Questions on PCI Express

[jgbishop]

Either my monitor (Viewsonic A90) or video card (Radeon 9700 Pro) is on the blink, so I'm thinking about replacing them both (since I recently got a full time job, I can afford the upgrade). On the video card side, I'm wondering if going to PCI Express (PCIX) is a good idea. Not knowing much about it, however, I have several questions:

1. I know that I'll need a new motherboard to handle PCIX, but will that involve me replacing my memory / processor (my rig specs are available in my signature)? Or are there motherboards that support the current line of processors / memory?

2. Are ATI and NVIDIA PCIX cards available today? Or are they still in production? If they are available, what is recommended?

3. What do folks here running PCIX think about it?

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

 

[ryanv12]

1. If you go with an Intel setup, you're going to have to replace your processor and RAM as well, unless you go with this board: Text

Just keep in mind that your processor upgrade path is limited to a 3.4 GHz Pentium 4 with that.

2. PCI-E cards have been available for a while, so no need to worry for that. The recommended card would depend on your budget, what games you want to use it for, and what monitor you're planning on buying (max resolution?).

3. I don't know about any thoughts about having it, it doesn't provide an increase in performance or anything from AGP 8x.



One more note, list what kind of Power supply you have, because that would be important in upgrading.

 

[blckgrffn]

Just stick to AGP now, I would say. The next gen cards are going to be AGP too, so in lieu of replacing all that stuff, pick yourself up a 6800 or 6800GT and those should give you a pretty good performance increase.

Nat

 

[jgbishop]

I'm planning on getting a 22" CRT, so I'll be running 1600x1200 on my desktop. Games will probably be run a little less than that (1280x1024).

I also play FPS games mostly, with the occasional simulation game (Train Simulator is my current favorite).

My power supply is an Antec 430-Watt "True430" Power Supply.

 

[blckgrffn]

I would get a 6800GT then, it likes the higher resolutions better!

What is your budget?

 

[jgbishop]

I doubt I'd buy the most expensive thing, but to be honest, the sky is the limit as far as budget is concerned. I'm making more money these days than I've ever seen in my life!

 

[jgbishop]

This evga card looks cool. Lots of good reviews, and a decent price.

 

[blckgrffn]

Looks fine to me, good price too... the fan might be loud, if that bothers you I would definitely step to the Gigabyte one for about $25 more...

Let us know what you decide!

Nat

 

[jgbishop]

What do I need to do if I switch to an nVidia card (I have ATI now)? I know the "right" answer is to probably rebuild Windows, but I'd like to avoid that if possible.

 

[blckgrffn]

Run driver cleaner (google it) and then install the latest drivers from Nvidia and you should be good to go!

 

[Concillian]

Originally posted by: blckgrffn
Run driver cleaner (google it) and then install the latest drivers from Nvidia and you should be good to go!

This has been adequate in my experience. My backup computer sees a lot of different hardware, as I test it out there before going to my main computer. On it's current windows build it's seen:

ATI9700 --> nVidia5900XT --> ATI9500 --> ATI 9700 --> ATIx800XL --> ATI x800Pro

with motherboards varying from nforce2 + AXP, noforce3 + S754 A64 and nForce4 + S939 A64.

No windows re-installs, and it still works great. I don't buy into rebuilding windows for simple hardware changes. I'm sure it can't hurt to reinstall windows, but I clearly don't think it's very necessary.

 

[indianduddawg47]

Originally posted by: jgbishop
I'm planning on getting a 22" CRT, so I'll be running 1600x1200 on my desktop. Games will probably be run a little less than that (1280x1024).

I also play FPS games mostly, with the occasional simulation game (Train Simulator is my current favorite).

My power supply is an Antec 430-Watt "True430" Power Supply.

My geforce 6600 gt pcie plays 1600x1200 just fine (half life 2 was set to 16x AF 6x AA, high details and 1600x1200.)

 

[BillyBobJoel71]

how the hell were you getting good fps with that setup? i have never played hl2 but i would assume all that AA and AF would lower the fps and make it unplayable.

 

[dug777]

Originally posted by: SuperTyphoon
how the hell were you getting good fps with that setup? i have never played hl2 but i would assume all that AA and AF would lower the fps and make it unplayable.

I call shens on that too. To start with i don't think nvidia cards do 6xAA (only ATI cards do that). It's also only a 128mb card with 128bit memory


you might get 2xAA and 8xAF with that if you are lucky...

 

[ProviaFan]

If the other parts of your system don't seem to be limiting you, then you might as well wait until your next big upgrade to go PCI-E, unless you need that big upgrade now. Just get a new AGP graphics card and you'll be fine. :thumbsup:

 

[jgbishop]

Originally posted by: ProviaFan
If the other parts of your system don't seem to be limiting you, then you might as well wait until your next big upgrade to go PCI-E, unless you need that big upgrade now. Just get a new AGP graphics card and you'll be fine. :thumbsup:

That's what I think I'll do. That eVGA 6800 GT (linked in one of my posts above) looks really cool. I think I might spring for that and a monitor. $900 is a lot of money to drop at once though!

:Q