7900GTO Overkill?

[freak1982]

Currently Running 3.4Ghz P4, 2Gb Ram 6800GS

Really want to play Oblivion at 1280x1024 (My 19" LCD Native Res)

GS cant cope with it.

Looking at the MSI 7900GTO, reading on the web, this can run Oblivion SWEET.

Question - would this be overkill? Its gonna be about £230 on the net, the 7900GS is at about £140, would this do?

I money isnt a major issue (the pleasure of living with parents) but anything I can save would be cool. Wont be upgrading for another 2-3 Years. Boo!

Also does anyone know how long the 7900GTo is, I have a miditower cheap case but not sure if it will fit.

Thanks in advance.

freak1982

 

[jamiepotter]

I don't think it would be overkill. If anything, you're going to be struggling. The GTO will only just about run Oblivion outdoors as it is: basically, just check out the 7900GTX (equivalent to GTO once you overclock the memory) on 1280x1024 and you'll see it only gets 15fps. You'd probably have to overclock the 7900gto, lower the quality settings, and disable AF if you want to actually run it at that resolution. You might also need to think about whether your CPU is then going to be a bottleneck.

You should be able to get the GTO cheaper than that too. They've gone up in price recently, but I'd imagine they'll come down to around £170 again at some point: they have been at that price on Overclockers and Ebuyer, for instance.

Anyway, sizewize it's fairly long: almost to the edge of an ATX motherboard. I can't see any reason, however, why it wouldn't fit unless you have HDD's or DVD-RW's encroaching on the motherboard around the PCI-E slot.

 

[AndyAldrich]

1) You can get the 7900GTO card for £189 at www.novatech.co.uk , that should save you about 30 quid if you decide to go for that card.

2) The 7900GTO and GTX cards aren't majorly bigger than the 6800.

3) I don't care for either nVidia or ATi so please don't consider this a fanboy comment, but I strongly advise you to consider getting a 512Mb Radeon x1950Pro. Overclockers.co.uk have both 512 and 256Mb versions although you just know that extra 256Mb is going to make a difference over the next 3 years.

4) Seeing as you consider this to be a GPU upgrade to last you around 3 years, don't bother considering dual-card possibilities as in 3 years the power of a single new card will greatly outweigh the power you'd gain by adding another 7900GTO or x1950Pro.

5) No card that is out right now is ever going to be overkill for outdoors scenes in Oblivion. Games are always going to require increasingly powerful graphics cards so I wouldn't suggest you consider overkill a factor, just consider your budget.

 

[sprite]

I saw the 256mb version of the X1900XT for £170 somewhere, you could consider that but it only has 256mb RAM obviously

 

[freak1982]

Thanks for all you help guys, I just found the GTO on novatech for about 180 inc VAT.

I dont consider myself a Fanboy but I do prefer Nvidia over ATI. I will invesigate ATI options tho. i have read good things about the 1950Pro (512)

I say I want to game at 1280x1024 but reading other reviews you're right, it seems a lower resolution with a bit better effects might be the way to go.

I say 3 years as I just got my new car (Seat Ibiza FR) but i hope to be able to save up for a core 2 duo, 680i board with a 8800GTS/X as soon as Vista has its inevitable SP1 release!

I will have to wait till after Xmas for the money then I will choose.

Thanks for you help, any more comments welcome!

Edit: Wanted Nvidia as MainBoard is SLI for future use

 

[redwing]

I upgraded from a 7600GT to a 7900GTO and the difference was pretty damn noticeable. The thing about Oblivion ... is that it's not normal. For a 2006 game the system requirements are too damny hefty. You shouldn't need two high end cards in SLI/CROSSFIRE mode just to enjoy the game at high details at a mainstream resolution (1280).


Oblivion aside, the 7900GTO will allow you to max out the details at 1280*1024 for any current titles out there, and likely most DX9 titles coming out this year. COH, Medieval2:TW, and some other visually impressive games run at max detail settings for me (1280) with maxed out AA/AF - silky smooth.

Since you say money is not that much of an issue in your case, why not opt out for the 8800 model? But regardless, the 7900GTO is definitely a worthy upgrade from a 6800, provided you find it at a reasonable price (I bought mine for 270$ CDN, equivalent to roughly 240 USD).

Cheers

 

[freak1982]

Thanx Redwing

I have played Oblivion on my 6800 with low settings. It is a pretty ridiculous game spec really. Rome TW is my current game and I will be playing Medievil 2 once Oblivion is complete.

although money isn't much of an issue it is a £400 issue

Plus I think with the 8800 my slow RAM and CPU will be a real bottleneck, not to mention the PSU not being able to deal with it!

 

[jamiepotter]

Oblivion is evil... I'm using a 7900gto on 1280x1024 and it's absolutely fine on any other game maxed out with AA and AF: F.E.A.R., COD2, COH, Windows 3D Pinball (erm...) It really is a great card for the money.

 

[freak1982]

Thing is, Oblivion looked cool on my Bros 3.2Ghz P4 on a ATi X800 (may be a 1300?)

It ran about 25fps outside, not sure of the setting he was running. This is the best I have seen it at in person, must look awesome on SLI 8800GTX.

I havn't played anything (BF2, COH) at higher than 1024x768 on my 6800. I have Call of Duty but not installed yet. Also have a demo of Medievil 2 that I have only seen screen shots of. Rome rocks so will prob get M2:TW once I have the 7900GTO.

Anyone have any ideas why Oblivion sucks graphically?? Engine? Level of Detail?

 

[redwing]

When you design/write any software, there's always a compromise between quality and time spent. I'm not saying Oblivion is not a quality game, but perhaps they opted to use easier, less optimized DX9 functions since overall there was so much to be done.

Basically if games were still written in assembler, Doom3 would probably run well on integrated graphics. But the downside is that it would take 30 years to code.

There are so many levels of abstraction now (ex : OpenGl, DX9), and with every one of these you take a performance hit in return for ease of programming. Most developpers simply can't afford the extra time to optimize for performance (beyond the bare minimum), when they're too busy just getting the game out the door. As such, gamers are forced to buy better hardware.

Considering that anything Microsoft is not exactly the pinnacle of efficiency, I don't see this cycle stopping/slowing down any time soon. It stimulates the hardware industry anyway, so I wouldn't call this a bad thing.

 

[thegreat1]

Redwing you hit the nail on the head.

I find it overly frustrating how we as customers are allowing the video card market to run rampant. please, explain how and why a 500$ video card is needed to run any game at all?? It is practically insane and a super money making market just draining us of our funds.

I still cant understand why the manfuactures aren't pushing integrated video cards as they should be far superior considering a direct bus link would be far simpler to incorporate then having a video card, or ofloading onto a further 3rd porcessor on the actuall cpu unit to direct video encoding...call me crazy.... oh well.

a couple more years until our new teams (Ati and amd), nvidia and intel, start selling us 500$ mother boards as the norm with awesome integrated video cards lol.

When you design/write any software, there's always a compromise between quality and time spent. I'm not saying Oblivion is not a quality game, but perhaps they opted to use easier, less optimized DX9 functions since overall there was so much to be done.

Basically if games were still written in assembler, Doom3 would probably run well on integrated graphics. But the downside is that it would take 30 years to code.

There are so many levels of abstraction now (ex : OpenGl, DX9), and with every one of these you take a performance hit in return for ease of programming. Most developpers simply can't afford the extra time to optimize for performance (beyond the bare minimum), when they're too busy just getting the game out the door. As such, gamers are forced to buy better hardware.

Considering that anything Microsoft is not exactly the pinnacle of efficiency, I don't see this cycle stopping/slowing down any time soon. It stimulates the hardware industry anyway, so I wouldn't call this a bad thing.