9800 GTX or Radeon 4850 for 1600x1400 or 1200x1024 ?

[wadkar]

EDIT: I am okay with ATi cards now
they have good linux support
so 4850 comes in picture, which is more confusing to me now

First of all, I don't want to buy ATi card (not good linux support)
so I am left with nVidia
my chipset is 650i SLI
and mobo is ASUS P5N-E SLI
proc is Intel Core 2 Duo 6420 thats 2.4 (2.1??) GHz
I have 3GB (2+1) 800MHz DDR2 ram (I can upgrade 2+2 GB anytime)
my current monitor is a CRT 17" (yeah sounds crazy, but its true)
I will upgrade my monitor in near future but it will be 19" LCD/TFT (very low probability of larger monitor)

I don't play at insanely high resolutions, I am satisfied with 1280x1024 on my 17"
but consider this as minor issue

a card from Zotac (never heard of it) for $205 ($229.89 after tax/shipping etc.) is available
specs are

GPU GeForce 9800 GTX
Core clock 750MHz
Stream Processors 128
Memory
Memory Clock 2300MHz
Memory Size 512MB
Memory Interface 256-bit
Memory Type GDDR3

and there is this OC'ed card from MSI its $184.99 ($207.37 after tax and shipping)

GPU GeForce 8800GTS (G92)
Core clock 678MHz
Stream Processors 128
Memory
Memory Clock 1944MHz
Memory Size 512MB
Memory Interface 256-bit
Memory Type GDDR3

which one should I go for??

does the answer change if I mention that I don't play games like crysis at insanely high resolutions like 2500x2400 (or something like that)

~S
PS: whats newegg's mail in rebate? how long does it take to get the rebate money??

 

[akhilles]

9800GTX right now or 9800GTX+ a week or so later.

 

[wadkar]

a week later?? 9800 GTX+ ??
I checked 9800GTX prices before 4th and they were around 199
now its high up to 229 or even 250
expecting price slash from nVidia??
also, i have a 550W power supply, and already have 4ide and 2 sata drives connected
i am quite sure that i will need to buy new power supply
can somebody tell me approximate power requirements for this graphics card and say a quad core + 4gb 1066MHz DDR2 ram combo??


~S

 

[TC91]

what brand of psu? and how many amps on the 12v rail? more than likely your 550w psu will be more than enough though provided that it isnt a generic one.

 

[wadkar]

mine is a generic one, I am just writing what I can see on the PSU

Power Focus
Switching power supply
model no ATX 550W
voltage 230V current 8A and 4A
+3.3V 29A
+5V 14A
+12V 19A
-5V 0.5A
-12V 0.5A
+5VSB 2A

and I vaguely remember it's gold rated PSU (whatever that means)
so +12V rail has 19A giving 228watts
is it enough??
but i think the problem is not here
it has 2x2 standard 4pin connector and 1 sata power connector
I have 3 PATA + 1 SATA HDDs and a DVD writer (phew! just fitting, though i have one spare SATA HDD)
this card will need two 4pin connectors right?
this is what worries me, i don't want to get stuck with 2-3HDDs/DVDWriter
perhaps I can take out old PSU's from crap cabinets and use them for powering HDDs

~S

 

[wadkar]

another question I wanted to ask was if I can go SLI after a year (mobo ASUS 5PN-E SLI thats nForce 650i SLI chipset)

5 people suggesting 9800GTX
quite interesting

I think I will go with 9800GTX unless another ~200 card comes in picture
I can still use some advice

~S

 

[akhilles]

It's not nVidia's fault that some e-tailers price-gouge popular items. nVidia did announce price cuts for 9800GTX to $200 and also the new GTX260 & 280. GTX+ should be $225 MSRP. Again, I expect it to be price-gouged to $250-300.

Minimum of a 450 Watt power supply.
(Minimum recommended power supply with +12 Volt current rating of 24 Amp Amps.)

Your 12V rail is lacking the amps. Try it out. If it's not enough, upgrade the psu to a brand name 500-600W.

The major difference between GTX & GTX+ is the addition of PhysX through driver.

 

[wadkar]

confused now...
I read couple of reviews on Radeon 4850 and 4870
both are great graphics cards no doubt
what I did not realized that they had OKAYish (working) DAY 1 support for linux drivers
that was something i did not hear for a long time (it means a lot to me that my hardware is supported on linux/open source front)
and now i am confused so as to which one buy
I am inclined towards 4870
but i am worried about PSU and heating problems

8800gts is clearly out of question now
i am confused between radeon 4870 radeon 4850 and 9800GTX

~S

 

[MarcVenice]

I'd take a HD4850 over a 9800gtx ANY day, especially since the HD4850 costs 165$ AR rebates. It's also faster then the 9800gtx in many if not ALL games, especially with AA applied, which is a pretty nice feature to have at 1280*1024. And yes, you've read correctly, ever since AMD bought ATI they've been working at driver support for Linux. It should be good now, near or at the same level as driver support for Nvidia.

You probably need a new PSU though. Most decent 500w PSU's have 30-35a on the 12v rail, yours has almost half that. The CPU + GPU can draw like 150-200w of power alone. Not to mention other stuff the 12v rail powers, like HDD's. And I don't feel comfortable saying to just try your old PSU, it might work, and give you a false sense of security, because I doubt it will work for a longer period of time. Or it might blow up right away, and damage something else. All I can say is, be carefull.

 

[wadkar]

thanks a lot for the quick reply
i am searching for good 4850/4870 in my price range
but it all boils down to how much extra i have to pay for the PSU

~S

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: wadkar
a week later?? 9800 GTX+ ??
I checked 9800GTX prices before 4th and they were around 199
now its high up to 229 or even 250
expecting price slash from nVidia??
also, i have a 550W power supply, and already have 4ide and 2 sata drives connected
i am quite sure that i will need to buy new power supply
can somebody tell me approximate power requirements for this graphics card and say a quad core + 4gb 1066MHz DDR2 ram combo??


~S

thats because they EOL... nvidia no longer makes them and anyone who already owns one and wants a second for SLI must get it now or never (since you have to match GPUs for SLI)

And the GTX+ would be cheaper to manufacture too...

 

[wadkar]

hmm point noted
I think I will go with Radeon 4850 and buy a good PSU with the savings
guess I really need a very good PSU
BTW
you might find it amusing
but I am really thinking about using old PSUs
maybe I can use it just to power my GPU and couple of HDDs??
I keep the cabinet open most of the time so connectors and wires shouldn't create much problem
it's an open hardware testing board for me
and I make full use of it
whats the point in buying new PSU when you have one spare?

~S