New graphic card

[cali03boss]

$1,600 price tag, for the tower alone.

what a blatent waste of money. 1,600 dollar tower? Is it made of solid gold?

And this will be mostly a next-gen gaming/rendering system.

It will play the games at bae minimum to medium sure....but not max quality. Especially if you're gonna buy a 64 bit dual core processor but only use a 32 bit windows...whats the point? 2 gigs of ram won't run bioshock perfect, and for crysis unless you have a 780MB or higher video card you're gonna need SLI(multiple video cards connected via an nVidia translator.

I'm using 64 bit vista, and there are no problems. I have offboard everything and there wasn't a single issue except for reinstalling the system. The only issues come with server software and networking. But I'd like to know how you plan on using this as a "next gen gaming machine" when your processor can outperform the software (limiting the processor) and no multi-card connection ports.

[Stealth Hunter]

I concur. I paid $400 for mine. Here are the specs:

Intel Core Duo AMD 64 4200+ Processors
2048 MB DDR2 RAM
360 GB HDD
Nvidia GeForce 8600 GTS (256 MB RAM)
Windows XP Home Edition

Your machine is good, better than mine, but the price tag isn't for what you're getting. I'm happy with mine because it was new.

8600 GTS is the best mid-range card on the market. All I had to do was pay a total of $300 bucks for a new 600 WATT power supplier, the graphics card, a full tune-up, a new 22" monitor, and a new game... $1,600 for the tower is WAY TOO HIGH. Oh, and have fun with Vista, which is Satan's OS. Have fun spending days trying to get your old games to work on it... I did, but I went back to XP about a week after that (and I was also using Vista 32 bit).

Sorry, but I really don't care for your system, IMHO.

[fair_weather]

It's costing that much because I'm in Canada, nuff said.

And I don't do 64 bit Vista because I have a bunch of old games that use 16 bit and have 16 bit installers, 64 bit Vista got rid of 16 bit processing. Plus, there isn't enough software out there that uses 64 bit processing to warrant getting 64 bit vista.

Cali03boss, show me where it says that Bioshock needs more? Cause from what I've seen of the requirements, Bioshock will run fine.

Stealth hunter: I will have fun with Vista, cause that's where things are going. And I don't see why you got the 8600GTS if you're not getting vista...you're better off getting a 7900GS or the like if you're not going to be getting Vista and DX10.

And everyone has their preferences...Me...I think of both gaming and rendering. That's why I'm getting the 8800GTX and the dual core.

[cali03boss]

Cali03boss, show me where it says that Bioshock needs more? Cause from what I've seen of the requirements, Bioshock will run fine.

that was my point. It will RUN the game, but not at top quality. Your specs will probably be limited somewhere around 60% gaming performance....mostly due to the 64 bit processor on 32 bit software. I'm not saying you should get 64 bit windows or abandon your old games...I'm telling you to be compatable. Just save money and get a 32 bit processor then you can buy a beefier card or something else.

Plus...even if you're in canada...1600 is a waste of money on any tower. 400 dollars is a waste on a tower.

That's why I'm getting the 8800GTX and the dual core.

And just so you know, the GTX is not SLI compatable for 3+ cards....but I don't know if you care about that.

[fair_weather]

No, I don't care about SLi, if I was going to get SLi I would've gotten an SLi compatible motherboard.

Maybe next year...

[FooFighters]

Hey guys..

Just to let you know.. (know some people are thinking of changing GPU)

I've ordered my new MSI 8800 GTS 320mb.

My system now :
AMD 64 3200+
Asus K8N4
XFX 7600 GT 256mb (pci-e)

Framerates now with TM1.5 and several hi-res skins.
All options except underwater rays and fog, no v-sync :
Bridge 24/27 fps
inside 50/60 fps
Outside 25/28 fps

As soon as I installed my new 8800GTS (aprox 1 week), I will post new framerates.

[TopcatWA]

If you are looking at upgrading & want a good gaming set-up with very good performance video graphics then go for a SLI setup. If you shop around, you can get 2 x GeForce 8500GT PCI Express 256 meg SLI video cards (or something similar) for much less then what you would pay a single 512meg card. Couple the 2 of them together & you've got a good 512meg video setup for at least half the cost of a single 512meg card. I'm getting 60-90+ fps with SHIV running at max resolution.
My setup is:

Motherboard : Gigabyte S-Series GA-M55SLI AMD x 64 Dual Core
CPU : AMD Athlon 5000+
RAM : 2.0GHz
Video Card : 2 x NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT 256/PCI Express DirectX 10 compatable (AU$340)
Power Supply : 600 Watt

That lot I managed to get for under AU$800

[FooFighters]

Originally Posted by Teddals

If you are looking at upgrading & want a good gaming set-up with very good performance video graphics then go for a SLI setup. If you shop around, you can get 2 x GeForce 8500GT PCI Express 256 meg SLI video cards (or something similar) for much less then what you would pay a single 512meg card. Couple the 2 of them together & you've got a good 512meg video setup for at least half the cost of a single 512meg card. I'm getting 60-90+ fps with SHIV running at max resolution.
My setup is:

Motherboard : Gigabyte S-Series GA-M55SLI AMD x 64 Dual Core
CPU : AMD Athlon 5000+
RAM : 2.0GHz
Video Card : 2 x NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT 256/PCI Express DirectX 10 compatable (AU$340)
Power Supply : 600 Watt

That lot I managed to get for under AU$800

one 8800 GTS is faster then 2 8500 GT cards in sli.
And it only 289,00 euro here in holland..

[gg5056]

I am using XFX 7900GS 256mb. I have very little problems with video card.
runs about $200.00

[FooFighters]

Originally Posted by gg5056

I am using XFX 7900GS 256mb. I have very little problems with video card.
runs about $200.00

I agree.. both 7900 and 7950 are very good cards.
Only the 320mb versions of the 8800 GTS are just a few bucks more now.

[rodan54]

Alright, now since my computer finally quit on me, I've recently started shopping around for a new system. Now I've most everything picked out, except I'm a bit unsure about the GPU.

For starters here are the other components I'll be purchasing:

Intel C2D E6850 3.0Ghz
2 GB Corsair XMS DDR2
Creative X-Fi Fatality
Ultra-X 700 Watt PSU
And lastly a Viewsonic 20" Widescreen (SH4 is as good an excuse as any )

Now so far I'm currently looking at an EVGA 8800 GTS 640Mb to round out this 'puta'. But will this GPU be enough to run SH4 at the absolute maximum graphical quality (1680x1050/AA/AF/Fog enabled, etc.) with good performance or would the GTX be the better choice.

So for anyone out there with this moniter/GPU setup, how's your performance (FPS) and what detail settings do you use in game.

Oh, and BTW this will be running on a Vista 32bit OS.

[JSLTIGER]

I don't have that monitor, but that card should be plenty to run SH4.

[Gunner]

EVGA 8800GTS comes in three flavors, one stock settings and 2 factory overclocked versions. Went for inbetween factory overclocked version and am very happy with it. Paid $320.00 Canadian for it. All ingame settingss maxed with 8 x Af and 16 x AA manage 72 FPS vertical sync locked to refresh rate at 1280 x 1024. Unlock V sync and 100 FPS although FPS bounces around a fair bit. Switched from AGP to PCI express with 8800GTS will at least double your FPS if not more pending on yer rig specs.

E6600 Dual core
Asus PL5D2 MB
2 GB OCZ Ram
EVGA 8800 GTS factory superclocked
EXtreme gamer 550W PS

[Misfit138]

What kind of temperatures you people got with 8800GTS? Based on a few reviews I've read, it's not as bad as with X1950XT for example but I would like to hear more about this. This is something really important for me. My ATI used to turn my pc into a fecking sauna every time I had Silent Hunter 4 running so I'm kind of hoping to avoid this with my next GPU

[bunkerratt]

although i run an ati based system i have a crossfired set of x1950 pro's oc'd to 601 core and 695 memory they run @about 75 .f. under load
intel p-4 775 3.4ht em64t oc'd to 3.75 thermaltake big typhoon cpu cooler
asus p5w dh deluxe motherboard
twin 100 gb hdd's raid 0 sata
ati x1950pro 256pcie x2 crossfired
creative x-fi extreme music soundcard
enermax 600 watt psu
dvd r=rw dldf x 2
floppy
11 in 1 usb card reader
2gb ocz crossfire edition pc2 6400 800mhz memory/6gb pagefile
cooler master musketeer 2
logitec 5.1 surround speakers
saitek eclipse keyboard
logitec tracman rollerball mouse cordless
xp pro sp2
20inch hd viewsonic vx2035wm
thermaltake armor va8000bws black steel case
lcd ambeient temperature readout x2
turtle beach earforce hpa 5.1 headset