Upgrade advice :|

W

Wouter

Big Geek
The good news: I'm going to Australia soon :)

The bad news: plane tickets to Australië are terribly expensive, so it looks like I'll have to wait a bit before buying a brand new PC :(

Oh well, maybe it's a good thing with all this new stuff coming out, e.g. the new AMD sockets, 'amd' DDR2, new graphic cards etc. ... although I wish I could afford both the trip and the PC :(

So I wanted to ask here which graphic card I'd best take, so I can use my current PC for about a year or so. Oblivion, Alan Wake, ... on high settings, well I'll have to forget about that. But well, I guess I can take them out of the "reduction" basket end this year/next year when I'll get that new rig.

The only thing I absolutely want to be able to run, on medium/high settings, is Dreamfall.

This is my current configuration (PC = 4 years old):

Case: "Targa" case (big heavy iron thing)
Moederbord: Intel D865perl (AGP 4x en 8X, but no PCI-E slot)

Voeding: 350Watt PSU by Intel

Processor: Intel 2.4Ghz processor (Celeron I think, not sure)

Ram: 1GB corsair value ram (2x512mb)

DVD-Rom drive by Asus
CD-RW drive by Samsung

Graphic card: Geforce MX440 64MB
Click to expand...

That Geforce MX440 card absolutely won't do anymore (although it lasted a LONG time! not a bad card really...)

I was thinking about following cards

1. nvidia Geforce 6600GT 128MB AGP
2. nvidia Geforce 6600GT 256MB AGP
3. nvidia Geforce 6800GT 256MB AGP
4. nvidia Geforce 7800GS 256MB AGP

My thoughts:
1. Good card, but pretty old, and 'only' 128mb, maybe a bit low for more recent titles?

2. Seems to be the 'sweet spot' for me. I think?
I can get a "Gainward GeForce 6600GT 256MB GDDR3, AGP8X, "Ultra/1980" Tv-out,DVI, Retail" for €195 and a "XFX GeForce 6600GT 256MB GDDR3, AGP8X, Tv-Out, Dual-DVI, Retail" for €213

3. Seems to be a good option also, but it's relatively expensive

4. the most powerful card, but I'm worried the rest of my PC will be a bottleneck for it, and not sure if my power supply is heavy enough for it. Pretty expensive too.

My goal is to be able to improve the lifetime of my PC with another year or so, while spending not too much money.
 
Depending on if you play really intensive games like Quake4, FEAR etc then I see no reason to spend that much on a 7800GS for the money. Best one is probably no. 2 or 3 depending on your budget.
 
"Depending on if you play really intensive games like Quake4, FEAR etc"
Not really. I mean, I was planning to, but I can wait another year... with the unexpected added benefit that those things will probably be dirt cheap too.

"then I see no reason to spend that much on a 7800GS for the money. Best one is probably no. 2 or 3 depending on your budget."

My budget is around the lower end of €200 (certainly not > €250)

Also I'm a bit concerned about my powersupply, if it'll be good enough. It's less than 1 year old (eXtreme PSU calculator seems to think it matters), about 4 months actually. It's not an Antec or Tagan, but I guess Intel also can't afford to ship really crappy PSU's, can they?
 
A 6600GT will play Quake 4, Doom 3, and Far Cry fine. The only game out right now that may give you trouble with that card would be FEAR.

I don't know what the amperages are on that power supply, but given that you'll be using an AGP system, if you have 18A on the 12V rail and 30A or higher on the 3.3V rail, it should be alright. This is assuming the power supply is decent quality. (Are you sure of the power supply brand?)
 
Yeah, I'm pretty sure about the power supply brand, since I've still got the box that it came in, and it says "Intel... something" (can't remember ATM, and box is at home). I know it's weird... it might be a PSU for servers though, since the place I went to upgrade usually works for businesses. I think the PSU cost me around €80 or €100 at the time. Or it would have to be that they stuffed the PSU into the wrong box (which, incidentally, IS the right size for a -rather large- PSU). The power supply is pretty large, but my case is large too. Maybe I'll screw it open to see what's really inside. I *know* it's 350 Watt though, since I specifically asked for that, even with the remark that I might put in a 6600GT later, now that I think back about that moment...

Big B said:
A 6600GT will play Quake 4, Doom 3, and Far Cry fine. The only game out right now that may give you trouble with that card would be FEAR.

I don't know what the amperages are on that power supply, but given that you'll be using an AGP system, if you have 18A on the 12V rail and 30A or higher on the 3.3V rail, it should be alright. This is assuming the power supply is decent quality. (Are you sure of the power supply brand?)
Click to expand...
 
The main thing you'd want to look at would be the amperages. Watts really don't mean a damn thing as there's many ways of achieving the wattage number. You need to look at where it really counts: the amps on the rail. AGP uses the 3.3V rail, so having a beastly amperage on the 12V rail isn't necessary in this case. If it were a PCIe-based system, then we'd have a different story. However, I think your system is old enough that if you have a decent 350W unit, it'll work.
 
Like I said, it's 4 year old, but the processor, PSU, motherboard and RAM are about 4 months old.

Okay, this is what it says on the box of the PSU:

(sticker on top)
Power Supply 350W Micro
ATX P4 BU

(sticker on the side)
LPJ2-350W

(text on the box in front, at the top)
Power Supply
Intel P4 Full Support

(text on the box in front, at the bottom)
AMD K7 Compatible
Click to expand...

Huh... I was wrong, seems like its a "brand-less" power supply?

So will this do?

Big B said:
The main thing you'd want to look at would be the amperages. Watts really don't mean a damn thing as there's many ways of achieving the wattage number. You need to look at where it really counts: the amps on the rail. AGP uses the 3.3V rail, so having a beastly amperage on the 12V rail isn't necessary in this case. If it were a PCIe-based system, then we'd have a different story. However, I think your system is old enough that if you have a decent 350W unit, it'll work.
Click to expand...
 
These are the two cards I'm currently looking, with full specifications. So? Which one of these would you pick if you had my system?

1. XFX GeForce 6600GT 256MB GDDR3, AGP8X, Tv-Out, Dual-DVI, Retail

http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=308128&view=detailed

Product Description XFX GeForce 6600 GT - graphics adapter - GF 6600 GT - 256 MB
Device Type Graphics adapter
Enclosure Type Plug-in card
Interface Type AGP 8x
Graphics Processor / Vendor NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT
Core Clock Speed 500 MHz
RAMDAC Clock Speed 400 MHz
API Supported DirectX 9.0, OpenGL 1.5
Video Memory Installed ( Max ) 256 MB - GDDR3 SDRAM
Video Output 2048 x 1536 / 85 Hz
Max Monitors Supported 2
TV Interface TV out
Package Type Retail


Specification

General
Device Type Graphics adapter
Enclosure Type Plug-in card
Interface Type AGP 8x
Compatibility PC
Processor / Memory
Graphics Processor / Vendor NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT
Core Clock Speed 500 MHz
RAMDAC Clock Speed 400 MHz
Video Memory Installed 256 MB
Technology GDDR3 SDRAM 128-bit
Memory Clock Speed 1 GHz
Video Output
Max Resolution (external) 2048 x 1536 / 85 Hz
API Supported DirectX 9.0, OpenGL 1.5
Max Monitors Supported 2
TV Interface TV out
Digital Video Standard Digital Visual Interface (DVI)
Expansion / Connectivity
Interfaces 2 x DVI-I - 29 pin combined DVI
1 x S-video output
Compatible Slots 1 x AGP
Miscellaneous
Package Type Retail
Click to expand...

2. XFX GeForce 6600GT 128MB GDDR3, AGP8X, Tv-Out, Dual-DVI, Retail
http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=305051&view=detailed

Product Description XFX GeForce 6600 GT - graphics adapter - GF 6600 GT - 128 MB
Device Type Graphics adapter
Enclosure Type Plug-in card
Interface Type AGP
Graphics Processor / Vendor NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT
RAMDAC Clock Speed 400 MHz
API Supported DirectX 9.0, OpenGL 1.5
Video Memory Installed ( Max ) 128 MB - GDDR3 SDRAM
Video Output 2048 x 1536 / 85 Hz
Max Monitors Supported 2
TV Interface TV out
System Requirements Microsoft Windows 2000, Microsoft Windows 95/98/ME/XP


Specification

General
Device Type Graphics adapter
Enclosure Type Plug-in card
Interface Type AGP
Compatibility PC
Processor / Memory
Graphics Processor / Vendor NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT
RAMDAC Clock Speed 400 MHz
Video Memory Installed 128 MB
Technology GDDR3 SDRAM
Features Digital Vibrance Control (DVC)
Video Output
Max Resolution (external) 2048 x 1536 / 85 Hz
API Supported DirectX 9.0, OpenGL 1.5
Max Monitors Supported 2
TV Interface TV out
Digital Video Standard Digital Visual Interface (DVI)
Expansion / Connectivity
Interfaces 2 x DVI-D - 24 pin digital DVI
Compatible Slots 1 x AGP
Miscellaneous
Cables Included 2 x DVI-VGA adapter
Software / System Requirements
OS Required Microsoft Windows 2000, Microsoft Windows 95/98/ME/XP
Click to expand...
 
I'd probably get the 256MB version of the 6600GT.
It can play F.E.A.R pretty damn good at Medium settings with all the eye candy except Soft Shadows, and thats on my 128MB card.
 
Some people are telling me that the 256MB version doesn't really add any benefits, is worse in fact... something to do with speeds (memory speeds if I remember correctly?). Is that so?

pelvis_3 said:
I'd probably get the 256MB version of the 6600GT.
It can play F.E.A.R pretty damn good at Medium settings with all the eye candy except Soft Shadows, and thats on my 128MB card.
Click to expand...
 
Nope. The GT's for the most part use a standard memory speed. The lowest you'll see is 900Mhz (450DDR). With the 256MB version, you'll be able to play games like Doom 3 at higher settings, have the added benefit of less texture swapping and therefore an overall performance increase.
 
Thanks! Then I've made my choice: the 256MB model it is! :D

My friend told me he'd install the thing for me... remarking that my PSU should be fine, since it already has a 64MB AGP card in it now, and he thinks another AGP model, even if it has more ram, shouldn't draw much more power from the PSU than my current card is already drawing now. And everything's running quite stable ATM. He's in electronics though, so perhaps he underestimates the power-hungriness of graphics cards... or maybe not, I hope it'll work.

pelvis_3 said:
Nope. The GT's for the most part use a standard memory speed. The lowest you'll see is 900Mhz (450DDR). With the 256MB version, you'll be able to play games like Doom 3 at higher settings, have the added benefit of less texture swapping and therefore an overall performance increase.
Click to expand...
 
Wouter said:
I'm curious as to the performance difference (from a GF MX440 64MB card)
Click to expand...
The difference will be almost astronomical between the two.
The 6600GT was last years mid-range/high end card compared to the MX which was 2002's cheapo card. You'll be very happy with it.
 
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