7950GT to a 8800GTX Superclocked, Will it work!?

[mf2385]

I have an Nvidia Geforce 7950GT 512mb pci express 16x graphics card in my tower now, and am thinking of upgrading to a EVGA GeForce 8800 GTX Superclocked / 768MB GDDR3, can my motherboard handle it?

NAGAMI2L
ASUStek Company
Phoenix Industries

thats my motherboard information, I can take out the 7950GT and put in that card right? I have a 600 Watt power supply in it now too upgraded. It will work and do great things right?

 

[mf2385]

And also I have 1.50 gigs of pc3200 ddr ram in my pc now should i buy another gig of it pump it up alittle? my pc should be good for awhile with that stuff until i need to get an new quad core processor.

 

[mf2385]

I have an AMD64 3500+ 2.2ghz in it now.

 

[itheral]

Sure, It'll work just fine, but I doubt you'll see much of a difference with that proc

 

[jedimasterben]

If it has a PCI-Express slot, then yes, it can.

However, your CPU will be a bottleneck to the card.

I would recommend a CPU upgrade first. That would be your best bet.

Benchmarks have shown that newer graphics cards are bottlenecked by single-core processors. I had the same setup you do (pretty much, AMD 3700+, Asus A8N32-SLI, 7950GT), and when I upgraded to a dual-core processor, performance increased dramatically.

So a new CPU should be in order long before the 8800.

 

[mf2385]

So what is the easiest way to get a real good new processor that I won't need to upgrade for awhile what do u guys think with that motherboard? Or should I just get a new mobo and processor im interested in the quad cores from intel q6600 and higher, im not the best pc kinda guy in the world so whats the easiest thing to do and best economically and physically

 

[mf2385]

maybe even a really good AMD processor out there idc whatever works real well and is pretty easy to change

 

[ethel]

Get an Opteron 170 for your socket 939 board. This is a dual core and you should be able to overclock it to at least 2.7GHZ, perhaps 3GHZ if you are lucky. For a small outlay this processor will last for a good while.

 

[mf2385]

Basically I have 1000$ budget I guess to buy a new processor and mobo if needed and some ram, atleast the new processor which I need dramatically from my amd 64 3500+ i have in my PC now. What do u guys recommend, again for best and easiest install, because im not real good with pcs like that.

 

[bash007]

You can have these for around $1000.

Mobo:
Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128048
Some reported having problems with it, but I personally have not when I built a PC for my friend a while back.
You could cut $50 off the motherboard by getting a P35-DS3L but it has less features and no DDR3 slots.

CPU:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4Ghz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115017

RAM:
Crucial Ballistix 2GB PC2-6400 DDR2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146565


GPU:
EVGA 8800GTX 768MB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130072

What kind of power supply do you have by the way?

This is assuming you want to use the $1000 budget you have, instead of just upgrading your cpu and gpu.
The 939 socket is pretty much dead, so you'll have to get a new motherboard and processor anyway after a while, so you're better off with the above in my opinion.
You could go the AMD route, but it would be around $900 (assuming you get a decent am2 motherboard and an a64 x2 6000+), but seeing as you can get a better dual-core (the e6750) with much better overclockability for almost the same price (maybe an extra $20-$30), it would be wiser to go the intel route.
If you prefer to just not upgrade all this at once, just get a better cpu for your 939 mobo, but know that soon enough you will probably have to upgrade again, so doing it now might save you some money in the long run.

 

[spotless]

btw its written in System Builder Marathon : if u play in higher resoultion 1600 or more, u should prioritized in GPU rather than CPU.

hope it helps.

 

[bash007]

That is very true.
But the tests they did with the 8800GTX a while after it was released, show that the better the processor was, the more performance you got out of it. The 8800GTX yielded more fps (a considerable amount of them) the better and the faster the CPU got.
If he sticks to his current CPU and gets an 8800GTX, it will be bottlenecked by the CPU and he won't get the most out of it.

 

[spotless]

so TS : what the resolution u mainly using?
7950 gt is a uber card, try to higher the resolution u might be just fine.

 

[lunyone]

Easiest: Put in the s939 Opty and OC later. Upgrade to 2 gig's of RAM, if wanted. Install 8800gtx and make sure 600w PSU is of decent quality with at least 28A on 12v rail (am I right on the 28amps?). Approximate cost to upgrade ~$700 or so (GPU/CPU/PSU). Should be good for a couple of years more. Socket 939 is dead, but definately not too bad.

Better: e6750 or x2 5600 (or 6000). New mobo/RAM/PSU/CPU/GPU, approximate cost to upgrade this way ~$950 give or take. This all depends on which way you go. AMD would be a bit cheaper, but if you OC a little the Intel would be better off in the long run.

Your choice,
Easiest: ~$700
Better/Best: $950 or so.

 

[spuddyt]

its probably more sensible to say "the 7950 WAS an uber card"
but I reccomend the OP to get a new processor (not very expensive to go dual core nowadays) and get an 8800 gts and it will probably cost similar amounts and yield and damn sight more FPS

 

[lunyone]

AMD option:
x2 6000/ASUS M2A 690G mobo COMBO - $215
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductCombos.aspx?Item=N82E16819103773&SubCategory=343&SortField=0&PageSize=10&Page=2

PSU - $100 shipped - $45 MIR = $55 shipped!! Can't beat this deal (I don't think you can)
Antec NeoPower NeoHE 550 ATX12V 550W Power Supply 100 - 240 V UL, CUL, TUV, CE, FCC, CCC, CB, C-tick - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16817103941

GPU - $537 shipped - $20 MIR - $517 PLUS with eVga 90 day Step Up program!
EVGA 768-P2-N831-AR GeForce 8800GTX 768MB 384-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16814130072

Memory - $110 - $47 MIR = $63 !!! Tough to beat these
Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16820146565

Transfer Case/HDD/DVD over to new rig and the grand total is: $964 shipped - $112 in MIR's = $852!! Not too bad!

Intel option uses same memory/GPU/PSU, but uses these for CPU/mobo

CPU - $195 shipped!
e6750
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16819115029

Mobo - $137 shipped! OR use DS3L for - $30 savings = $107
GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3R LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813128050

Total on Intel build - $1,075 - $112 in MIR's = $963!!

I would only use 1 of these 2 options, if your wanting to get a newer build. If it was up to me, I would get the Opty for $150 and OC it close to 3.0 gig and get yourself a 8800gts 640mb. This would be easy to do and get the most bang for the buck (I believe) for about $500.

My 2cp's

 

[johnnyq1233]

I have the same card 7950 gt/oc with 512 ddr3 and with my E6400 I runn all games on the highest settings...I keep looking for more settings but they are maxed out!
Your 3500+ is already a bottleneck so move up the processor chain first!

 

[meljor]

maxxed out? try stalker, oblivion, rainbow six las vegas, lost planet or call of juarez maxxed out and with max AA+AF.........

7950 is a very descent card just as my x1900xt 512mb is but with above titles you will need a faster card to play on max. settings.

i just hope that the upcoming titles (prostreet, juiced2, crysis, alan wake, call of duty 4) have a descent engine like bioshock wich DOES run perfectly on the highest settings.

 

[Heyyou27]

maxxed out? try stalker, oblivion, rainbow six las vegas, lost planet or call of juarez maxxed out and with max AA+AF.........

7950 is a very descent card just as my x1900xt 512mb is but with above titles you will need a faster card to play on max. settings.

i just hope that the upcoming titles (prostreet, juiced2, crysis, alan wake, call of duty 4) have a descent engine like bioshock wich DOES run perfectly on the highest settings.

He can't use antialiasing with any of those games because the Geforce 7 series doesn't support it! :lol:

 

[spotless]

sorry, but does every GF 7 series dont support anti aliasing?, the 7900gt? too?

 

[bash007]

To my knowledge, it does support AA just not when HDR is on. You can get either this or that, but not both. That applies to all the GF7 series as far as I know.

 

[spotless]

i see, hmm just intermezzo here in Jakarta, Indonesia 7900 GT/S is about 130$ and x1950 xtx still 380$, no 7950 in sight tho.

 

[Heyyou27]

sorry, but does every GF 7 series dont support anti aliasing?, the 7900gt? too?

ALL Geforce 7 series cards are unable to use OpenEXR FP16(or 32) HDR with antialiasing. The reason Half-Life 2 can use HDR with antialiasing comes from Valve's use of a integer based HDR system, and it's the only one of it's kind. Some titles using FP16 HDR include Far Cry, Oblivion, Serious Sam II, Age of Empires III, World in Conflict, Cell Factor, Crysis, and all Unreal3 based games. While I'm sure that there are many that I missed, this should be enough to give you an idea. Nvidia dropped the ball with the Geforce 7 series and not being able to use antialiasing with HDR the way the Radeon X1x00 series could. Technically Geforce 7 series cards could use super sampling antialiasing with HDR, but it would hurt performance drastically.