Looking to Upgrade Graphics Card

[colonelcool125]

Hi,
I'm looking to upgrade the Graphics card on my computer, and want to spend about $200-300, but could go over. Currently I have an ATI Radeon x1300 256MB PCIe card. Any suggestions for a good upgrade? Preferably one with more VRAM.

[megawhompertoo]

Re: Looking to Upgrade Graphics Card

Hi,
I'm looking to upgrade the Graphics card on my computer, and want to spend about $200-300, but could go over. Currently I have an ATI Radeon x1300 256MB PCIe card. Any suggestions for a good upgrade? Preferably one with more VRAM.

for $200-300: x1950xt and a 600w psu for the future

edit: add some links tomorrow.

[colonelcool125]

Re: Looking to Upgrade Graphics Card

Thanks for the quick reply, I'll check those out.

[megawhompertoo]

Re: Looking to Upgrade Graphics Card

x1950xt (i've got this one, and it's a great card for the price. little loud with the stock cooler, though.)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102067

and you probably need a new psu, this one is decent and cheap:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153052

so that's $200 answer, after rebates. if you push it to $300, then get an 8800gts and the same psu:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130038

that's assuming you currently have a cheapo psu banging around in your pc. if you've got a decent one, get the 640mb version of the 8800gts and hook it up to a giant lcd. :)

actually, on paper, this looks like a better psu (more amps on the +12v rail, active pfc to protect your expensive components):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817159040

[colonelcool125]

Re: Looking to Upgrade Graphics Card

Thanks a lot!:)

[Blak_Phoenix]

Re: Looking to Upgrade Graphics Card

Personally, i would NOT recommend the x1950XT. Why you ask? Yes its a great card, but why go for something that DX9 in a whats soon to be DX10 world? If you are spending $200-$300 on a video card, you want top make sure its gonna play UPCOMING games as well as possible, and i can tell you right now, the x1950 will not play Crysis very well compared to a 8800 card. I mean the x1950 is great for FEAR, BF2/2142, etc etc, but i can almost guarantee you will be regretting getting it withing 5 months.

[=98=]

Re: Looking to Upgrade Graphics Card

Likelyhood is that current DX10 cards like 8800 and 2900 wont be able to play Dx10 games very well. They can only just run DX10 patched games like CoH at 1280x1024 with no AA or AF eye candy. When DX10 games are out, a new series of cards will be released i suspect. I think the current cards were released to satisfy demand around the hype of Vista and DX10.

[Blak_Phoenix]

Re: Looking to Upgrade Graphics Card

Likelyhood is that current DX10 cards like 8800 and 2900 wont be able to play Dx10 games very well. They can only just run DX10 patched games like CoH at 1280x1024 with no AA or AF eye candy. When DX10 games are out, a new series of cards will be released i suspect. I think the current cards were released to satisfy demand around the hype of Vista and DX10.

Not true, the designers of Crysis use 8800 GTX's and play Crysis on all high at 60-70fps. The 8900 series cards are still a long way off, i would say 4-5, maybe even 6 months away, as Nvidia has no need to push the new tech since ATI didnt go to beat the GTX/Ultra. The 8800 cards can run WiC very nicely in DX10 and lost worlds too. It is not the technology thats bad, its the programming thats not up to beat yet. The developers are finding out all these new ways of doing smoke and sub-particle shading and dynamic lighting and physics and CPU off loading and and all this stuff which takes them a lot of time to code. This means that the "Dx10" games out now, really, like being honest, arent true DX10, they themselves are Dx9 games with 1 or 2 dx10 features. The tru test will be Crysis and Alan wake, etc.

[megawhompertoo]

Re: Looking to Upgrade Graphics Card

Yes its a great card, but why go for something that DX9 in a whats soon to be DX10 world?

DX10 world? Nah; DX10 cellar, maybe. There aren't any games currently out or currently in the pipe that are DX10 only. Besides that, OP would have to buy Vista, so tack on another $150 (edit: oops, confused with a different post. no idea if OP has vista or not) for the bargain basement version of the seventeen versions available. Buying the software to run the magical (mostly mythical, as of yet) land of DX10 would wouldn't leave the OP with enough dough to get a decent gpu. And for what? A few more rocks? A slight increase in the flurries in Crysis? Cuz--so far--that's about what you get from DX10. I expect DX10 will mature, (2 years? maybe?) and when it does, it will definitely be worth a look for people that don't replace hardware faster than they replace beer.

If you are spending $200-$300 on a video card

Still no word on OP's psu. Probably need one of those for a decent gpu. Back to the issue of money, for those of us who are concerned about getting getting a great card and not breaking the bank

you want top make sure its gonna play UPCOMING games as well as possible, and i can tell you right now, the x1950 will not play Crysis very well

unless you've demo'd it, I flat-out don't believe you. The development team has said that they have designed the game to scale very well (based on what they did with Far Cry, I believe them), and an x1950xt is better than any mainstream card besides the xtx version of the same card, an 8800 series or 2900 series (all of which are at least double the price). Beyond that, the difference between matching frames between x1950xt w/DX9 and 8800gts w/DX10 may be 4 or 6 levels of AA, depending on the res, as the DX10 eyecandy comes with a hit.

compared to a 8800 card. I mean the x1950 is great for FEAR, BF2/2142, etc etc, but i can almost guarantee you will be regretting getting it withing 5 months.

Not for $150 after rebates. I'd be laughing all the way to the bank, while the folks that PT Barnum told us about were buying a $300 green board because it says DX10 compatible in pretty letters lettering.

http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/977/8/page_8_benchmarks_prey/index.html

that's a comparison w/x1950xtx, which uses more and faster ddr4 memory, but the xt overclocks well and makes up *most* of the difference. take a gander at the benchies at the higher res and tell me, how much do you think 12.1 fps are worth to someone on a $300 budget? take a look at the lower resolutions and try to convince someone on a $300 budget the 83 frames per second just won't cut it.

edit: don't get me wrong; if the OP wants to go over $300, then a 320mb 8800gts is the way to go, imho. for under that? it's hard to beat the 1950 for price/performance.

[Jakg]

Re: Looking to Upgrade Graphics Card

Not true, the designers of Crysis use 8800 GTX's and play Crysis on all high at 60-70fps

...no.

Crytek (the developers of Crysis) have said NO single card solution on the planet can max Crysis currently...

[=98=]

Re: Looking to Upgrade Graphics Card

...no.

Crytek (the developers of Crysis) have said NO single card solution on the planet can max Crysis currently...

Agreed, hardly any of the current cards car run DX10 games, that is why the new 9xxx series from Nvidia is coming soon. See here:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/discussion/3953.html

[Sniper1432]

Re: Looking to Upgrade Graphics Card

then how come in this review, the people ran crysis at full glory with an 8700 on a laptop?

http://www.totalcrysis.com/forums/showthread.php?t=630

[=98=]

Re: Looking to Upgrade Graphics Card

I'm not sure i believe that. Who ran the test then?

[Sniper1432]

Re: Looking to Upgrade Graphics Card

read the article I gave you :p

[=98=]

Re: Looking to Upgrade Graphics Card

But i can't see who actually ran the test itself. It must have been EA/Crytek right?

Oh, yeah, btw, im on TotalCrysis now Sniper. Your Off Topic is mine!