Graphics card

Legean

Fledgling Freddie
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Which of these two graphics cards would you say is better?

Radeon X1950XT 256MB or 512MB GEFORCE 7950GT

Will the extra memory of the geforce make a big difference or is it a better card in general? I use my PC for online gaming and often duel log accounts. Any help is appreciated and thanks in advance.
 

Ballard

Fledgling Freddie
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X1950XT by a good margin. The ram makes little difference.

The 7950 512mb is about the same performance as the 1950pro 256mb (which is the baby brother of the XT and also comes in 512mb variant).
 

Boni

Fledgling Freddie
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Depends on the game/application your using, the GeForce will outperform the ATI card in applications that use a lot of processing (e.g. Oblivion), whereas the ATI will play Quake 1 at 9000000fps instead of 8000000fps and blur everything nicer.. So for me the GeForce wins.

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/graphics/charts.html?modelx=33&model1=546&model2=520&chart=226

/edit hmm actualy that ATI does outperform that GeForce, was thinking of the 7900.. Still im an nvidia fan so ill still stick with my biased answer :D
 

Battleboobs

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Got a Radeon X1950XTX 512Mb DDR4 and it rox, i changed the cooling on it tho as its sounds like a jet plane when fan is spinning at 100%, but imo, buy a gfx card with DX10 support.
 

Legean

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Battleboobs said:
Got a Radeon X1950XTX 512Mb DDR4 and it rox, i changed the cooling on it tho as its sounds like a jet plane when fan is spinning at 100%, but imo, buy a gfx card with DX10 support.

My budget wont stretch that far :( would i be right in thinking any new games needing DX10 cards wont be out for some time?
 

Boni

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Legean said:
My budget wont stretch that far :( would i be right in thinking any new games needing DX10 cards wont be out for some time?

Yep, anyone releasing a DX10 only game in the near future would be shooting themselves in the foot as that would rule out over half their customers.

Though im sure the odd publisher will sign some evil deal with mr Gates and pretend their game could only run under DX10 so a few more people upgrade sooner.
 

Ballard

Fledgling Freddie
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the 7950GT is a 'value' card (despite the marketing blurbs) , not a 'performance' card like the 1950XT. It was released to fill a cheaper end of the market. Believe me the 1950XT is far superior on the latest games. That said there is nothing wrong with a 'value' card, heck I am using one (1950pro) as a temporary fix untill ATI release their DX10 card and it performs well enough.


p.s. Many of the 7900 family cards actually outperform the 7950GT, some by a significant margin. Note: 7950GT2 is a completely different kettle of fish to the GT but I still wouldnt recommend the GT2 as its a power hog and the perfromance is inconsitent. If you really want nvidia and cant afford the 8800 family a 7900GTX would be the best choice.
 

Legean

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Ballard said:
heck I am using one (1950pro) as a temporary fix untill ATI release their DX10 card and it performs well enough

you know when thats likely to be? seems ive picked a pretty bad time to get a new PC as the only DX10 cards are the 8800s. I may stretch to one of those as im having a friend build the PC depends how much he comes up with. Will the 8800 last for a long while or is it likely to be outdone by an ATi version?
 

Ballard

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The 8800 family is likely to remain a good performer for a long time. The new ati will likely be of similar or marginally better performance. What competition will do however is start to reduce the price of the dx10 cards.

Do not worry about buying a dx9 card at the moment. Some obscene performance is offered by both the latest dx9 nvidia and ati cards. They will play any game for the next few years. Yes the 8800 family is significantly faster than any other card in the current crop of dx9 games but that doesnt necessarily make it a good buy.
 

Boni

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Ballard said:
the 7950GT is a 'value' card (despite the marketing blurbs) , not a 'performance' card like the 1950XT. It was released to fill a cheaper end of the market. Believe me the 1950XT is far superior on the latest games. That said there is nothing wrong with a 'value' card, heck I am using one (1950pro) as a temporary fix untill ATI release their DX10 card and it performs well enough.


p.s. Many of the 7900 family cards actually outperform the 7950GT, some by a significant margin. Note: 7950GT2 is a completely different kettle of fish to the GT but I still wouldnt recommend the GT2 as its a power hog and the perfromance is inconsitent. If you really want nvidia and cant afford the 8800 family a 7900GTX would be the best choice.

Yep, perfect summation
 

Legean

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Thanks for all your help! Although its more than i wanted to pay i wanted a PC sooner rather than later that i wouldn't need to upgrade for a long while so i think this will be the set up i go for:

AMD Athlon64 X2 5200+
2GB OCZ Gold XTC 800Hz
Asus M2V Motherboard
250Gb Seagate Barracuda
Sony AW-170AWG 18x DVD Writer
Floppy Disk Drive Silver
CoolerMaster Cavalier 3
Coolermaster Susurro
640MB XFX GeForce 8800GTS
550W CoolerMaster Real Power

The case may change as ive not heard great things about it and ive added the power as i read the 8800 uses 200W and its recomended your system has 500-600Ws - can anyone confirm that?
Any opinions on the complete build?
 

Mauness

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shame its an AM2, such a below standard CPU chipset now compared to intels Core 2 Duo.

im currently using

Core 2 Duo E6300 1.86 (now OC @ 2.47)
Asus P5W DH Deluxe
2gb Super Talent DDR2 800 OC Memory
Asus 8800GTS
Tagan 580w Modular PSU

runs every game fine, the e6300 chip is cheap as chips, and can clock very very nicely. I have no problem running my VGA on that PSU, and my work mate runs his 8800gts on a 480w and says its works fine.
 

Legean

Fledgling Freddie
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After reading around ive changed the MB/CPU and shopped around meaning it costs just £10 more than the previous spec (dont think my friend was into shopping around!)

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 (2.4GHz, 4MB Cache)
2GB OCZ Gold XTC 800MHz
Asus P5B
250Gb Seagate Barracuda
Sony AW-170AWG 18x DVD Writer
Floppy Disk Drive Silver
CoolerMaster Cavalier 3
Coolermaster Susurro
640MB XFX GeForce 8800GTS
530W Hiper

Shopped around on www.scan.co.uk , www.cclonline.com , www.eBuyer.com and www.aria.co.uk for the best prices and comes in around the £900 mark inc. P&P. All those online suppliers have been mentioned on here before so im hoping theyre reasonably reliable.
 

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