A64 and VC

[nukchebi0]

What would be the best card I could get that wouldn't be bottlenecked by an Athlon 64 3200+.

I don't want any responses telling me don't upgrade from the 7600GT, because I won't actually be upgrading. I was just curious but didn't know the answer.

 

[bombatwist]

hmm now that you've mentioned it, im sort of curious too.

i have an Athlon 64 3000+ and i'm looking to upgrade my video card very soon

 

[lunyone]

What is the rest of your system? Please include the PSU make/model and if you know what the amps on the 12V rail are, so we can recommend you something. The 7600gt is a good card, so upgrading to a 8800gt will probably bottleneck your CPU. The good thing is that if you upgrade your CPU later, you can reap the benefits of that upgrade. You might need more memory, but don't know your system specs.

 

[nukchebi0]

I have 2GB DDR-400, a 380W Seasonic with 28A combined, and an ASROCK-Dual Sata 939.

 

[sunny27]

u've got socket 939(i had an old amd 64 3000+)
if u've got cash get these and you are good to go:
cpu--amd opteron dual core 175-@ 2.2ghz stock with 2 mb L2 cache
get an antec/corsair psu--550watts --600watts should do.
and then get the nvidia 8800gt 512mb.

or if you don't have a big budget and only need the gfx card get a nvidia 8600gt/8600gts--it won't bottleneck ur cpu and will run on ur existing psu

 

[nukchebi0]

So 8600GTS is the highest I can go without being bottlenecked?

 

[lunyone]

Probably, and you won't need to upgrade you PSU, so that would save you some $. I'd consider that to be your best option. The 2600xt is good too, but requires a little more power. With the driver updates that AMD has been doing the 2600xt has been getting a little faster. 8600gts makes good sense, especially if you don't spend too much on it. Ooops, forgot to mention I have a 3200+ w/x1800xt on it and it doesn't seem to be bottlenecked, so I believe.

 

[nukchebi0]

Okay. I was thinking it would be there.

 

[skittle]

yeah... a 8600 or 1950pro

 

[sunny27]

if ur planning to play games on this a64 machine of urs-the recent games would be nothing more but slideshows--crysis wouldn't even run i guess.
but u can play old games or if u plan to use it as a HTPC then the ati radeon x2600 card would be great! its better than the 8600gt when it comes to video decoding and stuff.
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/10/26/avivo_hd_vs_purevideo/

 

[lunyone]

If you look at this link for UT3 (demo) BTW, you'll have an idea of how things stack up. Obviously you don't have the same setup, but at least you can see the potential of the 2600xt/x1950pro/8600gts.
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3128&p=4

 

[nukchebi0]

I have a C2D 6750 and 8800GTS 640 in my other.

 

[pauldh]

get a X2 4200 and an 8800GT

Your bottleneck question depends on the game. fear for example, there would be very little cpu bottleneck with any card.

 

[bombatwist]

how about a amd athlon 64 3000+ w/ 8800gt playing cs:source and tf2?

would anything be bottlenecked?

 

[skittle]

8800gt is WAY overkill for source...

 

[x14pl]

a64 & GF 8800 GTX
http://www.egielda.com.pl/?str=art&id=3333-27
a64 oc
http://www.egielda.com.pl/?str=art&id=3333-51

 

[bombatwist]

its okay. ^^ i might play some other games in the future, so with that im prepared. ^^