Windows Vista

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As some of you know I recently updated some of the hardware on my computer. After updating the hardware due to having Windows XP OEM I also had to update my OS, so I acquired Windows Vista Business.

I installed and updated Vista last night. After getting all the update for Vista, drivers, etc... the computer was ready for testing.

Before I did any testing I checked my CPU and after some quick software testing of finding a stable overclock for my AMD Phenom 8450 I was able to overclock the CPU to 2.3GHz. While overclocking the CPU through the BIOS I was able to overclock the IGP stock core clock from 500Mhz to 750Mhz, the system does allow the IGP to be overclocked up to 950Mhz.

After all the updates and overclocking my CPU and IGP my overall system performance in Vista is earning a ranking of 4.2. Does that seem about right?

 

Your Vista performance score is determined by the lowest score of your components. So your CPU could get 5.9, your RAM 5.9, but if your graphics card gets 4.2, that will be your overrall mark because it acts as a bottleneck to your performance.

Thats what I would suspect in this case - that your IGP is holding everything else back. Not that it matters for your usage, just that thats the reason its not as high as it could be.

 

I was wondering how Vista did a performance calculation as all my scores were above 5 expect my IGP which scored a 4.2.

I wonder how the score would rate after a 3870 installed.

New Egg is offering the Sapphire 3870 for $129 before rebate. That is a deal I just might have to jump on.

 

This is the very same card I have., and the 3870 is a very nice card. It handles Oblivion with maxed out graphics without breaking a sweat. It's a very decent powerhouse, surprisingly silent, but had a tendency to run hot. My brother had the X800 Platinum and the final card in my dead P4 was a X1650 Pro, also a very nice card. ATI has been a very good experience for me, and I'm not afraid to recommend them.

 

Though I may just pay an extra $30 and get the 4850, which I heard runs 15-25% faster than the 3870. What is stopping me from buying the 4850 is that they all seem to run around 70c at idle and around 90c when running full speed. If one of the card companies comes out with a liquid cooling system and sell the 4850 for $160 I would buy it.

 

Your score will be as high as the next low one. The other scores will not rise due to the GPU. I replaced my old 2600 whit a Sapphire 3870 Toxic and now my cpu is the slowest one at 5.3 The 3870 gives 5.9. The overall score remains at 5.3

If you can afford it, and want to a 4000 series card will be better than a 3000 series card, as long as you do not go to the lower number like 4200, or 4400. In case of budget restrictions a 3870 is excellent.

 

I wonder if a 4200 or 4400 card would be use the Hybrid technology of my motherboard. I would purchase a lower end card if it uses the Hybrid technology.

 

No, only 3400 series. The clock speed of the onboard must tick in sync whit the add on card.

 

When you say clock speed are you referring to the RAM speed or the CORE CLOCK speed? If you are referring to the clock speed of the IGP I can overclock it to 950mhz.

 

I wouldn't worry about it too much, my work laptop only scores 3.0 and that works fine!

 

Overclocking is not my cup of tea. In might work, but if you buy a better card, will that card not perform enough?

 

I like contecting the PC to my 46" LCD TV and using a HDMI works wonders with my current setup; no fusing with the audio. Everywhere I read if you have the IGP enabled you can continue to use the HDMI hook-up, but you disable the IGP you have use the video adapter on the GPU, which most don't contain a HDMI.

I'm looking at improving the overall performance of my PC without that loss.

 

True, that port is part of the i/o of the 780.

I am sure of one card, a 9800x2 but that one costs

I found a nvidia 9600 gt in a dutch webstore: EN 9600 GT MATRIX/HTDI 512 MB

http://www.productwiki.com/asus-en9600gt-matrix-htdi-512m/

http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=2&l2=6&l3=651&l4=0&model=2347&modelmenu=2

Why not use an adapter cable. I am told that the audio can be done by the spdif cable but I agree, why fool around whit a lot of cables and stuff if ot can be done properly by one. Always little things can go wrong.

 

I'm looking at the 8800GT or the ATi 3870 or higher. I thought about Asus card but they want too much for it. My price range is $150 or less.

 

150 euro here in Holland. it is the only one I could find whitout the need of an adapter in the medium segment.

 

I just read an article about a sparkle 9500 whit native hdmi.

 

The problem with 4850 is that it does have problem with the temps. I've experienced numerous crashes, even with the fan manually set to 100% at all times - which gives 50c in idle. Chances are this doesn't happen with other manufacturers - mine is Gigabyte and an experienced hardware vendor has told me Gigabyte can't get active cooling right (i.e. can't cool a card right with a fan, only massive heatsinks). The same person said Asus 4850 didn't have the same problem when tested.

If you look around, especially for used stuff on Internet auctions, you might be able to get 8800GT very cheaply, I guess. Just don't get the 640 MB version.

Many cards overclock quite well with stock cooling, so it doesn't make any additional costs. You just turn the clocks up in the driver or via Riva Tuner, test it for glitches and then it may well work. Don't know about modern cards, but some older ones OC'ed quite well. For obvious reasons, I'm not going to OC my 4850, which is a serious downside in my eyes. It's not acceptable that a card should behave like it's already heavily overclocked when you run it with stock clocks.

 

There are now better fan and heatsink solutions for the 4850; some come with a zalman heatsink and fan. The price on these updated 4850 though are in the $200 range. In fact I seen the same for the 4870, the price on that was $289. If I had the money to lay down I would be buying myself a 4870 with the non-standard heatsink and fan.

 

Perhaps this one. http://xtremegears.wordpress.com/2008/08/15/first-test-on-radeon-hd-4670/