Vid Cards - Lazy. - Other

Hey peeps.

I have not been as religious about following the latest in Vid upgrades recently (ever since NVidia pretty much mauled Radeon/ATI).

I am working off of the 7950 GT (an EVGA 512M step up from the standard 7000's), 2G of memory and an E6600 Duo chip.

The system plays most games, like HL2, Portal, TF2 (Orange box) and some others relatively well. Have there been any real advanced that warrant dropping an extra $250 on a new card? Most of the games seem to be concentrating mostly on the $/mo crap (WoW et all) and I have not heard of anything else coming out that would both NEED that much power and warrant it.

Crysis sounds great, but not really worth running out and gettnig a new card for.

I know, this is "other", but because of the lead paint I have been having for Breakfast, I don't feel like reading through all the other fluff in the other forums to find out what is going on....

Also, as a side note. Have I been missing much on the main boards? I stopped regular surfing there and on the main page about a year ago when I came onto Other. It seemed to lack the techie "grit" that makes a true advice/techno-addict site. Has the main page become more generic/mainstream/commercial?

My original question still stands about the tech advice, but I just felt like opening up a general conversation on the original site that probably brought most of us here and what we might be thinking about it now.

Feel free to f%$k your local livestock while replying, but I am just curious what all of you think/feel....

------------------------------ Mmmmmmmm...Beer.......

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hmm, you bought a 7 series nvidia, there clearly is no hope for you.

still why not just look at cleeve's excellent best for the money article's.

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/Grap [...] 30260.html

okay so it is the uk version but there is the us one. might also want to wait to see what the march one says but it should give you the general idea.

------------------------------ I'm a git, deal with it.

Antec 1200,PC Power & Cooling 750,Gigabyte DS4-x48,Intel Q9550@3.4 W/Xigmatek S1283,8GB OCZ DDR2 800,ATI 4870X2,X-FI>CA 640C amp>Tannoy R300/Senn 595's
Reply to strangestranger

Tanx.

The 7950 was a while ago (almost a year and a half I believe, I would have to check) and it runs most proggies just fine right now. Just wondering if there is anything worth upgrading to now, or just wait and see (additional features, etc) and do the Household Hardware Shuffle...

------------------------------ Mmmmmmmm...Beer.......
Reply to Ninjahedge

well, i am in the same boat, the witcher is starting to kick the crap out of my system and i am even worried it could be one of these mythical cpu bottlenecks people blindly claim exist however, without decent crossfire support it is hard to tell.

the 38xx series of cards would be a good upgrade as could the 8800 gt or perhaps the new 9 series cards. ok they ain't new and are they same thing as the 78 to the 79 series as far as i can see but still. cards nowadays are alot cheaper for what you get compared to when you bought the 7950.

------------------------------ I'm a git, deal with it.

Antec 1200,PC Power & Cooling 750,Gigabyte DS4-x48,Intel Q9550@3.4 W/Xigmatek S1283,8GB OCZ DDR2 800,ATI 4870X2,X-FI>CA 640C amp>Tannoy R300/Senn 595's
Reply to strangestranger

yeah, I was looking at that.

The GTX's are starting to come down to the $250-$300 range. About what I paid for the 7950 when I got it.

Witcher looks interesting, but maybe a little too involved for me (potion mixing and the like) but I really liked Oblivion.

Any recommendations on the gaming scene SS? TF2 has been a blast (literally) with the right teammates but it is a strait-forward shooter. Also Warhamemr 40K (and expansions) is a lot of fun too, but that is strictly RTS. I am looking for something with a bit more story.

The wife wil give me mojor grief about it, but whatever. Maybe I should just learn how to play guitar instead...

------------------------------ Mmmmmmmm...Beer.......
Reply to Ninjahedge

sorry ain't been playing much game recently apart form the witcher and before that online games such as tf2 and red orc and the like.

i just don't have the time to play games like i used to.

the witcher does have a good story however, unlike oblivon there is no good and evil just evil and lesser shades of it. you get choices but usually neither of them is good and you could probably play the game through a few times just to see how your choices play out later in the game which i am sure they will although i have really just started. you know your being screwed over in the game and used but you can't always affect, sometimes you just have to go with it.

one thing about oblivion was it was too cut and dry about which route to take story wise. I mean how many times in oblivon did you have to hover your mouse over the dialogue options wondering what to do?

------------------------------ I'm a git, deal with it.

Antec 1200,PC Power & Cooling 750,Gigabyte DS4-x48,Intel Q9550@3.4 W/Xigmatek S1283,8GB OCZ DDR2 800,ATI 4870X2,X-FI>CA 640C amp>Tannoy R300/Senn 595's
Reply to strangestranger

@Ninja

Where can you find a 8800GTX for less than $300?

Message quoted 1 times

------------------------------ "Nvidia, the Way It's Meant to be ~~PAID~~ Played! - Corrado
*Lesbian Lover Club* - founder Assman
Reply to Evilonigiri

@Ninja: I agree with SS on either the 3870 or 8800gt - it's been a darn long time since the mid range/high end has been so competitive in terms of price and performance. Both these cards are very affordable - heck my last build 2 years ago my gcard (X1900XTX) was almost more than 1/3rd of my total cost, whereas these new cards are priced the equivalent of a Q6600.

As for plausibility to actually buying one I can't really comment conclusively. I still think DX10 has a long way to go for games - the titles that really bare the truest DX10 code path give the top range cards some problems (performance wise), which makes me root for DX9 till the new architectures come out later this year. If you going for DX10, you should buy a DX10 card of the top two tiers and the games should be played at maximum in game levels where AA,AF and resolution determines the success or demise of the card.

As for mobo, I prefer Asus. Currently with DDR3 prices so steep and DDR2 prices so low I'd recommend a X38 with DDR2 support. X38 chipset for some future proofing.

Thats my 2 cents..

Reply to Vokofpolisiekar

I'd go for the 3870. [/ATi fanboy] Good cards for the money.

Don't know what the 8800GT is like, the GTS I used to have was quite vicious, although the baby furnace bit I didn't like. It limited my OC on my P4 3GHz to about 4.5, after replacing it with a MUCH cooler 2600XT I could get to 5 without thermal shutdowns.

Errr... [G] DIE NEWBIE DIE! [/G] [/tradition]

------------------------------ http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html - I WISH PEOPLE WOULD APPLY THIS!
Reply to mugz

Try playing STALKER if you want a shooter with a story line..... S is so deep that I haven't been able to figure the game out to get to the real ending.... I've played through it twice now & can't finish..... It's the deals you make / don't make that make the story.... Piss them off once & they're pissed the rest of the game.... I still can't tell if I love the game or hate it..... [shrug]

As for vid cards, I've ran Nvidia since they started.... Actually I had a Diamond Viper once that Nvidia bought up to get going....

Right now I'm running the 8600 GT OC card.... Right after I bought it they came with the 8800 GT & whipped the 8600 big time.... I'd got for the 8800 GT or if price is important go with the 9600.... Either card is a lot of bang for the buck.....

For me there's only one card manufacturer that I use & that's BFG..... BFG has the best service / support in the industry.... They're not the cheapest, you don't get a lot of frills with them, but what you get is a rock solid card, 24 hours support with English speakers & a lifetime warranty (not life time of the GPU, your lifetime) on the card.....

My $.02

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

Dazzle them with Brilliance, or Baffle them with Bull S-it!!!!!
Reply to RCPilot

I've got an 8800GT, and it was a big improvement over the 8600. Now I see the 9600's, and while I'm not jealous of their performance, I'm jealous of the prices...

I've been playing Supreme Commander (actually the expansion Forged Alliance). It's a great RTS, a lot tougher that most other RTS's I've played. And it has real multi-core support, but no SLI support. It's also a beast as far as hardware goes.

I'm running 5000+ Black Edition @ 3000 Mhz and an 8800GT, and in the benchmark on medium settings my FPS drops as low as 4.5. I've heard of it dragging a quad core down, but I don't know how many were playing or how big the map was.

------------------------------ No more promise no more sorrow,
No longer will I follow.
Can anybody hear me?
I just want to be me.
Reply to JustPlainJef

Pity me running my puny 6800 vanilla. Man, I need to upgrade.

Message quoted 1 times

------------------------------ +46.53 Pedantry/+75 Wingding Approval/+27 Vindictive bastard/+7 innovative violence/+11 Scouse trophies/Bastages WD:9 RC:4 AV:1 [specials; cluster:2,leather elbow patched:1,pre-approved:3,first class (upgrade):1,multi-thread:1,double-barrel:1]
Reply to llama_man

I have an 8800GTX on order. Retail is around £280.00, It'll be costing me a couple of pints. I'm also considering going mental with a new MB and processor. I have little choice, our kid has just upgraded and mine needs to be faster, even if I'm never going to use it.

Edit:

Just made a call and checked progress of order. It'll be here on Saturday along with a LG GGW-H20. A tenner for a Blu-Ray writer, can't really argue with that.

Message quoted 1 times
Message edited by Tom_Smart on 02-27-2008 at 02:25:55 PM

Reply to Tom_Smart

@ Tom
Child. Any decent person would steal a supercomputer. Maybe a space laser cannon too.

Reply to Dirty_Barry

I paid $209 for a MSI 8800GT on Newegg, running a 5200+ with 4GB ram. Build a whole new computer, case and all, for $754.63.

The price of the GTX along with the added benefits.. aren't really worth it in my opinion at this point.

------------------------------ "Alcoholism is a disease, but it's the only one you can get yelled at for having. Goddammit Otto, you are an alcoholic. Goddammit Otto, you have Lupus... one of those two doesn't sound right." M. H.
Reply to Riser

I'm thinking of building my own case when I upgrade later in the year. Maybe out of pesrpex, possibly aluminim(?)

But then again I'm thinking of maybe a completely timber structure.
Don't know. It would be good to do some more metal work, haven't done any in a long time. But then perspex would possibly make it look g*y. But hey, whatever floats your boat.

Reply to Dirty_Barry

Good afternoon Chunt Funter.

I'll bet you done a lot of woodwork at school. That, and clearing rubbish from the playground. You retarded twat.

Hope this helps.

Tom.

Reply to Tom_Smart

Good afternoon Tom

I never done woodwork at school, I done electronics thank you very much.

By the way how's you collection of p3nis art coming along?

Chunty

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to Dirty_Barry

Good afternoon Chunt Funter.

Changing the batteries in your boyfriend's vibrator is not electronics work.

Hope this helps.

Tom.

Reply to Tom_Smart

Good afternoot Tom

May I remind you that I am growing an army of scouse hating Londoners.
When they are completed I will bring them to your house and make them kick you in the bum.

Hope this helps.

Reply to Dirty_Barry

Good afternoon Chunt Funter.

Cockney fairies do not scare me.

Hope this helps.

Tom.

Reply to Tom_Smart

Good afternoon Tom.

I bet an army will.

Ps - You need a helper to wipe your bottom

Hope this helps.

Chunty.

Reply to Dirty_Barry

Uh, you wouldn't want to build a case out of any type of wood.

Wood insulates.. the reason cases are made of aluminum is because they dissipate heat quicky. Timber would bake your computer in short time.

------------------------------ "Alcoholism is a disease, but it's the only one you can get yelled at for having. Goddammit Otto, you are an alcoholic. Goddammit Otto, you have Lupus... one of those two doesn't sound right." M. H.
Reply to Riser

Hasn't Phucky built one from wood? Or did he just post the pic of the one in a cigar box?

A quick google search reveals you can even put a functional server in one.

Reply to Tom_Smart

You could build a wood case, but you'd need to make sure it was well ventilated - a few 120mm (or bigger) fans should do nicely. And don't put a P4 in it, obviously.

------------------------------ +46.53 Pedantry/+75 Wingding Approval/+27 Vindictive bastard/+7 innovative violence/+11 Scouse trophies/Bastages WD:9 RC:4 AV:1 [specials; cluster:2,leather elbow patched:1,pre-approved:3,first class (upgrade):1,multi-thread:1,double-barrel:1]
Reply to llama_man

Dirty_Barry wrote :

Good afternoon Tom

I never done woodwork at school, I done electronics thank you very much.

By the way how's you collection of p3nis art coming along?

Chunty

Good afternoon Chunt Funter

You clearly skipped English lessons as well. This was unwise, and I suggest you attend an adult learning centre ASAP.

Hope this helps

Llama_man

------------------------------ +46.53 Pedantry/+75 Wingding Approval/+27 Vindictive bastard/+7 innovative violence/+11 Scouse trophies/Bastages WD:9 RC:4 AV:1 [specials; cluster:2,leather elbow patched:1,pre-approved:3,first class (upgrade):1,multi-thread:1,double-barrel:1]
Reply to llama_man

llama_man wrote :

Pity me running my puny 6800 vanilla. Man, I need to upgrade.

ouch, i could go with a whole new build soon as i have decided that the witcher is gpu limited rather than cpu due to terrible crossfire support and also that my cpu ain't exactly pumping the frames out, as well as my ram being fcuked and my hard drive needing formatted and so on, so on.

still not too keen on today's gfx cards, if i was and i was a nicer person i would donate one of my current beasts to you.

------------------------------ I'm a git, deal with it.

Antec 1200,PC Power & Cooling 750,Gigabyte DS4-x48,Intel Q9550@3.4 W/Xigmatek S1283,8GB OCZ DDR2 800,ATI 4870X2,X-FI>CA 640C amp>Tannoy R300/Senn 595's
Reply to strangestranger

** Enters the top trumps crap graphics card game **

Anybody for a 64Mb Radeon 9200 on good old AGP?

Seriously that was the worst item of computing hardware I have ever purchased and which haunts me to this day. Forget Linux stopping me playing games my graphics card struggles to render Tux Racer. At present I have exactly £1.24 to throw at the upgrade.

It was meant to be a stop gap when I built the rig 4 and a bit years ago but just fell off the radar. I guess that's what I get for 3 years of drinking like a fish and earning fcuk all money.

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to audiovoodoo

yeah i made a small case mod to a cigar box which included a microitx mobo in it and it is ventialted well, and runs stable. ill have to see if i have the pics somewhere i can get to them to post them.

------------------------------ "For years my dad struggled with alcoholism, I have perfected it."
"Lonely once the drugs are gone, I feel like..."
Roll Tide!

Reply to mrface

well chimp i gues if i was the generous sort, i would know where my second gfx card would be going. to the poor animals that inhabit the other.

------------------------------ I'm a git, deal with it.

Antec 1200,PC Power & Cooling 750,Gigabyte DS4-x48,Intel Q9550@3.4 W/Xigmatek S1283,8GB OCZ DDR2 800,ATI 4870X2,X-FI>CA 640C amp>Tannoy R300/Senn 595's
Reply to strangestranger

------------------------------ "For years my dad struggled with alcoholism, I have perfected it."
"Lonely once the drugs are gone, I feel like..."
Roll Tide!

Reply to mrface

I have a cunning plan for a new post.. .. ..

Reply to Dirty_Barry

** Hurls poop of approval at Phuk **

Nice.. Very nice.

Did you post these on here quite a while back? I think you might have posted them about the same time I discovered this hell hole.

Reply to audiovoodoo

I actually believe he did do it a while ago. Hell, even I can remember them. I can't remember fcuk all none of the time!

Reply to Dirty_Barry

tool_462 made an incredibly nice case out of wood as well.

Message edited by Anoobis on 02-28-2008 at 12:40:04 AM

Reply to Anoobis

Aaaahhhh.... That might be the one. I think phuk posted those up as part of that thread or maybe the other way round. [/I really should get my head round the search thingy on THGC.]

Reply to audiovoodoo

The search thing is **** on THGC. It used to be good the old way, but since the takeover, it's just awful.

YOU HEAR THAT OWNERS OF THGC. GET YOUR FECKING ARSE OUT AND SORT IT!

Reply to Dirty_Barry

They even block **** words...****.
The old way was so much better.

Reply to Dirty_Barry

ye, the old forum were better, for one i didn't have to put my monitor in portrait mode just to view them in something approaching half decent.

------------------------------ I'm a git, deal with it.

Antec 1200,PC Power & Cooling 750,Gigabyte DS4-x48,Intel Q9550@3.4 W/Xigmatek S1283,8GB OCZ DDR2 800,ATI 4870X2,X-FI>CA 640C amp>Tannoy R300/Senn 595's
Reply to strangestranger

It's almost like they want the old ones out of the forum and just have people in who they want.

I even think this web address won't show up:
www.xplanett.com.

Reply to Dirty_Barry

well id ont really remember when i posted them, it was back at least in end of 04 maybe beginning of 05

------------------------------ "For years my dad struggled with alcoholism, I have perfected it."
"Lonely once the drugs are gone, I feel like..."
Roll Tide!

Reply to mrface

I have an old Trident SVGA w/1MB RAM ISA Video Card you can upgrade to.

My second PC is still running a GeForce 3. Alas, I sold my old Voodoo Banshee card.

------------------------------ +46.53 Pedantry/+75 Wingding Approval/+27 Vindictive bastard/+7 innovative violence/+11 Scouse trophies/Bastages WD:9 RC:4 AV:1 [specials; cluster:2,leather elbow patched:1,pre-approved:3,first class (upgrade):1,multi-thread:1,double-barrel:1]
Reply to llama_man

Hey Phucky, those pics are all photochopped and the link I posted was an obvious fake. That or Riser is a micro-brained fool and has been proved wrong yet again.

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to Tom_Smart

Voodoo ruled! Banshee rocked big time!

It's a shame they went under.

Reply to Dirty_Barry

Diamond Viper was a great card as well.....

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

Dazzle them with Brilliance, or Baffle them with Bull S-it!!!!!
Reply to RCPilot

*remembers old skool dayz*

The grandfather's of 3D cards. My god were they expensive and terrible.
I can still remember the voodoo 1 with 2mb of memory!!!

Reply to Dirty_Barry

I think you will find that Voodoo still rules. [/Arrogant tw@t]

Reply to audiovoodoo

Right...
Let us know how that turns out AV.
Though you forget one vital thing: they have been out of business for years.

Reply to Dirty_Barry

And AV is out of work!

Spooky...

I also had a Viper. V330 or something I think - my first graphics card (aaah).

------------------------------ +46.53 Pedantry/+75 Wingding Approval/+27 Vindictive bastard/+7 innovative violence/+11 Scouse trophies/Bastages WD:9 RC:4 AV:1 [specials; cluster:2,leather elbow patched:1,pre-approved:3,first class (upgrade):1,multi-thread:1,double-barrel:1]
Reply to llama_man

Vid Cards - Lazy.

Forum Old Man/Woman's Club : Other - Vid Cards - Lazy.

Please mind

Focus On

Vid Cards - Lazy.

Forum Old Man/Woman's Club : Other - Vid Cards - Lazy.

Please mind