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choosing a g. card, will it bottleneck?

Forum Graphic & Displays : Graphics Cards - choosing a g. card, will it bottleneck?

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hi.
I have an amd athlon 64x2 brisbane 4400+ o'ced from 2.3ghz to 2.6ghz.
I'm gonna buy a good budget graphic card that would not bttleneck my system. These are my choice:

msi 9600gt 512mb oc edition
powercolor hd3850 512mb gddr3

I need ur help to know which gc that I listed above runs Crysis better. I like 9600gt but hd3850 is cheaper.
Also will it bottleneck my system?

abit ax78 (love it, great overclocking motherboard)
amd athlon 64x2 4400+
2gb mushkin 667
450w PSU

Thanks.

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The 9600GT is better and about equal to the HD3870. If you can find an 8800GT within budget, better yet. Otherwise 9600GT.

The 8800GS will beat the HD3850 and the higher clocked ones trade blows with the 9600GT depending on if you use fsaa or not. And it is very cheap in the USA at least. It's the best bargain of this performance range IMO at $90 with COD4 or $99 for the better variable speed(quiet) higher clocked evga.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814150294
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814130332

performance links:
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardwar [...] page13.asp
http://en.expreview.com/2008/04/02 [...] p/?page=13

Message edited by pauldh on 05-28-2008 at 01:44:42 PM

Reply to pauldh

9600GT

If you can afford it, get an 8800GT 512.

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PSA
Reply to outlw6669

For sure right now I will take the 9600gt. Thanks again.
Also I heard that nvidia card are more friendly to 3d apps and software.
I'm a designer architect and I know i should take the workstation gc but its very expensive. ~like to play crysis too~

Reply to grizz86

You say 450W PSU but what are the specs on this?

I would say a 9600GT/HD 3870 would be a good choice. The 8800GS is a cheaper solution if you have a limited budget. Once you look at the 8800's you will want to really make sure your PSU can handle them.

Nvidia cards are great, I've heard issues with the GX2 already. ATI has some issues with the 3870x2 cards. BUt the 3870/3850 cards are pretty solid. Once you stard dealing with 2 GPU's you can have issues. ATI and Nvidia have good solutions, Nvidia just seems to have the better performance per dollar right now.

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Reply to jay2tall

Well.. it says P4 450W 20+4pin for LGA775 on the box..
the rear part of the psu says AVF model: ATX-450W. I got this old psu by buying my pc casing a few years ago... Think it can handle 9600gt?

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to grizz86

grizz86 wrote :

Well.. it says P4 450W 20+4pin for LGA775 on the box..
the rear part of the psu says AVF model: ATX-450W. I got this old psu by buying my pc casing a few years ago... Think it can handle 9600gt?

What is printed on the actuall PSU it should give you some -5V,+5v,-12V,+12V numbers. we want the +12V numbers, it might have 2+ for ex. +12v1, +12v2.

------------------------------ Big Brother Rules with an Iron Fist
Reply to jay2tall

yeah.. found it. Its under voltage column at dc output rite?
hmmm.. under +12v is 20A and under it again 250W. Total watt=450W. Is it good enough?

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to grizz86

grizz86 wrote :

yeah.. found it. Its under voltage column at dc output rite?
hmmm.. under +12v is 20A and under it again 250W. Total watt=450W. Is it good enough?

Jay's giving you great advice. That 20 amp is important to know. It's on the weak side for a 9600GT. Not saying it won't work, just saying I wouldn't run it that way, nor be surprised to have stability issues if I did. It depends on your total system load, drives, fan's, etc.

Now there is one funny note, 20 amps of 12v is 240 watts. So the 250W is either a mistake, or it is in a box refering to 12v and 3.3v or 5v. etc. Typically there would be a max 3.3v + 5v though, a max 12v, and a max total of all three. If it's a mistake, no problem as just go by 20 amp. But if it's a combined, then you have to factor in the draw on the other shared rail, meaning you could have less power than 20 amp available on the 12v. A lot of cheaper power supply labels are missing this important max combined info. Anyway, without seeing your label I can't say for sure, except for 20 amp 12v is 240W not 250W. It's probably safe to assume you have 20 amps 12v available.

Message edited by pauldh on 05-29-2008 at 07:52:08 PM

Reply to pauldh

I think you are in the clear. Anything higher and you may want to consider a better PSU. Some of the manufacturers are recommending 22A for the 9600GT but from what I read it only sucks 95W, I believe if it was 65w they could pull it all from the PCI-E bus. So it barely needs a PCI-E power connector.

------------------------------ Big Brother Rules with an Iron Fist
Reply to jay2tall

Yikes.. u got me pauldh.. the 250w is under +3.3 & +5 v not +12. My bad.
Seems like gotta buy a new psu.. thks everyone.. learn so much from all of u..

Reply to grizz86

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