Im just about to build myself a new PC, a 3000 Athlon 64, with the motherboard supporting DDR 400 memory and 800 Mhz FSB.
Trouble is what graphics card?
I'm thinking of either a Connect 3d 9800 Pro 128 MB or a Geforce FX5700 256 Mb which seems to have better speeds on the VPU and memory, 450 Core and 800 Mhz Mem (I have read that they can clock the memory up to 950 Mhz!!!!!!), yet the 5700 seems to cheap for what looks like such a decent card.
Can anyone say which card is better from experience?
Does the 5700 have really good speeds but not enough VPU power to make use of them?
I had the same confusion, when it was in put into perspective though, the decision is easy
The FX 5700 (And ultra) is a mid-range card.
The 9800 Pro is a high-end card.
I chose the 9800 and heres what i can do:
Play UT 2004 at maximum res, maximum details, 4x Anti aliasing and 4x anisotropic filtering (smooth framerate ) (With a PC crappier than yours =P)
Play Halo at 1152x864 Max Settings, (I think you can bump it to 1280x1024 but cos halo is totally unoptimized it runs slow at 1600x1200 even with worse gfx than UT 2004)
Farcry: 4x Anti aliasing, 16x Anisotropic filtering, 1024x768 Maximum detail (again) Im gonna push it more methinks by upping the res.
Call of duty: 1280x1024 - 4x AA, 8xAF on stalin grad (40 Soliders per boat x 15 boats )
These are all the latest and greatest games. My friend has a 5700 Ultra and can only play UT 2004 at 1152x864 with 4xAA and 8xAF
The stats speak for themselves (these are all settings i use)
The GeForceFX 5700 should be compared with the Radeon 9600PRO/XT cards ... while GeForceFX5900/5950 should be compared with Radeon 9800PRO/XT. In most cases though Radeon cards perform better than GeForceFX cards and often deliver better image quality (same can be found the other way around but Radeon cards lead a 66-33 or 75-25% against GeForceFX).
Except maybe for FarCry no games can use 256 mb ram on the graphic card. So 128 is adequate. When 256 mb is really necessary (doom3/hl2?) you may need a new card anyway (GeForce 6800/ATI X800 or beyond).
Radeon 9800's aren't as invincible as everyone says. They do bad at high resolutions . I heard the latest Geforce model was killer at higher resolutions.
Doesn't really matter anyway. From what I've seen, the only good game with superb 3D graphics is Mafia and the Max Payne series. Though I might have to re-think that when HL 2 comes out.
You could get a Radeon 9800 for quite a low price around here. Forgot how low, but it's nothing close to £120. Wait a min... is that a Euro sign or a pound? Damn European currencies all look the same to me
Disclaimer: Any sarcasm in my posts will not be mentioned as that would ruin the purpose. It is assumed that the reader is intelligent enough to tell the difference between what is sarcasm and what is not.
daveyc PC people havent changed jumpers the last 10 years or so ... its now a days called "Plug and Play" which actually works. We all remember the beginner troubles that gave the nick name "Plug and Pray". But thats how all new technology is introduced.
Muz if you believe Mafia ( DX8 ) and Maxpayne (DX8/DX9) delivers the best graphics, you are wrong. Painkiller, FarCry and other new games deliver much improved scenery ... if you have the computer. You said good games, allright ... Painkiller is to me a good game ... FarCry is a mixed bag of stuff ...
most newer games are going to be optimized for nvidia cards anyway... a geforce 4 mx 440 card with 512mb ram and 1.6ghz proc can run HL2 at medium settings, because valve is going pure nvidia with this one.
Edit: ATI has all those fancy shader supports and stuff, which oddly wont be in doom3 or hl2, but they render better at 1280x1028 or less, any higher and they display crappy, inconsistent graphics, GForceFX series is all you really need, alot of the newest shader support, hi-res support, fast frame-rate, if your gonna make pixar quality movies, ati is your best choice, but for gaming and game creation, your gonna want a nvidia card, its been benchmarked too, ati out-performed graphics quality on shading examples, nvidia out-performed ati cards at polygon renders, (10,000 poly models were tested.) geforce FX 5900 265mb vs ati radeon all in wonder 9800 pro 256 mb were the tested cards, they were on the site of a popular benchmark software company, 3dmark I think.
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"Everytime you use Kazaa, a metallica band member dies a little."
Quote Jonathon Smeby.
Just as a help in general, you could go to my fathers site...
I think it's:
www.pc-craftsman.com
that should be it.
I don't think that will help with gfx cards, but I
know it will help everywhere else!
-Above post is ancient and probably irrelevant-
An old account of mine, recently cleared out. It's a blast to the past, the age was marked as 14 when I found it. If you know where to look, you can track me. Au revoir.
Echisketch you are wrong, Nvidia are not the best gfx card manufacturers, they are the best for the money you pay. The Radeon X800 figures (using PCI express) wipe the floor with the current Geforce range...Also the last Nvidea card i had was a Geforce 2 GTS (what i belive your card is based on) and the image quality was not a patch on ATi cards i have had...
And DooM 3 is specifically made for ATi 9800's so i dont know how it will run faster on geforce cards .
Hagartech: i currently have a motherboard with 800MHZ FSB, DRR400 etc 256mb ram, 40gb HD, 1 fan, 128MB AGP elsa Falcox Radeon 920fx card, 2.6ghz CPU and a 48x48x24 CD burner.
im planning on getting an extra 512mb RAM, DVD Burner, Extra fan, and a 260GB HD.
i currently have a 350W PSU, would i need something bigger to be able to handle all that?
I would seriously recommend a bigger PSU , a 350W will probably struggle and cuase strange crashes due to there being not enough power available. The AGP port can suck up 45 Watts on its own, if i remember right .
A lot of PC problems are due to the power supply not being up to the job .
If the PSU is of decent quality 350W is sufficient.
I myself own a 350W PSU that came with my Chieftec kabinet. Ive got AMD Athlon XP 3000+ cpu and motherboard, 512 mb DDR ram, Radeon 9600 PRO graphics card, SoundBlaster Live 1024 sound card, 52x cdrom drive, 4 harddrives (160BG+160+120+40), floppy drive, Pinnacle PC TV Stereo (Tv card with tuner), Pinnacle DV500 PLUS videoediting board and 3 fans.
And I dont have troubles.
Even a 300W PSU of decent quality can supply any computer with one cpu, graphics card up to 5950FX or Radeon 9800XT, any amount of ram, up to 4 IDE devices (HD/CD), a sound and network card, and still have room to spare.
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(The store had a 1 day offer)
. I heard the latest Geforce model was killer at higher resolutions.
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