Which Video Card

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Yeah, I like upgrades to my PC, no matter how small.

SLI just isnt worth it for me. Its even more expensive than a new card with a lesser gain, and much greater noise and power requirements. I do have an SLI motherboard, but I'm not sure my PSU will cope (its a Corsair HX520).

Yeah, I agree the FPS gain will be small at best. The thing is, as games get more advanced, that difference will grow. For example, the difference between my current card and proposed card, at least in Crysis, is 50-75%. So as games get more demanding, the difference between the cards gets greater. Right now, a lot of current games would probably be CPU limited, but in future, they would become GPU limited (as Crysis already is, hence the large difference).

Nonetheless, for the reasons I outlined above, I'm still not convinced its worth the money. Its tempting, because I love having new kit, even if its for the sake of having it, and not its use (its hard to describe, and sounds stupid). It would get more useful later on, but it wont be much use now.

So.... I'll probably leave it. I think hopefully my mini upgrade should sate my upgrading urges for a while.

I'm thinking about buying a 3rd party cooler for my graphics card, but I think it might be money wasted. For the amount they cost, I may as well pay a little more and get a whole new card (when you take into account how much I could sell my old card for if I bought a new one).

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EDIT: Weird, I accidentally posted the same thing twice.

 

I was wrong about my PSU. It only had 12A on the 12V rail, so I went out and bought a ANTEC 500W Basiq PSU. This PSU has 2 12V rail each with 18A, is a 80% efficient PSU and has one PCI-e adapter. This PSU should hopefully last me until my 2014 build. LOL.

 

It might be enough, but the cards would eat 300 WATTS. Depending on which processor, which kind of and how many sticks of RAM, how many disks, you could be fine or you could have a problem. A simple C2D setup with two sticks of DDR2 RAM, one HDD and one DVD drive should be fine, but anything more and I wouldn't be guessing.

I think SLI generally helps with old games and maybe high resolutions, but I'm not sure of the latter. It does seem to me, that SLI is the least sensible choice between it, one powerful card and one card with two GPU's. As a rule, I think a 9800 GX2, two GPU's on one card, is the best choice if you can afford it and the PSU it requires, while it costs less and probably eats less power, than two 9800's. Just don't know how much difference it makes that it's one card with two GPU's instead of two full cards, but I suppose it isn't that much.

I wouldn't do the SLI unless the card were really cheap. For me, SLI or Crossfire is the way to go when it's less expensive than a normal upgrade and when you find an exceptional bargain for the same card that you have. For example, my 4850 cost 550 PLN, now it's more like 450 or maybe even 400. Before the end of the year, we will likely see 350. But when people upgrade to 4870, they will sell the old cards. Come the new line of ATI, the prices will drop further. If I see it for 200 PLN, I will take it. Or, if it's possible to combine a stronger card with a weaker card, I might simply upgrade but keep this card as secondary for physics alone. I just don't know how far it goes with non-identical cards for SLI/Crossfire at this moment.

As for CPU, that's a tough call, but I'm betting you have slot 775, so that's still room for upgrade and you can still sell the old CPU.

Yeah. And don't buy new cards just as they come out. They quickly become cheaper, even before they get proper drivers. For example, 4850 still has no good drivers and it's already much less expensive than what I paid for it.

Depends how far it will overclock with the new cooler. Accelero S1 rev. 2 (or whatever rev. it was, just not the first S1 and not the S2) is cheap now, S2 even cheaper. If you can stick an old fan on it, you're golden.

I've recently purchased 50 fans in one box, so now I only need to look for heatsinks.

So long as you don't do SLI or Crossfire, yeah. Or even with it. The guy who sold me my parts says I'll be fine with Crossfire 4850 on my Tagan 500W, but I'm not sure. But I'm not sure if I want another 4850, either.

 

recommended wattage (to keep the PSU in the efficient range.)

2x ati 4850 = 600 watt.
2x ati 4870 = 800 watt.
1x ati 4870x2= 800 watt.
2x ati 4870x2=1000 watt.
2x nvidia gtx 260 = 800 watt.
3x nvidia gtx 260 =1000 watt.
2x nvidia gtx 280 =1000 watt.
3x nvidia gtx 280 =1200 watt.

No new things to report so far. Both brands still aim to make it possible to use two cards from different generation for additional functions like physics. so far no drivers for that. So be prepared and go for two pci-e GPU slots, just in case.

Intel is busy to join the GPU battle whit their larrabee chip.

 

Nvidia 8800 series and higher thanks to a newer drivers are able to process phyics through one GPU.

As far as Intel Larrabee GPU, rumor has it that the next Xbox will be using Intel's GPU and 8 Core CPU.

 

I have yesterday made the prediction that in the longer term GPUs will follow the trajectory of CPUs. We have now seen the ever increasing processor tact and speed (and temperatures). Cooling is becoming an obvious problem, and as with CPUs, the most obvious way out is multiple processor cores running at a lower speed and further miniaturisation. I see the NVIDIA 9800x2 and the ATI 4870x2 as signs of things to come.

Larrabee, especially in combination with the new Nehalem chip will be an absolute powerhouse, and for the time being unaffordable for reasonable people. I wonder whether we will soon see any games really using all that immense calculation power to the fullest. But then ... as things have gone in the past something probably will. It's really the gamers who push PC development. It makes sense for Intel to invest in that market.

That said, my new system, as things look now, will be an Intel 9450 with an ATI 4870 card - plenty of power and IMO a good deal of performance reserves. Who knows, maybe in a year or two Intel sells Larrabee graphics cards for PCIe, or NVIDIA or ATI bring out something of their own ... Nevertheless, I think the trend goes to multi-core GPUs.

 

You sure you want ATI?

 

Well, sure enough I guess I ordered my Sapphire ATI 4870 yesterday.

From friends and reviews I only heard good things about the card. The driver issues you refer to appear to be settled by now.

Tomorrow I'll go and fetch my CPU and Vista. It's a little bit like Christmas right now, as I wait for my orders of hardware from three different stores to arrive Then I'll do my magic - and a computer will emerge.

 

Just in time for all the games that have come out. You choose the Sapphire. That is voted the best ati brand here in holland for several years in a row.

 

First new game for me is: Mass Effect But before I play that I'll finish Drakensang and MoTB with all bells and whistles, and see what I can get out of KoToR II. Then I'll see. I read about DeusEx 3 coming sometime next year.

The reason I chose the Sapphire was actually that it got tested well, and was tested rather quiet even when unmodified. Little use in buying a quiet PSU and a quiet CPU cooler when you have a graphics card sounding like hair dryer.

As I'll stick with my 1280x1024 19" TFT for a while my GPU will be useful longer than with a larger display.

 

ATi has a 55nm die, which is 10nm larger than any CPU at this time. Cooling seems to be the biggest factor for GPUs now.

It would be nice to see a 2 or 4 GPUs on one chip instead of a dual chip setup on a card. If Nvidia or ATi could produce such a card, even with lower clock speeds, that does not produce excessive heat, I would purchase one if it performed similar or better than the current high end cards.

I wonder how good ATi GPU would be if it used a 512MB interface with the DDR4 or DDR5 RAM, because right now the 4870 with DDR5 RAM and a 256MB interface performance is close to the Nvidia 280 1G 512MB interface card.

 

Read something about that a while ago. Can't say were but it did not have the impact to justify it.

 

If you haven't bought yet - given the PSU power, the new budget versions of the 9800 chip are an excellent choice. Cheap, lower power consumption and heat generation than the originals, nVidia drivers (which are better on both Windows and Linux - but not OS X), 45nm etc.

 

Speaking of PSUs, you can probably get either a Corsair or an OCZ (cheaper, possibly equal or better than Corsair) for not so big a price by now. Don't go below 600W, given the fact you need a margin of power, room for upgrade and the difference in price isn't so big.

 

500W is plenty. Heck, 400W is still usable in some cases.

600W power supplies just don't seem to get that quality and attention 500W supplies do - but be absolutely sure to get a 80plus power supply. Both because it's the Green Option (tm) and because it gives you more juice.

 

If you are going for any single solution GPU a 500W PSU that is 80% or higher with a PCI-e 6/8 pin will be fine; just make sure there is enough AMP in the 12V rails or it will not work. I believe a PSU with 2 12V rails should have close to 17A+ per a rail or a single 12V rail with 35A+ for the single rail.

You should be able to pick up a decent PSU for around $75; you maybe lucky and get one for around $50 on sale.

If you are going with a SLi or CrossX setup make sure the 12V rails have enough juice to power both GPUs. I recommend going with a 750W PSU for 2 9800GT/GTS or 4850; if you go for the higher end cards you may want to start looking at 1000W PSUs. It is safer to have more than not to have enough.

Most of the higher wattage PSU tend to have 3 or 4 12V rails with 15-18A. Please make sure the ampage is enough to power the GPU. I recommend going for a dual rail PSU unless the 3-4 12V rail each provides over 20A+.

As Taza said go green with your PSU; it can save you money on your electric bill.

 

I agree completely. Still some 600 watts PSU are decent. The sweet spot for the PSU to give the most power for the least consumption is between 50 and 75% full load.