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computer gaming noob graphics card question

DaCocoBrova

Finally bought a new PSP, but then pushed the demon onto someone else. Jesus.
Dualies if you have the power, room and proper air flow.
 
why is the ATI more then???

im just looking at snagging a "placeholder" card until the dx10 cards come out. so is there a preference between ATI or NVIDIA or does the leader kinda flip flop everytime a new series of cards gets released? both of these options should have no problem with any games coming up this year or those out now right?
 

DaCocoBrova

Finally bought a new PSP, but then pushed the demon onto someone else. Jesus.
Honestly, AA is a waste at the resolutions these cards are capable of playing well at.

truffleshuffle83 said:
why is the ATI more then???

im just looking at snagging a "placeholder" card until the dx10 cards come out. so is there a preference between ATI or NVIDIA or does the leader kinda flip flop everytime a new series of cards gets released? both of these options should have no problem with any games coming up this year or those out now right?

$600 placeholder? That really makes no sense. What's your goal here? Are you going to be playing at insane resolutions and need to maintain 60fps? You can spend a fraction of that and still yield those results as long as your CPU is up for the task.
 
well i dont plan on getting a dx10 card for at least a year or 2. so im looking at getting a card that can handle every game coming out this year as well as all the blockbuster pc titles that came out in the past ....i want to catch up on what i missed (battlefield 2, half life 2 etc)
 

Borys

Banned
Hey truffle,

7900 SLI are faster, ATI gives you the HDR+AA feature.

However, under no circumstances, even if I would be doing $50K monhtly, I would buy any graphics card.

Wait for DX10 and the first DX10 cards. It's pretty safe to assume that the first DX10 card from either nVidia or ATI will be faster than X1900 XTX and faster than 7900 SLI (or maybe at 80-90% of their speed).

That's my POV, truffle.

If you want to play HL2, F.E.A.R. + XP, C&C3, Quake IV, GRAW: PC, Oblivion etc. - any current and near future PC title INCLUDING Crysis in 1024x768, no AA, DX9 mode in full speed, ultra-smooth then go for it and pick ATI X1900 XTX. DO NOT BUY 7900 SLIs, they are superfast however they draw more power give more heat and are noiser. Besides you'll be stuck with 2 cards to sell once the 2nd gen of DX10 cards roll out.

There are rumours that DX10 cards will feature multicore GPUs.

So if you wanna play it smart wait for Vista and DX10 cards. In the meantime tug along with what you've got and enjoy your Xbox 360.

If you wanna enjoy the newest PC games NOW then buy X1900 XTX now. You'll be kinda sorry when Crysis rolls out and you'll read about the difference DX10 hardware makes.

Make no mistake - X1900 XTX is a beast but DX10 titles are looming on the horizon.

Personaly, I'd wait, hell you've got a Xbox 360, you can game almost all PC DX9 titles there.
 
so timeframe wise...when is vista coming (Q1 2007??) and in relation to that when are dx10 cards coming?? im not in a hurry and im already gonna wait until vista launches before i get a new rig
 

Baker

Banned
^ What he said.

If you're still going to buy something though, the 1900 and 7900 series are pretty much the same benchmark wise. The 1800s got trounced, hence why they were only around for 1-2 months.

The 1900s run louder, and there were some manufacturing defects in a batch of 7900s, so there's your negatives.
 
I don't even know what a 7900GS is so I have no clue how you will get 2 of them ( I am assuming you mean GT). I would always go for the single card solution. The XTX is the fastest single card for pushing high resolutions. Are you working on a 1920x1200 monitor? If not then it is a bit of overkill. Also DX10 parts are looking to be RADICALLY more expensive. Most people will need completely new power supplies to run them or they are going to come with their external supplies. Personally I would just get a single 7900GT and live until the dx10 cards see the light of day.
 

Baker

Banned
truffleshuffle83 said:
so timeframe wise...when is vista coming (Q1 2007??) and in relation to that when are dx10 cards coming?? im not in a hurry and im already gonna wait until vista launches before i get a new rig

I would be utterly shocked if both companies didn't have cards ready within the first month of Vista's release. Then of course, they'll probably be releasing new ones every 3 months for the first year.
 

Borys

Banned
truffleshuffle83 said:
so timeframe wise...when is vista coming (Q1 2007??) and in relation to that when are dx10 cards coming?? im not in a hurry and im already gonna wait until vista launches before i get a new rig

Probably this time next year, and probably for $499.

$499 for DX10 card and $299 for Vista, sucky, sucky :|
 
$499? Damn...

I just ordered a new PC with a GeForce 7600GS. I hope that lasts me a while. I know it isn't as good as the higher GT series, but that it's an entirely decent card.
 

Borys

Banned
brandonh83 said:
$499? Damn...

Every "new" card costed $499 at launch, that's the way world goes around :(

Of course they'll launch a slightly worse (handicapped) model for $399 and anotther one for $299 etc.
 

Pimpbaa

Member
I'm waiting for a midrange dx10 card. My GF 6600GT kicked ass for a long time, and my 7600GT is running everything awesome now. I just hope it doesn't take long for a similar dx10 card to come out.
 

Pimpbaa

Member
Borys said:
However, under no circumstances, even if I would be doing $50K monhtly, I would buy any graphics card.

Seriously? If I was making that kinda money, I'd be eating video cards for breakfast.
 

Borys

Banned
Pimpbaa said:
Seriously? If I was making that kinda money, I'd be eating video cards for breakfast.

Not worth it pal. I can't wait for DX10 hardware, 512 VRAM should be standard!

Kick ass avatar BTW, Mai Shiranui FTW!
 
store clerk: "wow man that 1900 XTX is really gonna help out your rig. its soo awesome"
Pimpbaa: "Rig??? no man, i pour some milk on this shit and go to town. im hungry today"


i think ill just get the 1900 xtx, and upgrade in a year or two. sounds like a pretty good card. as far as running it dvi to my LCD screen, that should be ok right. if i were to buy blu ray and hddvd drives for the pc, this card should be enough to handle them right?
 

DaCocoBrova

Finally bought a new PSP, but then pushed the demon onto someone else. Jesus.
Overkill. $600 bones man! What are the rest of your specs? Again, you can spend half that and use the other $300 for other computer parts that will assist w/ running games well.

truffleshuffle83 said:
As far as running it dvi to my LCD screen, that should be ok right. if i were to buy blu ray and hddvd drives for the pc, this card should be enough to handle them right?

No, they're not HDCP compliant.

There’s bad news about ATI and NVIDIA graphics cards and their alleged “support” for high-bandwidth digital content protection (HDCP), that wrench in the works that will keep you from watching high-definition content on a monitor unless both card and display have this special juju.

If you buy a graphics card today, even if it says it supports HDCP, it won’t. It’s total bullshit. That’s because HDCP itself is a moving target and still hasn’t been finalized.

Worse, there’s no way a graphics card can be retrofitted for HDCP, because it’s not a software or firmware fix—HDCP has to be supported by adding special encryption codes during the manufacturing process. But the cardmeisters will probably fix this problem as the HDCP spec is finalized. So if you buy a graphics card now, you’re SOL if you want to watch high-rez HD content on a computer monitor.

It looks like ATI and NVIDIA are clinging to that old adage: Ready, Fire, Aim.
 
im buying one of the new dell xps's so its pretty much given that they come with a good card(it was just a matter of choice between the two). my budget is about 2500 and i can still get a 500 gb HD as well as a 3.2 GHz dual core and 2 gig of ram and be under the 2500 mark
 

Falch

Member
Not to hijack your thread truffleshuffle, but I've got a question of my own concerning videocards. Lately I've been looking into buying a notebook, mainly because of my study, and mobility of a notebook. Still, I want to be able to play games on it on a decent setting (HL2 + episode 1, FEAR, Call Of Duty 2, Battlefield 2 perhaps) and some games in the future (especially Spore, perhaps UT2007 and Crysis).

Now I was wondering, how does a ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 hold up, and how does it compare to a NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600 256 MB? And is there much difference between 128 and 256 VRAM? I'm expecting to play games in 1280*800 (widescreen 15,4 inch screen).

I'm planning on buying a new desktop pc not until the end of 2007 or so, so I want to be able to play games at a decent setting until then.
 

Baker

Banned
Falch said:
Not to hijack your thread truffleshuffle, but I've got a question of my own concerning videocards. Lately I've been looking into buying a notebook, mainly because of my study, and mobility of a notebook. Still, I want to be able to play games on it on a decent setting (HL2 + episode 1, FEAR, Call Of Duty 2, Battlefield 2 perhaps) and some games in the future (especially Spore, perhaps UT2007 and Crysis).

Now I was wondering, how does a ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 hold up, and how does it compare to a NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600 256 MB? And is there much difference between 128 and 256 VRAM? I'm expecting to play games in 1280*800 (widescreen 15,4 inch screen).

I'm planning on buying a new desktop pc not until the end of 2007 or so, so I want to be able to play games at a decent setting until then.

I've never used the Go series, but Alienware just put out a dual 7900 go sli laptop this week. I'm sure it couldn't be that bad. :D
 
Borys said:
Every "new" card costed $499 at launch, that's the way world goes around :(

Of course they'll launch a slightly worse (handicapped) model for $399 and anotther one for $299 etc.

Oh. Well then again I've never really been that knowledgeable about video cards, especially in the past.
 
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