sister needs an upgrade...

[AmongthechosenX]

Shes running the following:

DFI Lanparty UT Nforce 4 Ultra-D
Opteron 146 OC'd to 2.9ghz
512MB's RAM (value RAM, and yes I'm upgrading this for her to 1GB)
Radeon X850 Pro
Audigy 2 ZS Value
80GB IDE Hard Drive (upgrading this to SATA soon)

she only plays call of Duty 4, at 1024 x 768 (15 inch LCD monitor limits her). i think she'll play FEAR as well sometimes, and i like to play around with quake 4 on it when my computer is down (seems to eb happening often, lolol).

anyways, aside from the RAM slowing the performance down, the graphics card can't do too much. Almost all settings in COD4 are low or off, and theres no anti aliasing. 800 x 600 looks disgusting, and she cant go over 1024 x 768.
I figure I can sell her current card for like $35, and then get her a card for around $50.

but, i dont know WHAT to get her!!!

I've been looking at the following:

7800GT
7800GTX
7800GTX 512 (can barely find one of these)
7900GT
7900GTO (found one of these for sale for $55 in the FS section)
X1900GT (cant seem to find one of these)
X1800XT/XL

But i do not know WHICH CARD to get her!
first off i'm stuck figuring out if she can jsut get by with a 256MB card, or if she actually needs a 512 card. again, I found that 7900GTO 512 for $55, so 512 i an option in the budget, but i just need to know for my brains sake.
again, I'd like her to be able to max out all settings, keep the minumum frames around 40 FPS, and have full blast AA and AF settings.

What would be the best option for the budget i'm working with?
also, i prefer an nvidia card because shes got an SLI motherboard (well, at least an ultra D that can be modded to SLi, so we will stick to that method)

other plans for the pc are:
buy her another stick of 512MB, so its a dual channeled 1 Gig "kit" per sey. i'll throw money in for this.
then buy a SATA hard drive, and re install windows on that and sell her IDE drive. close to zero cost upgrade for me.

 

[mpilchfamily]

A 256 card is all thats needed. Your only gaming at 1024x768 so you don't need allot of GRAM on the card. Any of the 7900 series or X1900 series will do fine. Go with what you can afford. Your best bet may be a 7900GS. Other then the RAm thats the best you can do for that system. Though going as high as 2Gig would really halp out allot.

 

[Ares202]

x1950gt/or x1950 pro is another one you should look for

 

[vj8usa]

If you look around, you might be able to find a much better card that's close to your budget. I remember seeing a (new) 9600GSO (rebadged 8800GS) for $50 at Frys, but that sale ended.

You might also be able to find a good price on a 3850, which gives performance similar to the 9600gso/8800gs. The x1900/7900 cards you listed will work fine with CoD4, though, if you can't find the better cards for cheap.

 

[AmongthechosenX]

yes i thought about the 3850. cant seem to find any under $75, and thats too much for me to drop on this :/

i was thinking about an 8600GT, BUT the performance with AA and AF is VERY CLOSE to her current card (obviusly that card is better, but i want a little more headroom of performance).


which is why i was planning on going to a previous generation high end card...

see this chart: http://www.tomshardware.com/ch...4%2C1584%2C1617%2C1563

 

[alkemyst]

I'd stick that money into a 19" LCD first.

 

[SolMiester]

I take it you are looking for an AGP card, not PCIe, hence the old models you list!?.....

 

[RiDE]

I used to play with an Opteron 146 @ 2.4 and an X800XT PE at 1680x1050. I had everything on med with no AA. I didn't think it was that bad lol.

 

[schneiderguy]

I would go with a 8600gts over any of the 7/x1k series cards. Can you even buy those old cards anymore? The 8600gts is $50 AR on newegg

I take it you are looking for an AGP card, not PCIe, hence the old models you list!?.....

his mobo has two pci-e slots

 

[edplayer]

Originally posted by: SolMiester
I take it you are looking for an AGP card, not PCIe, hence the old models you list!?.....

don't know what browser you are using but with Firefox I just highlight the motherboard make/model and click on it then select "Search Google for xxxxxxx" from the list. First hit is dfi.com.tw Takes about 5 seconds to find out that it is PCI-E

edit: Sorry, its right click on the highlighted item

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: schneiderguy
I would go with a 8600gts over any of the 7/x1k series cards. Can you even buy those old cards anymore? The 8600gts is $50 AR on newegg

A 7900GTO is around 50% faster than an 8600GTS, if not faster. That, BTW, is the card that I recommend you buy, AmongthechosenX. It's the fastest of the cards you listed.

 

[Keysplayr]

This is probably the best you're going to get for 50 dollars right now. All the 79xx series are over 75 bux.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814500049

8600GT 512MB PCI-e, 32 stream processors. Ends up being about 58.00 after rebate and shipping cost.

Should be fine for CoD4 at 1024x768. My son has one and he plays UT3 at 1024x768 pretty smoothly.

 

[AmongthechosenX]

i'm buying a used card. i found a 7900GTO for $55 shipped on a forsale section of another board. thats where those prices are coming from.

her X850 pro is just too weak for even 1024 x 768 on call of duty 4. when theres a ton of smoke it slows down to nothing!!! not good.

for the last time this is a PCI EXPRESS CARD, NOT AGP.

so basically its boiled down to an 8600GTS i found for $30, or an X1950 Pro for $40. worst case scenario i get the 7900GTO for $55.

 

[happy medium]

Theres a 8800gs for sale for 75 bucks here.Brand new and Much faster then the 7900gto.

http://forums.anandtech.com/me..._key=y&keyword1=8800gs

 

[AmongthechosenX]

i cant go over $55. remember I'm shelling money out for this, not her. I can get maybe $25 after shipping on ehr current card, the most I'll throw in is $25-30 bucks. NOT $50.

 

[AmongthechosenX]

anyone else?

 

[PClark99]

ygpm

 

[AmongthechosenX]

PM replied

 

[Denithor]

x1950pro @ $40 is a great deal but you probably need a new powersupply to use it

COD4 benchmark

Actually the 8600GT or GTS would be a great card for COD4 and would use significantly less power than the x1950pro. Hunt down a used 8600GT for like $30-40 and you've got a winner.

 

[AmongthechosenX]

unfortunately the 8600GTS i had lined up was sold, atll the 8600GTS's i've found, new and used, are about $50, in which case i'd rather have the X1950 Pro...

she has a 350 watt vantec. would she really need a PSU upgrade?

 

[AmongthechosenX]

Come to think of it, and after reading, the 8600GTS is actually comparable to the X1950 Pro:
http://www.techpowerup.com/rev...r/8600GTS_GDDR3/7.html

found one for $50. maybe I can offer him $40 and see what happens.