real world app

[drifter106]

another newbie (run through the car wash) question:

ok... I think I have my facts straight... once you get to say ahhhhhh 50 to 60 fps video cards tend to max out as far as performance, right? ( i have yet to see a higher peformance card $200 in action) read my sig

what does a person gain by higher gains on the cards besides benchmark scores?

is there such a thing as reaching a point where you actually don't SEE better performance from higher speeds?

I was really looking at a 6800gt....how does the performance of this card pan out with other cards? (granted there other considerations that a newer generation card has to offer or for that matter lower cards)

I have a 5 year old card (16 or 32 mb ram ????) and we have played Half life and it really had some issues... lagging... so anything I get will be an improvement... just dont know where to stop (no sense in spending money when you won't see it really benefiting you...

to further your opinions here is my proposed system:

antec p150 or 1000amg
ocz powerstream 520
xp 90 heatsink and panaflo fan
windchester 3200 maybe 3500 (once i get things set up and running I will try my hand at o/c)
ocz el platinum 3200 rev 2 dual channel 1 gig (any drawbacks to running at stock speed with this)
2 pata drives (seagate 200gb)
1 sata external drive (maxtor 1 touch II 250gb) (hoping this can be hooked up via ports 3 or 4)
nec 3500a burner
MSI neo plat
audigy 2 zs pci
logitech z-3 speakers
logitech lx700 keyboard
windows xp sp

points to ponder:
i want a system that will allow me to utilize my digital camera/photo editing and hopefully to convert vhs to dvd (not sure what ill need for that) and digital movies (family) this is probably a software issue I hope
gaming
music

all points of view will be appreciated...if you think i need to change something let me know by all means...

thanks
jd

 

[sundev]

Well.. the better the video card, the higher resolution you can play at, with higher quality (e.g. enabling AA/AF, etc.).

If you're happy with 640x480 with low details, you can get away with an Etch-a-Sketch for a video card. If you want to play at higher resolutions with high detail and not get bogged down in high-action, a 6800GT would do nicely.. it's more or less the best card you can get at that price range ($400 or so I think).

Here's Anandtech's comparison of video cards and DOOM3 performance: http://www.anandtech.com/video...oc.aspx?i=2146&p=3

As as example, you'll notice at Ulta Quality/Hi Res (5th chart down) the 6800GT is faring quite nicely, while lesser cards (6800, X800) fall behind, and the 5950 and 9800XT are pretty much unplayable at that resolution. But if you're happier with a lower quality setting (see the next page in the review), then cheaper cards like the 6600GT will be fine.

 

[cheesehead]

Wait until NF4, and get a Winchester 3000+ or 3200+. They both overclock very well, and you can get crazy-go-nuts performance on air.
Here's a sample system:
Winchester 3200+-190$, after SLK-948u heatsink, AS5, and panaflo fan, 240$.
NF4 ultra board, estimated price 120$
1GB Kingston HyperX PC4000, 200$
GEforce 6800GT-250$
Coolmax 400w power supply-40$
Inexpensive aluminum case-25$ (see NewEgg, they have three to choose from)
+12$ of fans
2x160GB SATA drives-250$. (raid 'em if you want)
Mad Dog DVD burner, Dual Layer (compgeeks.com) 66$
Logitech MX510-22$ at Amazon
Keyboard-15$
TOTAL: 1170$
(+ OS and other things)
This thing will ZOOM. At 250mhz, a 3200+ will be running at 2.5 ghz-not to shabby, eh? With watercooling (add about 100$ or so) and you can maybe get out 2.7.