A little of advice needed

[Hector]

I want to change my crappy 6200TC with something better now i have the time to play. I'm gonna play at 1280x1024 and like lots of AA and AF. I'm thinking of a 1900xt, but dunno if it's going to be a little over kill for my system (AMD 64 3400+, 1Gig DDR 400). Would be better to buy a 1800xt? The difference in price is 100€.

[Blazkowicz]

1800XT seems a good deal and I think it's coming down in price, before being completely phased out.

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

I want to change my crappy 6200TC with something better now i have the time to play. I'm gonna play at 1280x1024 and like lots of AA and AF. I'm thinking of a 1900xt, but dunno if it's going to be a little over kill for my system (AMD 64 3400+, 1Gig DDR 400). Would be better to buy a 1800xt? The difference in price is 100€.

X1800 is a good sweet-spot for price performance. X1900 has more pixel rendering power, but as you point out, you'll be paying a premium to get a top-of-the-range card.

[Geo]

How long are you planning for it to be your top card? If you're just looking to bridge to an early DX10 card, then x1800xt looks okay and save some money now. If you're looking for much longer than that, then it seems to me you plonk down for the best you can afford at the time you pull the trigger (whichever IHV you like).

[Hector]

I plan to keep it for at least one year. I'm thinking in doing a "what the hell" and buying the x1900.

[Altcon]

I want to change my crappy 6200TC with something better now i have the time to play. I'm gonna play at 1280x1024 and like lots of AA and AF. I'm thinking of a 1900xt, but dunno if it's going to be a little over kill for my system (AMD 64 3400+, 1Gig DDR 400). Would be better to buy a 1800xt? The difference in price is 100€.
Bigger question..does your board have PCIe?
3400+ is a S754 CPU....

[INKster]

If your mobo is really AGP, then your best choice at the moment would be something like this:
http://www.pureoverclock.com/story665.html

[INKster]

On second thought, since your old card was a 6200 TC, then your motherboard must be PCIe...
It's probably one of those new 3400+ socket 939 A64's then.

[horvendile]

I plan to keep it for at least one year. I'm thinking in doing a "what the hell" and buying the x1900.

I did exactly that. Not only do I not regret my decision, I am also happy that I took the foolish small step for mankind, giant leap for me to pull out all the stops and buy an X1900XT. Me playing Oblivion with HDR+AA may have something to do with that, but my belief is that if you don't run into financial problems, it's much more common to regret what you did not buy than what you did buy.

I appear to be rambling and will shut up now. ;)

[Hector]

I finally went the "what the hell" way and bought a 1900xt. It should be in my hands in a week or two. I can't wait!

[Geo]

Congrats! :smile: I think a 6200TC to an x1900XT should provide a noticeable improvement in your gaming experiences. :lol: Be sure to stop back and let us know how it goes once its in and you've used it for awhile. . .

[Hector]

I will, I will. Oblivion in it's full glory, instead of the 640x480 mess i was playing with. I can't wait!

[Hector]

My x1900xt arrived today, but I'll have to wait 'till tomorrow to buy a new power supply. The card is incredibly big!

[poopypoo]

ahahaha! yeah, i recently went from integrated graphics to a nice card and it is such a relief not to have to deal with headache-inducing framerates in oblivion @ 640x480 XD congrats -- i also know my card barely freaking fits in my (very small) case ... i sure hope the next round of atis sees some shrinkage and lower power draws.

[Hector]

I'm quite happy with the card. The onlything I don't like it's the noise. It's noisy as hell. Is there anyway to reduce the noise, or a good cooling solution?

[mhouston]

Lapping the heatsink and using arctic silver (or the like) will help drop the temperatures a little (3-5c sometimes under load) and hence drop the fan speed needed to keep the chip cool. You can also run ATITool and play with the fan settings to see if you can keep the fan more quiet.