Direct10X Card????? HELP!!

Hello,

I have a 24inch monitor and a 42inch both connected to my PC. I would like to play games on the 42inch in Direct10X at high resolution.

I am about to purchase the following components to upgrade my system.

Mobo Intel BLKDP35DPM LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX
CPU Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775
RAM OCZ 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel

OS Vista

Video Card: (these are the two I am thinking about)
ASUS EAH2600XT D4/HTDI/256M Radeon HD 2600XT 256MB 128-bit GDDR4 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire
or
MSI NX8600GTS-T2D256E-OC GeForce 8600GTS 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI

I would like to buy a fair (about $150) card now to get by and purchase a good card (about $500-$800) in a few months as things develop in this market.

1. Should I run Vista in 32 or 64 Bit? Currently running in 32.

2. Wasn't planning on ability to go SLI or Crossfire. Should I?

3. No one has addressed what ATI's new driver release has made the info. in Tom's Direct10X Shootout outdated. I would like to see the few ATI cards retested to see the results and the OverClocked cards put in a seperate category. Any idea how this release has effected the lineup in my scenerio?

4. What card/cards should I consider at this time?

5. Should I consider not employing Direct10X at this point?

6. Have I made any mistakes in my system configurtion choices?

I apologize if my format is incorrect. I have never posted in a forum before.

Feel Free to Hammer me in your reply.

Thank You in Advance!

Michael

I would like to play games on the 42inch in Direct10X at high resolution. ....how high??
since u want to play on a high res on a 42inch your probably gonna need 8800GTXs in SLI... of coruse depening on Res and what Settings you want to run the game but if the Res is 1920 x 1200 or higher and you want to play the game on High/Max settings...i would highly suggest 8800GTX in SLI


2. if your getting 4gigs of ram you need to have a 64bit OS either XP64 or Vista 64.....32bit only would support 3.2gigs of Ram..

3. as for the motherboard if your going SLI you need to look at Nforce680i chipset and i suggest either EVGA or Abit Motherboards (i know for a fact Abits IN9 is 219.00 on newegg)

Vista came with both the 32 and 64 bit version so I can change to 64 if it is beneficial overall and wont cause huge problems with other software and driver compatibility.

My 42inch will support: 1024 x 768, 720p and 1080i I don't have much experience playing games on it to know what will look good and what won't. Let me know.

So what I am gathering so far is that I am going to have to go with SLI or Crossfire to get an acceptable picture quality and frame rates on that monitor? Even if I run it in 1024 x 768? I am not going to be able to get by with a one card system?

SLI at 1024x768??? I think not! Be it a 19" or a 42", it's still only 768,432 pixels. A single 8800GTX will be yawning with boredom, let alone two!

-Wolf sends

Wolfshadw si right, size matters not, pixels does.

Id reccomend playing on the 24inch personally... but for the 42inch, a 8600gts would be good enough for most things.

What does WolfShadw mean by this statement? A single 8800GTX will be yawning with boredom, let alone two!

running a card in SLI mode? doesn't this mean using two cards? I can't do what I want with one?

why does running in 32bit hurt your performance? I thought it supported more RAM and helped performance in games, multitasking and certain applications?

why don't you tell us what model and make the 42" is? we should have known that to begin with. i'm betting it's 1366x768. or 1280x720. in either case, as wolf correctly pointed out, that resolution is not "high res". that's tiny. a 8600GTS will likely handle that very nicely in most cases. if you absolutely need to make sure, wait for the 8800GT and get the 256MB version for 199. but yeah, that 42" may be big, but it's not high res.

OK, its a Philips 42pf9631d/37 Plasma Display.

Supports: 1024 x 768, 720p(1280 x 720) and 1080i(1920 x1080)

NIZ great answer and explanation thanks...........yes my 24 is a SUN hi rez CAD monitor that can support more than I have ever thrown at it.

For some reason I like playing on the big screen......I can sit on my couch instead of at my desk which I do all day.......I guess I am not a true gamer!

So all that said what for 1024 x 768 what card should I buy for 10X?

Should I run 32 or 64 bit Vista?