Best Video card for a 24" monitor?

[shamus8888]

Hi there!

I am thinking of upgrading my video card (I am using the one in my sig profile) but I am not sure of which to choose. Should I go for Nvidia or ATI ? Should I consider Xfire? Is Xfire really worth the price ? (as my mobo only supports Xfire)

I also heard rumours that ATI will release a 48xx series soon. But I am wondering how soon is that? Is it worth the wait or should I just get a 9800GX2?

*I am using a 24" monitor

Thanks for any help/advice!

 

[gtsing]

How much are you willing to spend? A buddy of mine has a 9800GTX with an E8400 and 4GB of RAM and it plays COD4 and UT3 at maximum settings on a 24" LCD monitor. However, I'd wait for the 48xx series and Nvidia's GT200 or whatever because apparently it's a whole architectural refresh (I may be wrong) and it's supposed to have a large performance increase.

 

[ther00kie16]

New cards are coming out end of June with reviews probably by beginning of June. So it's much better to hold off for 3 weeks and see if there's a better option around the corner. Until then, your 9600gt should suffice.

 

[Lithan]

I agree with therookie, possibly saving $100+ is worth running med settings for a month imho.

 

[shamus8888]

Great advice ! Thanks guys!

I can't really wait for the launch of the new gen (hopefully) cards. That with some great games coming out will be just awesome to fill my spare time during summer!

/prays for June launch for both cards!

By the way, is it advisable to considering a Xfire setup? I am not familiar with Xfire (more of an Nvidia guy) so I am not sure if the performance increase will justify the cost.

 

[Lithan]

For 1680x1050 or 1920x1200?... probably not. Even with modern cards that'd be hard to justify... assuming next gen actually shows a decent performance boost, it'd be very hard to justify xfire or SLI on a 24".

 

[Grinja]

Originally posted by: Lithan
I agree with therookie, possibly saving $100+ is worth running med settings for a month imho.

Hehe ... I'm running a X1950pro on my LG 245wp.
The pixel scaling allows me to run lower resolutions (1440x900) without a big impact on image quality (becides the obvious smaller view space, and lower res ).

I would imagine the 9600GT is still plenty powerful, I doubt you would even need to drop to med setting for the majority of titles today.

A month is not that long to wait, in the mean time drop the AA and try not to look at at the tiny yellow numbers in the corner of your screen

 

[shamus8888]

Originally posted by: Lithan
For 1680x1050 or 1920x1200?... probably not. Even with modern cards that'd be hard to justify... assuming next gen actually shows a decent performance boost, it'd be very hard to justify xfire or SLI on a 24".

Ah I see, just wondering why a lot of people are really into SLi/Xfire. I have recently purchased a BenQ 24" TFT Monitor and I must say for the price it is absolutely AMAZING! You guys should check it out

BenQ review

 

[Denithor]

Shamus, I've been looking at that same monitor. Can you give more on your experience and thoughts on it so far? How are the viewing angles, if you slouch in your chair does it lighten/darken on you?

 

[shamus8888]

Well I just got it today (5 hours ago) so I haven't really done any extensive observation
I use it as a primary (gaming) monitor so I rarely view it from an odd angle. Its a TN monitor if I am not mistaken so viewing from extreme angles is not desirable. It is ok from 5-15 degrees roughly but beyond that you get darkening of the edges etc. However, I won't be viewing from the side (or extreme top/bottom) anyway so its fine by me. The stand is adjustable for angle so I guess that would help in your case. *adjustable for up and down angle not side to side aka tilt if I am not mistaken

The first thing that struck me is the brightness. The colours are vivid and the brightness is just intense , unlike some monitors which are fairly dull. As comparison, I had it side by side with my old 22" Fujitsu Siemens and this baby looks much better.

The monitor (ordered from eBuyer) also came with x1 VGA cable and also x1 DVI cable so you are good to go from start! And if you have a video card that supports HDMI, there is also an option for HDMI input at the rear, which is just amazing! That makes 3 inputs readily available on this monitor.

There are no dead pixels at all on arrival and everything worked seamlessly out of the box. There is also an option for "senseye" in the menu but I can't activate it at the moment (I am using DVI to DVI).

Well I hope these information is useful, feel free to PM me if you need further.

Sorry if this has seriously gone off topic though

 

[gtsing]

If you are going to wait for one of the new cards from ATI I don't think you'll need Crossfire as long as you get a high model. (4870)

 

[Sylvanas]

Wait until the 4xxx cards come out, not long now. Xfire provides a sizable increase in performance for most games- I am running 3850 Crossfire and I can play pretty much everything at max on my 24" (Crysis 1920x1200 DX9 w/high DX10 w/ medium). You would probably want to stick with a single GPU however, the P35 (your mobo) limits performance in that the 2nd slot by about 20% due to the 16x4 link width and that is only going to get more profound with a newer generation. Not to worry- it looks like the 4xxx series is going to take the performance crown so one will be just fine.