Which Card should I get NVidia or ATI

[JoshM20]

Hey guys,
I am having to upgrade my stepdads vidoe card So i decided to upgrade mine. I have a GeForce 6150 LE right now. I am looking to upgrade the card I was looking at the 9800 and the 3870. Anyway, I would like your suggestions on some good cards for 120 or less.

Thx
Josh

 

[salabarria]

the 9800 out performs the 3870 in every benchmark ive seen so i think you should go with nvidia

 

[punkinator]

You can get a 4850 512MB on NewEgg for $150 or a 9800GTX+ for the same if your willing to pay the extra these will be much better although the 4850 does beat it in most games.

 

[vouslavous]

You should give us the other specs of your computer so we can find the perfect card for your system.

 

[JoshM20]

Ok here are the specs- I am upgrading it here are the stock specs as of now.

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ 2.0 GHz AM2 Socket
1Gig of DDR2 PC4200
Chipset GeForce 6150 LE / nForce 430 ???
Motherboard is an ASUS A8M2N-LA
3 PCI SLot
1 PCIe-x16


I was going to upgrade the processor and memory along with the Vid card to hold off on a pc upgrade.
I was planning on a Athlon x2 6400+ 3.2 GHz
I heard that AM2+ sockets are compatible with AM2 . So I am assuming I could even get some type of phenom?
Also I was gonna get 4 sticks of DDR2 Ram

Any other specs or questions about it and I will answer them.

150 is Fine I supose, Since I decided to not build a system, Unless it seems more feasible.

Thx
Josh

 

[vouslavous]

I would get atleast 2gb DDR2 6400 RAM or 4 gb if you can, in nowadays you can pick up 4 gb for around 50$. For the graphic card if your gonna go with nvidia chances are you will need an external power connector, i don't know what type of PSU you have but if your gonna go for nvidia make sure to have atleast 400-500 watts. If your on a budget then go for the ATI radeon 4670 as it does not require and external power connection. The 4670 in my opinion will be the perfect card for you because it will run any game out in the marker right now at high settings and it won't be an overkill for your CPU. What you want to do now is to pick up 4gb of 6400 ram if you can, and upgrade to a new GPU. Down the road maybe upgrade the CPU. If you do go for 4gb of RAM and the 4670 it will set you back at around 120-140$ USD.

 

[4745454b]

Can you even remove that card? Isn't that onboard video?

 

[JoshM20]

I am going to have to change my CPU anyway because I am into 3d modeling/rendering and I pretty much have to upgrade this computer. So that is why I was talking about the CPU. Yea I wanna get a decent one but not the best, something like best of the budget cards. I think that falls around a card being 120 and below. I have been thinking streaming out to my HDTV also.

I am still up in the air about which company to go with and which card exactly what is the difference in all these different versions of the 9800 and does it matter with what distro I go with ?

 

[JoshM20]

Can you even remove that card? Isn't that onboard video?

It is an intergrated card. I would just have to disable it in Device Manager and Enable the new one.

 

[Aircraft123]

You can get a 4850 for an excellent price on Newegg right now. That paired with a mid-range Phenom I would

give you excellent gfx performance + the benefits of having a quad core (hopefully your 3d software is

multithreaded?)

The phenoms were bombed by the reviewers b/c they didn't beat Intel.

At their current price point they are a good deal.

I have Phenom 9950 - works great, I can convert a full length movie for my iPhone in 15 to 20 min (Videora)

I haven't found any games yet that max it out.

 

[JoshM20]

You can get a 4850 for an excellent price on Newegg right now. That paired with a mid-range Phenom I would

give you excellent gfx performance + the benefits of having a quad core (hopefully your 3d software is

multithreaded?)

The phenoms were bombed by the reviewers b/c they didn't beat Intel.

At their current price point they are a good deal.

I have Phenom 9950 - works great, I can convert a full length movie for my iPhone in 15 to 20 min (Videora)

I haven't found any games yet that max it out.

Yea, Multithreaded is a must

Glad to hear about the phenom, I was thinking about them, that just gives me a little more incentive.

 

[GinoS]

What's your power supply situation? The specs you gave sound like my kid's HP Pavilion Media Center a1520n. That machine is four years old.

It's got only a 300 watt PSU. If that's the case some of the cards being suggested here won't run in that machine.

You can upgrade the PSU. You've got to be careful though. The PSU in my kid's machine is proprietary. If you put the wrong thing in it won't fit in the case and may fry your motherboard.

I'm in the process of upgrading the videocard on my son's machine. I didn't want the hassle of a new PSU. So I got him another gig of RAM and I picked up an 8600GT from newegg. It's made by PNY and will run with a 300 PSU. Granted, it's not top of the line but it'll play the games he plays for another few years (I hope!)

Check out your power supply sitiation. I didn't see anything mentioned about that......

 

[GinoS]

I googed your motherboard. Your machine is an HP! I would strongly suggest you check out your power supply!

 

[JoshM20]

Yea I know some of the cards take more power, I will prolly upgrade the PSU in the case/ if I need to depending on the card I pick. I was going to build a rig but I am getting a laptop instead and I decided to hold off on the build for a little while. So that is why I wanna just up this one for now.

 

[GinoS]

FYI:

The PSU in those machines are proprieatary. There made by a company called Bestec. If you google the HP computer number and power supply you'll find some companies selling upgrade PSU. In my case the most powerful PSU I can get is about 530 watts. Y=The price in't bad, under $75.

The bottom line is you won't be able to drop in some brand name PSU in the machine that you pick up at Best Buy or Fry's. A standard PSU won't fit and the cable connectors to the motherboard won't match.

If you plan on upgrading the mother board the OS (most likely XP) that came with the machine won't transfer.

In that case you might as well build a whole rig from scratch.

In my opinion HP's are good for a few things but if you like to tinker in your computer or upgrade, building your own or buying something that's non-proprietary is the way to go.

Good luck.

 

[JoshM20]

Well the only reason I have a HP is that my rig and just about all my electronics were stole a couple years ago. I was still a student mid way through my Bachelors Degree and I didn't really have the money or time to build one. I actually had to get someone to front me some money so I could go pick up a cheap HP. This was never meant to be long term but shortly after I was in a car accident and disabled and I have not had the time or money to build one. Although I am really thinking about building one right now. It may be better for the long run.

 

[gkay09]

Well the idea of building an enitre new system is better than upgrading ur current system...
If u search more threads u will be able to put in a new rig sans peripherals monitor for abt $400 to $500...

 

[djcoolmasterx]

+1 on new system, or just whack in a 4850, 2gb of RAM and a new PSU for now and upgrade the CPU and mobo later

 

[JoshM20]

Hey guys, I guess I am going to build a rig, My question I have now is do you think it is better to have 1 good video card or 2 decent cards in SLI/Crossfire.

 

[4745454b]

One good one. Aside from the upgrade to CF/SLI later, a single card can put out less heat and consume less power then two cards. This isn't always the case, but can be true. Besides, with a single card you don't have to worry about whether X game with work with CF/SLI, or how well it scales. You can also still have multi monitors, though I hear this is getting fixed.