What would be the best choice for my upgrade?

[sgt-Sander-NL]

Hello all, currently i'm running a 1,5 year old system:

-basic mobo
-athlon 64 3200 @ 2.3 ghz
-1 gb ram
-sapphire radeon x1600pro
-200 gb hd

Now has come the time to upgrade, and I've already configured CPU choice etc, the only problem is I don't know what graphics card I should choose. This is what I've figured out till now:

Mobo is depending of the gfx card.
core 2 duo E6320
2x1 GB GEIL DDR2-800

Then i have made a selection of 3 cards:
-little more budget: 8600 GT
-better: 8600 GTS
-and i think much better: radeon x1950xt

Here the Radeon and the 8600GTS are exactly the same price. I think the radeon is better than the gts but I don't know that for sure. One thing i do know is that the GTS supports dx10 and the Radeon doesn't.
Can anyone tell me which of these two is faster, if it matters that the Radeon is dx9 and if these 2 cards are worth the 50 euro's over the 8600GT.

Thanks in advance!

[megawhompertoo]

Re: What would be the best choice for my upgrade?

If you can't afford an 8800gts, then the x1950xt is a terrific card. If you've got your heart set on playing Halo, then your only option is to go with the 8600gt/s and suffer from slow FPS. Shhh...don't tell anybody, but Halo is a M$ game, and DX10 is a Vista/DRM-infection product...which is why that's the only game for the foreseeable future that will be DX10 only.

http://anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2970&p=5

^x1950pro is at least as good and often better in most benchmarks (for DX9 games) than the 8600gts, and the x1950xt is both faster and has more pipelines the it's li'l PRO brother.

Here are some more benchies w/a x1950xtx thrown in, which is usually about 10% faster than the x1950xt. Still, gives you an idea of what you'd be giving up to play M$ Halo at ~15fps @16x12 with some decent eye-candy. :)

http://my.ocworkbench.com/2007/ecs/N8600GTS-256MX/b2.htm

As a note, the fan on the sapphire is ridiculously loud. I had to replace mine with a zalman vf900-cu. I should have gotten the HIS model with the artic cooling hsf.

Edit: And don't forget that you will need at least a 450W PSU to reliably power an x1950xt.

[sgt-Sander-NL]

Re: What would be the best choice for my upgrade?

Thanks for the info! Will it be worth it for me to wait a few weeks and save up the extra money to get something like a Foxconn 320 MB 8800GTS? BTW, this is my power supply:

http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=7&l2=59&l3=202&l4=0&model=556&modelmenu=1

EDIT: I found a MSI x1950xt which is only half the price of the 8800gts, will 2 times more money for the 8800 have that more benefits?

[megawhompertoo]

Re: What would be the best choice for my upgrade?

To me, personally, no. I got the 256mb x1950xt for $180, and I'll buy a better card than the 8800gts for $180 in another couple of years (maybe 18months) when DX10 is required for a game that I just *have* to play.

Keep in mind that most GOOD games stay in production for 4 or 5 years, meaning we've probably got another 2 years left to go before DX9 is unsupported.

That's my $.02. You have to decide whether twice the price for a little bump in performance + a technology that somewhere on the horizon is worth it. It also kinda depends on what resolution your prefer/can run.

Oh, here's a head-to-head comparison of the two:

http://www.thetechlounge.com/article/389-5/Foxconn+8800GTS+320MB+Overclocking+Edition/

Don't forget to check out the 2xAA/4xAF blocks, because those represent typical "decent looking" in-game settings.

Edit: Forgot to ask, are you currently infected with Vista? Because if you haven't gone out and bought that M$ Cr4pware yet, then the answer is very easy: get the DX9 card to go with your DX9 OS and wait until you buy the DX10 infection to buy a DX10 compatible card.

[sgt-Sander-NL]

Re: What would be the best choice for my upgrade?

Thanks for all this help! I guess your right about dx10 and the 8800. More cards/series will follow and everything will get much cheaper or you'll more value for the same money, hadn't thought about that!

Regarding your question about vista: I don't run it yet because a friend of mine has it and he asked me to install some mainstream programs like office 2007, nero etc and a lot of things just don't work and there is just no third-party software support yet. When I want to I can get vista ultimate for free at my father's work but XP will be my os for now!

Then a final question: is the MSI cooling better than sapphire's? If it is about the same I will pick MSI because it's cheaper. And my PSU should be able to power the card right?

EDIT: I just read that review/comparison chart and with AA on the 8800 is only 3-4 frames faster so it will definately be the 1950xt!

[megawhompertoo]

Re: What would be the best choice for my upgrade?

http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=proddesc&prod_no=1074&maincat_no=130

^ Looks just like the dustbuster that was formerly on my sapphire model. It keeps the temps reasonable, but it's LOUD for my tastes. Your mileage may vary.

You might think about something like this down the road. They're pretty cheap and very good:

http://www.svc.com/accelx2.html

Powercolor uses them on their models stock:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814131047

[sgt-Sander-NL]

Re: What would be the best choice for my upgrade?

ok, and will my power supply be sufficient?

[megawhompertoo]

Re: What would be the best choice for my upgrade?

ok, and will my power supply be sufficient?

Should be, with just a little room for overclocking.

Don't go wild though.

[sgt-Sander-NL]

Re: What would be the best choice for my upgrade?

ok, thanks for all the help! Soon I will order the components... mobo will probably be the Asus P5N-E SLI because they are said to be good overclockers.. That it's SLI ready doesn't make a difference if I just put 1 1950xt in right?

[megawhompertoo]

Re: What would be the best choice for my upgrade?

My opinion is that asus boards (and I still love my p5b-e 965-board) are overpriced right now. Where I'm looking, for the price of p5n-e (650i), you could almost get an EVGA 680i board. Or, go with the EVGA 650i for ~$40 less than the asus.

Just something to think about. I certainly wouldn't tell anyone not to buy a good asus board.

Edit, just thinking back about how easy it's been to update my bios, and all the tools that asus provides, it may be worth to spend the extra bucks on asus-branded 650i.

[sgt-Sander-NL]

Re: What would be the best choice for my upgrade?

the asus is exactly the same price as the evga nf66 650i board here so asus would be the best choice then i reckon?

[megawhompertoo]

Re: What would be the best choice for my upgrade?

the asus is exactly the same price as the evga nf66 650i board here so asus would be the best choice then i reckon?

couldn't tell you. i'm not looking at your price list.

sounds reasonable, though.