Ill add to the PC threads...Graphics card quesiton

[justinwebb]

so i just bought a AMD Phenom Processor the Quad core 2.5 black edition with 4 gigs of ram soon to be 8 and a SLI Asus mobo. Looking to get a GFX card now but dont wanna spend a ton but still want to run games on high res not looking for SLI right now but if i can eventually buy two of the medium end cards and put them together it would work out well....so what are some good cards that wont break the bank

[Chadz89GTA]

9800GX2 Bottom line best 1 card you can get, just make sure you get a beefy enough power supply as it will bring a shitty one to its knees. Don;t get caught up with the GTX 260/280's there about the same and cost more, read for yourself and stay away from AMD/ATI as they are falling from grace, if you truly wanted a powerhouse machine you would have went with an Intel Quad or atleast a high mhz Dually. http://www.gpureview.com for any other vid questions you may have

[87GT]

You are cool when your graphics card is half the cost, or more of your total price of the computer.

 

W00t

[TheHaze]

You are cool when your graphics card is half the cost, or more of your total price of the computer.

 

W00t

That makes me a bamf.

[Razorback]

so i just bought a AMD Phenom Processor the Quad core 2.5 black edition with 4 gigs of ram soon to be 8 and a SLI Asus mobo. Looking to get a GFX card now but dont wanna spend a ton but still want to run games on high res not looking for SLI right now but if i can eventually buy two of the medium end cards and put them together it would work out well....so what are some good cards that wont break the bank

 

I have the same cpu -- and don't listen to the Intel fanboy crap. Yes, Intel is currently on top, but that doesn't make the AMD cpu a bad processor. It's all in bang for your buck, and the 9850 and now 9950 are pretty good bang for your buck cpus. My 9850 is in my gaming rig and runs everything flawless, including Crysis on Very High in 1600x1200. Have you overclocked the cpu yet? The 9850 is a decent overclocker. Mine does 2.94 stable on water with a minor voltage bump. Most people using the stock cooler and stock volts can get to 2.7-2.8 without issue.

 

As far as the vid card, if you don't want to spend a TON a good combo would be to find a pair of 8800 GTXs on ebay or something (or buy 1, then another later as many are coming out for sale now that people are upgrading). I just sold mine for $170 and it still worked good (ran Crysis in 1600x1200 with everything on High), my 4870 just works better. If you don't want to go used, pick up a 9800 GTX+ and then wait to pick up a second. I have felt the 9800 GX2 was just a bad bang for your buck buy altogether since its release.

 

Hope this helps some.

[Orion]

the 9800gx2 is nice, for sure, but you may want to get your self a breezy case or some more fans. generates quite a bit of heat, due to it being basically two cards in one. manage that, and youll have no problems playing just about anything. dont sleep on the amd ati offerings, though. the 4850/4870's are real nice bang for your buck cards, and later you can crossfire them together for some decent scaling.

 

a word about the new gtx cards. yes, theyre expensive, but man, do they sing. i have an overclocked gtx 260 in my rug that i got for 300 bones, and i dont think ive seen anything stutter, at all. ill see if i can find a pic, but the other night i was playing crysis on max everything on my 46 inch bravia. damn near made myself sick. the other thing you get with the gtx cards is a little gadget called CUDA. ill let you look up the details, but essentially it allows the gpu to help your cpu crunch numbers when youre not busy playing games.

 

17700 3dmark06 score? got that. for less than a grand.

[Razorback]

dont sleep on the amd ati offerings, though. the 4850/4870's are real nice bang for your buck cards, and later you can crossfire them together for some decent scaling.

 

I personally think the 4800 series is way better for the money than the current Nvidia offerings, but he should probably stick to Nvidia cards since he has an SLI mainboard.

[Chadz89GTA]

I have the same cpu -- and don't listen to the Intel fanboy crap. Yes, Intel is currently on top, but that doesn't make the AMD cpu a bad processor. It's all in bang for your buck, and the 9850 and now 9950 are pretty good bang for your buck cpus. My 9850 is in my gaming rig and runs everything flawless, including Crysis on Very High in 1600x1200. Have you overclocked the cpu yet? The 9850 is a decent overclocker. Mine does 2.94 stable on water with a minor voltage bump. Most people using the stock cooler and stock volts can get to 2.7-2.8 without issue.

 

 

I bet my 84$ e8400 at 4.2ghz will run circles around your AMD match that with a 60$ newegg ip35-e mobo and where are the AMD savings at???

 

Edit: Mines not watercooled either, just one big massive hsf combo, and minor voltage bump to get it stable at 4.2ghz

[Orion]

I personally think the 4800 series is way better for the money than the current Nvidia offerings, but he should probably stick to Nvidia cards since he has an SLI mainboard.

 

well shit, i guess i skimmed over that part.

 

ok, my revised opinion, taking into the account the sli mobo. "IF" you really want to do sli, i would not get a 9800gx2. my reasoning: the gx2 is essentially sli already. two gpus on the board, and increased ram. (thats why its so hot, btw) there are side by side comparisons out there that back me up (ask and ill try to find them) in saying that two of those sli'd together runs right up against the law of dimininshing returns. for the outlay of two of those, you could almost have two gtx 260's, which would very much outperform the gx2's IN SLI MODE. single card, its almost a dead heat between the two. buy one of evga's oc'd models, and the gtx outpaces the gx2 in almost everything.

 

now, youve not told us what your budget actually is, so im just talking about higher end stuff. honestly, in relation to historic prices, cards can be had for damn good prices these days. (competition is a beautiful thing) give us a roundabout number to work with, and lets see what we can see.

 

I bet my 84$ e8400 at 4.2ghz

 

god i love that chip. im not a fanboy, but this thing is freakin sweet.

[Razorback]

I bet my 84$ e8400 at 4.2ghz will run circles around your AMD match that with a 60$ newegg ip35-e mobo and where are the AMD savings at???

 

Edit: Mines not watercooled either, just one big massive hsf combo, and minor voltage bump to get it stable at 4.2ghz

 

At 4.2GHz without multithreaded apps, I would say definitely. Sounds like you got a monster overclocker, and most Wolfdale's overclock well, but not THAT well. Most need a lot of volts to go over 4GHz which usually needs massive cooling to maintain stability so definitely hang on to that chip for a while. I bet if you threw a waterblock on there and added 2-3 tenths more voltage you'd hit 5GHz. Congrats on the massive o/c.

 

On Edit: I'm thinking you got yours used as the egg has the e8400 for $170 which is about the price of the 9850 Phenom ($174). I'd probably take a quad over a dual for the same price, you know what I mean? But if you can grab a Wolfdale for $80, go for it.

[Orion]

im curious about the 4.2ghz as well. i use the 8400, and mine is at 3.8 on air. stock voltage though. my problem is that i hate it to get any warmer than 60 degrees, and under load, thats right where it is at 3.8. 4.2 is pretty dope.

 

ive seen as high as 5.25 with a water block. thats just sick.

[thorne]

4.2 is possible on the E8400. but where the hell do i get one for 84$ because ifso I wanna upgrade my linux box .

 

Also ATI has some killer fucking cards out now.

[Razorback]

4.2 is possible on the E8400. but where the hell do i get one for 84$ because ifso I wanna upgrade my linux box .

 

Also ATI has some killer fucking cards out now.

 

I would think ebay.

 

Yeah I love the 4800 series. I had a 4850 w/ waterblock and ramsinks, did 725/2300 on stock volts, then UPS killed it when i sent it to a buddy for a voltmod, so atleast I got it warrantied by UPS -- now have 4870 w/ full coverage waterblock, does 825/4100 also stock volts. Will voltmod the next card I pick up. The 4800s will do 880+ w/ a voltmod on water.

[morabu]

personally i'd take a ATI 4800 series over an NVIDIA 9000 series any day of the week

but like people have said it depends on your budget

the GTX's are just too expensive for the extra performance, compared to other cards IMHO!

also i believe CUDA will work on any NVIDIA card 8 series or higher, not just the GTX cards, there have also been some nice advancements in people hacking CUDA to work on ATI cards, so don't get a GTX just for the added benefits of CUDA or PhysX

 

J.R.

[Chadz89GTA]

At 4.2GHz without multithreaded apps, I would say definitely. Sounds like you got a monster overclocker, and most Wolfdale's overclock well, but not THAT well. Most need a lot of volts to go over 4GHz which usually needs massive cooling to maintain stability so definitely hang on to that chip for a while. I bet if you threw a waterblock on there and added 2-3 tenths more voltage you'd hit 5GHz. Congrats on the massive o/c.

 

On Edit: I'm thinking you got yours used as the egg has the e8400 for $170 which is about the price of the 9850 Phenom ($174). I'd probably take a quad over a dual for the same price, you know what I mean? But if you can grab a Wolfdale for $80, go for it.

 

I can get it into windows at 500fsb which is 4.5ghz but it's no where near stable. I don't consider 1.45v HIGH as I had my Q6600 at 1.55 for the longest time, I do however love ocing the piss out of this 8400 and even in multi threaded apps this is faster, I have quite a few i.e. Supreme Commander, and a few of the Photoshops and the dual at 4.2ghz smokes the quad I had at 3.6ghz hands down.

[gillbot]

im curious about the 4.2ghz as well. i use the 8400, and mine is at 3.8 on air. stock voltage though. my problem is that i hate it to get any warmer than 60 degrees, and under load, thats right where it is at 3.8. 4.2 is pretty dope.

 

ive seen as high as 5.25 with a water block. thats just sick.

you can run up to 70-75 degrees and still be ok, though that's pushing the limits.

 

I bet if you threw a waterblock on there and added 2-3 tenths more voltage you'd hit 5GHz. D

Not always true. My old G0 Q6600 topped at 3.4GHz on air so I dropped loads into a water cooler in the hopes for 3.6GHz and higher. It never got there no matter what voltage I threw at it. I tried as high as 1.75v in anger but no go. Every chip has a ceiling, don't fall into the typical misconception that if you do this or that, you'll get more. That doesn't always happen.

But if you can grab a Wolfdale for $80, go for it.

I know where he got it.... Me. That's all I will say about that.

[sciongirl]

i just got a new video card, a NVidia 9800 GTX..now im getting a new CPU and mobo to go with it.... super gaming!!!

[justinwebb]

so i just realized the mobo that i have doesnt have PCIe 2.0 slots they are just 1.1 i am guessing well that sucks now all 2.0 cards will run at half speed kinda pointless...

[87GT]

That makes me a bamf.

 

 

Hell yes

[morabu]

so i just realized the mobo that i have doesnt have PCIe 2.0 slots they are just 1.1 i am guessing well that sucks now all 2.0 cards will run at half speed kinda pointless...

 

 

not true at all, 1.1 still has plenty of bandwidth for the cards out now,

it's more of a future proof for when cards atually do need more bandwidth than what 1.1 provides

your card WILL NOT run at half speed

[justinwebb]

not true at all, 1.1 still has plenty of bandwidth for the cards out now,

it's more of a future proof for when cards atually do need more bandwidth than what 1.1 provides

your card WILL NOT run at half speed

 

so your saying don't worry about it? i know the new 2.0 cards are backwards compatible i was just saying the 1.1 isn't going to transfer as fast as the 2.0 is and i didnt want to spend a bunch on a card and not use its full potential

[morabu]

correct do not worry about it

[justinwebb]

correct do not worry about it

 

sweet thx man been looking at the 9800 GT since i dont have a lot of cash right now to shell out they arent bad it seems

 

what size PSU would anyone reccommend for the PC might be doing SLI eventually but i wanna have enough for future addons was thinking 600 or 700 watts?

[kenny]

Voodoo 2

[justinwebb]

i still have a voodoo 3 in a box and it still works

 

i think they were the first to do the whole SLI dealy and i thought i was the shit back then with two of them