Confused, need help... Please...

Discussion in 'Video Cards, Displays and TV Tuners' started by Resonance456, Jul 14, 2006.

  1. Merlin

    Merlin Geek Trainee

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    Resonance can you say, just to clear up, if you have AGP or PCIe. If you do have AGP it maynot be wise to upgrade you graphics card at the moment if you want to be using Vista or DX10 graphics cards. I say this becuase I have a question, is anyone 100% sure DX10 cards will be released for AGP?
     
  2. Willz

    Willz MiCrO$oFt $uK$ :D

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    There proberbly will be some cards that are Direct X 10 released for AGP, but they wont be High end cards, i dont even think there are any DX10 cards coming out untill september. I wouldent get the 7800GS, i would look around for an Ati Radeon X850XT PE, there almost as powerfull as the 7800GS, they can actually beat the 7800GS in some games i belive, also you proberbly could pick an X850XT PE up for around £100-£140 and look at the 7800GS, £190-£270, so the performance gain from the 7800GS if any is not really worth the money, the only downside to an X850XT PE or any X8XX Series card from ATi is, there is no SM3.0, most modern games require SM3.0 to use HDR in there games (High Dynamic Range), this makes light more realistic, sometimes too light, but games like Half Life 2 and NFSMW can use HDR on X8XX cards. A 7800 or X8XX Series card wont last you another 3 years, i would say more like 1-2 years, but not 3, then one of those cards will be like what an FX5200 graphics card is like now lol. If your going to Be playing games like F.E.A.R, Battlefield 2, Oblivion, 2GB of ram will help and will proberbly improve in game performance by quite abit. When Direct X 10 comes out, if you are using Windows XP, a Direct X 10 card in windows XP will still work, just you wont be able to use any Direct X 10 fetures, in Windows Vista, any Direct X 9 card, or Direct X 9 game will run on a version of direct x called Direct X 9.0L i belive, i dont know exatly what L is, maybe a cut down version of C?, but it's really annoying that to play games at a decent rate that are Direct X 10 your going to have to go out and Blow alot fo money on a direct x 10 card :\
     
  3. Resonance456

    Resonance456 Geek Trainee

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    i thought i already answered that lol... i have an agp 8x gfx card atm, i also have some pci-e slots available to upgrade tp a pci-e gfx card.

    ^^ some one help me there lol?
     
  4. Merlin

    Merlin Geek Trainee

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    Vista will support DirectX 9 graphics cards. Directx 9L is going to be released to allow the use of Vista.

    What are your system specs & what PSU do you have now?
     
  5. Willz

    Willz MiCrO$oFt $uK$ :D

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    Ok, you have an AGP graphics card, you dont have a PCI-E slot, PCI and PCI-E are very different, so use a PCI-E graphics card your going to have to buy a new motherboard. There are a few motherboards, well dunno about a few, that have 1 AGP and 1 PCI-E slot on, there preety rare, i havent seen any.

    Also you wont need a 700Watt power supply, you need to buy a power supply thats from a decent name, eg Hiper, Tagen, Akasa, Seasonic, Enermax, Antec, its not the wattage that is important, its the +12V rails you should be looking at, eg 17A in a power supply with a single +12V aint gonna cut it at all, i have dual +12v rails, 18A/20A, thats preety good and adds up to 38A, on single 12v rails i would think 29+A on a single 12v rail is ok, but a 400 or 500watt power supply from any of those brands i listed are good enough.



    Also merlin, yea i know DX9 will be supported, but using a Direct X 9 card with a Direct X 10 game wont give the full potential of the game.
     
  6. Resonance456

    Resonance456 Geek Trainee

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    ummm, kinda confusing lol - could you post up some links to where i may find these good psu's?? this is the PSU I have found my self, is this any good:

    Antec NeoHE 500 GB 500W Power Supply

    Also, i need some additional help, i have found 2 gfx cards and i was just wandering if someone could tell me which is the better:

    Asus Extreme N7800GTX/2DHTV GeForce 7800 GTX 256MB PCI-E Dual DVI Graphics Card

    or

    Club 3D GeForce 7900GT 256MB GDDR3 256bit PCI Express Graphic Card

    thnx a lot so far guys, very much appreciated :D you've all been ver patient *thumbs up*
     
  7. izzy007

    izzy007 Big Geek

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  8. Willz

    Willz MiCrO$oFt $uK$ :D

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    it doesent matter how many watts it has on the 12V rail, well it will up to a certain degree, but its the Amps that are the most important thing of all!

    The 7900GT out of your selection is the best graphics card althought i would try looking for a 512mb version, but they usually cost alot more, dont forget if you buy that graphics card and keep your current motherboard it wont work, your going to have to get a new motherboard if you want PCI-E as you motherboard is AGP.
     
  9. izzy007

    izzy007 Big Geek

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    yes i know it doesnt matter bout watts, but its only the 12v rail that has 456watt alone, it also from a good manufacturer so it will give true figures and if u want to know how many amps it has altogether on the 12v rails, it is 51amps
     
  10. Big B

    Big B HWF Godfather

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    Make sure you're not confusing those PCIe slots with something else.

    Are those PCIe slots x1 or the x16 ones? Reason I ask is because if their x1, then we have a couple of problems:
    1.)PCIe x1 slots don't accept x16 PCIe cards
    2.)ACR, CNR and AMR slots are also short, but are typically brown.
    3.)AGP and PCIe x1 slots are typically not found on the same motherboard together.
     
  11. Resonance456

    Resonance456 Geek Trainee

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    ^^^ help please lol, is that a good psu --->> Antec NeoHE 500 GB 500W Power Supply??

    well i definatley have an AGP 8x and I could've sworn i had a PCI-e slot, but, i am looking to upgrade my mother board any ways. this is my current motherboard (MSI K8MM-V):

    MSI K8MMV Motherboard- Find, Compare, and Buy MSI K8MMV Motherboard at PC Magazine
     
  12. Willz

    Willz MiCrO$oFt $uK$ :D

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    someone has allreasy answerd your question about the PSU, they said its good, and yes it is good, get it, its made by Antec, there a preety good company too. Nope, your mobo deffenitly does not have PCI-E slots, you have 3 PCI slots.
     
  13. Merlin

    Merlin Geek Trainee

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    What are your full system specs? You may be able to get away from having to get a new PSU. Also, if you have an ancient PC it may not be worth getting a high end graphics card. Specs please so we can give you the best advice ;)
     
  14. Resonance456

    Resonance456 Geek Trainee

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    thnx, i really wood like the best advice :D... basically, this is my specs, i dnt know the little details such as RAM make or PSU make/power outtage which i know my be a problem, other than that, this is what i do know:

    MSI K8MM-V motherboard
    AMD Athlon 64bit 3000+ @ 2.00ghz
    1024 RAM (1gb)
    Nvidia GeForce 6600 256 mb
    VIA AC'97 Enhanced Audio Controller (sound card i think lol - onboard)
     
  15. Big B

    Big B HWF Godfather

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    Yeah, that motherboard does not have PCIe slots. The little brown slot is an AMR/CNR/ACR slot (it failed because of proprietary cards that were provided by each motherboard manufacturer).
     
  16. Merlin

    Merlin Geek Trainee

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    Looking at your currents specs they are not that bad, what games are you playing/want to play?

    If I were in your shoes I would sit tight and wait untill DirectX 10 & Vista comes out and then do a full system upgrade. The reason for this is that (im pretty sure) you have an AMD socket 754 mobo which only has 3 ram slots, and can only support dual channel in two of the slots. This obviously limits the ammount of ram you can have operating in dual channel. If you were to upgrade your graphics card now to play the latest games, then you would probally need another gig of ram to go with it. But to get 2Gb of ram in dual channel would mean you have to buy two new sticks of ram as well (2X1Gb), this is your problem.
     
  17. Resonance456

    Resonance456 Geek Trainee

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    Atm I am playing games like HL2/CS:S (full specs), COD2, Oblivion (Medium-ish specs). I would love to play the latters on full.
    In addition, I do have a socket 754 mobo but I only have 2 RAM slots.
    Will all current mobos support dx 10 gfx cards etc etc??

    Thnx alot all the help so far has been really helpful :good:
     
  18. Willz

    Willz MiCrO$oFt $uK$ :D

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    Yes all motherboards with support DX10 Cards, its just the operating system, you WILL need vista to use Direct X10, you will need a direct X 10 card to use Direct x 10 fetures, but a Direct X 9 card will play Direct X 10 games in Vista, using DX9.0L, but you wont get all the fetures, Decent DX10 graphics cards will proberbly cost alot, so if you have money to burn, wait untill the ATi Radeon X1950XTX, apparently it will compete with the G80 for some times, it's going to use 2ghz GDDR4 memory, dont know about if its direct x 10 tho, but i wouldent wait untill Direct x 10 cards if you have plenty of money to burn :)
     
  19. Resonance456

    Resonance456 Geek Trainee

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    Umm ok, I see... well I don't exactly have money to burn so i may just wait for the DX10 cards and save money for the time being. BUT just to clarify, any motherboard can support DX10, so I can buy a RELLY good motherboard now and it will support DX10 when it comes out in the future?? This is the same for the RAM and other components too right??
     
  20. Merlin

    Merlin Geek Trainee

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    I have read that the new Nvidia G80 (directX 10 card) will not be released in AGP. IBM, who make nvidias AGP bridge chips have stopped making them as you can see in this link IBM to stop making AGP bridge chip for Nvidia? - Neoseeker News Article. So it looks like the nvidia 7xxx series is the last to be released in AGP. So the chances are that your motherboard wont be able to support DirectX10 cards.
     

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