Which Vid card?

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I have a samsung 240T which can run @ 1920x1440 max.

http://www.samsung.com/Products/Mo [...] e=Features

I'm building a new pc from the ground up and wanted to know which of these would be better since I have a monitor which has a fairly high resolution:

SAPPHIRE 100149L Radeon X1900XT 512MB

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102025

OR

MSI RX1900 CrossFire Radeon X1900 CrossFire Edition 512MB

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814127208


I have other questions relating to this.
1. Is it worth waiting for the x1950xtx? (price point is a factor)
2. Is running SLI worth it on the monitor I will be using? (I would add another card on later)
3. Should I just buy a cheaper card to hold me over (I have a radeon x800xt) untill the DX10 cards come out?

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What are the rest of your system specs? Is your chipset Nvidia or ATI?

Reply to kaotao

I'm building my computer from the ground up, so things might change..

MOBO: ASUS P5W DH DELUXE http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813131025

CPU: Core 2 Duo E6600 (no need for a link, everyone knows what it iss)

Ram: CZ Gold 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 (probably will change the ram due to problems with the asus mobo) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820227124

PSU: something with dual 12V rails (still researching it)

Already have optical drives, harddrives and audio card.

Reply to Synthetickiller

I would get the x1800xt to hold me over until the next gen cards. Its not that far off (Nov~Dec seems to be the consensus) and they will smoke the x1900xtx. Although, you may have to wait longer to really use the card as Vista is a complete mystery at this point.

But if you're going to do that make sure you get a high quality power supply with at least 600W. Antec and PC&C to name two.

But if you can't wait 6 months then get the x1900xtx and have fun. :D

Reply to TheTallGuy

As with computers, all things seem to change.

I discovered my budge is smaller than originally expected and I think I am going to just upgrade my mobo and buy a PCI express card.

I'm getting this mobo: Thunder K8WE (S2895)

It has SLI, which amazes me since its a server board with DDR1.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, I beg the question: Would it be worth running?

1. SAPPHIRE 100146L Radeon X1600XT (x2) in sli config @ $112x2

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102657

VS

2. any PCI express vid card @ $224?

I would THINK, that for the price, the SLI config would run better, but i don't know.

Reply to Synthetickiller

newegg has the HIS x1900xt 256 for under $250. That would hold you over till Vista has its bugs worked out and till the second generation of DX10 cards are out. It would smoke the crossfire x1600 setup. I say this because migrating to the new platforms "Vista" and DX10 cards in the first 6 months is overpriced and full of bugs better to let the dust settle.

Reply to zoridon

249.99 would be a good price for the 256 mb card.

Would it be worth dropping an additional 65 bucks ($315) for the 512 mb model?

SAPPHIRE 100149L Radeon X1900XT 512MB

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102025

That would be a great card IMO over my current AGP x800xt and would most likely allow me to let the dust settle around the new amd K8L and intel wars to see whats worth buying.

This for the 315 price tag, i'd get another 2 years or so out of this card?

Reply to Synthetickiller

Quote :

As with computers, all things seem to change.

I discovered my budge is smaller than originally expected and I think I am going to just upgrade my mobo and buy a PCI express card.

I'm getting this mobo: Thunder K8WE (S2895)

It has SLI, which amazes me since its a server board with DDR1.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, I beg the question: Would it be worth running?

1. SAPPHIRE 100146L Radeon X1600XT (x2) in sli config @ $112x2

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102657

VS

2. any PCI express vid card @ $224?

I would THINK, that for the price, the SLI config would run better, but i don't know.



If your going to want to run dual GPUs on that motherboard, you won't be able to do it with ATI GPUs because it's an SLI mobo. You'll need crossfire for 2 X1900XTs.

Reply to kaotao

Quote :

249.99 would be a good price for the 256 mb card.

Would it be worth dropping an additional 65 bucks ($315) for the 512 mb model?

SAPPHIRE 100149L Radeon X1900XT 512MB



Probably not. You won't notice much difference between the two on today's games.

Reply to kaotao

in my eyes SLI is wayyyy to expensive for what you get for it. Also buying the newest highest-end cards means price/quality is pretty bad cause you pay a shitload for a card thats slightly better than the more affordeble cards. So I'd say buy one of them new 7900GS, it will run great.

Reply to holymacaroni

So paying 315 for twice the ram is just not a good idea?

My question stems from playing quake 4. The highest setting states that you need a video card w/ 512 ram. You think the 256 mb version of the card would run the game just about as well?

I'm not saying you're wrong at all, just not sure why, thats all.

Reply to Synthetickiller

Quake 4 is one of very few games that really benefit from more than 256MB of video RAM, but for the most part you'll only gain a couple FPS.

Reply to kaotao

Quote :

Quake 4 is one of very few games that really benefit from more than 256MB of video RAM, but for the most part you'll only gain a couple FPS.



Assuming I play quake 4 a lot, do you think it would be pointless to put another 65 bucks into a card to get more FPS on a single game?

I'm probably going to use this card for the next 2 years untill I build a new system. Thats why I'm just second guessing if its a good idea or not to drop and extra 65 bucks into video that will be used for 2 years +.

Reply to Synthetickiller

If you plan on using it for that long, I'd say it's probably worth it. For those who upgrade more often it's not. Within the next year, there will be more games that take advantage of the extra memory. If I had that option, and could afford it I'd opt for 512MB.

Reply to kaotao

Quote :

If you plan on using it for that long, I'd say it's probably worth it. For those who upgrade more often it's not. Within the next year, there will be more games that take advantage of the extra memory. If I had that option, and could afford it I'd opt for 512MB.



I guess I should have been more specific from the begginning. This will be my primary video card until I build my new system in 08-09 ( I plan ahead alot, :lol: ).

Spending much more though would be a a waste IMHO. The whole "more ram for newer games over the next few years" is my primary driving force in choosing a card.

Thanks for the help. The x1900xt would be a much better card than the x1600 pro in SLI. I'm probably going to buy a 3rd party cooler for it since thats only 15 bucks (I've heard the stock cooler is LOUD).

I appreciate all the help. I've been busy with college lately and haven't had a lot of time to build a new PC in a while and haven't kept up as much as I'd like. My last true overclocking job involved MANUALLY changing jumpers on the MOBO since software OC'ing didn't even exist back then.

Reply to Synthetickiller

Not a problem. If you are thinking about possibly running a dual GPU config in the future, you're mobo has to support Crossfire. While it's OK to run a single ATI card on an SLI mobo, it doesn't support dual ATI GPUs. :)

Reply to kaotao

You need a different mobo, one that supports crossfire, not sli. Get the x1900 or wait for the x1950 (what is it, a month?). I'd say wait, but I know it can be really hard. But you usually are happier with yourself for waiting. Plus it lasts longer.

Reply to baddog1

Quote :

You need a different mobo, one that supports crossfire, not sli. Get the x1900 or wait for the x1950 (what is it, a month?). I'd say wait, but I know it can be really hard. But you usually are happier with yourself for waiting. Plus it lasts longer.



I have 2 dilemas:

1. The "server" is my main computer with all my data on it. I need it running ASAP. I can't wait even a few weeks. I know, it blows.

2. I'm not really willing to spend 500-550 bucks on a new card. 300 is about the highest i'll go (315 is Just over 300 :P ). 512 mb is good enough, although not the BEST, it will certainly run everything I need and save me 200 bucks.

Otherwise, I would definitally wait for the x1950xtx. It looks sweet. If I had a conroe system, it would be a different story. I'm running dual 940 opterons (250) @ 2.4 ghz w/ 8 gigs DDR1. Fast, but not top of the line by any means. I don't want to put much more into the computer since it'll be used as a file server in the future.

Reply to Synthetickiller
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