8800GTS good enough to last 3 years for me?

[Kardiophylax]

Here's my question/situation. My wife has offered to let me spend a fair amount of cash to upgrade my system (basically rebuild it), but it has to last me 3 years or so. I will be gaming with the system primarily. I will most likely have an E6400 for a processor.

The good news is I have a 17" CRT and don't anticipate coming in to the cash to get a big LCD any time soon. So I usually run my games at 1024x768. My question is: will the 8800GTS be enough power to keep me running at max now and max to mid settings in a few years at my resolution? If it will, then would the 320mb version that is coming out be just as good for me, or should I get the 640mb version?

The 8800GTX is probably outside my price range where it is now, but I could always try to swing it if the GTS won't be enough power for me in 1 1/2 to 2 years. I'd rather spend what I need to now and be done with it.

I will probably be buying sometime in Feb. once my tax return comes in.

Oh BTW, I don't play many FPS games, but I do play games like Oblivion and Titan Quest. Thanks for your help all!

 

[tbiggums]

Wait until R600 comes out it might destroy the 8800 series. You never know. It will probably come out Feb-March, so wait till then,

 

[NewbieTechGodII]

Dude, you are in the same boat I was in only about a month ago.

My Socket-A (1.2GHz, Thunderbird), had pretty much been left in the dust, even applications like SQL Server 2007 and Visual Studio 2005 was leaving it behind, so I fabricated a few BSoD and convinced my wife to let me build a whole new rig.

This is what I got:
Antec 900 case; eVGA 680i MB; E6300 (OC'd to 3.15 GHz; stock HSF); 2GBs of Corsair CM2X1024-8500C5 (4-4-3-9-2T-500MHz); 8800GTS; X-Fi Platinum; Promise 4302 card; 3x WD2500YS HDDs in RAID 5; Plextor PX-755SA; Mitsumi 3.5" FDD/Memory Card reader; PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad; Vantec USB 2.0/eSATA 3.5" HDD enclosure w/1x WD2500YS HDD in it.

The PS came from PC Power & Cooling directly (it comes stock in a copper finish, but I wanted black; they messed-up and sent it in copper, but it actually looks better).

The Promise 4302 came from Zip Zoom Fly (and they ticked me off because it's an item they don't even stock until someone actually orders it, and then the supplier ships it to them first before you get it!).

The rest came from Newegg.

All-in-all, I spent about $2200 and got $110 back in rebates.

The MB will support Quad-Core, a FSB of 1333, and it OCs like crazy, so no problems there. We all know how good an E6300 OCs. The 8800GTS is a really good card to get at this point because it really isn't that expensive. The PS will power dual GTX's, so you know it has some muscle. The HDDs are fast, quiet, cool, and have 16MB caches, plus NCQ and that other thing. The PX-755SA rocks, as does the X-fi. And who doesn't like a FDD with a memory card reader?

But,

Check out my other posts concerning the Antec 900 case. Now that it's done, I really like it, but getting it done in the 1st place was a bitch.

I planned this system to last at least 5 years. I do a lot of SQL Server, and VS crap, plus play a lot of FSX. Odd- since finishing this build, I haven't played it once yet!

The monitor (a 19" Gateway VX900 (from like 1998!), a simple Logitech KB and mouse, and Klipsch 2.1 speakers, are what I kept from the original system.

Oh, and it's all backed-up with an APC Back-UPS XS 1200.

Good luck.

 

[outlw6669]

Ummm.....
GTS at 1024X768........

Yeah, it should last you for at least 3 years.

But what a waste of good hardware.
Makes me want to cry


BTW
It might be worth the wait to see what the R600 looks like.
At the verry least nvidia will drop their prices a little.

 

[djplanet]

But in three years it will merely be adequate, even if it pwns now.

 

[enewmen]

I was in the same boat.
I just got a new X1950 XT for ~200
My thinking was this time next year is when you should look seriously.
No DX10 games are out yet, Vista Home/Ultimate is not out, DX 10 isn't out, etc.
VISTA ULTIMATE IS $400+
The only game that seriously takes advantage of DX10, 64 bit, multi-core, etc is Crysis. That will not be out until late this year.
Does Flight Sim X take advantage of 64 bit and multi-core?? I heard it has at least DX10 - sometime.

Anyway!
To answer your question, a good next-gen card should last a very long time. The ATI-7900 Pro (for example) would have lasted years if you got it when it came out.

 

[mpjesse]

Here's my question/situation. My wife has offered to let me spend a fair amount of cash to upgrade my system (basically rebuild it), but it has to last me 3 years or so. I will be gaming with the system primarily. I will most likely have an E6400 for a processor.

The good news is I have a 17" CRT and don't anticipate coming in to the cash to get a big LCD any time soon. So I usually run my games at 1024x768. My question is: will the 8800GTS be enough power to keep me running at max now and max to mid settings in a few years at my resolution? If it will, then would the 320mb version that is coming out be just as good for me, or should I get the 640mb version?

The 8800GTX is probably outside my price range where it is now, but I could always try to swing it if the GTS won't be enough power for me in 1 1/2 to 2 years. I'd rather spend what I need to now and be done with it.

I will probably be buying sometime in Feb. once my tax return comes in.

Oh BTW, I don't play many FPS games, but I do play games like Oblivion and Titan Quest. Thanks for your help all!

[/drunk] fcuk all these wankers. quit being a pussy and get a GTS. and grow a pair of balls, will ya?

My wife has offered to let me spend a fair amount of cash to upgrade my system

buahahahah