new graphics card

[phill21]

right heres a silly question...
i have a kg7 and iu had a tbird @ 1.33ghz and everything ran like a dream..
but then sadly i had to go to a duron @ 1066mhz and somethings have gone bad and somethings arent working as they should...
i have a geforce 2 ultra in the system, its brilliantly fast and great to play games with so i want to upgrade it.
the other day i built a friend a system that i have been longing to have, kg7, xp amd, geforce 3 ti200, etc etc. and i realised how good everything was on his system and its made me want something just as good..
now is the problem as i see it..
as i have a fast graphics card, theres not much point in me getting something a little bit faster as there wont be that much difference.. so in other words i want a big jump from what i have to what i want to get..
now heres the thought..
i want an xp 1800 so that i have a good cpu with a good stable motherboard.. firstly that will speed up the graphics card to what it was before and maybe a bit faster again..
secondly i want to get a better card.. but what?
i was thinking of a geforce ti 4400 (theres not that much difference between the ti 4400 and the ti 4600, apart from the price!! not that i can see anyway... apart from a few fps here and there, i aint really going to miss it like that...) but then i was thinking of getting a ati 8500.. i know these are both great cards, but what should i do?
im not sure what would be a good big step of an upgrade rather than a little step forward, and i also want to push this cpu and motherboard config to the max.. and also, is it worth upgrading to 512mbs of ram? i have 256mbs and always thought this was enough.. any ideas?
if anyone can help i would be most pleased..

if all else fails... kick it and if it goes wrong, say it wasnt you...

 

[chuck232]

If you have WinXP, 256MB of RAM is a bare minimum and 512 would help out a lot. If you were going for a R8500, you may as well wait till R300/RV250 come out. The RV250 will perform better than the R8500 and should cost about the same. If you want the card right now, I'd go for a Ti4400 if I had the money or a R8500 if I didn't. A Ti4200 128MB and Ti4400 cost almost the same. If you go for a R8500, you can get a 128MB version for ~$150 or a 64MB version for ~$120.

My firewall tastes like burning.

 

[phill21]

i use win98 at the minute, so i wasnt sure whether or not to get more memory, i thought 256mbs was enough for win98 or else it started to slow down down a little..
i think i might have the money within a month or so, so what would you sugguest?
i personnaly think when a new card comes out its best to wait a bit so that the price drops a little, so you are paying such a premium... is that a good idea or not ?
when is the next ati card coming out and so would it be better to hang on and wait for that? i want to get the best value and the best speed, as i think after maybe a 1yr and a half with the ultra, we need some more speed!! its still a hughly fast card and i have nothing against it, but it sadly doesnt support directx 8 or some of the new things that are in the latest benchmarks, like vertex shading etc...
what would be best with an xp 1800 in mind as i only have a duron 950 @ 1066 at the moment? (its using a 133 fsb, but im not really sure that its going any better... the hard drive seems slow and windows to use seems jerky.. any ideas?)

if all else fails... kick it and if it goes wrong, say it wasnt you...

 

[chuck232]

OK, um.... a GF2 Ultra should be more than enough to last you til early this fall, when RV250 and R300 will be out. Along with Parhelia and possibly P10 by then. If your Windows runs slow, maybe you want to reformat your hard drive. How long has it been since your last reformating? Or maybe even defrag it. Should clear it up a bit. If none of that helps, I'd say you probably need some more RAM.

If you haven't got your AXP 1800+ yet, I'd suggest you wait a bit. I mean a Duron 1.1 should do you fine. Maybe til this fall, unless you really need a faster comp right now. Why I say this is cause if you get a XP1800+ right now and stick your GF2 Ultra in there, by the time it comes to fall and you want to upgrade to a RV250 or a R300LE, your proc may already be too slow. Your comp right now is not bad at all so I'd wait.

I mean look at me, I still have a PIII600E with 256MB PC100, GF2 MX, 40gig Maxtor. I don't really play much in the line of high quality games, cause I can't run it, but I'm gonna wait til the middle of next year when Prescott and Hammer are released and maybe a R400 or NV35.

My firewall tastes like burning.

 

[phill21]

i have only just installed my windows onto a new hard drive, a maxtor 40 gig ata 133 7200rpm model to be more exact..
since i have changed from the thunderbird that i had to this duron, i have noticed some games havent been running correctly or as they did with the thunderbird.. i know its silly to mention them, but the benchmarks are also down too, by quite a bit.. the duron as far as i can tell is fine for using with mx or gts card, but with the ultra it seems to be killing it some what..
with the speed of windows, with my thunderbird, my new hard drive ran (in sandra 2002 standard) at about 26000, which i thought was great when my old seagate drive was running at about 4000... but with the duron the drive is running (now after sorting out mp3s and music videos etc...) at nearly 20000.. so im still loosing performance...
a game that i have gotten into that is a farily old one is called need for speed - road challenge i think and with the duron with all the same settings as the thunderbird on, it runs very jerky... it really doesnt make me want to play it at all..
i do want a computer thats going to be a lot faster than what i have now, i know it might be a rather difficult task to do or to get, bar going the intel route, but i think that an 1800 xp and a ti4400 or a new ati graphics card is the way to go..
i mean next year is something different altogether, i could buy something else next year and still have this system im using now all sorted out, but just want something even faster..
i guess i just spoil myself when it comes to having something super fast, as i have nothing else much to do with my money, not as such anyway, no house or children to worry about!!
i will and would be suprised if a 1.53ghz cpu would be to slow for a graphics card to use to its near full potential !!
i think i would be happy with a xp 1800 and a geforce ti 4400, i mean who wouldnt ???
as you have most of the things needed for a system anyway, you could spend on a different graphics card, geforce 3 ti 200, kg7, 256mbs ddr or 512mbs ddr and a xp1800 and have a nice system now, and then again when next year comes upgrade it again..
i doubt that all of the bits i have just mentioned would cost over say £300 or so... wouldnt you rather have something for now rather than then? you can always sell it on when this time next year comes.....
thank you for you help...
heres my system rig specs... click on link and see what you think and what i need to upgrade.. probably a better way of doing it...

http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=18250


if all else fails... kick it and if it goes wrong, say it wasnt you...

 

[chuck232]

As for your current config, what version drivers do you have? As for the lower performance, that's predictable since a t-bird 1.33GHz should be quite a bit faster than a Duron 1.1GHz. Now why it's really really bad in some games I'm not really sure. Have you tried the GTS in those games and does it get better or worse? If it's better on a GTS than an Ultra, there's probably something wrong with that card. As for HDD performance, I don't know much about that stuff. If you have loads of money hanging around, you could upgrade your comp, but I'd save that as a last resort. You could try 3DMark2K1 SE and see how you compare to other people with a similar config.


Well since it seems like you really want a new comp, you would probably have to do some serious upgrading to get the most performance out of it. For example your RAM is PC2100 which is good, but you'd get better performance out of PC2700, which would mean you'd have to switch out your mobo too...

Since you're talking in pounds, I don't really know what the stuff in the UK costs. I'll go by USD and switch using a currency converter. I'll try to keep it as close to 300 pounds as possible.

1. SOLTEK SL-75DRV5 (Purple Ray) VIA KT333 (the latest Ver.) DDR/SDRAM 266/200MHz FSB Socket A ATA 133/10/66 ABS II ATX MOTHERBOARD - RETAIL - $82
2. MUSHKIN DDR 512MB PC-2700 - $150
3. AMD Athlon XP 1800+/266 FSB PROCESSOR CPU - RETAIL - $105
4. Radeon 8500 64MB Retail - $129

Total of $466USD = 315.59 pounds.

Pretty close. That's with a VIA KT333 mobo and 512MB of PC2700 RAM and a video card that is quite superior to a Ti200.

My firewall tastes like burning.

 

[phill21]

well, im not so bothered about me upgrading the motherboard as of yet and i was recommending it to the gentleman that was replying to me in the thread!! i believe that was you!!
im happy with the kg7 as i dont believe that theres much point in going to the 333 memory as i would prefer to make a bigger jump, ie too 400 or 466 or what have you..
the ati 8500 over here is about £140, roughly i think its about $180 to $200.., im just guessing that tho..
i think an xp 1800+, another 256mbs of memory and a ti4400 or a r250 or r300 is something nearer to what i think would be best for me, as im looking to spend a reasonable amount of money, but get the best performance from what i buy and pay..
as for the duron v tbird, its (i believe) down to the cache levels, the duron doesnt seem to like anything much more than a mx card, which is right to a point, because running a gts/ultra before, the scores where always down compared to the tbird...
with the tbird and ultra in 3dmark 2001, i manage to get about 4900.. i put together a system for a mate, it was 1800xp, g3 ti 200, 256mbs ddr... after a little overclocking, it managed a nice 6500 score in the same test, i know with a ati8500 its nearer to 9000 isnt it? same sort of performance as the g4 ti 4400... or 4200..
what do you think?

if all else fails... kick it and if it goes wrong, say it wasnt you...

 

[phsstpok]

with the tbird and ultra in 3dmark 2001, i manage to get about 4900.. i put together a system for a mate, it was 1800xp, g3 ti 200, 256mbs ddr... after a little overclocking, it managed a nice 6500 score in the same test, i know with a ati8500 its nearer to 9000 isnt it? same sort of performance as the g4 ti 4400... or 4200..
what do you think?

9000 is a reasonable expectation for the Radeon 8500, an XP 1800+, and DDR. You might even score higher. I score 7959 with an overclocked Radeon 8500 OEM (@ 275/300), a Tbird @1500 mhz, and only SDRAM. For kicks I underclocked my system to 600 mhz, FSB at only 100 mhz, memory at 100 mhz, Radeon OEM at stock speed (250/275). This combo scored 4600 3Dmarks. (I was trying gauge the 8500 for use in my Nephew's Duron based system).

I don't even have a guess what a Ti4200 or Ti4400 would do.


<b>I have so many cookies I now have a FAT problem!</b>

 

[phill21]

so in your eyes, is it worth me trying to get hold of a ATI 8500 RETAIL rather than a Geforce 4 ti 4400? I was trying to convience myself to get one, because of the execllent price to performance, which is really what im looking for. but i do read that some tests the ati 8500 cant out perform a geforce 3 ti 200 and i think in one test it cant out perform a geforce 2 ultra!! is this right or where the drivers used in those tests not up to date?
id just love to try and get 10000 3d marks from 2001se.. at the moment, im not even getting 5000 and it does some what bug me as I havent ever seen any of the other tests, as my geforce 2 ultra card doesnt support some of the tests featured.. bummer...
do you think its worth me getting another 256mbs of DDR memory? i have already 256mbs, would i benifit from 512mbs of ddr? im running win98 and really just play games..
and one more quick enquiry, is a 1800 xp the best price to performance xp chip about now? or is it still the xp1700...?
thank you!! i really appreate all the help!! from everyone that includes!!


if all else fails... kick it and if it goes wrong, say it wasnt you...

 

[phsstpok]

do you think its worth me getting another 256mbs of DDR memory? i have already 256mbs, would i benifit from 512mbs of ddr? im running win98 and really just play games..
and one more quick enquiry, is a 1800 xp the best price to performance xp chip about now? or is it still the xp1700...?
thank you!! i really appreate all the help!! from everyone that includes!!

Like I said I don't really know about Ti4200, and all, vs 8500. Seen some review that put an 8500 as high as Ti4400 level for some tests but I've seen others where the 8500 was lower than the Ti4200 in all of the tests.

I can say the Ti4200 was my top choice until I came across the bargin which I purchased. The card was supposed to be a Radeon 8500LE OEM (230/230) for $99 but user comments indicated the card was shipping with 3.3ns memory and default clocks of 250/275. The card I received was an ATI OEM 8500 (Not LE and not ATI partner but genuine ATI). Anyway it overclocks beyond the default of a Retail 8500, in fact, it overclocks to 305/325. I'm not bragging (well maybe a little). The point I am trying to make for $99 I could the above card. The best price I could find for a Ti4200 was $155 (sorry british pound conversions take too long).

The Ti4200 may peform better (but as I said, I'm not sure). However, at $155 vs $99, I think the performance is close. I certainly didn't see enough justification to speend the extra W for the Ti4200. I know the Ti4200 has amazing overclocking potential but I don't see it outperforming an overclocked 8500 by that same 57%.

I expect with an extra 256MB of DDR you'lll see much benefit for your gaming experience. I mostly use 256MB SDRAM, also with Windows 98SE. When I add 128MB I don't see any significant improvement.

From my favorite US vendor Newegg.com here are the current prices for OEM Athlon XPs

1500 - $77
1600 - $80
1700 - $89
1800 - $99
1900 - $132

For me the XP 1800+ would be the sweet pick and the 1600+ is nice bargain. If you look at UK prices I'm sure you can see your best price point.




<b>I have so many cookies I now have a FAT problem!</b>

 

[chuck232]

well, im not so bothered about me upgrading the motherboard as of yet and i was recommending it to the gentleman that was replying to me in the thread!! i believe that was you!!

Yeah I guess i didn't read your post well, but since you said you wanted a really good system, the best you could get so...

A GF4 Ti4400 is about $250USD on average and a R8500 128MB RETAIL is $160. That's quite a big difference. A Radeon 8500 compares to a Ti4200 more. A Ti4200 128MB being about $180-190. One thing.... a GF3 Ti200 outperforms the Ultra by a bit. If you have the money go for the extra RAM. As Phsstpok said the best AXP chip is probably the XP1800 in terms of price/performance.

My firewall tastes like burning.

 

[phill21]

Ok... was definately thinking of the xp1800 anyway, as for the graphics card i feel i'm sold towards the ati 8500 due to its price/performance ratio...
does the 8500 drivers for the card come with the overclocking ability or as with nvidia do i have to download a reg hack?
as for the extra memory i will leave it until i have got the cpu and graphics card and see whether its worth it performance wise...
what ati 8500 cardis best to get i.e. retail oem or even the 8500 Le version with 128meg of ram?
thanks for the tips, will get the card and cpu then will post again with updates...

if all else fails... kick it and if it goes wrong, say it wasnt you...

 

[phill21]

like i said before, is it worth getting rid of the 256 megs of ddr mem i have and getting one 512 ddr 333 simm or is it just worth having another 256 megs of ddr 266?
heard that there could be some compatibility problems with kg7 and different memory simm makes... is this true? and what type of memory is best to get?
i know by the looks of my mates GF3 Ti200 by the benchmarks i have run that it kicks a gf2 ultra into the ground and especially when tested on 3d mark 2001se, it left it standing!!..
this is why i have come to the conclusion that an ati8500, of some description, will be best for me, due to price/performance and news of overclocking potential...
one other question, what would be the best type of ati8500 to get i.e. oem, le, retail or 128mbs version????? answers on a postcard please......
thanks to everyone who has posted in this thread as it has all been a great help... i look forward to posting some benchmarks test scores when i get the above hardware...
cheers for now!!!

if all else fails... kick it and if it goes wrong, say it wasnt you...

 

[phsstpok]

Ok... was definately thinking of the xp1800 anyway, as for the graphics card i feel i'm sold towards the ati 8500 due to its price/performance ratio...
does the 8500 drivers for the card come with the overclocking ability or as with nvidia do i have to download a reg hack?
as for the extra memory i will leave it until i have got the cpu and graphics card and see whether its worth it performance wise...
what ati 8500 cardis best to get i.e. retail oem or even the 8500 Le version with 128meg of ram?

No overclock built-in. Manufacturers never endorse overclocking.

No registry hack. Use a third party utility. I use Power Strip.

Choosing which Radeon 8500 is a little easier is than deciding between Ati and nVidia. With a single model family go by price and memory speed, remembering an 8500LE OEM is usually clocked at 230/230, a Retail 8500LE is at 250/250, an OEM 8500 is usually 250/250, and a retail 8500 is 275/275. You can mostly judge performance by memory speed. The faster the memory the faster the card. GPU performance improves with speed but not by as great a degree as with memory.

Other factors, include overclockability. I don't know how well you can do in this area. I was very lucky finding the 8500. You might also be lucky.

The amount of memory makes some difference. I'm starting see benchmarks where cards with 128MB of memory perform a little better than those with only 64MB. The difference is not much but it is there. Keep in mind that if you only play at say 1024x768 you will be less affected by low memory than if you play at 1600x1200. If you want to play at the higher resolution (and your monitor allows you to do this) then I recommend going for the higher amount of memory. Otherwise, it's your call. I think it will be a long while before 128MB of memory is absolutely essential so if your budget is a concern go with 64MB. Put the difference toward the next upgrade.

Well, that about it for my opinions on this.

<b>I have so many cookies I now have a FAT problem!</b>

 

[chuck232]

Tell us how much the R8500LE OEM/RETAIL, R8500LE 128MB OEM/RETAIL, R8500 OEM/RETAIL and R8500 128MB OEM/RETAIL cost. That way we'll be able to better help you out. I know the prices here, but not in the UK. Like you could get a R8500 64MB RETAIL for $130USD, but in pounds converted to USD you said yours would have costed $180.

My firewall tastes like burning.

 

[phill21]

here are the prices and the types of card i can get :-

64MB - JETWAY ATI8500 DDR TV/DVI £132
64MB - ATI SAPPHIRE RADEON 8500 LE - £161
64MB - ATI RADEON 8500 LE DDR AGP DVI VO OEM - £166
64MB - ATI RADEON 8500 DV 3D PROPHET ALL IN WONDER AGP TV - £235
64MB - ATI RADEON 8500 DDR AGP RETAIL DVI VO - £175 - i think thats the one, isnt it?
64MB - ATI RADEON 8500 DDR AGP DVI TV DH OEM - £125
128MB - ATI RADEON 8500 LE OEM - £138

or heres some more cards i get from the company i deal with :-

ATI Radeon 8500 64MB DDR AGP Retail - £135 - i think this is the one i want, same as above yeah?
ATI Radeon 8500 LE 64MB DDR AGP OEM - £123
ATI Radeon 8500 LE 128MB DDR + DVI out AGP OEM - £134

i just have no idea what models to get, they are all trying to confuse me!!
but then, here are some prices that i can get the geforce 3/4 series for..

MSI GeForce 4 Ti4400 128MB DDR VIVO Retail - £225
Sparkle GeForce 3 Ti 200 64MB DDR + TV-out AGP - £105 - *
Gainward GeForce 4 Powerpack Ultra/700 XP Golden Sample AGP (Ti-4400 128MB DDR VIVO DVI+DVI) £234

the card marked with the * is the card i installed in a xp1800 ddr system, KG7 motherboard, 256mbs of ram, running win me, and in 3dmark 2001se (i think it was that version) it scores 6500 with no problems, overclocked slightly, but the card didnt work so well when trying it as standard... sadly..
i thought the msi & the gainward geforce 4's where quite nicely priced, but i can get them cheaper than that.. these are the retail prices...
if any one can help me deside, then please do !!
thanks to everyone to recommends me something!!

if all else fails... kick it and if it goes wrong, say it wasnt you...

 

[phsstpok]

No wonder that you are confused. I didn't see a 128MB 8500 but of the 8500 cards you listed the 64MB Retail version at 135 pounds would have the highest default speeds and should have the highest overclocking. Does it have DVI output and do you need it? DVI is a flat panel interface although most can use the VGA connector also.

What would be the prices of the 8500 (not LE) 128MB for both the Retail and OEM versions?

The 8500 All-in-Wonder would have the most features, VIVO, TV tuning, TV recording, remote control, etc. However it would also be on the low end of gaming performance of the cards you listed and it's not cheap.

The Gainward Ti4400 would have the highest performance of the cards that you listed. It's also one of the most expensive.

I didn't realize video cards were so expensive in the UK!



<b>I have so many cookies I now have a FAT problem!</b>

 

[chuck232]

If these are your only choices, then I'd say you should get either a ATi R8500 64MB RETAIL for 135 pounds or a ATi R8500LE 128MB OEM for 134 pounds. The R8500 64MB RETAIL may be able to oc further, but more and more games could use the extra 64MB of RAM plus AA and aniso performance also seems to be affected by the extra RAM. The choice is basically like the choice between a Ti4200 64MB and 128MB. Except here there is no price difference. I'd personally go for the R8500LE 128MB and try to get it to R8500 128MB specs. That's 275/275 core mem. The OEM cards are fitted with 4ns RAM I believe so 250 memory shouldn't be a problem and 275 should be within reach. In FPS games, AA/aniso is quite "important". I mean it's not important as you can't play without it, but it makes the experience much more enjoyable.

As for the GF3/4 cards. I'd only go for the GF4 Ti4400 if you had money to spare. It would be somewhat wasted, and you could put the saved money towards extra RAM or maybe a R300 or NV30.

My firewall tastes like burning.

 

[phill21]

is it just worth getting a geforce 3 ti 200 and then saving the money up for something better later on or is it worth getting the ati 8500 128mbs le version?
i believe that the geforce 3 ti 200 is more enough performance, for now, but can obvously be upgraded later in life...
with the money saved from buying the geforce card, would it be worth getting another 256mbs of memory?
im not so bothered about flat screens (lcd) because i wont ever be buying or getting one, i dont like them...
a hell of a lot of things are very expensive in the uk..
take petrol.. 72.9p per LITRE!! about £3.30 a gallon!!
and thats just one thing....

if all else fails... kick it and if it goes wrong, say it wasnt you...

 

[phill21]

what are the drivers like for the ati at the moment? are they getting better or worse?
benchmarks are some times, some what misleading so it doesnt really help as i cant try the card out myself before i buy... which is a big shame..
overclocking was a part of my plan, but if the card is going to be ineed faster than a geforce 2 ultra, then i dont think that i might worry about it so much!!
i believe that the le version will probably be the best one to get then, it has 128mbs of ram and will be more than fast enough for what i require for this year anyway!! do you think its a big enough of a jump from a geforce 2 ultra ? i just want something thats going to make me dribble with delight and so that i know that im seeing something that is going to be a LOT faster rather than something (for example) geforce 3 ti 200 scores, as it doesnt seem to be that much faster..
i play games in the highest res possible, inc 32bit colour... so let me know what you think...
oh, one silly little question, where do we go to find out how many posts we have made ?
im trying to understand the little things like jorneyman etc.. just wondering really... cheers for all the help...

if all else fails... kick it and if it goes wrong, say it wasnt you...

 

[chuck232]

a hell of a lot of things are very expensive in the uk..
take petrol.. 72.9p per LITRE!! about £3.30 a gallon!!

You could always walk... goos for the health too.

Here's how I see it. There's a 30 pound difference and with that you wouldn't be able to get the extra RAM with that, but if that's all you need then go for it. I mean when R300/NV30 come out you could always upgrade then. This product cycle is almost coming to an end, so I guess there isn't much point in getting a top line card right now, only to see it get slaughtered by a card that costs the same with DX9 features.

My firewall tastes like burning.

 

[phsstpok]

OK, now I am confused. Do you mean you are considering buying just a Geforce3 Ti200 to go with your Duron? Or are you still talking about getting the Athlon XP 1800 plus a video card (which is of what I thought we were talking)?

In either case I still think the Radeon 8500 is the better choice. Much better performance than, a Geforce2 class card, better than a Geforce3 Ti200, and the 8500 scales better. Even if you keep your Duron you'll get a boost over what you have now. Look at my other post with 3DMark scores.

Cost is obviously a factor. That 135 pounds is about twice what I paid for an 8500 OEM here in the US. That's about $200 USD. The Ti4400 is what? $350 USD? My choice was easy. I can see why yours is not.

You know , if I had to pay those prices I might just hang on to the Geforce2 Ultra a little longer. The Radeon R250 is supposed to be release this month. That might drive down the 8500 prices. Pick one up cheaper next month.

Don't know what else to tell you except think about what you want today. Put less emphasis on the future. It's just too hard to predict.

<b>I have so many cookies I now have a FAT problem!</b>

 

[chuck232]

ATI drivers have improved soo much. They are increasingly putting out more performance from their chips. Their current drivers suite, the "Catalyst" I'd say rivals Nvidia's offering, their "Detonator".

A lot of games nowadays are CPU limited. Although your Duron 1.1GHz is not bad at all, games like Commanche4 won't really run well and others like JKII won't run at really high resolutions. Other games like QuakeIII run at such high framerates, that you won't really even notice.

If I were you this is what I'd do. You CPU is quite adequate for almost everything. You should maybe hold on to your GF2 Ultra or if you really need it go for a GF3 Ti200. Wait until October of this year and do a major upgrade. By then if you didn't buy the Ti200, you'll have saved another 100 pounds. I'm sure by then you'll be able to scrape up ~1000 pounds or so. Then all you'll need to upgrade would be to a Hammer, a new mobo, some RAM, and a new video card, something like a RV250 (which won't be out till R300, ATi is planning to release the 2 together.) or a R300LE. If you think about it, it really won't cost too much. A Hammer will probably be about 250 pounds I'd say, a new mobo, 150 pounds, 512MB of DDR 400 RAM, maybe 200 pounds and a RV250 should come in about the price of a R8500 at launch ~200 pounds, or if you wanted go get a R300LE for about 300 pounds I'd say. If you could save about 800-900 pounds by October, you'll have a mean ass machine. I'm sure you'll be able to hold out till this fall with your current setup. All the other stuff you should be able to reuse from your current system like your monitor and mouse and speakers and so forth. Then you could sell the rest of the stuff in your box. Try to sell them separately, you usually get more for them that way.

BTW, did you try upgrading to the latest drivers? Maybe that'll help a bit. Since you just got a new HDD and installed Windows, maybe your drivers aren't updated.

As for the title stuff, you can just go to "Read Private Msg" in the right hand panel. Look in the FAQ, it tells you the different amount of posts needed before you get to a new title. Congrats on getting to JourneyMan. I have only 802 posts....

My firewall tastes like burning.

 

[phill21]

i think i might have it..
im doing this for the ease of upgrading and getting something now and getting something fast, but not earth shattering..
right here goes nothing..

getting an 1800 xp and a geforce 3 ti 200.. maybe add another 256mbs of ram as this is supposed to help.
then when the hammer or whatever comes out next that will be a huge step from what i will have, to what i can get, then i will upgrade to like you said, something with ddr 400, r300 or nv30 or whatever is the fastest card at the time... just to be silly and greedy!!

i should be able to muster some form money by october, hopefully!!!
what do you think i should do with the ultra card? sell or keep hold of?... its a bit of a beast for me!...

if all else fails... kick it and if it goes wrong, say it wasnt you...

 

[chuck232]

what do you think i should do with the ultra card? sell or keep hold of?... its a bit of a beast for me!...

Well where would you put it. If you have no use for it you may as well it and get some moola for your next upgrade. What you're doing would help out considerably, just it'll cut some of your budget for your next upgrade, which should be more important, a lot of new stuff. I mean if you got the moola, go for it, just if you don't, you may as well hold off.

Upgrades are always good, then you'll be able to beat your friend hopefully and brag and rub it in his face! Good luck!

My firewall tastes like burning.