Video Card Upgrades

[W1nTry]

So yeah, i've been eyeing some sweet video muscle lately and more or less those are the options. Now note, with these upgrades will require new mobo AND PSU. And of course think ahead to DX10 coming and SLI or Xfire may be wanted later on. So the situation goes like this...

I buy a new mobo and PSU for around 280USD (combined price) now do I take a decent mainstream card like the X1950Pro which has the new Xfire dual uplink int. It also score around 5000+ in 3DMark06 and plays ALL current games at 1280x1024 @ >30 FPS with FSAA and Ansio (and in some cases HDR, something Nvidia can't do atm simultaneously) or do I put out 70USD more and go 7950GT which undoubtedly will give me a good few more FPS? Is the performance increase significant enough to warrant 70USD more? Also take into account I may want to sell the card when a suitable DX10 replacement is affordable...so putting out >300USD for a card NOW seems a lil bit wasteful...

On the other hand I could say DX10 MC and go for X1950XTX or 7900GTX... however SLI/Xfire with such high priced parts would require me to sell an apendage or such, so that'd be it ftw. With either the X1950Pro and 7950GT SLI/Xfire is still a possibility in a years time. So... do I go affordable and think of Xfire with the X1950Pro? or do I up the ante somewhat and go 7950GT (inherently that would mean 70+whatever at time for SLI) more than the alternative.

[.:Jedi:.]

I woulda tell u to get the 7900GTO but like they sold out.....forever! Good thing i got mine early. The X1950XTX is a good card but it doesnt out perform the X1900XTX by that much. If the lawnmower fan on the 1900 cards dont bother u then u should get one. The fan on my X1900XT was soooo loud (and i thought a Tt volcano was loud). Then again, the X1950Pro seems to use a different cooler. The X1950Pro seems like a pretty good deal to me..... Go for it!!

[W1nTry]

DAMN YOU @ 7900GTO... sighs Iman self recommended and put it up on gatt, well at least someone benefitted from that post. LOL. So I see yuh voted X19050XTX... well I figure the X1950Pro is prolly a best case since its a temporary solution citing the soon to be release G80 and following R600. I play most games on 1280x1024 so this card should be fine ftw. plus @ 400USD I get Xfire (by then less if I don't change the card altogether) and get a healthy performance boost.

[Crixx_Creww]

i say mellow yuh mc an wait till end of year

wait for new nforce and see what dx 10 is coming by say feb before plopping out yuh change

thats what iam gonna do

eyeing a e6400 or e 6600 and nforce mobo by end of year and then waiting for some dx 10 goodness before i decide on card

which psu do yu have in mind? ocz?

[W1nTry]

Full upgrade too costly, just mobo and vid ftw. As for PSU, yeah an OCZ 600W. If I keep waiting, i'll be doing exactly that, waiting. It's like when I bought meh Core Duo laptop. Sure I could have waited and gotten a Core 2 Duo laptop, but then i'd not have been able to do alot of work. So whilst I know waiting does allow for cost savings, it also keeps u waiting.

[Arcmanov]

Some nice choices there, but a lil pricey.  I have opted instead for a 7900 GS, which will give performance numbers akin to that of a 7900 GT, but for much less.  I wonder how the 7900 GS compares against the X1950Pro? (at the same price point)

*Goes back to Tom's Hardware VGA charts*

This will be my final upgrade before AM2 and a DX10 card.  By that time they would have worked out all the bugs from Vista.

[TriniXaeno]

7950 get's my vote.

From what I have seen with my 7900, that chews up all the games on the market today and spit's em out.

No longer have a need for speed with that card.

Haven't played with the x1950 pro to appreciate the difference with simultaneous fsaa/aniso/hdr but my games look plenty pretty as is.

Either way, you can't go wrong.

I won't spend the money for the top tier cards as someone already pointed out...the difference in performance isn't worth the $$. Only a consideration if you're looking for bragging rights or won lotto. lol

[W1nTry]

The X1950Pro is comparable to the 7900GS although the reviews i've read suggest that they give the upper hand to the X1950Pro vs. The 7900GS. The framrates in most games are within 10 fps of each other with FSAA, Ansio, HDR, etc. However the image quality on the ATI card is better and it has more features. It can also do Xfire without a master card and has a dual bridge config (new to ATI and coincidentally G80 will have similar when it arrives). Whats interesting to me is that a 12 pipe card performs as well as a 20pipe card... and the frequencies aren't THAT far apart...
X1950Pro - 12 Pipeline (36 shader units) 580MHz core 1400MHz mem
7900GS - 20 Pipeline 500MHz Core 1380MHz mem
Apparently the X1950Pro also draws less power @ idle AND under full load (80nm part).
Can anyone give an indication of the performance difference between a 7900GS and a 7900GT/7950GT?

[Arcmanov]

Well, according to the many benchmarks that I have seen, the 7900 GS doesnt quite match the 7900 GT in terms of raw performance (at least at stock speeds), but its almost comparable, and with proper OCing, the 7900 GS can actually attain (stock) GT levels.  It may not be advisable to run it that way all the time though.

[.:Jedi:.]

.... So I see yuh voted X19050XTX...

Jed is a mistake i make there yes! LOL. I meant to vote for the 1950pro...
The 7900GS is a little slower that the GT model but like Arc said, can perform as well as or even better than the GT model under proper overclocking. Still.....i say X1950Pro

[Spazosaurus]

Crysis...Crysis...That's just there at the front of mind right through...wondering how well the current gen will fear against the g80's in that game. My vote goes to waiting until g80 and Crysis arrives to at least see what the numbers look like and if its worth it. Based on what I see then, i'll make a decision.

[TrinireturnofGamez]

What you running with now winnie? I would recommend you wait till next year for DX10 cards,   for one i can tell you no game now needs or deserves anything more than a 9800 pro except oblivion , there is no big title like Half Life 2 to blow your socks off till next year . The only thing i see around the corner right now is Neverwinter Nights 2..
   
 If you are getting a card now , i'd recommend an ATI.. going from Nvidia to ATI i can tell you theres a big difference, overclocking is built into drivers and UNDER WARRANTY! (once you don't pass safe clocks) Better IQ and better performance with IQ on , better performance in future games likely as they are much better at shading , and as every game from now will be using HDR it will make a big difference.
  X1950 pro is a great buy for 200 ish , you shouldn't really spend more on a video card now seeing as it will be obselete very soon.

[W1nTry]

Oh did I mention there is an Asus X1950Pro selling for 170USD... out of stock atm but just thought i'd mention that since it's hella attractive at that price point. Oh and the mobo I was eyeing drop to 99USD after mail in rebate (will have pplz in US order it for me so they get the rebate). Upgrading getting more and more attractive, though xmas there should be some more sales so those figures may drop even more... time will tell.

[Prowl]

The x1900gt and 7900gt are basically equal cards, the x1950 pro is just a tinge faster than the x1900gt in some areas so for real world use a 7900gt and it are also equal. Where both ati cards show their virtue is playing with more ( only just a little ) more eye candy turned on than the Nvidia cards with the same frame rates. Where Ati fails is power/ heat vs the Nvidia cards ( but only by a little ). Do consider that dx10 is basically here, so unless you have a 5200 I would wait for dx10.

[W1nTry]

Actually this card (as I mentioned before) is a 80nm part, so it generate less heat at idle AND full load. I would expect it requires less power as well. That aside, reasonably priced DX10 cards aren't due out till next year. R600 is scheduled for Q1 07 so DEFINITELY no affordable mainstream DX10 parts till then. That's a long time to wait don't ya think? besides when that time comes i'll have to upgrade the mobo and PSU anyways... 1 more thing, can anyone confirm that Crysis will even run on WinXP? or is it a Vista only thing? the way I see it, there is no DX10 for XP and Crysis is a DX10 game... so how we doing this?

[Prowl]

I saw the tests of the x1900gt vs the x1950 pro, my version of the 1900gt only runs 1 fps slower, 3-5 c hotter and 10w more power than the x1950 pro. The 7900gt uses 20-25w less power and runs 5-10c cooler than my x1900gt, meaning the 7900gt is still cooler and less power hungry than the 1950.

as for waiting, like I said, unless your card is uber slow wait! if your card is uber slow then you have to upgrade.

Humm no dx10 for xp, I'm sure someone will hack that! I hope!

[W1nTry]

Well honestly meh card isn't that slow, X800XT AIW. But its part of the change to PCIe platform... hence the change of card too. On a side note, I was gonna post this in it's own topic, but i'll put it here. There is supposed to be an AGP X1950Pro card with clock for clock speeds with its PCIe kin. So 580Core 1400Mem. I am sure it wil perform comparably to its PCIe brother and will bring Avivo to the AGP platform, and it will prolly be the FASTEST AGP card to date (prolly ever after that). Its just something to think about. No Xfire of course.

[Arcmanov]

Crysis WILL run on XP, however, Crytek said that the playing experience will only be fully realised on Windows Vista.
Of course I'll just download a copy when it comes out to gauge its performance.  Only then I'll decide if I'm buying it.

[TriniXaeno]

Yeah, of course Crysis will run on XP.

Only a fool would release a million dollar budget game on VISTA only. That is financial suicide.

that $170 prices looks sweet indeed w1ntry. Been seeing some interesting price drops online recently.

Like the amazing 7600 GTS for US$115.00

WOW. A mid range dream of a price/performer.

[.:Jedi:.]

.....Only a fool would release a million dollar budget game on VISTA only. That is financial suicide.....

hmmmmm Bill Gates? Halo 2 for pc spose to be vista only ent? LOL. But the GTS for $115 perfect for a friend i know comin from a 6600GT.....i'll check it out for him