Vid Card Upgrade Questions......

[wagbees]

Hello, I am looking to upgrade my video card to a dx10 card in the next couple months. I have a radeon x1950pro 512mb right now and am looking at the 8800gt 512mb or the hd3870 512mb to upgrade to. I was wondering if it would be wise to wait till the price drops on these cards or wait till the nvidia 9000 series comes out. Usually I like to spend somewhere between $200-$250 on a card. Also, I was wondering as well if my 430w power supply would be sufficient enough to power these new video cards. Right now I have no problems with it. Here's a link for some info on it-

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153023

My System Specs-

Windows Vista Home Premium 32 bit
Samsung Syncmaster 730b lcd 1280x1024
AMD Athlon 64X2 5600+ 2.8ghz
Ati Radeon x1950pro 512mb
2gigs of Wintec DDR2 800
Seagate Barracuda sata2 160 gig hard drive
Biostar Tforce 550 am2 mobo
Thermaltake tr2 430 watt power supply

 

[mactronix]

Well the new cards are meant to be coming out soon (sorry dont know when) so it may be worthwhile holding on just to see what is on offer, it may be that you will be kicking yourself 6 months down the line if you didnt. Things like DX10.1 support and improved video support may or may not be important to you ? DX 10.1 isnt said to be that important.
Power wise you shouldnt even be able to run the 1950 Pro on your power supply never mind the newer cards the 1950 is stated as requiring 28 Amps !!. So i would definatly get a better rated PSU one of say around 30 Amps on the 12V rail/s.
Dont go into a panic about your card and power supply though its running it fine and they always go over the top when recomending system requirements but i would change it as a way of giving yourself room for future upgrades and also protecting your new investment.
Mactronix

 

[wagbees]

thanks for the reply, I think I am going to wait till the price drops on the current graphic cards and eventually upgrade my psu when I do get a new card.

 

[wagbees]

ok, so I've been looking at some power supplies lately and I found one that had a nice discount on it and has 34 amps on the 12v rail, which is the antec earthwatts 500w. My 1950 pro is listed as needing 28 amps. Would this psu have enough power to power an 8800gt or 9600gt efficiently if I plan to upgrade to one of these cards in the future?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371007

 

[Mousemonkey]

ok, so I've been looking at some power supplies lately and I found one that had a nice discount on it and has 34 amps on the 12v rail, which is the antec earthwatts 500w. My 1950 pro is listed as needing 28 amps. Would this psu have enough power to power an 8800gt or 9600gt efficiently if I plan to upgrade to one of these cards in the future?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371007

Antec PSU + 8800GT = problems, at least for some people it seems.

 

[blacksci]

It will power it just fine, i have this power supply actually, running the antec 900 case, with all its fans (love em), a q6660, 2 gigs of ram, 2 sata harddrive, 1 dvd, cd reader writer, and a xfx alpha dog 8800gts 512 no problems, it will push your configuration without a problem, as far as the 8800 problem with antec, ive only seen this a few times with the g92 card, and most people bought these power supplies because the problem was with another supply they had. Best suggestion, read reviews, they are your friend, read the reviews at newegg, or tiger, or who ever your going to buy from, they are your best friends.

 

[megame255]

Antec PSU + 8800GT = problems, at least for some people it seems.

My Antec Truepower 2.0 430 watt Has been powering a 8800 GT for quite awhile without a problem. The dual +12v rails handle it just fine. However, the OP's PSU may not handle it so well given it has only a single +12v@ 18amps rail. I've had a few antec PSUs and have never had a problem.

 

[crusoe74]

You may want to wait a few weeks and get the Radeon HD3870. Hexus has reported that AMD are aggressively cutting prices to stop nVidia having a march with the soon-to-be-released Geforce 9600 GT

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=11904

Ok, not a guarantee, but thie certain to happen if there are enough 9600GT's available at launch.

 

[crusoe74]

You may want to wait a few weeks and get the Radeon HD3870. Hexus has reported that AMD are aggressively cutting prices to stop nVidia having a march with the soon-to-be-released Geforce 9600 GT

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=11904

Ok, not a guarantee, but thie certain to happen if there are enough 9600GT's available at launch.

**UPDATE**

Looks like 9600GT is released tomorrow.

http://www.digitimes.com/mobos/a20080219PD213.html

Let the waiting game commence

 

[WR2]

You may want to wait a few weeks and get the Radeon HD3870. Hexus has reported that AMD are aggressively cutting prices to stop nVidia having a march with the soon-to-be-released Geforce 9600 GT

3870s have already dropped from $249 to less than $200. No such large drop for the 3850s yet though you can get the 512MB version of the 3850 for around $180. At one time the price gap between the 3870 & 3850 was $70 and now its only $20-30. If they're planning any more "aggressive cutting" it will be interesting to see where it ends up.

Some 8800GTs are also under $200.

 

[MikosNZ]

Id wait for the next generation. I was a little disapointed after recently upgrading from my 1950pro to a 3870. The performance was better for sure but not the earth shattering increase I half expected. The 1950 pro can handle most games so wait just a bit for the next generation imo.

 

[wagbees]

I went ahead and bought the antec earthwatts 500w psu because it was such a deal at $55 with free shipping. I think I'm also going to wait till the next generation of cards come out or when the price drops on the 8800gt. My monitor is 1280x1024 and I'm playing games like cod4, tf2, and bioshock atm. I just want a card that can handle some of the new games that are going to be coming out like age of conan or mass effect.

 

[blacksci]

Im sure your wont regret it and if you do, i blame antec, lol. I hear ya on the video card upgrade, i probably would have waited myself, except that for my new build i needed a pci card that could push my games now, lol. How much are you looking to spend on your card?

 

[wagbees]

Usually I spend $200 on a card. I can spend $250 though, but anything more than that is out of my price range.

 

[blacksci]

Well the rumor is the 8800gt is gonna take a dive under 200 dollars in the next few weeks, and supposedly the 9600 gt is out tommorrow, so keep your eyes open.

 

[wagbees]

Will do, thanks for the replies