*EDITED* 1920x1200 res - will a 8800GTS cut it or do I need to step up to a GTX?

[MichaelD]

*EDIT 12 Apr*

The monitor came today, and here's a preliminary report...very basic. One game. DM M&M.

I have the 93.71 drivers loaded, WinXP SP2, all the latest patches and updates.

At 1920x1200, all settings maxxed, 16xAF and NO AA, I get a low score (lots of action on screen) of roughly 45FPS. *edit* w/v1.02 patch, low 50'sFPS Not bad!!!!

I turned on 4xAA. Same lots of action on screen and FPS drops to the low 20's. Slideshow city. *edit* I patched the game to v1.02 and my 16AF/4xAA low FPS is now mid 30's FPS...MUCH BETTER!*

Changed AA to 2xAA. Same lots of action on screen. High 30's FPS.*edit*w/v1.02 patch, now mid 40'sFPS. Not deathly bad, but not the 70+FPS that I'm used to. During scenes with little or no motion (walking thru a hallway, climbing a rope) I'm up in the low 60's FPS and that's nicer.

I'm sure if I turned the details, reflections, etc down to MED it would really help, but I like eye candy.

I've not tried any other games b/c I gotta get some sleep.

DM is a relatively taxing game, so I'm pretty happy with the results.

Bottom Line DM M&M at 1920x1200 with all details on max, 16AF/4xAA is playable, but noticeably laggy in fast action scenes. I may try turning the details down as oppposed to turning off AA; I like AA!

Tomorrow we go straight to the 800-pound gorilla; Oblivion. :Q Methinks I won't be too happy.












I've got a Dell 2407 on the way and will be gaming on it at native res.

I know my current 7900GTO will not do so well at that resolution. Stepping up to a 8800GTS will be a big improvement, but will it be enough to play at native res with all (most?) of the eye candy turned on?

Will I need to step all the way up to a 8800GTX?

 

[lavaheadache]

Youre 7900 will do fine but you will have to turn off AA. My X1900XT 512 did fine but I was looking to use lots of AA and AF. If you are looknig to use lots of eye candy like me... you should go with the GTX

 

[MichaelD]

Thanks, lavaheadache. I haven't received the monitor yet, and I'm really curious as to "how good" my 7900GTO will do. It's perfect at 1280x1024...but 1920x1200 is a huge step up in number of pixels to render.

I could probably deal with no AA; I was never able to use it until I upgraded to my present PCI-E graphics card system anyway. But I'm REALLY used to AF; it makes a huge diff.

I guess experimentation is the only way to find out. We shall see.

 

[mercanucaribe]

Buy the 8800GTS, then if it doesn't perform well enough add another in SLI!

 

[lavaheadache]

Originally posted by: mercanucaribe
Buy the 8800GTS, then if it doesn't perform well enough add another in SLI!

so basically youre telling him if he spends 350 on a gts and it doesnt provide what he needs, he should spend another 350. A GTX will be enough and can be had for 550 or less

 

[yacoub]

Why would anyone seriously recommend playing without AA/AF? That sort of removes the point of buying a nice GPU - to make the game LOOK good and play smoothly. I mean you can "play" most games at 1900x on a 7600GT or 7900GT but it'll be a pretty crappy experience compared to loading up the graphical settings and AA/AF so it looks fantastic too.

 

[mendeh]

 

[ebeattie]

Playing C&C3 at my BenQ's native res of 1920*1200 with EVERYTHING turned on at max and I have zero performance slowdowns hiccups... nothing but pure smooth gaming.

You get waht you pay for and if you want the best, its gonna cost to play.

=)

 

[SunnyD]

You should get decent frame rates on most things, but newer titles even with the 8800GTX will cry on eye-candy mode.

 

[PhoenixOrion]

<----currently enjoying 8800GTS 640MB with 2405FPW

For example, Oblivion at 1920x1200:
8X MSAA + HDR
All on High Quality (it gets low min frame rates if I put Ultra-high in forest/jungle)
Int/Ext Shadows on
Water effects on
Draw distance on farthest

 

[swtethan]

you can afford a 24 inch, get the gtx

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: PhoenixOrion
<----currently enjoying 8800GTS 640MB with 2405FPW

For example, Oblivion at 1920x1200:
8X MSAA + HDR
All on High Quality (it gets low min frame rates if I put Ultra-high in forest/jungle)
Int/Ext Shadows on
Water effects on
Draw distance on farthest

Thanks much for posting such a detailed reply! :thumbsup: That's very helpful. What kind of FPS are you getting in Oblivion with those settings? With the rig in my sig, I get high 40's/low 50's with everything Maxxed out. I know that ain't gonna happen w/the new monitor, that's for sure!

I wouldn't mind spending an extra c-note to get a GTX over a GTS; but the delta is more like $200, unfortunately. And I already know that six months from now, the GTX will be $350. :roll: This is one expensive hobby we have.

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: ebeattie
Playing C&C3 at my BenQ's native res of 1920*1200 with EVERYTHING turned on at max and I have zero performance slowdowns hiccups... nothing but pure smooth gaming.

You get waht you pay for and if you want the best, its gonna cost to play.

=)

Yup, I agree 100%. That was my frame of mind when I built my current rig...but you know what happens; "bigger and better, onward ho!"

 

[KutterMax]

I've been looking at this issue very carefully myself recently. I am using at 7950GT OC which still runs most things I play quite well at 1900x1200. I play a lot of WoW (use 2xAA at 1900x1200 - everything else maxed), Titan Quest, CoH, and some others.

I have been debating going to a 8800 series card because I have another machine I can put the 7950GT into (that other machine currently has a 7800GS). Looking at the benchmarks, it seems that the 8800GTS 640MB is the current price/performance ratio champ. There are some very good deals on the card and EVGA is including Supreme Commander right now (at least on Newegg).

The 8800GTX is a pretty big jump in price. Yes - performance will be better in some games, but with the money you save you can always apply to a next gen upgrade down the road. If money is no object, then GTX would be the best option right now (or two in SLI!), but if budget is at least some concern, then GTS 640MB would be a good choice.

BTW, I haven't pulled the trigger on a 8800GTS because I put Vista on my new machine and am still concerned about the current status of nVidia's 8800 series Vista drivers. I likely will hold out until next gen hardware shows up.

 

[NatePo717]

Depends on the games your playing. I currently have a 7900GTO running two monitors. One at 1920 X 1080 and the other at 1680 X 1050. I can play pretty much every game I have maxed other then Oblivion which I need to turn down just a wee bit. Game I play most is GuildWars. Not to graphics intensive but I run it at max settings AND watch tv on my other monitor. Cuts my frame rates down to ~30FPS instead of 60.

 

[MichaelD]

Thanks KutterMax and NatePo717; great replies.

Unfortunately for me, er, my wallet, I play FPS games almost exclusively. Currently playing Oblivion, Stalker, FEAR, Prey, Dark Messiah M&M, Hitman3, HL2 and BF2...all card killers. And I likes me some eye candy.

Nate: The fact that you're running two monitors at high resolutions on a 7900GTO is very interesting to me, indeed. My card smokes on a single 1280x1024 monitor with everything cranked.

I guess I'm just going to have to see "what's missing here" when I actually get the monitor and play with it for a couple of days, before I make the decision about GTS vs. GTX.

I briefly considered a 320MB GTS, but after considering that: I currently use a card with 512MB of memory AND with the size of the textures in today's games AND the fact that I'm moving to a massive monitor with lots of pixels to fill, I decided that 320MB definitely won't work for me.

Thanks again very much; your replies have been very helpful.

 

[gramboh]

I play at 1920x1200 (2407WFP) on an 8800GTS. I'm running the card at 600/1900 overclock (I know it will go farther but I'm too lazy to push/test it right now, I just picked 600/1900 and it's fine).

For most intense/high detail games like Oblivion, I use 2X AA/8X AF, I find that at 1920, 2X AA is enough to remove most (but not all) jaggies and not take a massive FPS hit like 8X AA is going to give you. Everything I've played so far at max detail with AA/AF (2/8 sometimes 4/16) has been smooth so far (anecdotal, I don't have any benchmarks to report other than 3DMark06 of 10,134 or something, it's in my sig):

HL2/HL2: Episode 1
CS:Source/DOD:Source
Prey
Quake 4
TES4: Oblivion
Test Drive Unlimited
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic
Infernal
Hitman Blood Money
C&C 3
Supreme Commander (have only played a very brief skirmish, haven't gotten into it yet)

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: gramboh
I play at 1920x1200 (2407WFP) on an 8800GTS. I'm running the card at 600/1900 overclock (I know it will go farther but I'm too lazy to push/test it right now, I just picked 600/1900 and it's fine).

For most intense/high detail games like Oblivion, I use 2X AA/8X AF, I find that at 1920, 2X AA is enough to remove most (but not all) jaggies and not take a massive FPS hit like 8X AA is going to give you. Everything I've played so far at max detail with AA/AF (2/8 sometimes 4/16) has been smooth so far (anecdotal, I don't have any benchmarks to report other than 3DMark06 of 10,134 or something, it's in my sig):

HL2/HL2: Episode 1
CS:Source/DOD:Source
Prey
Quake 4
TES4: Oblivion
Test Drive Unlimited
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic
Infernal
Hitman Blood Money
C&C 3
Supreme Commander (have only played a very brief skirmish, haven't gotten into it yet)

Great news! It sure looks like if I do need to upgrade (I'm pretty sure the answer to this question is more like "WHEN I upgrade") that the GTS will fit the bill just fine.

Seems that we play a lot of the same games too, so that's a great real-world comparison. Thanks much.

 

[imported_Imp]

Unless you must play at max settings, the 2407 scales amazingly well to 1680x1050. I'm using a 7600gt so forgot about native res. right off the bat. Although I spend more time on the desktop than in games usually, so I bought it more for this than games.

 

[gramboh]

Originally posted by: Imp
Unless you must play at max settings, the 2407 scales amazingly well to 1680x1050. I'm using a 7600gt so forgot about native res. right off the bat. Although I spend more time on the desktop than in games usually, so I bought it more for this than games.

Good point, the scaling at 1680x1050 is very good. Another option is using 1600x1200 with 1:1 pixel mapping and having black bars on the side, this way there is no scaling and you reduce the number of pixels and bump up the FPS rate a bit, but still have a lot of screen infront of you.

 

[aiya24]

Originally posted by: swtethan
you can afford a 24 inch, get the gtx

that is not always the case, like in my situation. my gf got me my 24 inch Dell for christmas . i thought i was getting the 20 inch, but was surprised when the 24 was delivered. long story short, my video card upgrading plan went out the window when i got my 24

 

[dflynchimp]

hehe, (modifies swtethan's post)

your gf can afford the 24 inch, have her get you the gtx XD

lol j/k. in all seriousness the GTS would do just fine. No need to spring for the GTX now.

If you consider the fact that the new radeon X2*** cards are coming out by the end of the month, might as well wait it out and see if the prices on the geforce 8 series go down at all. Besides, your current card is plenty powerful for most games at 1280X1024 res.

 

[dflynchimp]

http://anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2870&p=24

mucho helpful.

this is assuming you're entirely gpu limited (meaning you have a kickass cpu).

 

[AnotherGuy]

Hmm didnt see any1 recomending on waiting for 3 more weeks on R600 ?

 

[dflynchimp]

meh, for penny-pinchers like me waiting for better cards to come out so "old" cards drop in price is the way to go.