8800 GT, PCI E 2.0, and my motherboard

gazaway

I highly recommend that 8800 GT. Especialy if you do wait till jan or feb. The PCI-E 2.0 is backward compatible and will work in your pci-e slot on that mobo. As far as the cpu upgrade, you may see a difference if you multi-task while gaming, or play any multi-thread optimized games. I would recommend the upgrade (especially since the x2's are cheap.)

rimmer

Suberb ! And as a side note, I have a 600 Watt Thermaltake toughpower, so I shouldn't have a power supply limitation.

I am wanting to keep this box going until at least 2009, then I may consider a completely new system. Do you think with a Dual Core 4200+ (Possibly a little overclocking ) and 2GB of RAM (4 x 512MB Sticks, of the exact same stuff) and a *Decent* DirectX 10 8800 GT 512MB Graphics card (again, maybe a little overclocking ) , do you people think I will still be able to run games in sayyy... 3 years time?

Thanks for the suggestion and answering my PCI E 2.0 backward compatibility question

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gazaway

You should definitely be able to run games, with a couple of limitations.
First off, an X2 4200+ is not a very good processor. It can bottleneck your awesome video card quite easily.
Here is a really good resource for you to check out. It is a chart of some benchmarks for almost every proc available. For the AM2 socket I would recommend the FX-62.
The other limitation is that the new Directx10.1 is coming out and actually has quite a few updates to it. The update is hardware required and the 8800 series will not have that. ATI has a new "8800 GT killer" coming out soon that you may want to watch for the HD3800 will supposedly be a mid-priced card with high-price capability like the new 8800 GT.

Edit: I forgot u were running a 939... So an X2 4200+ would be the best you could get... Which means if you want something that will last a few years you may want to go ahead and get that 8800 GT then think about getting an AM2 or 775 socket mobo and proc.

Wildcard

Hi,

One other thing to watch out for is that direct x 10, according to microsoft, is "never" going to be backwards compatible( ie with windows 2k or xp), and the only way to get it is to use Windows Vista. So three years from now, if you want to play the newer games, you will probably need to upgrade from XP home as well

gazaway

True, but it appears as they are going to include DirectX 9.0c compatibility with most of the newest releases. That means you will miss some of the pretties, but you will still get a dang good looking game without having to overcompensate on your hardware.

rimmer

Hi, and thanks for replies, as for the CPu part, yes I knew my CPu would be the bottleneck, but not by a huge amount, the best I can get at a realistic price.

As for the OS side of things, I am going to have XP Home on my 320GB and buy a Samsung spinpoint 160GB and have Vista Ultimate x64 on there.

Do you think its worth me waiting for this DX 10.1 hardware update? Theres no rush for me, I'm not buying anything until early new year time.

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gazaway

I would wait to see how the new HD3800 (I think that's the new series) turn out to be. That card is supposed to be 10.1 compatible and also mid-ranged priced. If it performs around par with the new 8800GT then go for it.

rimmer

I have been looking into the 3800 HD Series, it seems they are making that 3850, and a sooped up, higher clocked version called the 3870. I think I'd be better off with the HD 3850, if the price is a considerably fair amount lower than the 8800GT, and the performance is more or less the same, if not better, I will be able to afford that slight performance drop, because of the rest of my PC.

I havn't had an ATi card for a very long time, in fact the last one I had was a nice humble, passively cooled Radeon 7000 VE Series, with 64MB of VRAM. I have heard ATi have more problems with their software and drivers than nVIDIA, is this correct? I don't want to buy a card from a company if they simply drop the support and can't be arsed fixing issues where some games may get low framerate / funny colours or other graphical defects.

Like I say, I do hope this PC lasts ne till '09, and even if I have to turn graphics to the low/medium section, I want to still be able to play the majority of new software.

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gazaway

It is true that lately ATI has sucked when it comes to drivers... The reason for this being crossfiring driviers. They have been focusing on getting that running correctly. That just means you use an older driver (say two months old - they come out with a new one around once a month.)

rimmer

Just a guess... what price, in Brittish pounds £ do you think the HD 3850 will be in february time? Just a guess...

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Pimp

Hello

I think you should go for the 3870 as its cheaper then the 8800GT (on overclockers UK £170) and its also next gen card with DX10.1 and a 55nm processor which is why i am thinking of getting this card. You should really think about it and wait to see what others say about this 3870 and see if its better then the 8800GT

rimmer

I may, yes, in february I will give myself a budget of £150 for a graphic card, or if I have it to blow, £200, so what have I got to lose ?

Hope the ATi drivers are A-OK, many stories I have heard about ATi's past, and drivers :S

nVIDIA FTW in that section... But bang for buck, I think ATi have a good chance here.

Just a little side question, my motherboard has a nFORCE 430 Chip, does that mean it will accellarate the performance with a nVIDIA GeForce card, or am I still better off going with an ATi HD 3850/3870?

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gazaway

It wont accelerate, but it MAY be more stable/compatible. There are always stories of it, but I don't believe them personally. Looking at your mobo I see that you've got a micro atx form factor. That may affect your decision as I haven't seen any pictures of the new 3850 and it may be a dual slot gpu. If you have some peripherals in your PCIs you may want to consider that the 8800 GT is a single slot solution and the 38xx may not be.

rimmer

Hi, thanks for reply, and consideration there. I have NO PCI DEVICES and have NO intention of using the PCI-E x1 slot, I MAY get a PCI Sound card, but to put in the bottom, lowest PCI slot of the 2. As for my case, I am using a Full ATX one, and yes, a mATX board. From the DVI/VGA plugs to the hard drive rack, there is a space of 27cm, so therefore my graphics card cannot exceed that amount of space. An 8800GTS would fit, and a GTX would just about squeeze in. There is no reason why these 38xx HDs should be too big, as they are manufactured on a 55nm process.

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