New graphics card

[vconor]

hi,
i was think of buying a 8800 gts 320 mb, but i dont really want one for a while now. is there any cheap graphic cards that are better than my currt graphic that u woul suggest?

[Jonny2Bad]

Just spend the money on the 8800 not much point in spending x amount on a gpu when u really want the 8800, might aswell save for another month and get what u really desire!!

[djgandy]

1950 pro...


Personally I wouldn't bother with the 8800's at the moment. Wait the 3 months for the new cards to come out.

[Taxation]

get it now, dont wait for newer stuff, otherwise u will be waiting forever

[djgandy]

get it now, dont wait for newer stuff, otherwise u will be waiting forever

I'd get the 1950 now. I wouldn't splash out on the nvidia card though. It's a year old.
I personally would wait for nvidia's new line though. They deliver products on time. When launch dates are confirmed It's a case of whether you can wait that long.
If you can wait till november then I would..
It's when people wait for unannounced tech they are dissapointed :P

[vconor]

im not really looking for the newer stuff, and ive had bad experiences with the 1950 pro so i aint goin there, ill think i will go with the 8800, will i hiper 530 w psu do?

[djgandy]

Yeh that'll be plenty of power.

[vconor]

ill buy it asap wich il be a bout 2 weeks ish hopufully :p

[wuyanxu]

i have been keeping my eyes on the BFG 8800GTS 320MB OC for quite a while now, shall order very soon :lol:

it's worth buying the 320MB now, as there's nothing between 8800 and 8600 that performs very well. even though the HD2900Pro is coming out, it is priced at 320MB, but im sure it won't perform as well as 320MB in resolutions lower than 1680x1050. so 320MB should last any gamer for at least 1 year.

[vconor]

kl. hpeflly minehould last me more than a year, i dont plan on getting vista for a while anyway, but still wanna be prepared

[wuyanxu]

ordered mine :lol: waiting for the email to go and collect at Bristol :D just need the Abit iP35 Pro motherboard to be delivered now........

(it's Novatech's fault for not stocking them :evil: they are a great board)

[vconor]

lol just get it delivered!

[wuyanxu]

nah, i live near M5 J20, and my mum is going to M5 J20's Tesco for shopping this afternoon. so i shall take a longer route and pick up my shiny new BFG 8800GTS OC. :lol: after all, she can't complain much when im driving, i'll get to any where real quick

[vconor]

lol nice one, have fun!

[wuyanxu]

got my card :lol: it's HUGE :!: and my mobo shall arrive tomorrow, so will tell you how well it performs, and overclocks.

shame no BFG T-shirt, but i love the stickers "OMGWTFBFGSAUCE!" :D

[vconor]

lol kl im only gettin the novatech branded one
how big is ur case? i had to by a new one months a go with some extra fans tfor i get mine! :P

[Jonny2Bad]

What no tshirt thats terrible send them an email and say u want your tshirt they are cool lol!!!! Yes the card is massive but in this case size really does matter!!

[wuyanxu]

good point, sending BFG an email later.

i've got an Antec p182 case, there's still lots roon in the case even with the card. the case can even old a GTX without a problem.

[vconor]

cool, u got ur new mother board yet, i wanna hear they perfom

[Jonny2Bad]

Lol didnt mean it like that but glad your case has the room still!!!!

[vconor]

i know this may sound like astupid question but how do o/c u crd, i can do it with the nvidia VDO tool that came with the drivers but i have to do it every time i turn my oc on, just wandering how to it another way if there is, not that i really want to?

[wuyanxu]

got my whole computer up and running. BFG rocks! :lol:

name almost any game and this computer can handle at maximum detail and still very smooth.
Oblivion: everything max, forced 16xAF, 8x supersample AA and FPS is still locked at 60 :P
Bioshock: everything max including Dx10, edited 16xAF in INI and still 60FPS

only game i can't max in Vista with Dx10 is World in Conflict :cry:

[vconor]

just ordered mine this mornin lol, but not the BFG just the Novatech one cant wait, gets here monday , lucky i got the free delivery thing. and i just dowloaded the MOH:airbourne demo, its on the lowest and my card cant handle it lol!

[Jonny2Bad]

oh dear forget your 8800 gts when the update sp1 comes out for vista it turns dx10 into dx10.1 which means all dx10 cards wont work anymore, gotta love microsoft heh W******. And dont worry about oc your gpu if you have a 8800 gts really no need as they rock bog standard!!

[vconor]

ahah lol, lucky i dont have vista lol, and i wasnt goi to overclock them anyway, was jsut wanderin :p

[Jonny2Bad]

Nah me either and not gonna have it now either even for crysis if i do i wont be updating to sp1 thats for sure

[vconor]

im just gonna wait till i know i can play my other games on vista, like cod2, i heard you can't play that on vista :S

[djgandy]

oh dear forget your 8800 gts when the update sp1 comes out for vista it turns dx10 into dx10.1 which means all dx10 cards wont work anymore, gotta love microsoft heh W******.

That is completely untrue.

[Jonny2Bad]

Well ive read it just about everywhere when the dx10.1 comes in it isnt compatible with dx10 cards
http://blog.pcformat.co.uk/page/pcforma ... te_already (http://blog.pcformat.co.uk/page/pcformat?entry=8800gtx_obsolete_already)
So i guess they are wrong also?

[Jonny2Bad]

I understand that the programmers have to start programming in dx10.1 b4 this actually happens but still if they do then all of us happy 8800 owners who run vista will be shot down in our prime!! Lol I know its a a time away but its still gonna happen

[djgandy]

DX10 cards won't be able to run 10.1 features, but this will be coded around.

If you make a game you want to be able to sell it to a large audience. You're not going to cripple your profits by only allowing people with the latest tech to buy it.

They say incompatible. I'm not sure what they mean by that. If it was that big of an update surely it would be called dx11?

The way i see it is if you were hardcore enough to buy an 8800 for dx10 a year before dx10 games were out then by the time 10.1 games are out you will have bought a new card anyway.

[Jonny2Bad]

Quote "They say incompatible. I'm not sure what they mean by that."
Well my understanding of the term incompatible means it wont work i may be wrong but dont think i am. It's not a big update just another ms show of arrogance towards the normal everyday consumer i guess. But like you said and i b4 you it does depend on the the developers taking it up which i dont think will happen, but still none the less dx10 cards wont work with dx10.1 software until some1 codes around it as you say!!

[djgandy]

It's shady. If a new version was "compatible" and the old cards could run all the features the new version offers then it wouldn't really be a new version.

If a game was pure dx 10.1 i guess it wouldnt work then, but chances of that are low. I doubt there are enough new features in 10.1 to make it hard work to write a 10 and 10.1 version of a game.

[Jonny2Bad]

Yes quite agree, i doubt that it will happen enuf for us to really worry, but it still would stand that if halo3 gets released on pc in pure dx10.1 only then we r all screwed, gears of war or any windows game that we all want to play could end up like that from the day they bring out the sp1, when you think of it like that it could cause more of us a problem than we 1str thought!!

[vconor]

got my new card now! very nice! i can play all my games on top settings apart from call of duty 2 ( when you change the rendering method to Dx9 :S ) and call of juarez i dont kno why

P.S my card runs a about 60 degrees C when gaming, i know its normal but i just wanna check if thats ok?
cheers

[Jonny2Bad]

Yeah thats a good temp mine idles at 60c so your doing ok, mine runs cod2 fine on top settings, strange!!

[vconor]

well all is top setting but as soom as i change it from dx 7 to dx9 goes slower with lower frame rates weird any ideas, ive update the driver and all that aswell as getting rid of all the old one

[vconor]

btw, what is the comand to put into the console to show the FPS on COD2?
and where can i download one of those cool Nvidia demos from XD

[djgandy]

well all is top setting but as soom as i change it from dx 7 to dx9 goes slower with lower frame rates weird any ideas, ive update the driver and all that aswell as getting rid of all the old one

That's because your card can't handle the DX9 graphics.

[Jonny2Bad]

Did you get a 8800 gts vconor?

[vconor]

yeh, the 320Mb, and now i tried to update to newer drivers, and it uninstalled my older ones first and now my computer is really slow when i log in and it does nothing for a few mins ( no clinking on icons link ect) then goes normal with a bit of slowness here and there, also did a system restore to before this happened and it still happen! i swear to god my pc hates me! there is always so many problems :evil:
im also running a virus scan atm just incase thats the problem.

[Jonny2Bad]

Lol thats pc's for ya. Well I would uninstall all nvidia drivers for your gpu then restart then try installing the drivers for it. I have no probs with mine and despite what djgandy says your card loves dx9 and pi**** all over any other dx9 or 10 apart frm gtx. Let me know how you get on!

[Jonny2Bad]

well all is top setting but as soom as i change it from dx 7 to dx9 goes slower with lower frame rates weird any ideas, ive update the driver and all that aswell as getting rid of all the old one

That's because your card can't handle the DX9 graphics.

Since when has a 8800 gts not been able to handle dx9?

[vconor]

ive reistalled the old driver (on the disc) and im not sure if the freezing at logon has stopped i cant remember, but i can leave my pc on standby, but still cant have cod2 with DX9 :( ill try and install the other drivers i had before the ones i downloaded ( from the nvidia)
p.s the driver i tried to install were older ones from nvidia so ill try the new ones

[Taxation]

uninstall drivers, then install new ones, without gfx drivers the cpu is doing all the work

[vconor]

ill try it tommorow i think

[djgandy]

well all is top setting but as soom as i change it from dx 7 to dx9 goes slower with lower frame rates weird any ideas, ive update the driver and all that aswell as getting rid of all the old one

That's because your card can't handle the DX9 graphics.

Since when has a 8800 gts not been able to handle dx9?

Oh i thought he had a 7300GS like it says in his sig :P

[Jonny2Bad]

Lol

[vconor]

lol sorry forgot to change that, well i tried the new drivers, but i still have to w8l like 10 year of freezing to do sumthing, once thats over everything is back to normal

[Jonny2Bad]

Did you uninstall the old ones properly b4 putting new ones on there?

[vconor]

yep installed from the disk, u dont think it could be a bottleneck regarding the dx9 graphics and maybe this problem

[djgandy]

Cod2 is awful in dx9 mode. I think it's more a coding problem. I'd have thought it would run pretty fast on new cards though.
Might want to check iwnation and see i anyone else has the problem.

What fps are you getting?

[vconor]

what is iwnation and i dont know how to get up the fps, and even when i put i on 800x600 with dx9 it does the same thing

[djgandy]

http://www.iwnation.com/Forums/index.php
http://www.iwnation.com/Forums/index.ph ... hl=dx9+fps (http://www.iwnation.com/Forums/index.php?showtopic=27473&hl=dx9+fps)

[vconor]

mm interesting http://www.iwnation.com/Forums/index.ph ... opic=27237 (http://www.iwnation.com/Forums/index.php?showtopic=27237)

but my slow down only happens in the dx9 mode

[djgandy]

Well yeah as i said. Cod2 is just poor in dx9 mode. The guy with the slowdown in dx7 is having a different problem.
He most likely needs to open task manager and assign a single core to cod2. For some reason with both cores selected games tend to only use 25% of the cpu power (50% of a core)

[vconor]

yeh lol what u sed just went right over my head! lol
but as i said before do you think theres is somkind of bottle neck, i dont really know what the true meaning of the work but maybe my harddrive or my mobo ait god enough for the card?

[djgandy]

ctrl alt del
cod2mp_s.exe
right click -> Set affinity
select 1 cpu box only

[Jonny2Bad]

My cod2 runs fine on the 8800 and seeing as it isnt a really high demanding game i wouldnt have thought you'd have a bottleneck, what else are you playing?

[vconor]

im playing hl2 including cs:source both are highest, so no worries there. umm mediaval total war 2 there highest setings , but i think the performance could be a little better on that and call of juarez but thats on the dx9 and when thats o highest resolution it lagg let alone higest settings and im play rome total war but i havent tested that yet.

[vconor]

ctrl alt del
cod2mp_s.exe
right click -> Set affinity
select 1*cpu ('http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/products/a561x1y0z1p0s0n0m0') box only
u think this will make a difference?

[vconor]

another question lol, shoul i use the power cable that come with the grapghics card, or should i use the on striaght from the psu?

[Jonny2Bad]

If you have 1 on your psu then use that 1

[vconor]

ok kl just changed that, whats the difference with the two?

[Jonny2Bad]

There isnt really any difference but if its there you might as well use it lol!!!

[vconor]

yeh i suppose,
and back back to the same question again sorry, i cant remembere if u answered it lol, do u think i have a bottle neck or sumthin, like a **** mbo or hdd?

[Jonny2Bad]

What mobo and chipset is it? Your running a pretty high spec system now buddy even if it was a lower end mobo it wouldnt really affect your system too much apart from when you o/c but you seem to have done that ok already so i reckon no bottleneck!! What 3dkmark06 score you getting?

[vconor]

imm it a foxconn mobo tahts all i know know, but i do know a bout the 3dmark06 thing, where can i download it from?

[Jonny2Bad]

http://www.futuremark.com/products/3dmark06/
There is a free version on this page

[vconor]

lol just found it and dowloading now, i hink ill go our for a bit talk to u later

[Jonny2Bad]

Ok doubt i'll be on till tomorrow or sunday now post your score for me to see though!!!

[vconor]

k will do gonna go and see 'the kingdom' in the cinema :p

[vconor]

right well... i didnt get the result of the 3dmark06 coz my pc froze when it finishe and had to restart! in the tests i was getting aout an average of 20 FPS but on the first CPU test i was getting 0fps and the frames were counting up at a seconfd at a time! :S and just been playing Enemy Territory: Quake Wars and its on 1024x760 with low quality and im gettin like 10 FPS. and i was getting that with my 7300 gs maybe a tad more :'(
somthing defo wrong with my pc! it dont like me! plus my pc freezes completed when ive just logged in, and have to w8 about mins to do anything. nightmare lol

[djgandy]

Reformat!

Or yo can swap your 8800GTS for my 6600 GT :D 50fps in etqw @ 1280x1024

[vconor]

reformat?
and thank but no thanks lol but id rather keep this card

[djgandy]

Yeah reformat. It's what i'd probably do. I keep most my stuff on a seperate drive so I can just reformat and go. A format + xp install takes about 30 mins. Get a pre- windows update disk too and you won't have to wait 1000 years for windows update to finish :P

At the end of the day you spend less time on a format that you do troubleshooting, and it usually fixes the problem.

[Jonny2Bad]

I am always reformatting lol just done another tonight after raiding my hdd's all my files are backed up on the 320g so as dj says its so much easier to reformat and pc'c love it they always stay fresh that way and dont get so clogged up

[vconor]

****! i dont really wanna have to reistall windows a gain and back up all my files gain, is there any other way? and whats a windows update disk ? :S