Anyone else think it's pointless to upgrade now?

[ronnn]

In before the lock. I really have to upgrade, as I am not buying games because my x1900gt with a singly core cpu just doesn't cut it.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: Hippiekiller

Originally posted by: bryanW1995

Originally posted by: Azn
People who go from a 8800gt to a 8800gts/9800gtx, 4850 have problems. It's called addiction. People will tell you they need more speed and need that extra 10 fps but the graphical difference between some medium and high settings to all high settings is not much. People will argue that it is not the case and need that extra fps and need to turn up all settings to satisfy their needs.

People who have x800xl or whatever should upgrade to a cheap midrange card available. You will see huge differences. Finally able to from low to high settings and even turn up AA.

well, that depends on what is is...oops, wrong forum...uh, we don't have an "addiction" so much as we just have to upgrade all the time...besides, I did get to go from a 3870 to a 4850 for only $40.

Not an addiction says bryanW1995 with 3 Computers less than a year and half old. Not an addiction says bryanW1995 with a post rate of nearly 10 posts per day.

Not an addiction says appopin who like bryanW1995 is a loser douche bag.

so says an anonymous 'net poster with 28 posts in 2 years and zero credibility in Video

Mine is not an addiction any more than any other hobby. i have also turned my hobby into a tech site with few other guys who also love HW and we can explain it pretty well to the tech public.


the OP thinks it is pointless to upgrade a midrange GPU that is struggling at 19x12. That is his opinion. i have a very different one.
Of course the OP is stuck back in 1999 with XP - and DX9c; Vista/DX10 requires much more GPU/CPU power than what he is running.

 

[suklee]

Originally posted by: Hippiekiller
Not an addiction says bryanW1995 with 3 Computers less than a year and half old. Not an addiction says bryanW1995 with a post rate of nearly 10 posts per day.

Not an addiction says appopin who like bryanW1995 is a loser douche bag.

lol.. this is uncalled for. keep it clean, c'mon.

 

[DaveSimmons]

I had good reason to upgrade my April 2006 system this July -- for just under $700 I moved from an X2 4200+, 2 GB, nv 7900GTX to an E8400, 4 GB, ati 4870. More than double the video power and at least a 50% faster CPU.

Nehalem will probably be overpriced for at least the first part of 2009, so I'll have 9-12 months of much improved gaming instead of waiting to buy.

But yes, if you already have an 8800 GTS 512 then moving to a 4850 won't make much difference.

 

[scheibler1]

I'm not stuck in 1999 lol...I just don't waste my money. I don't see the point of buying windows vista for $100, then another 2gb of ram for $45, and then a new graphics card(which would be a 4870 at minimum) for $270 to play all the games that I already do now just fine except with a little dx10 goodness in games such as COH

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: scheibler1
I'm not stuck in 1999 lol...I just don't waste my money. I don't see the point of buying windows vista for $100, then another 2gb of ram for $45, and then a new graphics card(which would be a 4870 at minimum) for $270 to play all the games that I already do now just fine except with a little dx10 goodness in games such as COH

I've got an 8800gt oc and e2180 @ 3ghz and still don't have any games besides crysis that I can't run @ max setting @ 1920x1200. I play Company Of Heroes, Grid, COD4, HL2+both episodes, DOD/CS: Source, Bioshock, BF2, C&C Generals, MOH Airborne, Farcry, etc. Sure I would like to play crysis again @ 1920x1200 this time around @ very high, but it just ain't happening with today's hardware....I'll glady wait for better hardware. It seems as if everyone is upgrading for more fps when the minimum fps that you already get is acceptable.

Personally I am going to play the upcoming games that I want with the most graphical demanding last such as Farcry 2(if coded poorly) and Crysis Warhead.

I'm thinkin the 8800gt oc will still hold its own in GTA4, Brothers In Arms Hells Highway(maybe), C&C3 Red Alert, COD5, and Saints Row 2

I could position it to you another way... Why are you willing to get a less than optimal gaming experience by playing close to $1000 worth of games on a $150 video card? I'm not faulting you for your decision, but clearly you aren't really worried about spending money frivolously on entertainment with a gaming software library like that chalk full of ~$50 AAA titles.

 

[DaveSimmons]

^ exactly. despite what you'd guess from my 10 nefs a day here, I have more money than free time. If I only have time to play Mass Effect once before moving on I'd rather do it at 1600x1200 with maxed settings than at 1024x768 with low-medium.

 

[Majic 7]

Not really sure what the point or purpose of the original post was. This is a forum on a site devoted to the latest and greatest after all. So all enthusiasts and hobbyists are stupid for wanting and getting the best they can afford? There are a lot more expensive hobbies out there, most of them actually.

 

[poohbear]

i was never an advocate of sli, but if you already own an 8800gt, and your mobo is capable of sli, then just buy a new one for $150 and u got performance that is better than most next gen cards. They are going for ridiculous prices new, and if u want u can prolly find a used one for $110.

The 8800gt in SLI dont consume alot of power, all u need is a 450wtpsu and u're fine. This is the only time when SLI is actually a cost effective and better route than buying a new gen card and selling the older one.

gotta love those 8800gt.

 

[MarcVenice]

I'm contemplating an upgrade from a 8800gts 320mb to a HD4850. Is it silly? Not sure, I'm still not sure what to do though. At 1680*1050 I think the HD4850 is massively faster, but others tell me it will only be 20% faster, and ofcourse give 4xAA for free...

 

[SSChevy2001]

@poohbear

He doesn't have a SLI mb and idle power isn't that great with SLI 8800GT.

@DaveSimmons

Mass Effect should play fine with his card without AA on max settings. UE3 games play nice with Nvidia.
http://www.tomshardware.com/re...omparison,2007-17.html

@MarcVenice

This link might help
http://www.tomshardware.com/re...omparison,2007-31.html

@OP

8800GT is fine right now for the most part if you don't need AA. Tweaking and overclocking will also help to make that card last a little longer. Hopefully before the end of this month all the new cards from both sides will be released.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: scheibler1
I'm not stuck in 1999 lol...I just don't waste my money. I don't see the point of buying windows vista for $100, then another 2gb of ram for $45, and then a new graphics card(which would be a 4870 at minimum) for $270 to play all the games that I already do now just fine except with a little dx10 goodness in games such as COH

it sounds like sour grapes

you are missing out

but you can deny deny deny all you like

we know better

Marc, forget 4850

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: MarcVenice
I'm contemplating an upgrade from a 8800gts 320mb to a HD4850. Is it silly? Not sure, I'm still not sure what to do though. At 1680*1050 I think the HD4850 is massively faster, but others tell me it will only be 20% faster, and ofcourse give 4xAA for free...

Free AA on RV770 is a myth. AA performance is good in most cases, excellent in a few, but as a general statement it's simply not true.

I haven't seen any comparisons between an 8800GTS 320 and a 4850, so it's tough to say. Although, I could imagine in situations where the 8800GTS 320 is limited by the 320MB of RAM the 4850 would pull away considerably. Generally, the 4850 performs roughly equal to an 8800GTX/Ultra.

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: videogames101
I went from a 7800gt to my 4870, oh my god what a difference

Same,I think most people know when to upgrade,I'm looking forward to playing Clear Sky tomorrow,as to my 4870 well I can now play a lot of games on max settings where my 7800gt struggled,later I may even get another with a new cpu/motherboad and go crossfire .

 

[praesto]

I upgraded from a 8800gt to a 4850 for 30 bucks. According to the benchmarks at computerbase.de, the 4850 is on average 24% faster than a 8800gt, at least in my resolution. This is the best upgrade cost/performance wise I've ever made. It's a pre-overclocked gainward golden sample, which I'm running at 740/2340 completely stable

 

[FalseChristian]

I think I'll stick with my 2 EVGA 640/1700/1940 512MB 8800GTs for another year when the price of the yet-unreleased GTX 260+ will be $150 and then I'll get two of 'em.




Edit: I always edit for spelling and never for content.

 

[Nemesis 1]

Well been an interesting read forsure.

The op asked a really good question at a strange time in PC hardware history.

IS now a good time to upgrade. THE GOOD Great m/bs available best ever for intel and AMD. Great cpus from both intel / amd with intel having a small advantage. ATI/NV are offerring great GPU's . NV is offering cuda /physics . ATI globial illumination. Prices are very low for DDR2 CPU,s GPUs and many M/Bs.

THE BAD A new cpu is coming out shortly . Called Nehalem from intel. Dened from AMD. ATI/NV are talking R800 for ATI on 40nm. NV 10000 on 40nm.

Also a new chip known as Lucid Hydra should make appearance same time as ATI/NV 40nm. release. SO thats whats coming! Shortly.


THE UGLY IF Hydra works as advertized it will make useless present M/B. Even if the chip comes on gpu card you will want one on your M/B . For even more scaling.

THan we have the other problems . Intel/ATI are going DX10.1 and Havak physics. DX10.1 is another way of saying raytracing. NV is going physicsX/cuda but there raytracing abilities are really bad. SO we will endup with 2 standards. I am glad AC was patched . It didn't show any of the true benefits of DX10.1 anyway.

But NV going down another road is alarming. Hopefully Hydra will work as advertized and nv will get back in line or get no support.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: Nemesis 1
Well been an interesting read forsure.

The op asked a really good question at a strange time in PC hardware history.

IS now a good time to upgrade. THE GOOD Great m/bs available best ever for intel and AMD. Great cpus from both intel / amd with intel having a small advantage. ATI/NV are offerring great GPU's . NV is offering cuda /physics . ATI globial illumination. Prices are very low for DDR2 CPU,s GPUs and many M/Bs.

THE BAD A new cpu is coming out shortly . Called Nehalem from intel. Dened from AMD. ATI/NV are talking R800 for ATI on 40nm. NV 10000 on 40nm.

Also a new chip known as Lucid Hydra should make appearance same time as ATI/NV 40nm. release. SO thats whats coming! Shortly.


THE UGLY IF Hydra works as advertized it will make useless present M/B. Even if the chip comes on gpu card you will want one on your M/B . For even more scaling.

THan we have the other problems . Intel/ATI are going DX10.1 and Havak physics. DX10.1 is another way of saying raytracing. NV is going physicsX/cuda but there raytracing abilities are really bad. SO we will endup with 2 standards. I am glad AC was patched . It didn't show any of the true benefits of DX10.1 anyway.

But NV going down another road is alarming. Hopefully Hydra will work as advertized and nv will get back in line or get no support.

It seems to me that Nvidia is attempting to push everyone out. They buy physx and throw it on their cards. Maybe in a few months they drop support for the PPU and only support their cards. Then they pay a company or companies to develop a game that will only play properly on their cards. How would they do this? Easy, make it so that you cannot disable physx and then AMD's cards cannot compete in any way. Unplayable because of the load to the CPU. If the game is high profile enough or they have multiple titles that do this, it may push AMD out of the competition.

Personally I think that more companies will develop DX10.1 than physx. Simply because DX10.1 is available on AMD cards as well as Nvidia cards(if Nvidia decides to start supporting that standard). Not just limited to one side. Also since Intel is pushing Havok, and Intel dominates the performance CPU market right now it would offer more widespread appeal than limiting it to one video card manufacturer.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: Nemesis 1
DX10.1 is another way of saying raytracing..

:roll:

 

[OCNewbie]

I just upgraded from a 7900GS (it was dying, had to replace it) to an XFX 8800GT. I got a really good deal on Amazon recently for $80 after MIR, and it comes with Company of Heroes too, so I figured it was a smart buy.

 

[alkemyst]

IMHO if someone is in a 7 series card or older it makes sense to upgrade...there are a lot of deals right now. I went 6800GT to 8800GTX....night and day and pretty cheap...the 4850 would have been a little bit more but really doesn't scale up like the 8800GTX does.

The highend cards also don't really make much of a difference except at 2xxx X 1xxx resolutions as far as playability goes. They benchmark awesome though.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: alkemyst
IMHO if someone is in a 7 series card or older it makes sense to upgrade...there are a lot of deals right now. I went 6800GT to 8800GTX....night and day and pretty cheap...the 4850 would have been a little bit more but really doesn't scale up like the 8800GTX does.

The highend cards also don't really make much of a difference except at 2xxx X 1xxx resolutions as far as playability goes. They benchmark awesome though.

Finally, i have to agree .. a HD4870 or a GT260 would not impress me over a 8800GTX
- logically a 4850 would not be impressive over a GTS class card either

incremental .. but not "wow"

go from a 3870 to 4870 or adn 8800-8900 GTS/X to 280, and it IS worth it imo

even from an 8800GTX ultra to 4870x2 would be OK and worth it, imo
- so far .. from testing with them

 

[Insomniator]

Depending on the hardware any time can be a good or bad time to upgrade. Now however with 8800's for 100 and 4850's for 150, more people than ever have a great reason to upgrade their GPU. Ram is cheap as balls now also so this is also a great time to move to 4GB's regardless of the OS.

CPU's are always different though.. they last much longer. An x2 is still a perfectly fine gaming chip when paired with a good video card. Hell in many games old AGP based P4's are good with a newer video card like a 3850. Any decent dual, tri or quad chip isn't gonna kill you compared to a Nehalem assuming your GPU is up to snuff.

 

[Bateluer]

It still amazes me how people are still running such antique cards like 6800GTs and GF 7 series cards. I'm not sure whether its sad or pathetic.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: Bateluer
It still amazes me how people are still running such antique cards like 6800GTs and GF 7 series cards. I'm not sure whether its sad or pathetic.

It's called money...something that isn't given to you and easy to toss around.