Need some advise with getting a new video card

[seaniam81]

Hey guys I'm looking to pickup a new video card for my rig. I'm currently running a 512meg ati x1650 pro, and am looking to go up into a DX10 card. I've narrowed my choises to a Nvida 8600 GT OC, or an ati HD 2600 pro. Both with 512meg DDR2. Price is an issue thats why i've narrowed it down to these to cards. I know the Nvida card will nudge out the ati card in performance but not my much and the ati card is a little cheeper. What do you guys think. anybody running these cards? if so what do you think of them?

[Fincuan]

http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/01/...ics/page2.html

Something you might want to read

[Rockin Robbins]

Originally Posted by Fincuan

http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/01/...ics/page2.html

Something you might want to read

The Tom's Hardware article says the 8600 is only a slight improvement over a 7600GT. Just THINK of all the poor people "upgrading" to a card where they can't tell the difference, spending $150 to get 45 fps instead of 30 and then not being able to see the difference, and not having any detectable difference in game play. And with 7600GT's at $75, you can buy 2 and SLI them for I'll bet better performance. Stay tuned for when I get two healthy ones together in the same place. :rotfl:

I agree with DrBeast. The 8800GT is more than twice as quick as the 7600GT and twice as quick as the 8600. That means you can tell the difference and you will not have spent a little less money for no gain that you can demonstrate aside from printing out some meaningless numbers.

Unless your primary motivation is getting DX10 right now, it would be very easy to be disappointed with the result of making the planned buy.

[seaniam81]

I'm running a Pentium D so it's duel core at 3mhz each, (6mhz together) so it's pretty good, not as good as core 2 running at 3 mhz, 2 gigs ram with room to go up to 4 when vista gets installed. getting a 8800 would mean getting a new power supply which is something i would dread having to install (mean removing the fan for my cpu). I'm not just looking into getting a new card for silent hunter but for Flightsim too. Ever try landing a plane with just 15fps it gets a little dicey.

[Checkmate King 2]

I'm also looking into upgrading!!! I currently have a GeForce 6150 LE integrated graphics card and want to get a stand-alone PCI Express x16 NVIDIA GeForce graphics card that will be able to run Silent Hunter 4 with no problems. I'm also planning on getting a new power supply; either a Antec Earthwatt 430W or a Antec EarthWatt 500W.

On the back of the SH4 box it shows:

Supported Video Cards at time of release:

NVIDIA GeForce 6200 / 6600 / 6800 / 7800.

Does anyone know of any other NVIDIA cards that will work well with SH4?

Thanks

[seafarer]

Any of the GeForce 8 series cards will work. I've played it with an 8500GT (okay, but not stellar), and now an 8600GT/OC and that works just fine. An 8800GT would be a great card for SHIV, especially given the price of these (although they are still in a bit of short supply yet).

[Go4It]

A little more money then the 8600 OC, but well worth it....
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130082

[Taurolas]

Hi,

I currently run the ATI Sapphire 2600 HD Pro (AGP version) and have no issues with playing SH4. I also believe the agp version is slightly slower than the pci-e card.

If in doubt, check the cards rating on the resolution you use most to give you some idea which would suit you best.

If you are looking for the ATI Sapphire 2600 HD Pro 512mb i bought mine from Play.com.. £59 inc delivery

[DrBeast]

Originally Posted by seaniam81

Hey guys I'm looking to pickup a new video card for my rig. I'm currently running a 512meg ati x1650 pro, and am looking to go up into a DX10 card. I've narrowed my choises to a Nvida 8600 GT OC, or an ati HD 2600 pro. Both with 512meg DDR2. Price is an issue thats why i've narrowed it down to these to cards. I know the Nvida card will nudge out the ati card in performance but not my much and the ati card is a little cheeper. What do you guys think. anybody running these cards? if so what do you think of them?

Hm...that DDR2 memory thing I just can't take my eyes from. At best, what you'll get from either card (moreso from the nVidia, really) is a slight increase in frame rate and working sun halo. In other words, I don't really think it's worth upgrading to any of those cards. Save some more money and aim for the amazing nVidia 8800GT, if your computer can handle it. Which brings me to my second concern: what CPU and how much RAM do you have? Having a 2-year-old 3GHz processor with 1 GB of RAM will bottle-neck your performance, no matter how good the graphics card is.