Help please: Video card upgrade for Graphics / 3D Dev workstation

[7waysunday]

Hello all.. I'm in the process of putting together specs for a new machine. I don't need anything cutting edge as far as games are concerned, so the two cards I'm considering are in no way "recent" . I mainly do photoshop work, some blender and 3DS MAX, and also work in the openSIM simulator environment. I'm also building this on a tight budget (this is a secondary development machine aside from my primary which was built on a much higher budget) so here are my two current top choices:

HIS H467QR1GH Radeon HD 4670 1GB 128-bit DDR3
and
ZOTAC ZT-98GEY3G-FSL GeForce 9800 GT 1GB 256-bit GDDR3

The main difference I can see in the specs is the Stream Processors and Core Clock, the Radeon having 320 / 750MHz vs the GeForce with 112 / 550MHz...

However, the GeForce does have double the bandwidth at 256-bit vs 128-bit on the Radeon, which helps a lot with 3D rendering...

So are these cards basically comparable or does the 256-bit on the GeForce make up for having 1/3 the Stream processors that the Radeon has? Or is having 3x the Stream Processors on the Radeon more valuable for performance over the 256-bit on the GeForce?

The card will be powering 2 24" LED panels, so dual outputs are required, preferably D-Sub or DVI. HDMI is not necessary, though most cards come with it included so that's fine.

I'd eventually like to add a second card for more detailed simulator and rendering work, so CrossFire or SLI would be good, unless it's a very good card to begin with in which case a second card might not eventually be needed... I would also consider running two separate video cards *not* linked by CrossFire or SLI, which would allow me to have separate color calibrations / profiles for each monitor. (I'm not sure if win7-64 allows you to do separate color calibrations on two monitors on a single video card.)

Basically, I do 75% of my work in 2D, though my 2D designwork is almost entirely applied to 3D simulator and game environments, so that's the kind of hybrid graphics environment I'm building for (on a budget). Thanks for any help or insight you can provide, and suggestions for other cards in that price range would be much appreciated.

-7ways

 

[cusideabelincoln]

The 9800GT is faster than the 4670 on the compute power and the memory bandwidth.

But if you are buying from newegg, at the price of the 9800GT you should be looking into newer model cards like the GTS 450, GTX 460, HD 5770, HD 5750, etc. And then there are cheaper, newer model cards, to look at like the HD 5670, GT 240, GT 430, and HD 5570.

 

[Termie]

Ignore specs - you can't compare a 4670 to a 9800gt like that.

I went from a 9800gt to a 4670 for a while, before upgrading to a GTX460, and the 4670 is definitely slower. But you shouldn't buy either card - they are both old models.

You should look into whether your applications are accelerated by Nvidia's Cuda - if so, then get something like a GT240: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125304. Even if they're not, that would still be a good card for you. It's faster than a 4670 in 3D, almost as fast as a 9800gt.

 

[7waysunday]

Thanks for the replies so far, they're much appreciated and are getting me thinking not so much by-the-numbers, though I am still confused by how to gauge performance trade-off when it comes to the # of stream processors vs the bit-bus if the chipset were the same, for example.

On another note, I think I want to stick with cards which have at least 1Gb and 128-bit. When it comes to simulator environments with high kTris / texture / vertice / particle counts, 64-bit is barely useable, 128-bit has been ok up to now. 256-bit would be very nice but probably out of the budget at least for the short term. With a more current chipset the 128-bit may not be a problem at all, so I'm looking at pushing the budget a little and maybe going into the $125-150 range. I was originally looking at these cards:

GIGABYTE GV-N450OC2-1GI GeForce GTS 450 (Fermi) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 $143 shipped

MSI N550GTX-Ti Cyclone OC GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 $148 shipped A/R

EVGA 01G-P3-1556-KR GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) FPB 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 $130 shipped

before I got it into my head that they were out of my budget. The 550 series is very new (released in the last few weeks I think?) so there aren't many reviews on them yet at newegg.

I was also considering the following cards, but am wondering if the extra 64-bit bandwidth is worth knocking 1/4 of the memory off:

MSI N460GTX Cyclone 768D5/OC GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 768MB 192-bit GDDR5 $143 shipped A/R

MSI N460GTX Twin Frozr II SOC GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 768MB 192-bit GDDR5 $130 shipped A/R

If it helps any, the card which is currently in the machine in question is a GIGABYTE GV-R467ZL-1GI Radeon HD 4670 1GB 128-bit DDR3 which has worked very well for me in 2D design work, but now with more detailed 3D work it's starting to lag, so my plan was to pull that card off the MSI P55-GD65 board it's sitting on and upgrade the video card to whatever I end up buying, memory (from 4Gb to 16Gb) and OS (from XP Pro to win7-64). That older Gigabyte card will go into my girlfriend's computer, primarily for photoshop and photography post-processing and should probably be overkill for her strictly 2D usage.

So, I may shuffle the budget a little and maybe drop the memory budget from 16Gb to 8Gb and use the $50 savings to up the video card budget (though still hoping to keep it as low as possible). My only hesitation with the 192-bit 550's is they're very new and not many ratings / reviews on them yet (though what few reviews there are seem to be favorable). I just don't like playing guinea pig on a production machine build

(Yeah, all the cards in this post ended up being NVidias.. not sure why that happened.. have to look in more depth at comparable Radeons and see how much price savings can be had.)

EDIT:
Ok, maybe 256-bit cards aren't entirely out of the price range (and it's a Radeon):
PowerColor AX6850 1GBD5-DH Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 $158 shipped though, kinda high


-7ways

 

[cusideabelincoln]

Out of those cards, it seems like the 550 Ti would be of benefit for you.

Other considerations are the HD 5770, HD 5830, and maybe HD 6850.

The memory bus size (64-bit, 128-bit, etc) is only half the story for memory performance. Memory speed also determines bandwidth. DDR5 is twice as fast as DDR3. So if you have two cards with a 128-bit bus, the card with DDR5 will have twice the bandwidth as the card with DDR3.

 

[7waysunday]

Yeah I'm actually starting to like that 6850 that I edited in after I made the last post.. It's slightly higher in cost, but it's a 6850... 256 bit.. and 960 Stream Processors / Shaders... and lasting longer before another upgrade helps me justify the higher cost.. has good reviews on newegg and in general...

Is my understanding correct that, when comparable ATI/AMD and NVidia chipsets are placed side by side (i.e. all things being as equal as possible), the Radeons tend to perform slightly better with AA/AF enabled? That seems to be what I'm seeing in "most" of the reviews I've read on the different chipsets, though not across the board (and I know that different games will perform differently, of course, but just asking in general..).

-7ways

 

[Termie]

Can you tell us what the rest of your system looks like? Now you're talking about spending real money, and if you're actually doing it for gaming, we need to know whether it's a good fit for your system. I don't understand your usage at all, though, so I can't say whether the same issues apply as they would for gaming, i.e., cpu limitations. The other issue would be power supply, so we'd want to know what make and model you have.

You may need to do some research in a very specific forum regarding your program requirements.

 

[7waysunday]

Ok... this is actually a partial upgrade on an existing system which was not designed to be strictly a "gaming" machine even though some of the work being done on it closely resembles game environments... it's used primarily as a dev workstation with some prototyping in "game-ish" environments...

Current Specs:
MSI P55-GD65 LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard
Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor
GIGABYTE GV-R467ZL-1GI Radeon HD 4670 1GB 128-bit DDR3
G.SKILL Trident 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2000 (PC3 16000)
OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ600MXSP 600W ATX12V V2.2 / EPS12V
Win XP Pro
Yeong-Yang server cube case (plenty of cooling and drive bays)

New System that will be built:
MSI P55-GD65 LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard (reused from above)
Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor (reused from above)
Yeong-Yang server cube case (reused from above)
+
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) (to be purchased now)
or
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) (to be purchased now)
+
COOLER MASTER Silent Pro M600 RS-600-AMBA-D3 600W ATX12V V2.3 (to be purchased now)
+
Video Card (to be determined) (to be purchased now)
+
Win7 64

This is mainly a video card and memory upgrade, as well as the OS to Win7 64 (currently limited by XP Pro to approx 3GB memory) to be able to expand to 8Gb and eventually 16Gb for Photoshop and 3DS Max, etc... for what is primarily a light-gaming and 3D dev workstation used for 2D and 3D development (Photoshop, blender, 3DS Max, openSIM, and maybe a very small amount of actual gaming (though that in itself should not be a driving factor in parts selection). However, when it comes to working in openSIM environments, many of the same aspects are involved (primitives-based design, bump maps, kTris, vertices, rendering, particles and physics, sculpts and meshes, etc). That's the primary reason why I'm looking for a card that will handle 3D environments very well; even though the specific usage is not technically "bleeding edge gaming", many of the elements involved are somewhat similar... So it's almost more of a game-dev machine than a game-play machine... but the environments are pretty similar, though not as intensive..

The video card upgrade would ease the stress on the old Gigabyte card which is starting to show its age now that the environments I'm prototyping are becoming much more detailed and texture-intensive...

...also, the OS Upgrade would break me out of the 3GB memory barrier imposed by Win XP, so it's a joint OS/memory upgrade as well...

And since some of the old parts will be going to other machines to give them a little bit of a boost in different areas, PSU and GPU included, I'll be adding that new CoolerMaster PSU to this "new old" machine while I'm at it...

(I know the PSU I've selected "may" not be adequate, and I might need to look for a ~700W unit instead)..

Since I can't budget a full system build at the moment, and since this machine is not going to be the primary development machine but more of a secondary workstation and 3D prototyping machine, the most cost-effective way to boost the capabilities seemed like an OS, memory, and video card upgrade.. plus the fact that I've had very good performance/stability out of this existing MSI mobo, and when it comes down to it, stability is an essential concern for this machine, so I'd like to just upgrade the video and memory but use the same mobo... and just give the older parts a bit of a renewed lease on life while budget constraints keep me from doing a full cutting edge system build...

Wow that was wordy! Hope it clarifies...

-7ways

 

[Schmide]

Dude with those specs go at least for the

$170 = $190 - $20 rebate XFX Radeon HD 5870 1GB

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2152922

 

[Termie]

You should read this in regard to Photoshop acceleration: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/adobe-cs5-cuda-64-bit,2770.html

Not sure whether your other apps would also favor Nvidia. The AMD HD5870 is awesome for the price, and would work in your system, but if you're not really doing any serious gaming, it's far more money than you need to spend. I'd look in the $100 range unless you find evidence that your apps will really benefit from more GPU horsepower. If they will, and you don't need Nvidia's Cuda, then by all means go for the 5870 over the 6850. But measure your case first - you need about 11 inches for that puppy.

 

[7waysunday]

Hehehe that is actually one of the articles I had already read prior to my original post. While it does show substantial benefits in apps like Premiere CS5, Photoshop CS5 is not coded to take advantage of CUDA. However, some 3rd party plugins "may" be coded to take advantage of CUDA. I spent some time digging for info on my existing toolkit of apps, as well as apps I "think" I may realistically use on this machine in the next 18 months, and there aren't enough of them to make CUDA a deciding factor.

So, it looks like GeForce and Radeon are both still on the table.

This is the box the machine is sitting in: Yeong Yang YY-0221B Cube Server Case. Mobo/cards sit completely separate from drives/PSU, so space for larger cards really isn't an issue at all.

I started looking at this card:
SAPPHIRE Vapor-X 100283VX-2L Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 for $115 shipped A/R.. It has good reviews, but is only openGl 3.2, and something about the sweep of the heatsink and the direction of the fan both being counterclockwise bothers me in regards to thermal dynamics.. Seems you'd get more cooling with the heatsink fins sweeping counter to the fan direction. However, it does seem like a good affordable card.

Other than that one, my remaining top choices are (in no order):
GIGABYTE GV-N550OC-1GI GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 $154 shipped

PowerColor AX6850 1GBD5-DH Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 $158 shipped A/R

MSI N550GTX-Ti Cyclone OC GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 $148 shipped A/R

EVGA 01G-P3-1556-KR GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) FPB 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 $130 shipped, though the same concern with the heatsink fins and the fan arcing in the same direction, maybe not an issue.

I think my top choices are the Sapphire 5770, the GIGABYTE 550, and maybe the EVGA GTX 550 Ti, but I do still like that 6850. The 5770 and 550Ti seem to be "fairly" close performance-wise though the 550 does edge out the 5770 in most areas except for anisotropic filtering.. The 6850 is better all around.

Should I toss a coin? Out of the cards in this post only, and based on budget and what I described my uses being, which would you choose?

-7ways

 

[cusideabelincoln]

I'd recommend these instead of the 550 Ti:

Palit NE5X460EFHD02 GeForce GTX 460 SE (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 $135 shipped A/R

EVGA 01G-P3-1366-TR GeForce GTX 460 SE (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 $143 shipped A/R

For the usage you described it seems like any of these cards will work for you, though.

 

[nemesismk2]

The 9800 GT would be faster but if you can find them a radeon 4770 would be faster than both of them and really cool and quiet too.

 

[Termie]

Hehehe that is actually one of the articles I had already read prior to my original post. While it does show substantial benefits in apps like Premiere CS5, Photoshop CS5 is not coded to take advantage of CUDA. However, some 3rd party plugins "may" be coded to take advantage of CUDA. I spent some time digging for info on my existing toolkit of apps, as well as apps I "think" I may realistically use on this machine in the next 18 months, and there aren't enough of them to make CUDA a deciding factor.

So, it looks like GeForce and Radeon are both still on the table.

This is the box the machine is sitting in: Yeong Yang YY-0221B Cube Server Case. Mobo/cards sit completely separate from drives/PSU, so space for larger cards really isn't an issue at all.

I started looking at this card:
SAPPHIRE Vapor-X 100283VX-2L Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 for $115 shipped A/R.. It has good reviews, but is only openGl 3.2, and something about the sweep of the heatsink and the direction of the fan both being counterclockwise bothers me in regards to thermal dynamics.. Seems you'd get more cooling with the heatsink fins sweeping counter to the fan direction. However, it does seem like a good affordable card.

Other than that one, my remaining top choices are (in no order):
GIGABYTE GV-N550OC-1GI GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 $154 shipped

PowerColor AX6850 1GBD5-DH Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 $158 shipped A/R

MSI N550GTX-Ti Cyclone OC GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 $148 shipped A/R

EVGA 01G-P3-1556-KR GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) FPB 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 $130 shipped, though the same concern with the heatsink fins and the fan arcing in the same direction, maybe not an issue.

I think my top choices are the Sapphire 5770, the GIGABYTE 550, and maybe the EVGA GTX 550 Ti, but I do still like that 6850. The 5770 and 550Ti seem to be "fairly" close performance-wise though the 550 does edge out the 5770 in most areas except for anisotropic filtering.. The 6850 is better all around.

Should I toss a coin? Out of the cards in this post only, and based on budget and what I described my uses being, which would you choose?

-7ways

I would choose the 6850, hands down, as long as it's within your budget. But I'm going to bend the rules a bit and suggest the following model instead: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814131376. It's $2 more than the one your listed, and it's the overclocked version of the same card. Probably worth the extra $2.

Honestly, the 550Ti is not a good card. It has a very experimental memory interface (used to save money, not to make it faster), and some reviewers have pondered whether Nvidia will fully support it in drivers (it cannot function without a driver trick). Plus it's slower and uses far more power at load than the 6850, and only costs a few dollars less. Just bad all around.

Proof on risky driver trick, which in fact impacts CUDA performance: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4221/nvidias-gtx-550-ti-coming-up-short-at-150/2
Proof on performance: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/GeForce_GTX_550_Ti_Direct_Cu/23.html
Proof on power use: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4221/nvidias-gtx-550-ti-coming-up-short-at-150/16

 

[7waysunday]

LOL, this gets more and more difficult! I spent part of the morning hunting down deals on the 460 SEs based on cusideabelincoln's recommendations, checked some chipsets performance comparisons online, etc etc, and was just about settled on this non-SE 460:

SPARKLE SXX4601024D5UNM GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 $160 shipped

and now you've got me back on that 6850, which I admit I was liking from the start. My concerns are, with the PowerColor you've listed, Termie, it appears brand-new on newegg.. no reviews.. no ratings yet.. and that always makes me hesitate when it comes to tech purchases, not having the budget or time at the moment to play trial and error and possibly go back and forth on RMAs for what is, essentially, a work/dev computer, even if it's just a backup. The original PowerColor I had listed does have a history of good reviews on it though...

The Sparkle 460 I'm looking at.. well.. it's Sparkle.. not a bigger name.. but it does have high reviews, aside from one instance of a high pitched whining sound in one buyer's review, which would suggest to me an issue with capacitors or grounding, (or maybe a PSU issue?) but the other reviews are favorable.

When I plug those two chipsets into this page http://www.hwcompare.com/8241/geforce-gtx-460-1gb-vs-radeon-hd-6850/ they show fairly similar performance. I know, it's not the best way to compare two cards or chipsets, but it should give at least a decent general baseline to compare with, and that Sparkle card is apparently pure reference-design, which seems like a benefit to me in a work environment where stability and reliability are more important than bleeding edge OC.

So.. now I don't know.. I could go with my original PowerColor 6850 based on the prior positive reviews.. or take a chance with your PowerColor 6850 suggestion based on the fact that it's a same-chipset same-brand card and hope for the best based on the other card's reviews.. or go with the Sparkle GTX460 also based on prior reviews despite Sparkle being a smaller brand...

Also, the two PowerColor cards have 960 Stream Processors whereas the GTX 460 has 336 cores which, if I understand correctly, is the equivalent of 1680 Radeon cores... and the fact that CUDA would possibly offer some benefit with certain PShop CS5 plugins and apps in the longrun, though I'm not basing my decision with a lot of weight on that factor alone, since most of my apps don't utilize it yet.. just thinking ahead...

Regarding the 4770 suggestion.. that's a much older chipset, no? Aside from all the listings I (briefly) checked for that chipset being out of stock / discontinued, all the cards which used to be listed are 512MB/128-bit and I really need at least 1GB for operating dual monitors at 1920x1080. 2GB would have been ideal but I think it's out of the price range considering this isn't a primary dev machine but a backup.

Thank you for the suggestion though.. everyone who has offered suggestions and insight up to now are all very much appreciated. I know some of you guys probably upgrade a lot more often than I do and this kind of decision isn't such a big deal for you, so thanks for your patience as well!

-7ways

 

[Termie]

LOL, this gets more and more difficult! I spent part of the morning hunting down deals on the 460 SEs based on cusideabelincoln's recommendations, checked some chipsets performance comparisons online, etc etc, and was just about settled on this non-SE 460:

SPARKLE SXX4601024D5UNM GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 $160 shipped

and now you've got me back on that 6850, which I admit I was liking from the start. My concerns are, with the PowerColor you've listed, Termie, it appears brand-new on newegg.. no reviews.. no ratings yet.. and that always makes me hesitate when it comes to tech purchases, not having the budget or time at the moment to play trial and error and possibly go back and forth on RMAs for what is, essentially, a work/dev computer, even if it's just a backup. The original PowerColor I had listed does have a history of good reviews on it though...

The Sparkle 460 I'm looking at.. well.. it's Sparkle.. not a bigger name.. but it does have high reviews, aside from one instance of a high pitched whining sound in one buyer's review, which would suggest to me an issue with capacitors or grounding, (or maybe a PSU issue?) but the other reviews are favorable.

When I plug those two chipsets into this page http://www.hwcompare.com/8241/geforce-gtx-460-1gb-vs-radeon-hd-6850/ they show fairly similar performance. I know, it's not the best way to compare two cards or chipsets, but it should give at least a decent general baseline to compare with, and that Sparkle card is apparently pure reference-design, which seems like a benefit to me in a work environment where stability and reliability are more important than bleeding edge OC.

So.. now I don't know.. I could go with my original PowerColor 6850 based on the prior positive reviews.. or take a chance with your PowerColor 6850 suggestion based on the fact that it's a same-chipset same-brand card and hope for the best based on the other card's reviews.. or go with the Sparkle GTX460 also based on prior reviews despite Sparkle being a smaller brand...

Also, the two PowerColor cards have 960 Stream Processors whereas the GTX 460 has 336 cores which, if I understand correctly, is the equivalent of 1680 Radeon cores... and the fact that CUDA would possibly offer some benefit with certain PShop CS5 plugins and apps in the longrun, though I'm not basing my decision with a lot of weight on that factor alone, since most of my apps don't utilize it yet.. just thinking ahead...

Regarding the 4770 suggestion.. that's a much older chipset, no? Aside from all the listings I (briefly) checked for that chipset being out of stock / discontinued, all the cards which used to be listed are 512MB/128-bit and I really need at least 1GB for operating dual monitors at 1920x1080. 2GB would have been ideal but I think it's out of the price range considering this isn't a primary dev machine but a backup.

Thank you for the suggestion though.. everyone who has offered suggestions and insight up to now are all very much appreciated. I know some of you guys probably upgrade a lot more often than I do and this kind of decision isn't such a big deal for you, so thanks for your patience as well!

-7ways

That Sparkle is a fine card at a pretty good price, but it's not as good as the 6850. Here's a proper bench of the two: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/313?vs=291. What you linked to is not a benchmark, it's just a calculation of theoretical performance.

Also, that Sparkle is not a reference design. It's a proprietary heatsink. Not that there's necessarily anything wrong with it, but it's certainly not as tested as the reference version (which is what I have on my GTX460-768).

Unless you're convinced that the CUDA applications will benefit you, the 6850 is the logical choice. I think the overclocked Powercolor is a safe bet, as it's very similar to the standard version, but if you're not doing much gaming, just go for the standard version - it will run a little cooler and use a bit less power at load.

And yes, the 4770 is a very old card and not even sold anymore.

 

[Dark Shroud]

+1 for 6850

Also unless you're doing very heavy video editing or VM systems on your PC 8gig will be more than enough memory for some time.

 

[deimos3428]

If the 6850 fits your budget, get it.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

LOL, the pattern I see the OP doing is keep upping his budget on the video card.

4670->9800GT->5770->GTX550->6850/460

Here's the dealio:
If you want to spend the cost of the 6850 and 460 1GB regular version, then you are getting some good cards. Overall the Powercolor will be slightly faster than the 460. But you also won't have to wait on a rebate if you get the 460. This is a fine trade-off, IMO, making the cards of similar value - specifically when you consider one card does better in one game and the other in different games.

The next step down, in price and performance, is the GTX 460 SE. IMO, from what you described, ignore the 460-768MB because of the RAM and definitely forget about the GTX 550 Ti because it's at a horrible price. The 460 SE at $135 is a good card.

A step down in price and performance from the 460 SE would be the HD 5770. Also the GTS 450 and HD 5750 are considerations that are slightly cheaper, but these cards should be bunched together in price. This seems to be the slowest I'd recommend you get.

So now all you have to do is decide on how much you want to spend.

 

[tweakboy]

9800GT all the way!

 

[Termie]

9800GT all the way!

I think that's based on your original post, OP. Doesn't really apply at this point. Actually, you can change the title of your post by clocking on the Edit tab in your first post, and then "Go Advanced."

 

[7waysunday]

Just wanted to thank everyone who took the time to offer their advice. I received all the new parts for the machine migration yesterday and will be building it this weekend when I have a good bit of free time.

FYI, I ended up going with the PowerColor 6850 1GB 256bit for video (I figure a little more spent now means more time before an upgrade will be needed), and 2x4GB of Corsair CMZ8GX3M2A 1600 CL9 memory over the G.Skill I was originally looking at. Same price either way, but the Corsair had much better reviews. I already popped the 2x4 sticks onto the MSI mobo and it reads the full 8GB with no problems so that's a good sign as far as compatibility is concerned, even though XP can't see it all, but I'll be wiping that machine and putting win7/64 on it.

I'll keep you posted on stability and etc.. need to run MemTest first and foremost in case there any issues.

But again, thanks everyone for your helpful advice. It's much appreciated.

-7ways