getting 7900 or 7950

[mofo11]

Im going to get one or the other (7900 or 7950) and was just wondering what I need for power supply, motherboard reccomendations, cooling demands or whatever else there is to consider. Is this the right forum for this? Thanks.

 

[vir_cotto]

Ummmmm I would go for really big like 550 Watt Power Supply ? I like Antec they are good!

 

[vir_cotto]

Umm I would probably go with One of Nvidias new Chipsest for a motherboard If you want to in the future get another one , I would get the 7950 too Just because hehe the 7900gt though is Great price per performance!

 

[vir_cotto]

Have you read all the articles on the 7950 and stuff ? If you get that definetly have to play in the higher Video modes .

 

[quantumsheep]

Im going to get one or the other (7900 or 7950) and was just wondering what I need for power supply, motherboard reccomendations, cooling demands or whatever else there is to consider. Is this the right forum for this? Thanks.

I'm using an Antec True power 430W with a 7900gt and it's fantastic.

 

[shabodah]

I've been trying to decide if I need to get myself a 7950 as well. It seems like the price difference between the two is significant, but down the road, the difference between 256 & 512 may be as well. I don't see myself getting any of the first generation direct x10 cards, so I might be using it a while longer than many of you. More comments folks?

 

[quantumsheep]

I've been trying to decide if I need to get myself a 7950 as well. It seems like the price difference between the two is significant, but down the road, the difference between 256 & 512 may be as well. I don't see myself getting any of the first generation direct x10 cards, so I might be using it a while longer than many of you. More comments folks?

The 7950GT does seem very good, but have you considered an x1900xt/x1950xt?

 

[DubJ2484]

You're over looking the obvious here my friend, why would you want to get a video card this late into the year? You have to remember that with the new version of windows coming out later next year, Direct X 10 is also going to be available. All of these video cards that are currently out on the market are not going to be fully compatitable with Vista. If they say they are, then they're only allow you to use it with the basic version of Vista. Save up more money for when Vista launches and get a DX10 video card.

 

[shabodah]

I've considered it, sure. And I'm still awaiting more feedback on 80nm ATI parts as far as operating temp under load, and wattage drawn under load. I really like what the 1950 can do, but not sure I want to have the rest of my system put up with it's heat and power requirements. Not to mention the additional cost, of course.

 

[rippleyaliens]

easy choice about vista.
Lets say dx 10 cards come out dec 1st. and vista jan 1st. Seeing that EA, Ubisoft, etc. all teh big guys want to release new games.
1. Unless the DX kit was avaliable to them, 6 months ago, we wont see any new HOT games till june- aug next year.
2. DX 10 is vista only, meaning that it will be 2-3 years before 50-60% penetration is there.

As a software company, why would you make a game for 5-10% of the userbase? it reminds me when win95 was released, there was a 4-6 month space before any true win32 games came out. AND it took uptold generations to get it right. Same theory goes with multi core cpu's, just now, we are getting patches to games to allow for multi cpu / core support. and multi cpu has been out, for YEARS mainstream.

to the user, Get the card you feel comfortable with. if someone says that a new os+video dx10 is out in 8-12 months, that is cool, but it wont let you play your game today,, and today is the most importnat day in your life.. HERE and NOW..

PS. 1st Gen cards are definetly not a good idea to wait on.
Your 7950 card will run the same games at decent frame rates. i wouldnt worry. By this time next year, there will be a whole different class of , CPU+RAM+Video CARDS. we are in a never ending climb for performance.
Just buy for what you need now. I bought a 7950gx2 card 2 weeks ago, and i tell you, i am a happy camper on the performance. Vista and dx10 are close, YET BF 2142, crysus, ut2007 are being built on dx9 not 10. It takes a good year or 2 to make a good game. Once again no software vendor is gonna make anything that only a small % of people can effectively run,.

 

[4745454b]

Ummmm, what extra cost?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814122012
This is the cheapest 7950GT newegg has. $266 counting shipping.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102051
This is the cheapest x1900xt newegg has. $256 counting shipping, but NOT counting the $15 MIR. Brings it down to $241. Again, what extra cost?

All of these video cards that are currently out on the market are not going to be fully compatitable with Vista.

What are you talking about? Vista will be compatable and run just fine a on Radeon 7000. The hardest part about getting vista to run on something that old is finding the driver for it. I think you are confused about Vista, Glass, and DX10. I suggest more reading. The readers digest version is Vista doesnt' care about video card, Glass requires a DX9 video card, and DX10 will only work on Vista.

 

[angry_ducky]

There's a significant difference in power consumption between the 7900GT and the 7950GX2.

Nonetheless, if you're considering a 7950GT, you should get the 256MB X1900XT for $70 less.

 

[quantumsheep]

There's a significant difference in power consumption between the 7900GT and the 7950GX2.

Nonetheless, if you're considering a 7950GT, you should get the 256MB X1900XT for $70 less.

Wow....Someone else sees sense.

Oh wait....it's ducky! How're you my chum?

 

[shabodah]

As I said, I was looking at 80nm ATI products, and they have yet to come down price. I don't want to upgrade my PSU to install a 1900xt. My entire system runs on 120-150 watts (idle-load) at this point, just the video card you suggest would tax the PSU more than EVERYTHING else combined. I was never considering the 7950gx2, only the 7950gt. I am a fan of ATI and am interested in playing Oblivion, so I WOULD PREFER an ATI GPU if the heat/wattage issues were not so big. I have also considered the posted saphire card and even the 1900AIW many, MANY times.

 

[Fox_granit]

Thats the reason i like my 7600gt, no additional power needed. Runs just fine for me, but I am going to go with a x1900xt when i get the money saved up. I've got the wattage to spare for it. In my opinion, if you don't want to max out your PS, then got with the 7900gt, if your wanting preformance per dollar, get a new PS with the $70 you save getting the x1900xt.

 

[shabodah]

Another thing I'm keeping in mind is the fact I don't need a card right away. If the 7900GS and 7950GT come down in price as expected, both would be re-considered.

 

[4745454b]

7950GX2? Who suggested that? I thought we were talking about the 7950GT?

You need to reach a decision. Do you want the bigger video card, or do you want your computer to consume no more then 150W? You even stated in your first post:

was just wondering what I need for power supply, motherboard reccomendations, cooling demands or whatever else there is to consider.

I am throwing out something else to consider. The x1900xt 256mb card trades blows with the 7950GT. Where I get cards, the x1900xt is ~$25 cheaper, so it would get the nod from me. If the extra money is worth it to you for lower power consumption, then grab the 7950GT. I'm just having a problem with you implying that the 7950GT is the best way to go. As you said yourself, Oblivion would be better on the ATI card so I'd try to get that.

For the record, what PSU and video card do you have already? I relise the x1900xt is more powerhungry, but the 7950GT as an overclocked 7900GT is no slouch either.

 

[lunyone]

7950GX2? Who suggested that? I thought we were talking about the 7950GT?

You need to reach a decision. Do you want the bigger video card, or do you want your computer to consume no more then 150W? You even stated in your first post:
was just wondering what I need for power supply, motherboard reccomendations, cooling demands or whatever else there is to consider.

I am throwing out something else to consider. The x1900xt 256mb card trades blows with the 7950GT. Where I get cards, the x1900xt is ~$25 cheaper, so it would get the nod from me. If the extra money is worth it to you for lower power consumption, then grab the 7950GT. I'm just having a problem with you implying that the 7950GT is the best way to go. As you said yourself, Oblivion would be better on the ATI card so I'd try to get that.

For the record, what PSU and video card do you have already? I relise the x1900xt is more powerhungry, but the 7950GT as an overclocked 7900GT is no slouch either.

I second that!

 

[shabodah]

First off, "mofo11" started this thread and asked for powersupply recommendations, not myself. Second, "rippleyaliens" mentioned the gx2, and I didn't want any confusion. My house does not have AC (I rent) and the power demands are not so much an issue as the heat generated by the cards is. In the winter I have no issues, but when it is 95 degrees in the summer, my system runs 35 degrees hotter than in winter (60 degrees on the thermostat, degrees F), so I don't want to push it too far.

 

[4745454b]

Ahhh, sorry about that. This is why I tell people to not thread hijack.

Before you rule out the x1900xt, find some numbers for power and heat output. The 7950GT is a new card, so it might be hard to find. If the 7950GT is an overclocked 7900GT, there might not be a lot of difference between it and the x1900XT.

 

[shabodah]

There sure is a lot of confusion these days. The 7950GT is an UNDERCLOCKED 7900GTX. lol. Regardless, the 7900GTX pulls less power than the stock 1900xt.

 

[4745454b]

There sure is a lot of confusion these days. The 7950GT is an UNDERCLOCKED 7900GTX.

Thats one way to think of it. I prefer to think of it the other way. There isn't a difference between the 7900GT and the GTX. One is simply clocked higher. Nvidia hasn't made any serious changes to their hardware since the 7800 came out. A die shrink here, faster clocks there, nothing really new.

 

[shabodah]

Oh fine, you ruined my fun! I know all the 7800/7900 cores are basically the same, and the 7900GT/7900GS/7900GTX/7950GT are all THE SAME core. I just figured since you can't really purchase a 7900GT with 512MB, that the 7950GT is closer to the 7900GTX than the 7900GT. lol.

What I really get a kick out of is 7600GS's with DDR3. The 7600GS and 7600GT are ALSO THE SAME CORE AS each other, so the only real difference is core clock speeds and memory clock speeds, lol!

 

[niz]

easy choice about vista.
Lets say dx 10 cards come out dec 1st. and vista jan 1st. Seeing that EA, Ubisoft, etc. all teh big guys want to release new games.
1. Unless the DX kit was avaliable to them, 6 months ago, we wont see any new HOT games till june- aug next year.
2. DX 10 is vista only, meaning that it will be 2-3 years before 50-60% penetration is there.

As a software company, why would you make a game for 5-10% of the userbase? it reminds me when win95 was released, there was a 4-6 month space before any true win32 games came out. AND it took uptold generations to get it right. Same theory goes with multi core cpu's, just now, we are getting patches to games to allow for multi cpu / core support. and multi cpu has been out, for YEARS mainstream.

to the user, Get the card you feel comfortable with. if someone says that a new os+video dx10 is out in 8-12 months, that is cool, but it wont let you play your game today,, and today is the most importnat day in your life.. HERE and NOW..

PS. 1st Gen cards are definetly not a good idea to wait on.
Your 7950 card will run the same games at decent frame rates. i wouldnt worry. By this time next year, there will be a whole different class of , CPU+RAM+Video CARDS. we are in a never ending climb for performance.
Just buy for what you need now. I bought a 7950gx2 card 2 weeks ago, and i tell you, i am a happy camper on the performance. Vista and dx10 are close, YET BF 2142, crysus, ut2007 are being built on dx9 not 10. It takes a good year or 2 to make a good game. Once again no software vendor is gonna make anything that only a small % of people can effectively run,.

wow, every point you made is totally wrong. It takes reall skill to be that wrong.

>> Unless the DX kit was avaliable to them, 6 months ago,

Yes. Its been available to developers under the MSDN longer than that. How do you think EA write and test the games before DX10 comes out to the public otherwise?

>> As a software company, why would you make a game for 5-10% of the userbase?

Because thats where the whole market is going, and you want your product to still be good when DX10 comes out. Also its the same top 10 or 20% with all the disposable income that buy top-end hardware that buy the $50 games. Anyway, DX10 games will also run under DX9, just like DX9 games worked on DX8 etc. just not with maximum eye-candy.

>> to the user, Get the card you feel comfortable with. if someone says that a new os+video dx10 is out in 8-12 months, that is cool, but it wont let you play your game today,

nVidias DX10 card is expected in 6 weeks. Vista is out with full DX10 already if you wanna download the RC1 candidate. If you pay $550 for a top-end card now, in 6 weeks time it will be on sale for about $200, be previous generation tech. and suck performance-wise to what will then be available for the same price.

> PS. 1st Gen cards are definetly not a good idea to wait on.

Baloney. nVidia always release the big GTX (top-end) version first, then spend the next year making cut-down GS/GT etc. versions.

Only just before the end of the line do they then release a single card using sli GTs or whatever that can out-perform a single GTX,but still won't beat 2 SLi'd GTX's.

 

[4745454b]

It takes reall skill to be that wrong.

Because thats where the whole market is going.

But the market isn't there yet. I'm not going to spend literally millions of dollars on a game, and relase it in a form that only 5% of the population can play. I will never recoup my money. There might be a higher end version included on the disk, but there will be a DX9 version for a long time to come.

nVidias DX10 card is expected in 6 weeks. Vista is out already if you wanna download the RC1 candidate.

You'll miss out on the possibly/probably more powerful R600. You'll also have to reinstall your OS in the middle of next year. R600 is rumored now to not be out until next year, so I'd say 4months at least.

Baloney. nVidia always release the GTX (top-end) version first,

There is a difference between high end and first gen. The 7900GTX is a highend card, but its nothing more then a die shrink of the 7800. G80, depending on what rumor you believe is going to be a G70 chip with a DX10 chip slapped onto it. Requiring a brand new MS OS to use the DX10 features, I wouldn't blame anyone for waiting a bit. (even more so once you look at the rumored power figures...)