Video Card Thread (Mostly Gecube x1950xt)

lol

Check it again. It didn't show out of stock on the main page.

 

re the comment on single slot coolers, I think it's an OK idea provided that you have even half-decent case airflow, the thermal output of the 3850s is so low it's comparable to the older X800 generation, and back then you never saw dual slot coolers! The X850 and 7900 were the first cards to actually need them I think. A good idea would be to offer both, but don't let Sapphire do it, because their 3870 single slot cooler is ludicrously loud!

 

Sam, you got the HR-03 on the 3870?

Ok, now a new question

I was thinking about getting this screen: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824254026

However, it has the resolution of a 24" screen, and that one is 28". With bigger pixels, will I need to turn on AA? I think if I went and got a 24" instead, I could leave AA off.

Could you see the difference between the 2 screens @ 1920x1200 in terms of image quality?

 

Not yet. In good time though mate!
I need to work out which card I'm keeping, do some proper tests. The cooler is irrelevant if I'm replacing it, so I need to just consider the other properties of the cards.
As for the screen, it would indeed be noticeable. As you know I'd use AA for either monitor. Having a 28" screen is nice, but if I'm honest, you should aim for a higher brand. A 30" is probably out of the question, and if that's the case go for a Samsung 245 or Dell 2407WFP-HC.

 

The samsung looks real nice; unfortunately Best Buy does not carry it

I was just wondering, should I get a 24" or a 28? I know, and agree with you sam, but I dont know what would be better looking, a bigger ass screen or one with smaller pixels... Hmmm

 

Well that's entirely a matter of personal opinion.
if I watched a lot of video I'd get the 28, if I played a lot of games I'd probably get the 24. of course for me it's half and half split really...

 

Yeah, same here sam!

Well, I think 28" sounds like a winner. If I decide to change my mind, it will be because either the monitor doesnt look that good, or because Best Buy is out of stock.

Sam, can I have you dell monitor? Please?

 

whats the res on the 28" caus if its the same on the 24", aka 1920x1200, then the pixels will be stretched out. id get the 24"

 

Waymon: If I had the money to get a 3008WFP then sure, but erm, as it is...
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B000F9LMRQ/ref=dp_olp_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1201789008&sr=8-3

Bear in mind though unless you buy the 3008, you're limited to a single DVI input with a 30"... 24s and 27s have all the inputs you can shake a stick at.

 

Yea sam, sorry I cant shell out $1100 on a new monitor...

I will just have to see what the monitors at Best Buy are like, as I wont be ordering from the internet.

 

Hey guys,

As far as I can tell, all of you guys are over 10,000 now on 3dmark.

Hey, I just heard that the 3850 has been announced for agp. In that case, I won't need a new psu, and I'll skip the gecube - which doesn't seem to be available anymore, anyway. My 500 watt allied piece of sh** will work (only 20 amps on the 12 volt rail) because the 3850 pulls so little power - probably less than the x850xtpe that I have in there right now. What do you think, Sam?

On another note, I finally downloaded the crysis demo and because all you guys had me so scared, I thought it wouldn't work at all on my 2250 3d mark system. But I'm running it 1280 x 1020, everything at low, but textures medium, water medium, and a couple of other things medium, and getting 25-30 fps, and the game actually looks pretty good to me!

It will be nice to throw a 3850 or 3870 agp in my rig and boost my 3dmarks to 6000 ?? and also be able to run medal of honor airborne.

Rich

 

As we found with the X1950XT AGP, fast graphics cards aren't so excellent on the AGP bus. Even the 7900GS was also a bit of a flop. As for the HD3850, it might be alright, it might not, but realistically, to make use of a graphics card that powerful you'll soon want a bit more processing power, so even if it's done on the cheap, I still think you'll benefit loads from a full upgrade. Once you've bought an AGP HD3850, you've spent a not insignificant amount of money in upgrading a system. There's such a huge difference in how games perform with single vs dual core systems now that I imagine the time is looming when they just won't cut it for top games at all. If you're buying a new high end graphics card, I wouldn't want to get stuck behind like that. A P35-DS3L and an E6750 are dirt cheap nowadays...


Even my bargain basement E4300 can pull over 11000 3dmarks with an HD3870, and the 3850 isn't far behind, you could certainly get five figures with one.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102715
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115029
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128059


big note: Rich, with Crysis, try setting everything high EXCEPT for Shadows and Shaders. I found that all the other options make naff all difference to my frame rate. The game still looks surprisingly good with those two set low, and a decent frame rate to boot! Most people would think you were mad if you said you could pull 40fps at 2560x1600 in the most demanding game the world has yet seen, especially with a single £140 card. Well, it's true!

Shame I can't use AA at that res though, you need 1GB of Video RAM to do that!

 

Honestly Harv, forget your agp rig. If I remember you have a P4 3.2 like I did? You are going to find it woefully lacking. The benchmark system in the coming months will be a 2.5-3Ghz core2, 2gb DDR2 and a 512mb dx10 g/c. It makes no sense to buy a good part in an obselete format (I.e. your 3850 agp) it'll just cause you more headaches when you upgrade again as you won't be able to take it with you. I wish I'd never bothered with the last agp step I made. I should have just made the jump.
If you are worried about spending $500+ in one go then get one of the halfway house boards that Asrock make - they won't overclock but the latest ones do support full x16 PCI-E and SATAII, unlike the one I bought, and they are cheap as chips. You can take your DDR 400, your agp card and even your P4 if it's a 775 and Ebay your old bits as you go. I ended up getting £100 off a mate for my old Asus board, the P4 and 1gb of ddr400, which going from a 997mhz P3 he thought was great and so did I!! It paid for my C2D then all I had in that step was the cost of the new board and ram which was about £95. Palatable, and it meant that I had a good cpu and ram combo that I was able to take into my new board and o/c up later.

Sam: Interesting to see your comments over on the OC thread re the 3870. In retrospect would you have considered the GT/GTS instead?

 

MaccerM: I've certainly considered changing to it. It is after all a faster part, if not by that much. The kicker is though, the 8800GT is a full £40 more than what I paid for my 3870 (the one that works best was ironically the cheapest). That's way too much to get a marginal increase in performance. Question is, would it have been too much to save me all the aggravation I've had with my 3870? Not sure. I think I may be partly to blame for the problems caused by not cleaning up my XP install before installing the new card. I'm going to try a reformat soon and install the 3870 straight off. If it all goes well, I may absolve some of the blame off the graphics card. It is an exceptionally quiet card at stock, and pulls so little power it's quite remarkable.
As for the incident with crossfire, you'd think it's a bit of a kick in the shins for my argument against getting big PSUs for dual card setups. Not in my mind, the power draw of the system was well below 500W even with the surge of four hard drives spinning up. I suspect the multi-rail nature of my Hiper PSU is to blame. I found I also had yet another faulty molex splitter too, so that can't have helped things. I'm not one to say that modular PSUs are the root of all evil, but I'm happy to admit that multi-rail units aren't such a brilliant idea. My Toughpower puports to be a multi-rail unit, but in fact it isn't, the four "rails" are just one cable.

 

Hmm, £40 in the hand is obviously better than £40 spent! But that's not really an issue now - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/134393 that's a measely £5 more - (surely some discounting in liu of the new range and more to come hopefully!). Anyway, I know which one I'd have!
Soon as I can get one for less than £100 I think I'll have my first forray into Sli !!

 

Tempting, but if I were buying an nvidia card I'd probably get one from BFG, XFX or EVGA to err on the safe side.

 

tbh, the 8800GT is nto just a bit more, but quite a bit more powerfull than the 3870, and is priced as such. both offer value for money.

 

£140 vs 145, if you were to buy one now in the UK then the GT would be a very serious contender. Bear in mind that if you buy a higher spec 3870 that's £160ish anyway and you get a big name GT for that kind of price which would beat it. I've had no trouble with the Inno3d I've got - it came with GRAW too. Sure the warranty package is not what you'd get with an EVGA or XFX, but in terms of performance, mine (now at £165 delivered) came o/c'd at 650/1.9 vs 600/1.8 standard and I've had it at 700/2.0 - the level of an EVGA £210 SSC edition with no probs. The only issue I had is the BIOS fan control (for which i use Rivertuner anyway) but all the initial batches from all manufacturers had that so I can't point the finger at Inno3d. I'd have no problem recommending them for their excellent value.
Roll on the G100, then I'll buy another GT (and a bigger monitor to make good use of it!)

 

Hey guys thanks for the tips.

Ok, Sam, those links you gave me were great. But that mobo won't run my memory sticks, which are ddr400 184 pin - the specs at newegg say 240 pin memory - so how much for a gig - well I see the combo deal gives me 2 gigs for another $100.

I get $189 for the mobo with 2 gigs ram, $189 for the 6750, and $189 for the 3850 totalling $567.

If I go super cheap for now, that's only $189, for just the 3850 and I keep my existing rig. See my point?

MaccerM. Yeah Mike, you're right. The P4 3.2. I'm thinking the same way - later I could get the asrock board and take the agp 3850 with me, take my ddr400 1 gig memory, and move to the 6750 at that time. Or, by then maybe I'll just do like Ray and get a whole new rig for $1,000 or so (I know waymon spent 2 grand on his.) And then I'll pick up the 30" Dell for another $1000.

Regarding Crysis, Sam, I'm going to try out your crysis suggestions tomorrow, Sam, my day off to do my gaming - everything high except for shadows and shaders. Ok I'll try it!!

 

I do see your point Rich, it's no small upgrade, but you'll only end up spending similar amounts in addition to what you're spending now when you finally get tired of your old DDR1 single core setup. It's just a recommendation. It might turn out that the AGP HD3850's fine, but I think you're wise enough to exercise caution on that one given the performance of the last high end AGP card that went around...
Haha you get a gaming day off? awesome!