New Graphics Card Advice needed

[dvdmike]

Hi all I am going to add 8gb of ddr2 to my PC and a new GPU.

Current setup

Q6600 @ 3.42
4Gb DDR2
8800GTX


I need the ram for video editing and wanted a new graphics card to add to it all.
I know the Nvidia 300 series is out at the end of the year but with Windows 7 and new drivers I am not sure untested tech is the way to go.

I was looking at the GTX295 or the 4870x2 or even 2xgtx280 cards in sli.
Anyone have any of the cards or and ideas on what to go for ?

Thanks in advance

[eastyy]

to be honest with that 8800gtx i thought that would be fine....i only use my pc for games ...and the 8800gts i find enough for the moment

if you have a sli system why not get a second 8800gtx ?

just dont think the newer graphics cards really offer a enough increase over the 8800gtx to warrant the money

[Hohum]

I'd just leave it for now. the 8800GTX is still a decent card, and you'd only regret it when the faster DX11 cards appear (supposedly July for ATI, October for Nvidia).

[MattyD]

If you really, really need / want the extra grunt, why not just add a second 8800? The GTX series cards cost two or three times what you'll pay for a cheap 8800GT (brand new they're around £100 these days) and two 8800s in SLI will actually slightly outperform a GTX-280.

My setup is the same as yours and I've been able to play pretty much all recent releases on high settings and still get great FPS. In fact I don't think any go less than 60fps except for Crysis but even that gets 30FPS average.

Also, don't forget if you're going to add that much RAM you need a 64-bit operating system.

[dvdmike]

Thanks for the replys guys I am 64 bit, and want to really push crysis, did not think about going sli with another 8800 will have to look at the prices



EDIT: looks like they don't make the 8800 anymore!

[Kit]

I can’t really see much point in upgrading atm. Every game that comes out is usually within the Steam hardware survey requirements, and nearly everyone’s running an 8800GT.

If you can’t wait though, your best bet is GTX 295, as it’s the first card to max Crysis at 1920x1200. I’ve heard quite a few complaints about the 4870x2 performance - ATI also lag behind with driver support.

[eastyy]

could probably find a 8800gtx on ebay or a computer shop

just personally i dont think that the money you will spend at the moment for the newer graphics card really will increase the performance that much and it can run games well enough....think would be best to wait a bit and see what the next batch of newer graphics cards offer

how old is your processor and is it a dual or quad core ?

[dvdmike]

It's a quad and still can keep up

[eastyy]

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/charts/gaming-graphics-charts-q3-2008/Crysis-v1.21,758.html

dont know if thats any help...was for last year so dont think it has some of the newer ones on it

[Matt]

I stay well away from SLI / Crossfire due to micro-stuttering. Stick with a single killer card.

And don't worry about new drivers for Windows 7, nVidia got to grips with Vista eventually and the transition to W7 should be fine, even with a new architecture. The next gen cards will be a big jump over these ones, nVidia will want to really get the performance crown back, so unless you card is really struggling right now, I'd wait

[MattyD]

Thanks for the replys guys I am 64 bit, and want to really push crysis, did not think about going sli with another 8800 will have to look at the prices



EDIT: looks like they don't make the 8800 anymore!

Get a second-hand one! They do actually sell 8800s still but they're rebranded as 9800. There is one model (I forget which, I think it's the GTS) which is actually identical to an 8800. The other models are slightly enhanced; some have faster clock / memory bus speeds, and I think one model has two chips on the same board, which would be an absolute monster if I could remember the codename.

Oh and regarding Crysis, it's not a game that scales well on dual-card setups apparently. It depends on the game - titles that use a lot of post-processing effects and are designed to be natively multi-threaded like Fear 2, newer Source engine games, console ports etc do very well from having two cards, but Crysis seems to need a certain balance between CPU and GPU or it just bottlenecks.

[dvdmike]

But can you run an 9800 with an 8800 even tho they dont match and the memory is diff on the 9800 ?

[MattyD]

If you get the one that basically is an 8800GT then there's no hardware reason why not, but I would try googling for more info as I wouldn't be surprised if the drivers / Nvidia Control Panel stop it somehow.

In any case it will cost more than a new 8800GT, which are still fairly easy to buy new on eBay and from online shops.

[dvdmike]

Mine is a GTX tho with 768mb and all the 9800's either have 1gb or 512

[Rossco]

Hey guys, I'm gonna hijack this thread on a similar discussion if you don't mind rather than make a new one!

Currently got a Q6600, with 4GB DDR2 RAM also but my GPU is a X1950 Pro 512MB GDDR3. I believe this is an old card and possibly lagging the system behind? But I really don't know and can't find it anywhere on the net anymore to compare it with current cards. Could I spent bout £100 on a card to upgrade it for a significant increase right now or would I need to spend more?