I want a new video card

Viper007Bond

Viper007Bond

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My friend tells me it's worth investing in a new video card and that the rest of my computer won't be a bottleneck. Is he correct?

http://www.viper007bond.com/about/my-computer/c2d-e6750/

If so, what's a good nVidia video card to stick in it?


EDIT: Apparently my RAM is a bottleneck.
 
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Virtually no DDR2 vs DDR3 RAM difference in gaming:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/phenom-x4-955,2278-9.html (AM2+ is DDR2, AM3 is DDR3)

Video card is the major bottleneck. Now some games are written to take better advantage of quadcores (like Farcry 2).

Your CPU will likely be more of a bottleneck. IF you have the money a E8400 will easily OC close to 4Ghz on air.

And with respect to video cards, you will want to wait until March 26th, which is when Nvidia answers ATI and release their Fermi cards (GTX 470/480). This will lower the market value of the GTX200 cards and, hopefully, the ATI Radeon HD5000 cards. Problem is nvidia has already stopped production of the GTX200 cards and alot of them are out of stock on newegg, so ebay is better way there.

But the current king is the HD5970. The fastest single GPU core is the HD5870. But if you are willing to shell out $700+/$400+ those are the best options right now. Both of which usually are out of stock at newegg. Although the HD5850 is a good mid-high end card if you want to future proof since it supports DX11. But right now I would wait until end of the month since nvidia will release their new line and, hopefully, this causes a lowering of prices across the board.

here's a ranking of the current video cards: http://www.overclock.net/graphics-cards-general/502403-graphics-card-ranking-5th-time-last.html
 
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I'm just trying to decide if it's worth buying a new video card or instead just getting a bit more life out of this one and then building a whole new computer.

It's sounding like my video card isn't my only problem, so just waiting until later this year to replace everything sounds like a better use of my money.
 
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Nothing good from nVIDIA's side that I can recommend.

So no new video card for you, since you'll refuse to buy any ATI product.

edit : your pc is still pretty decent, maybe the CPU might need an upgrade. But the video card is definitely a bit outdated for newish games like MW2, BC2, AVP etc..
 
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MadCow809 said:
Nothing good from nVIDIA's side that I can recommend.

So no new video card for you, since you'll refuse to buy any ATI product.
Click to expand...

Yep. I would gladly pay a premium to avoid ATI drivers. Never had a good experience with an ATI card.

MadCow809 said:
edit : your pc is still pretty decent, maybe the CPU might need an upgrade. But the video card is definitely a bit outdated for newish games like MW2, BC2, AVP etc..
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I run both of those games mostly on all high settings. FPS isn't great through (30-40).
 
Viper007Bond said:
Yep. I would gladly pay a premium to avoid ATI drivers. Never had a good experience with an ATI card.



I run both of those games mostly on all high settings. FPS isn't great through (30-40).
Click to expand...

You might also want to avoid the latest nvidia driver: http://www.techspot.com/news/38131-Nvidia-19675-GPU-driver-burning-up-graphics-cards.html

ATI seems to have had some crappy driver days in the past, but seems to have much improvement these days. I am personally very interested in the 5870 as I will be due for an upgrade soon if I can sell my current system (i7 920, 2 GTX 260 SLI) to a friend and then switch to an AMD/ATI system.

But if I were you I would definitely wait before upgrading, at which time I would update the entire system. There should be more DX11 cards coming out at that time from nvidia.
 
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Viper007Bond said:
Yeah, but issues like that are to be expected with betas, although that's still quite a serious issue.
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196.75 wasn't a beta. It was a full, public WHQL release. This is why if you go to the nvidia website there is a huge warning box for it and a big boohaha right now. If it was a beta release there wouldn't be diddly squat except for on enthusiast forums where installing beta drivers are much more common. And I wouldn't have mentioned it since betas are expected to have some bugs.


Viper007Bond said:
Anyway, I'm likely just going to build a whole new PC here in the next few months rather than milking this one for all she's got.
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Awesome! :cool:
 
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I'd say your PC is still quite ok.
It might not play everything on the highest settings there are, but medium-high should be no problem, as I can do that with almost every game with my 8400 + 2GB + 9600GT @1920x1080...
Wait for a bit until the Nvidia situation is seen through, and invest then. Right now is a bad time, the 58xxs are way too expensive and the Nvidias are too old.
Mind you, I'll get a completely new one with my soon to arrive tax refund... The GPU will have to wait a bit, though...
 
Buba said:
Right now is a bad time, the 58xxs are way too expensive and the Nvidias are too old.
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ATI is too expensive because there are simply no competition out there. nVIDIA has been rebranding their 8 series card for quite some time now, which allowed ATI to inflate their prices by $50+, without having to worry about the sales figure.

I hope nVIDIA can do some damage to ATI with their new product(GT400/Fermi), so that we will see a significant price drop with the HD58xx series.
 
Buba said:
I'd say your PC is still quite ok.
It might not play everything on the highest settings there are, but medium-high should be no problem, as I can do that with almost every game with my 8400 + 2GB + 9600GT @1920x1080...
Wait for a bit until the Nvidia situation is seen through, and invest then. Right now is a bad time, the 58xxs are way too expensive and the Nvidias are too old.
Mind you, I'll get a completely new one with my soon to arrive tax refund... The GPU will have to wait a bit, though...
Click to expand...

I just got a big promotion at work, so I'm not against milking this one for all she's got, but I also don't want to invest into old cards if new ones are coming soon.

I should wait then for the next gen NVIDIA?
 
Viper007Bond said:
I should wait then for the next gen NVIDIA?
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Depends on how big that promotion is ;)

On the computer forum that I frequent (overclock.net) there was a few rumors of NVIDIA releasing the lower model GTX 470 for $299...but that is quite unlikely, but at this time we simply do not know anything more about the new nvidia cards except for the release date (March 26th) and some leaked pictures. Official specs and MSRP have not been announced yet but it seems that it will be quite power hungry and sport 1.5GB of GDDR5 RAM and of course DirectX11 support.

I would imagine the launch MSRP to be at least $399 to be at least on par with the ATI launch prices. (the 5870 MSRP is $379, but alot of places are selling it for about 400-420 since the demand is still quite high)


4801-big.jpg


4802-big.jpg
 
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That depends on what games you currently play. If they are running fine now on your 8800, I see no reason at all to blow away your cash. Besides, most of the game releases this year are/can run on old tech (Bioshock 2, Ass 2, BC2, etc.). The only game I might recommend upgrading for is Just Cause 2, cause the demo spanked my computer hard, although truthfully once I turned some of the fancy stuff like AA down it ran much nicer (I also have an 9800GT/8800GT).
 
Rumours are that the 480 will be around 600 USD, the 470 a lot less, but with very few available.

If you really really want nvidia, read a review the day they come out, make up your mind then jump on one the second they're available.
 
Backdraft said:
That depends on what games you currently play. If they are running fine now on your 8800, I see no reason at all to blow away your cash. Besides, most of the game releases this year are/can run on old tech (Bioshock 2, Ass 2, BC2, etc.). The only game I might recommend upgrading for is Just Cause 2, cause the demo spanked my computer hard, although truthfully once I turned some of the fancy stuff like AA down it ran much nicer (I also have an 9800GT/8800GT).
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I just got and started playing BC2. I wanna max those settings out and get a baby butt smooth FPS. Not concerned about AA at 1920x1200 though.

The promotion was rather large, but I also probably don't want to go razor's edge technology wise (not a good performance / $ ratio really). Then again that's not crazy amounts of money.
 
Go ATI. Get a 5850. It's fantastic price/performance wise. I considered buying one instead of picking up my second 4890.
 
I would definitely wait as the next gen of games will be very demanding on CPUs and GPUs. Stick with your current system for now and get a new build, it should be worth it's money in a year at most.

As for ATI or NVIDIA, it's as it always has been, personal preference. Right now ATI rule with better performance in almost every aspect (performance, prices, heat, wattage and even drivers) but when NVIDIA get their act together which will inevitably happen at some point that would probably be the time to buy one.
 
Mercury said:
but when NVIDIA get their act together which will inevitably happen at some point that would probably be the time to buy one.
Click to expand...

When exactly? Everyone is getting rather impatient now. It's been years.

Viper007Bond said:
I just got and started playing BC2. I wanna max those settings out and get a baby butt smooth FPS. Not concerned about AA at 1920x1200 though.

The promotion was rather large, but I also probably don't want to go razor's edge technology wise (not a good performance / $ ratio really). Then again that's not crazy amounts of money.
Click to expand...

Well the new nVIDIA card will definitely do the trick. Problem is, are you comfortable shelling out $350+ on a brand new graphics card?? Discounts will not be available for the first 4 months or so. And not to mention the first few weeks of dreadful drivers support, overheating problem and the need of a beefier PSU. (your 650w PSU should be fine though)

I'd say wait for a few months and see what nVIDIA has to offer, the leaked specs are pretty promising (apart from the overheating issue). It's not worth the investment right now, outdated technology with a hefty price tag FTL.

I'm also waiting to buy a new video card, hopefully it'll be around June/July. Oh, and you should check tomshardware's monthly VGA guide if you want to drop a decent amount of $$$ on a gaming card.


edit : link attached

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-gaming-graphics-card,2544.html
 
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Mercury said:
I would definitely wait as the next gen of games will be very demanding on CPUs and GPUs. Stick with your current system for now and get a new build, it should be worth it's money in a year at most.
Click to expand...

This computer is over 2 years old. I don't know if it can make 3.

MadCow809 said:
Problem is, are you comfortable shelling out $350+ on a brand new graphics card??
Click to expand...

*shrug* Sure, why not. I paid $290 for this 8800 GT on Newegg when I bought it.
 
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