When I get poor performance in a game, I honestly don't know if its my CPU or my Video Card. Might be my Video card moreso, and my 1680 by 1050 resolution. I averaged about 75 FPS on oblivion on 1280 by 1024 on my machine, now with 1680 by 1050, I get like 10 FPS outdoors. HUGE difference. I read a HardOCP review on Video Cards about UT 2007 (a game I can't play on the highest resolution) and they were testing a card similar to mine on a 1900 by 1200 resolution with no problems. Cost about the same as my card too. Not sure what their other specs were though. I don't know if upgrading my card will give me higher FPS rates or not, but I'll try it out anyway. BTW, is a 9800 GT 1 gig card better than a 9800 GTX 512 mb? The names of these things are really cryptic, at least to me. I also have to have something that will work on a 550 watt PSU, but I think I might upgrade that too.
Get a 4850 or 4860 ATI card. Best bang for the buck. It can play Oblivion at that high resolution at much higher FPS. I keep reading how nVidia is starting to slack behind because AMD is simply putting out video cards that perform almost like the highend cards, but without the high price.
Don't know about GT vs GTX but if i remember correctly the 1gb isn't really 1gb, its just is 512mb ram on the card and it then steals the other 512mb from your system ram to make up the 1gb which isn't a problem if you have lots of ram but if you don't have much then then you#ll loose 512mb of ram. **Edit it is only a 512mb card if is using TurboCache** I'd suggest a 4850 since it'll work great at 1680 by 1050 and ATI's latest card have better "bang for buck" than the Nvidia ones.
That is some cheeky bullshit right there. Is that common these days? I'd have thought it might saturate the RAM bus and cause a performance decrease.
Get an HD 4850. If you have the money, go for the 4870. Make sure to get one with an aftermarket cooler though, because they run hot and they get LOUD. Look into something like this. These days, I wouldn't buy an nVidia card just because of the terrible naming schemes they use. If they weren't trying to confuse their customers into buying shitty cards, then I would be very surprised.
Mr. Cas if you have the same CPU and shit as me you sure as hell should be able to play UT3 on max settings at that res. I could on a 7900GS. Maybe a 9800GX2 or something? 9800GTX isn't a huge step up and neither is + from what I can tell. The ATI ones are nearly the same as well. But you shouldn't be getting that bad of performance out of a 8800GT. 1GB of RAM on the card isn't worth spending a lot more for right now either.
Well, I wonder if some of my performance decreases in games is because of my faulty hard drive? I thought we had nearly the exact same setup. My CPU is a dual core...um, the exact name escapes me, I'll have to check Belarc or something when I get Vista reinstalled. I'm actually still on Ubuntu right now. Been playing too many games to reformat and reinstall Windows!:lol: My PC used to play Oblivion at like 75 FPS on 1280 by 1024, now on that same res the FPS rate is like 50-ish. I might not even need a new video card, if thats the case. Crysis is ok, but not worth $2000 over. Not saying a $2000 PC is useless, but Crysis isn't worth it, imo. I might get an HD 4870, though one thing I have a question about, and its a dumb one. :110: Does the "Plays best on Nvidia" ad mean that certain games play better on those cards, or is it a bunch of BS? Heres what I'm considering http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161247 Will this work with a 550 watt PSU, with the cooler? Though, if my problem is a hard drive related one, I might hold off on buying a video card. I might buy a new PSU, like a 1000 or 1200 watt in the future though.
Sometimes it's true, other times it's marketing BS. Some games run better on certain cards. It's nothing you should pay attention to, if that's what you're asking. This thing is powerful, but it will probably sound like a leafblower.
All the time it's marketing BS. Make sure your PSU can handle it. 550Watt is minimum unless it's Corsair PSU AND make sure the PSU has two PCI-e power connectors on it.
Oh yeah...if your 550w isn't a crappy one is what I meant. Your not SLIing or anything so I think you'll live.
A 550w is definatly going to be enough as long as its not el-cheapo or generic and even if it doesn't have pci-e x16 power connectosr and you need one or two then you should get away with using a molex to pci-e x16 power cable. That is a good card to go for and it may or may not be a bit loud since i've read people saying its louder than other 4870's as well as 3870's ..etc but i've also read people saying its quieter than other 4870's.
lol, my old PC sounded like a Leaf Blower (and still does) I just use headphones anyway. Hmm. My PSU came with my case. Not sure how stout it is. I'll probably get another just to be safe, and I'll get one with two PCI-e power connectors, too. Mine probably doesn't have that. This looks like a good one, and a good deal, too http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006 BTW, I've never searched for coolers before, and I'm not sure what type would fit in my case. I've got tubes for water cooling on the back, but I don't really like the idea of having flowing water inside my PC. I've got lots of room for fans though.:dance:
