Eddage Posted September 17, 2007 Posted September 17, 2007 Ok guys, as the title suggests I need a new Graphics card! My birthday is in just over a week and I have decided that I'm gonna ask for a new Graphics card, with a total of £200 available to spend. I've heard mention of the 8800GTS on these boards and after a click looksie on Ebuyer came across this one. All the reviews seem great on the site so I'm guessing it is a fairly beefy card which should serve me well for the time being! The rest of my system is as follows... Motherboard: Asus P5B CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo 6400 (currently overclocked from 2.13GHz to about 2.75GHz) Ram: 2047 MB Hard Drive: 250GB SATAII 16mb cache If I were to get the card above then would I need to update anything else (I'm thinking motherboard if anything), because if I do then I'll buy that at the same time with my own monies! Cheers for any help folks.
Caris Posted September 17, 2007 Posted September 17, 2007 8800GTS is the only card to go with at the moment. The only thing you might need to upgrade is the PSU. Everything else will be fine.
Eddage Posted September 17, 2007 Author Posted September 17, 2007 Ah yes, I forgot about the PSU! At the moment I've only got a 450 Watt one that came with the case. What sort of wattage would I need?
Apple_NdiB Posted September 17, 2007 Posted September 17, 2007 I have the SuperClocked variant of that card - http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=0&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=125117 which just about shaves into your budget, if you're looking for a little extra punch for your pounds it's the one for you.
Eddage Posted September 17, 2007 Author Posted September 17, 2007 Could I not overclock it myself though and save the extra 20 squid?
Apple_NdiB Posted September 17, 2007 Posted September 17, 2007 Of course, for me overclocking is in "fucking with that which ought not be fucked" territory, but for those with the know-how it's probably a safer bet to do it yourself.
Eddage Posted September 17, 2007 Author Posted September 17, 2007 Well if I ever find that I want a bit more juice from my card (which is doubtful for the foreseeable future) then I shall just overclock it myself!
McPhee Posted September 17, 2007 Posted September 17, 2007 What card have you got at the moment? If you go with the 8800GTS then buy the card first, no point buying a new PSU if you don't need it. If its a shop bought unit then you likely will need a new PSU, if its a custom build with a good quality 450W PSU that has a PCI-E power connector then you should be able to get away with it and upgrade the PSU later On the power supply front i'd recommend the Corsair HX, OCZ StealthXStream/GameXStream Antec NeoHe
Fresh Posted September 18, 2007 Posted September 18, 2007 8800GTS is fantasic to overclock, pushed mine to above GTX speeds.
Guest Jordan Posted September 18, 2007 Posted September 18, 2007 My 8800 GTS came pre overclocked (well beyond 8800 GTX speeds). I highly recommend that you get it overclocked, it just means things will run smoother. This morning, i tried the TF2 beta. Ran everything (even extended HDR) at 1400X900 solid ran at 90fps. Can't argue with that, can you?
Slaggis Posted September 18, 2007 Posted September 18, 2007 Why is there not a graphics card thread? One should me made and then stickied or whatever it's called.
Guest Jordan Posted September 18, 2007 Posted September 18, 2007 I dunno... i guess McPhee could do it. But he is a very busy lad, plus i have alot of my own stuff at work. If i have nothing to do one afternoon, i'll do it.
Slaggis Posted September 18, 2007 Posted September 18, 2007 I dunno... i guess McPhee could do it. But he is a very busy lad, plus i have alot of my own stuff at work. If i have nothing to do one afternoon, i'll do it. Alright, that would probably help people needing to make threads like this too. I would make one, but I'm not very "in the know" about graphics cards, I know the basics, but nothing more.
Guest Jordan Posted September 18, 2007 Posted September 18, 2007 http://www.inno3d.com/products/graphic_card/gf8/8800gts_oc.htm < My card, for reference and incase you wanna pick it up. Only it seems they don't do a 640mb OC version anymore. Fail. Now i can't SLi. Highly recommended.
Eddage Posted September 18, 2007 Author Posted September 18, 2007 What card have you got at the moment? If you go with the 8800GTS then buy the card first, no point buying a new PSU if you don't need it. If its a shop bought unit then you likely will need a new PSU, if its a custom build with a good quality 450W PSU that has a PCI-E power connector then you should be able to get away with it and upgrade the PSU later On the power supply front i'd recommend the Corsair HX, OCZ StealthXStream/GameXStream Antec NeoHe After actually having a look in my computer (was too lazy to do so earlier!) I have discovered that this one so hopefully that will be ok?! My 8800 GTS came pre overclocked (well beyond 8800 GTX speeds). I highly recommend that you get it overclocked, it just means things will run smoother. This morning, i tried the TF2 beta. Ran everything (even extended HDR) at 1400X900 solid ran at 90fps. Can't argue with that, can you? Is it simple enough to overclock it myself though, because I don't really wanna spend the extra £35 (I found the 640 Inno3D one here and it costs £215 compared to the £179 card which I mentioned in my first post).
Eddage Posted September 20, 2007 Author Posted September 20, 2007 Bumpage. K guys, so final thoughts is the overclocked version really worth the extra money over the standard one? Also will my current PSU be sufficient or will I have to shell out for an extra one? My birthday is in 6 days now so really wanna get it ordered!
Slaggis Posted September 20, 2007 Posted September 20, 2007 There's now a thread for all this sort of stuff "components thread". (not saying this thread should be closed, just mentioning incase people haven't seen it)
Apple_NdiB Posted September 20, 2007 Posted September 20, 2007 Bumpage. K guys, so final thoughts is the overclocked version really worth the extra money over the standard one? Also will my current PSU be sufficient or will I have to shell out for an extra one? My birthday is in 6 days now so really wanna get it ordered! The first card you linked to isn't overclocked, the 8800gts comes in two flavours, 320 and 640MB, and that's a 640. Bare in mind the size of your monitor, if it's above 22" then go for that one, but at resolutions of 1600 x 1200 or below, or anti-aliasing settings 6x and under the 320MB card will do just as well or in some cases better. I have a similar system to you with the GPU I linked to earlier, and my 3Dmark06 scores are between 9330 and 9360, that's pretty good for a card that cost under 200 quid.
Fresh Posted September 20, 2007 Posted September 20, 2007 Bloddy hell 8800GTS has dropped in price since i got mine, alas the world of computers.
Guest Jordan Posted September 21, 2007 Posted September 21, 2007 Well with the 8900 coming out later this year/early next and the price of making them going down, its inevitable.
Hellfire Posted September 21, 2007 Posted September 21, 2007 I want to get a graphics card too, when I have the money, but I've heard that DX10 cards are slower than DX9 cards. I have a A8N-SLI Premium motherboard, an AMD 64 3700+, 1gb DDR2 and a 256 mb X800 GT. Nothing too flashy, but I intend to update it soon.
Caris Posted September 21, 2007 Posted September 21, 2007 I want to get a graphics card too, when I have the money, but I've heard that DX10 cards are slower than DX9 cards. I have a A8N-SLI Premium motherboard, an AMD 64 3700+, 1gb DDR2 and a 256 mb X800 GT. Nothing too flashy, but I intend to update it soon. Anything below a 8800 is.
Hellfire Posted September 21, 2007 Posted September 21, 2007 Is what? Stop with the charades old man!
Recommended Posts