Vid card upgrade.. help pls.

[Trypt]

Check out my sig for the rig (GAMING). I am upgrading the RAM to 2x1gb, just so you know, but other then that, I don't want to upgrade anything else at the moment.

So, does it make sense to upgrade the video card? I have a 24" monitor and like to play everything at 1920x1200, but obviously I have to have all the eyecandy down.

So, with my powersupply and overall rig, whats the recommended vid card upgrade for me with price no issue? Can I upgrade to the 2900xt or is this impossible?

It is not important to go with DX10 card right now, I am upgrading everything in about 6 months time anyway, so a higher-end dx9 card is prefferable over low-end dx10 (does that make sense?).

Basically, I need a card which will be an obvious improvement over the x800gto, and hopefully allow me to play most games at 1920x1200 with high quality settings, perhaps even AA and AF turned on (I've never used these on any games ever in my life, I'd like to start). Surprisingly, most games run at 1920x1200 just fine with my x800gto, but perhaps its just me being used to the jitterness and not really knowing what it means to really enjoy a game, lol. I refuse to play at other resolutions, its that simple, so if a game is unplayable at native, i don't play it (yes, I really need to upgrade).

Suggestions?

ps. my sig shows my o/c clocks, but reall I don't run at those speeds all the time, especially in the summer. So keep in mind that I run my Opty dual core at about 2ghz, my mem at about 210mhz while gaming.

[Kuroimaho]

The question is can the PSU supply 20A to the vga ?

It needs like 160W, 75W comes from PCI, and can connect a 6 and an 8 pin connector to it, if you have all on the PSU those could balance it out.

Of course only you can tell how much remains in your system how do your voltages drop.

I would rather wait till their new gpu is out migt be lighter on the PSU.

[vini]

i would say pick up a x1950 for about 160euro i dont now what that is in dollars. i have my self bought this cart from a 7800gt and i play games in 1440*900 and it play it vere well what i have seen in the most reviews only the highend carts are well, i stick with this fore a will and wate what is more to come from ati or nvidia.

[metloaf]

I am currently running my 2900XT with an OCZ Powerstream SLI 520W PSU and do not have any problems with the card being at the stock settings. And mind you this is while I have a decent 24/7 OC on my CPU. So yes you can always upgrade your PSU later if you want to OC the card but there is no reason why you should not be able to support a 2900XT with what you have. I would also go with a higher end DX10 card especially if you want to future proof things for a year or two and also because you stated that you wanted to play games at the higer resolutions. :attn:

[batboy]

Those OCZ Powerstream 520W units are very strong performers. It could easily handle an upgrade.

Do you have Vista yet? Are you looking for a DX10 card? If not, then maybe look for a good deal on a X1950 like was mentioned or a nice used X1900 since people are dumping them now.

[Dragonprince]

I would also go with a higher end DX10 card especially if you want to future proof things for a year or two and also because you stated that you wanted to play games at the higer resolutions. :attn:

The DX10 cards are not holding up well under real world gaming expectations, the World in Conflict game is a great example. The DX10 path is equal to or slower than the DX9 path and people are claiming there is no difference at all in the graphics. For my money I would buy a cheaper high end DX9 card like a 7900 or 1900 series card and wait that year or two for the DX10 games to start to leave the DX9 games behind. Future proofing never works out because by the time the games come out that use the new hardware the new hardware has gone through 2 or 3 revisions and usually runs much faster and uses far less power than the first of a new generation...the new first gen DX10 2900 is a great example, runs way to hot, uses way too much power and has a hard time staying in front of a mid level 8800 card according to the reviews Ive seen...

[Burninate]

I say keep an eye on the classifieds here on OCF. A lot of people are dumping their higher end DX9 cards. ATI 19xx's and Nvidia 78xx/79xx cards are a dime a dozen over there. Especially if you're considering a complete over-haul in less than a year, a nice DX9 card could be a perfect stop-gap for you. Oh, and BTW, I have an older Antec 500W powering this GPU and everything OCed to the settings in sig for 24/7 operation and never get even a hiccup after 2 years with it and similar equipment (and even dual 7800GT's for about 9 months without issue). That PSU you have is even a bit more robust than this Antec. That PSU should handle just about anything you can throw at it short of dual 2900's.

[TTP]

You can run a 2900XT on that power supply. It won't help with overclocking the video card though. Since you specified 1920x1200 gaming on a 24" monitor, you'd definitely want the 2900XT or crossfire x1900/x1950 (if you can find them cheaply).

[metloaf]

The DX10 cards are not holding up well under real world gaming expectations, the World in Conflict game is a great example. The DX10 path is equal to or slower than the DX9 path and people are claiming there is no difference at all in the graphics. For my money I would buy a cheaper high end DX9 card like a 7900 or 1900 series card and wait that year or two for the DX10 games to start to leave the DX9 games behind. Future proofing never works out because by the time the games come out that use the new hardware the new hardware has gone through 2 or 3 revisions and usually runs much faster and uses far less power than the first of a new generation...the new first gen DX10 2900 is a great example, runs way to hot, uses way too much power and has a hard time staying in front of a mid level 8800 card according to the reviews Ive seen...

I just upgraded last week from and OC'd 1900XT to a stock 2900XT and the performance difference even in current games is clearly visible. Even running benchmarks apps I can clearly see more detail which was not there before when I ran the same app with my 1900XT. 3dMark06 is an example of this. As far as future proofing is concerned I also added that for 1-2 years because that is how long I can make a card last with a decent OC with the games that I play and the performance that I expect. Lately it's been around 1 year. I didn't actually buy my 2900XT because it is DX10, I bought it because I have read a lot of the reviews and went from what other guys on here posted. With a decent OC I can also get close to 8800GTX performance for a far less price. To me it was well worth it.

[Dragonprince]

I just upgraded last week from and OC'd 1900XT to a stock 2900XT and the performance difference even in current games is clearly visible. Even running benchmarks apps I can clearly see more detail which was not there before when I ran the same app with my 1900XT. 3dMark06 is an example of this. As far as future proofing is concerned I also added that for 1-2 years because that is how long I can make a card last with a decent OC with the games that I play and the performance that I expect. Lately it's been around 1 year. I didn't actually buy my 2900XT because it is DX10, I bought it because I have read a lot of the reviews and went from what other guys on here posted. With a decent OC I can also get close to 8800GTX performance for a far less price. To me it was well worth it.

I'd like to see photos of the difference your seeing if you could post them. From what I've read theres little if any difference visually between DX10 and DX9, if thats not true it might make me look at a DX10 card sooner myself. Most of the DX10 enhancements are related to making life easier for people coding games, if what Ive read is true, and theres basically nothing you can do in DX10 that couldn't also be done in DX9. Reviews are showing no gain under DX10 such as this one which even shows slower than DX9 performance...

http://www.elitebastards.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=432&Itemid=29&limit=1&limitstart=3

[metloaf]

I cannot tell you if there is any difference between DX10 or DX9 because I only have DX9 games at the moment and do not even have any of the DX10 demo games yet. I do however see a noticible performance boost as far as smoothness during games which I'm pretty sure comes from the extra pixel shaders that the R600 has compared to the R580. I had some graphics lag before playing with everything turned up to the max in BF2 and now I do not notice any what so ever, and have a much higher FPS even with things set to the max. With my X1900XT I used to play BF2 in 1024x768 with minimal AA and low to medium settings for most of the graphics features and this is while my 1900 was OC'd. Now I play it at the max settings without any OC with a stock cooler and a higher FPS. So to me thats a performance increase as far as I am concerned.

[joesaiditstrue]

get an 8800 GTS 320MB if you want a DX10 card that doesn't cost all that much, but will give you top-tier performance

1950XT 256MB is a dx9 option that is very affordable now

[metloaf]

The 8800GTS 320MB card is a great card as far as price vs performance ratio however he stated in the original post that he wanted to keep things maxed at pretty high resolutions. In most of the reviews I read the 8800GTS 320 has issues at the higher resolutions due to not having enough RAM. I can't give an opinion from personal experience because I never owned a 8800GTS 320 but I would stick with a 512mb card at least, or even a higher RAM card for the high resolutions.

[White_Pawn]

The 8800GTS 320MB card is a great card as far as price vs performance ratio however he stated in the original post that he wanted to keep things maxed at pretty high resolutions. In most of the reviews I read the 8800GTS 320 has issues at the higher resolutions due to not having enough RAM. I can't give an opinion from personal experience because I never owned a 8800GTS 320 but I would stick with a 512mb card at least, or even a higher RAM card for the high resolutions.

It is true that more ram is good for higher resolutions. HOWEVER, that doesn't mean the 8800GTS 320mb can not compete and utterly CRUSH its 512mb competitors.

8800GTS 320mb > old generation 7xxx w/ 512mb or x19xx w/ 512mb. You'd be surprised.

X1950XTX VS. 8800GTS 320mb
Battlefield 2142: 1920 x 1200 4AA, 8AF, max quality
both cards pull 33 fps.

Dark Messiah of Might and Magic: 1920 x 1200 4AA, 8AF, max quality HDR-R
x1950xtx 25 fps.
8800GTS 320mb 10fps.

Oblivion: 1920 x 1200 0AA, 8AF, max quality HDR-R
8800GTS 320mb 21fps
x1950xtx 16fps

Prey: 1920 x 1200 4AA, 8AF, max quality
8800GTS 320mb: 54fps
x1950xtx 46fps

OVERALL FPS SCORE:
8800GTS 320mb 1827
x1950xtx 1623

All numbers copied from Tom's VGA charts.

[Dragonprince]

Given the lack of dx10 titles and the cost premium associated with dx10 cards I still think the 1950xtx makes more sense for the next 12 months or more...

[Trypt]

Thanx for all the great replies guys and gals! It will take me a while to read all through them, but so far it seems the suggestions are leaning towards 1950 rather then take the plunge for the 2900xt then finding out I can't run it (I really can't afford that cuz I wont be able to upgrade anything else).

But from what I've seen, its either going with the 1950xt with less mem, or 1950pro with more (256mb and 512mb for the latter). Whats the diff between pro and xt? Is there an xt with 512mb?

I'll check out the OCF classifieds, I didn't even know they exist.

Any more suggestions would be welcome.

Oh, I know I posted this in ATI, but NVIDIA is fine with me if anyone thinks I would get more for the buck. I just always lean towards ATI, but am not anti NVIDIA or anything.

EDIT: just read the last post.. what in the world is a XTX?

ps. there seems to be some confusion about resolution. Basically, I am going to play all games at 1920x1200 native resolution (unless the game doesnt support WS, but thats rare now), and would like to be able to use AA and AF if possible, but don't expect to have everything maxed for every game. However, that being said, the card should play every game at 1920x1200 at high fps if I don't use AA and AF, that is a must.

[oakstave]

IF you can find them, the non-pro ATI X1950XTX is a fine card. 512meg GDR4 memory, it's not too loud, and the performance is excellent. In crossfire, my system pulls over 11k on 3doMark06.

For some reason, they're very hard to find. (Probably because folks still have 'em in the case.) You can take a look at my sig for the stable OC.

Edit: It's not too loud unless it's OC'd at max settings! When maxed out, it howls like a banshee!