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Upgrade path for 5900 Ultra

L

L8CS

Senior member
I want to upgrade my son's Asus 5900 Ultra with a newer card so I can use it to replace my GF4 4400. I haven't had time to research it, so do you guys have any recomendations in the same $400 price range?

Thanks in advance.
 
Originally posted by: GreenMonkey
Wow.

The 5900 Ultras do seem to go for $200-260 on average on Ebay.
Click to expand...

look what my 5700u is going for ebay it really is suprising, you're right. lol considering I started bidding at 10 dollats.
 
Originally posted by: SneakyStuff
Originally posted by: GreenMonkey
Wow.

The 5900 Ultras do seem to go for $200-260 on average on Ebay.
Click to expand...

look what my 5700u is going for ebay it really is suprising, you're right. lol considering I started bidding at 10 dollats.
Click to expand...


Nice. Looks like I may need to list my BFG FX5900 flashed 5950U on Ebay.
 
Rollo's got it right.

I want the 5900 to replace my Ti400 and get the kid a newer generation card. I try to upgrade his PC every year and the 5900 Ultra was his B'day present last October. I'm looking for a card in the $400 range that will be an improvement over the 5900 so I can justify the upgrade in his mind. I guess I could be selfesh and get the new card for myself, but that's just part of being a dad 🙂
 
Originally posted by: L8CS
Rollo's got it right.

I want the 5900 to replace my Ti400 and get the kid a newer generation card. I try to upgrade his PC every year and the 5900 Ultra was his B'day present last October. I'm looking for a card in the $400 range that will be an improvement over the 5900 so I can justify the upgrade in his mind. I guess I could be selfesh and get the new card for myself, but that's just part of being a dad 🙂
Click to expand...

No doubt, kudos to you.
 
The best card by most any measure in the $400 price range is the 6800GT. ATI's competition, the x800 Pro, is close, but generally loses to the 6800GT in any relevant benchmark.
 
I never had an ATI card and been a loyal Nvidia fan since I gave up my beloved Voodoo 3 3000, many years ago. I've read that the 5900 Ultra doesn't support DX9 and the kid's really into Half Life which the ATI apparently excels at in benchmarks, so you can see my quandry. I not resistant to the ATI but I rather stay with Nvidia. I know that the ATI's don't require a spare slot to fit and don't need a big PWS but there's something beautiful about the huge 5900 Ultra style of card. It reminds me of the old Voodoo 5 6000. Who said that big wasn't beautiful. :brokenheart:
http://www.firingsquad.com/med...le_id=504&pic_id=3
 
Originally posted by: L8CS
I never had an ATI card and been a loyal Nvidia fan since I gave up my beloved Voodoo 3 3000, many years ago. I've read that the 5900 Ultra doesn't support DX9 and the kid's really into Half Life which the ATI apparently excels at in benchmarks, so you can see my quandry. I not resistant to the ATI but I rather stay with Nvidia. I know that the ATI's don't require a spare slot to fit and don't need a big PWS but there's something beautiful about the huge 5900 Ultra style of card. It reminds me of the old Voodoo 5 6000. Who said that big wasn't beautiful. :brokenheart:
http://www.firingsquad.com/med...le_id=504&pic_id=3
Click to expand...

Sniff..sob...a kindred spirit....
🙂:beer:

Oh yeah, the only thing I had against my 9700P and 9800P was the totally generic look to them. The 5800Ultra- now that was a card!

Anyway, grab a GT, it will play HL2 as well as any $400 ATI card, and Doom 3/it's licenses as well as any $500 ATI card. That isn't bad!
 
Originally posted by: GreenMonkey
Wow.

The 5900 Ultras do seem to go for $200-260 on average on Ebay.
Click to expand...

Idiots. You can get a brand new 6600GT or 6800nu for about the same price that will outperform the 5900 in every test.

For 400 bucks, any 6800GT card will serve you well. X800 Pros aren't too shabby either.
 
The leadtek 6800GT card is about $385 on Pricewatch

it comes with Prince of Persia and Splinter Cell: pandora tomorrow (i think) and it's a quiet card.

I dont think spending $70 extra for x800xt is worth it.
 
Okay, the 6800GT sounds great and and Asus is probably the brand I'll stick with, but they also have a Gamer Edtion "V9999 Gamer that's a 6800 chipset with the faster DDR3 memory and 256mb instead of the 128 offered on the V9999GT version.

I can't find any benchmarks but Asus is claiming a 25% increase in performance over other 6800 GPU's. Is the extra 128 mb and the faster ram worth the $70 cost upgrade? It also has a decent software bundle that adds to the justification but I'm looking for the best bang for the buck.
 
Originally posted by: L8CS
Okay, the 6800GT sounds great and and Asus is probably the brand I'll stick with, but they also have a Gamer Edtion "V9999 Gamer that's a 6800 chipset with the faster DDR3 memory and 256mb instead of the 128 offered on the V9999GT version.

I can't find any benchmarks but Asus is claiming a 25% increase in performance over other 6800 GPU's. Is the extra 128 mb and the faster ram worth the $70 cost upgrade? It also has a decent software bundle that adds to the justification but I'm looking for the best bang for the buck.
Click to expand...

I had the Asus V9999GE, the 6800 Vanilla with 256MB of GDD3@1Ghz. Yes, it will deliver 25% more performance than a standard 6800nu. Is it worth the additional cost? Not really, go with a full GT.

Avoid Asus' GF6800 GT with 128MB of DDR1, its total crap.
 
NewEgg just carries the 128mg version with the 700mhz ram so maybe I'll look at the Leadtek or Gainward versions. Any brand recommendations?
 
Originally posted by: L8CS
NewEgg just carries the 128mg version with the 700mhz ram so maybe I'll look at the Leadtek or Gainward versions. Any brand recommendations?
Click to expand...

BFG, Gainward, eVGA, Leadtek, etc. BFG and Gainward are my two prefered card vendor's though.
 
For God's sake don't touch any ASUS 6xxx series card, just to be safe. Their GT has NU RAM and the NU has GT RAM. I'm personally still trying to figure out what the hell they were thinking. LeadTek definitely owns when it comes inventive cooling solutions; I had to settle for a eVGA 6800GT recently because the LeadTek's sell out almost instantaneously on NE. If you can find one, go with that. If you can't, do not get an ASUS.
 
I know they're all built to Nvidia specs and I've read some good things about the BFG's performance and some bad things about their customer service, so I guess that's moot.

I like the looks of the HSF of the BFG 6800 GT OC pictured on their website but NewEgg's got a different single fan version. The lifetime warranty on the BFG is nice and it doesn't seem as bulky as the Leadtek, but it's pricy, starting to approach the Ultra price. I've never had a Gainward but heard it's a screamer. It's also $40 cheaper than the BFG but not OC'd out of the box like the BFG. Ahh well, I guess it's apples and oranges
http://forums.anandtech.com/i/...con-small-confused.gif</a>" border="0">
 
ZobarStyl

I'm concerned about the HSF on the Leadtek. Having a free slot is not the problem, it's the bottom of the card. The copper backplate looks like it's on standoff's and I'm not sure how much room there will be between that and the Alpha 8045 HSF on my Abit NF7S MB. I can't imagine the backplate being that high but the photo's on NE site don't show an angled view of the bottom.
 
Yeah I went and took a look at that, they don't really show it at a useful angle. Still I've had LeadTek products before and they always fit into the same size slots as other cards. Shouldn't be a problem (hopefully).
 
I WISH YOU WERE MY DAD!
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Well he's the only one we have, so I've got to set a good example and spoil the H*** out of him, so he can pass it on when I'm in a wheelchair. I've always tried to provide him with mainstream PC gear and hope he'll jump into software engineering someday. I can only provide him with the tools. How he chooses to use them is his choice.
 
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