers and is a resource hog so if you want crazy performance make sure you are on XP

vb_master · Post by **vb_master** » Sun Jul 15, 2007 2:57 pm

Basically, with the EVGA 8800GTS 320 MB card, overclocked to the so-called "superclocked" version specs, I get about 200-299 FPS on Source games, completely maxed.

Felino · Post by **Felino** » Sun Jul 15, 2007 8:31 pm

The machine is currently running xp, but is DX10 really worth it? Sure i can play halo 2 but, what the hell.

How slow exactly is vista? My computer is extreamly new, i just got cheap and got a preused 6600, not a good idea anyway, but i have had a good experence with ati in the past.

I do have enough ram for vista (4gb) and enough harddrive space but, is it worth it?

The 8800 sounds good, i am sure 320mb is enough for what i want to do with it.

Might go with that unless you can show me otherwise!

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Sun Jul 15, 2007 9:05 pm

In podcast 23, Ben and Jones say that Vista is about the same speed as XP, but that if you already have XP, just stick with it until you get a new system. Theres also driver bugs and that right now, so maybe get a DX10 card, but wait a while on Vista until everything is as straighted out as it can be with Windows.

vb_master · Post by **vb_master** » Sun Jul 15, 2007 9:48 pm

Felino wrote:The machine is currently running xp, but is DX10 really worth it? Sure i can play halo 2 but, what the hell.

How slow exactly is vista? My computer is extreamly new, i just got cheap and got a preused 6600, not a good idea anyway, but i have had a good experence with ati in the past.

I do have enough ram for vista (4gb) and enough harddrive space but, is it worth it?

The 8800 sounds good, i am sure 320mb is enough for what i want to do with it.

Might go with that unless you can show me otherwise!

On Halo 2, people with similarly spec'd PC's get like a 20 FPS drop with Vista. With a 7600GT (my old card, not even o/c'd) I got ~50 FPS on high in Halo 2. People with Vista had HUGE performance drops.

So yeah, just use WoWLoader on XP and you will be fine.

Felino · Post by **Felino** » Sun Jul 15, 2007 10:36 pm

I said i didn't want to play halo 2

But, i think i will go with a 8800, i have pci-e so it should be fine.