Questions about nvidia cards????

[Disco..Rules!]

Hello I have never owned an nvidia card and would like some help from nvidia users about what to expect. Im building a new comp and would like some inso from nvidia people.

1. Im thinking of a 7900gt. I like ati cards, but they are mostly dual slot cards.

2. whats the "shimmering" effect people talk about???

3. It seems like the 7900 gt is a good upgrade cost wise??, but what about 2 7600gt's in sli mode??? any benchmarks out there with that set-up??

4. i upgrade the vc rarely. does the 7900gt seem like a good long term solution? still got a 9700pro im using, thats been a great card for me, but building a new comp and want a vc thats gonna last for a while.

5. anything i should know about nvidia drivers/extras???


thanks for any help you can give

[Papier]

2. Shimmering effect is when far out textures start to disappear and reappear repeatedly, making it shimmer. When I put my drivers to high quality textures, it seems to stop. The only real incident of shimmering I saw was in 3dmark05.

3. SLI 7600GT's may be a little bit more powerful than a single 7900GT (here's the benchmarks http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=453095), it's best just to go with a 7900GT. The reason why is because when 7900GT's get lower in prices later this year, you could double the performance of the SLI 7600GT's. No point in boxing yourself upgrade wise unless you found some killer 7600GT's for 100 bucks a piece. :)

4.The 7900GT is a good upgrade from the 9700pro. I upgraded to a 7600GT from a radeon 9000 pro. Really, really, slow card, but the new card I got is several times more powerful. Not the same comparison, but pretty much the same performance jump for your 9700pro. As for it lasting a while, no one really sure with Microsoft releasing vista sometime later this year or next year. With the release of windows vista will there be a new generation of cards, directx 10.

5. I like Nvidia's drivers. Although they don't look as pretty as Catalysts control center, they keep it simple and put all the options in one place. With the catalysts I got for my 9000 pro, it would take up 15 megs of ram!

[DeepScience]

Not too onerous power consumption needs either so thats good.. 7900GT would be cooler than 2 x 7600's I imagine.