Video cards and you

[Skrypnyk]

Quick question for them PC gurus out there.

I'm looking at buying 2 new video cards and I'm looking for recommendations. Some specs I'm looking at:

nVidia
128 mb (or better)
PCI-e
SLi
preferably between $100-150 each.

the one I have my eye on right now is:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1699665&CatId=0

Is it good? un-good? Is there something better out there? Is there a difference whether eVGA or XFX or MSI makes the card?

Any help would be awesome.

[phill]

my suggestion for a mid-range card

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130073

[Skrypnyk]

ooh, that's a sweet card. And only 10 bucks more (off tigerdirect).

Small question: Will it run on a ASUS A8N-SLi deluxe motherboard? (I'm unfamiliar with GDDR3).

[IckesTheSane]

I haven't checked the board or the video card, but all GDDR3 means is that it's DDR memory (I'm assuming you know what that means, ask if you don't) in it's third generation, and the G means graphic/graphical. Basically, it's the kind of memory on the video card itself, and doesn't matter what kind of system memory you have.

[Skrypnyk]

I haven't checked the board or the video card, but all GDDR3 means is that it's DDR memory (I'm assuming you know what that means, ask if you don't) in it's third generation, and the G means graphic/graphical. Basically, it's the kind of memory on the video card itself, and doesn't matter what kind of system memory you have.

Awesome.

If you were to say otherwise, I'd have to strangle you cause I just bought the video card 2 hours ago.

And now I wait :)

[phill]

Awesome.

If you were to say otherwise, I'd have to strangle you cause I just bought the video card 2 hours ago.

And now I wait :)

I hope you only purchased one of the cards, assuming the A8N-E is your motherboard, you can't do dual PCI-E cards.

Is this your board? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131530

[Skrypnyk]

that was my motherboard.

untill I upgraded to the SLi deluxe version ^__^ (http://www.overclockers.ru/images/lab/2005/02/28/mb.jpg)

EDIT: my bad. I wrote a8n-e. I do have the SLi mobo though.

[Effef]

Nice choice. I would have gone with the XFX version, but thats just me.

[Skrypnyk]

xfx version is an extra 40 bucks D=!

plus with the evga I can get a 20 dollar rebate, which I'm sooo taking.

Now, in my haste to get a new video card a.s.a.p, I over looked one minor minor detail.

These cards are duel DVI, and my monitor is VGA D=!!! .

Now I know vga to dvi converters exist, if anyone knows off hand, does best buy or future shop sells them?

[phill]

The cards will come with the little converters

[Skrypnyk]

that is so very awesome then =D

[Pyrion]

I haven't checked the board or the video card, but all GDDR3 means is that it's DDR memory (I'm assuming you know what that means, ask if you don't) in it's third generation, and the G means graphic/graphical. Basically, it's the kind of memory on the video card itself, and doesn't matter what kind of system memory you have.

Although you'll want to have the fastest form of system memory your system supports because you'll inevitably be swapping textures between vram and sysram (yes, even with 256MB of vram, at least with the newer games that practically require 512MB of vram), and there it doesn't matter how fast the vram is, it'll be limited by the read speed of your sysram.

[Orithil]

Vid cards are oh so easy to get, and really good ones at that. I just got a Radeon X1600 Pro 512Meg vidcard, and man...it rocks the socks.

OK, I'm ready for the Nvidia crowd to show me ATI hate now.

[Pyrion]

Vid cards are oh so easy to get, and really good ones at that. I just got a Radeon X1600 Pro 512Meg vidcard, and man...it rocks the socks.

OK, I'm ready for the Nvidia crowd to show me ATI hate now.

Why? I have an ATI Mobility Radeon x700 in my laptop and it's of comparable performance to my GF6600GT. No complaints here.

[SP]

you left out the most important piece of information necessary to recommend a graphics card to you. what sort of games do you plan on playing? are you going to be playing oblivion on a 1080p screen? or do you just want a better card for guild wars?



anyways, (in general) you got the card that I'd recommend in that price range. (and purchased for myself a few months ago)

however, the downside to it is that it only has a 128-bit memory interface. (this makes a VERY BIG difference, and is heavily overlooked)
but the only way to get 256-bit in our price-range is with the 6800, where all the other specs will be lower, (less pipelines... lower core clock speed...) which is why I decided to get the 7600.





at least with the newer games that practically require 512MB of vram)

wtf?
modern games don't need any more than 256mb for optimal performance.
now, I suppose the theory is that you have fast system ram, so you can pull through the tough spots when you need to without heavy performance hits, but then there's benchmarks like this
http://images.tomshardware.com/2006/07/24/graphics_beginners_guide/image004.gif

[Skrypnyk]

the game I plan on playing is Flatout 2. I know that my current card is 'suppose to' be acceptable, but even on the lowest, shit setting I can get it, the game will start to look like it'll crash, then it'll crash.

So I'm hoping this'll fix the problem, and keep me up-to-date with most of the new games to come out (portals ^__^).

And hopefully, these cards come in this week.

[Drack]

In general, one very nice card has better performance than 2 low-midrange cards running in SLi.

More bang for the buck? Brilliant!

[Effef]

that is so very awesome then =D

be careful with this. To me, going from VGA to DVI was like night and day, in terms of general picture quality.

[Skrypnyk]

sadly that's the only real choice I have until I get a DVI monitor.

Which isn't going to happen till this one dies.

Which shouldn't happen for another 5+ years.

[53phy]

Where's a place I can get a cheap DVI cable? My monitor has a jack for it in the back (it has dual inputs, one VGA and one DVI), but I don't know what kind of cable to get. :/

[Effef]

Where's a place I can get a cheap DVI cable? My monitor has a jack for it in the back (it has dual inputs, one VGA and one DVI), but I don't know what kind of cable to get. :/

http://www.svc.com/gc6dvi2.html

[53phy]

Where's a place I can get a cheap DVI cable? My monitor has a jack for it in the back (it has dual inputs, one VGA and one DVI), but I don't know what kind of cable to get. :/

http://www.svc.com/gc6dvi2.html
Muchas gracias