Will a 7900GS be able to play PC games at high resolutions until the end of the year?

ss samy

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Oct 1, 2006
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I'm planning on geting one and playing games at 1680x1050. It should do the job for oblivion , sports and racing games, and some good FPS games until december right?
 

Zambien

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Oct 14, 2004
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a 7900gs is not going to play oblivion very well at 1680x1050, even with lower settings.
 

ss samy

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Oct 1, 2006
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What resolution will it do well in then? and anyways i wouldn't play the games with very high requirements until i upgraded anyways....so maybe if i played new and old games with more lenient GPU requirements, a 7900GS is fine right?
 

SlowSpyder

Lifer
Jan 12, 2005
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I use a 7900GS on my 22" monitor. I am slightly overclocked (I think it's at 530mhz now, not the 550 in my sig). I haven't played Oblivion in a while, but from what I remember it is very playable. I know I have high quality textures, reflections, am using HDR, etc. I think I only have building/character shadows on. I don't remember where I put the sliders beyond that... but anyway, it plays decently.

I have also been playing a lot of Titan Quest, it gets choppy here and there, but over all it's very playable. - *edit, also I have the quality maxed on that.

The only other game I have been playing a bit lately is HOMM5, I have that pretty much maxed and it's smooth as silk.

The 7900GS will do ok at 1680x1050, just don't expect miracles.
 

ss samy

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Oct 1, 2006
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it's a core 2 duo E6600 so don't worry about that! But anyways do you think the 7900GS will do me fine until december? I dont mind having to play on medium settings if worse comes to worse
 

happy medium

Lifer
Jun 8, 2003
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Originally posted by: ss samy
I'm planning on geting one and playing games at 1680x1050. It should do the job for oblivion , sports and racing games, and some good FPS games until december right?

You should be able to get a 7900gt 256mb for 130.00$or a 7950gt 512mb for 150.00$ on bay. Those cards will get you through this year.
 

Cheezeit

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Apr 21, 2005
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7900gs's are very oc'able. Mine is running at 740 ram and 520 core vs the factory of like 650 and 450. I haven't even tried pushing further. Anyways, for the 130 I got it for, you can't get a better deal card in that price range.
 

apoppin

Lifer
Mar 9, 2000
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alienbabeltech.com
Originally posted by: ss samy
it's a core 2 duo E6600 so don't worry about that! But anyways do you think the 7900GS will do me fine until december? I dont mind having to play on medium settings if worse comes to worse

absolutely not at 16x10

maybe 14x9

the x1950p is faster ... so is the 7950gt ... pick 512MB vRAM ... if you can afford them

EDIT: If your 16x10 supports flat panel scaling, you can always play at a lower resolution - the only penalty being the black bars
 

SlowSpyder

Lifer
Jan 12, 2005
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<shrug> Like I already said, I have a mildly overclocked 7900GS and have no problems whatsoever at 1680x1050 with current games.
 

apoppin

Lifer
Mar 9, 2000
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Originally posted by: SlowSpyder
<shrug> Like I already said, I have a mildly overclocked 7900GS and have no problems whatsoever at 1680x1050 with current games.

well, i had a 7800GS OC OC'd ... and it played Oblivion well enough at 12x10 ... but i can't imagine you are gonna get *high* detail with a bit faster GPU at 16x10 ...
i see a "sacrifice" for those extra pixels

and my x1950p does fine - with everything Maxed + HDR ... but i would certainly expect it to slowdown if i went from 14x9 to 16x10
--but that's just me ... also

what IS *good* is that the OP can "read between" our opinions and decide for himself what to get/do.
:thumbsup:
 

ss samy

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Oct 1, 2006
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well, i'm canadian and the 7900 GS is 180 dollars for me, and i can't get anything better without spending a lot more money...so i guess i'll be fine
 

cubalis

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Feb 1, 2005
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Originally posted by: ss samy
well, i'm canadian and the 7900 GS is 180 dollars for me, and i can't get anything better without spending a lot more money...so i guess i'll be fine

Have you thought about picking something up second hand? Head over to redflagdeals and look at the b/s/t forum (or look here if you don't mind cross border trading). I frequently see cards like the 7900GT or 7800GTX for ~150-200 Canadian.
 

fire400

Diamond Member
Nov 21, 2005
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FS/TR forum. get an x1900XT for 200 shipped

put a 3rd party cooler on it and OC it. it will surpass the performance of a stock XTX version. you will be very pleased.

otherwise, 8800
 

BFG10K

Lifer
Aug 14, 2000
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I'm planning on geting one and playing games at 1680x1050
That's not a high resolution, it's middling at best, even borderline low.

And no, something like Stalker or Call of Jurarez will be unplayable at that resolution unless you drop the details.
 

nitromullet

Diamond Member
Jan 7, 2004
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Originally posted by: BFG10K
I'm planning on geting one and playing games at 1680x1050
That's not a high resolution, it's middling at best, even borderline low.

And no, something like Stalker or Call of Jurarez will be unplayable at that resolution unless you drop the details.

You've been saying this for some time now, but with regards to LCDs the only higher resolutions out there are 1920x1200 and 2560x1600, so I just don't see how it could be considered 'borderline low'. It's a pretty well known fact that anything above 1680x1050 requires a serious commitment in terms of video cards if you want to play newer games even remotely well. 24" and 30" screens are simply not for the casual gamer, and even a 1680x1050 screen can require a pretty hefty card for smooth gameplay... I know, I had a Dell 2005FPW with many a high end video card, a few SLI setups, and even a CrossFire setup.

There is only one single card that can play FEAR at 2560x1200 with an average of 30fps:

http://anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2870&p=22

None for Oblivion (without AA even), most are completely unplayable...

http://anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2870&p=24

...sure, you can talk about higher resolutions, but with newer games that simply isn't realistic unless you have a serious ($500-600) video card.
 

Elfear

Diamond Member
May 30, 2004
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Originally posted by: fire400
FS/TR forum. get an x1900XT for 200 shipped

put a 3rd party cooler on it and OC it. it will surpass the performance of a stock XTX version. you will be very pleased.

otherwise, 8800

+1

Even without the 3rd party cooler you'd be fine. The stock cooler isn't the best but I don't think it deserves the reputation it has.