New Graphics Card

W

WhiteCrane

Newcomer
Hey all. I need a new video card. Right now I have integrated. Its useless.

Here are my system specs.
Athlon 4800+ X2 (possible bottleneck, and no i can't OC it)
3 gigs ram (2, 1 gig sticks, and 2, 512 sticks so yes im dual channel)
PCI-E (just one, not 2.0 compliant but thats irrelevant)
Sound Blaster X-Fi (takes some stress off CPU)
I will be gaming at 1680 by 1050
The lowest Rez im willing to go is 1600 by 1000
Am willing to play in DX 9
But Id really rather have 10

Ok. Heres my question

Should I spring for a superclocked 8800GT?
If I do, it will need an aftermarket cooler as they ALL overheat.

OR should I wait for GeForce 9 series to come out in Feb?

With a CPU as slow as mine will I even benefit from GeForce 9 series? It seems to me that a bottleneck is a bottleneck. I'm a graphics NUT-JOB, and I want to run crysis with all settings CRANKED (but am willing to turn off a few shaders) and im looking for about 45 fps. 30 MINIMUM.

Will the better video card even help me, or is my CPU just not up to the task?

One more thing. I don;t have anything against ATI, but their 3870 is at best 22% slower than the 8800GT, at stock clocking, so im not even considering it.
 
i dont think a gf9 will play crysis at 1600 by 1000 eveything maxed @ 45fps
but dont let that put you off, no ones playing at that setting yet we are all enjoying it
 
Wow. Okay. lets say I just want "a playable experience" and am willing to gut my graphics performance.

I need a video card either way. Do you think a 4800+ is a bottleneck to the 8800GT? If so, then a faster video card than 8800GT would be pointless without a CPU upgrade to make use of the said graphics card.

I dont want my GPU to be waiting for my CPU to respond, hence a bottleneck.
 
WhiteCrane said:
I need a video card either way. Do you think a 4800+ is a bottleneck to the 8800GT? If so, then a faster video card than 8800GT would be pointless without a CPU upgrade to make use of the said graphics card.
Click to expand...
It isn't so much of an issue of if your CPU will be the bottleneck, but where (fps wise) this is going to occur. A D9E is certainly going to put your CPU under greater load in games like Crysis, but the real question at hand is whether or not the bottleneck is severe enough that you will not be getting much return on your GPU investment. I'll think you will still get quite satisfactory results (30fps+ minimums) with your CPU, even when it is the primary bound on performance. It is pretty safe to say you will get a good return on your investment with D9E class hardware.
 
So, 8800GT today or GeForce 9 tomorrow?

Im truely wondering if a 9 will even outperform an 8800 on my PC because of the CPU bottleneck. I think that they'll perform equally.
 
I just went from a 4600x2 to a Phenom 9900 and REALLY noticed the difference in Crysis.

Still can't do high smooth, but it can do medium great. Before medium seemed a bit chuggy to me. (1024x768 w/4xAA, crossfired 3870s)
 
WhiteCrane said:
Okay, so I guess the verdict here is to to with a GeForce 9 when they come out
Click to expand...

Was it? I missed it.

The 8800GT is one of those cards that 'slipped through the cracks' and provides far more performance for the dollar than the cards above and below it. Essentially, it didn't hit the sweet spot. It licked it, loved it, took it home to its parents, and married it.

There will unquestionably be superior cards with the 9x series gets released, but I would doubt that any except the very most expensive actually make you feel silly for purchasing the 8800GT right now.

Especially not when you factor in the fact that you get to use the 8800GT for a month or two before the other is released and probably 2 to 4 months before you'd actually get it.

My opinion is that you'll spend more money for a 9x card that will out perform the 8800GT in a couple months.

...But, I could be very wrong. (With ATI not providing viable competition, I doubt it.)
 
There won't be $250 and $350 cards from Nvidia for quite some time, I'm going to bet Geforce 9 series launches with cards at the $550 and $450 price points, and kind of doubting the $450 point, and might want to jack that up to $600. Depends on what ATi has, if anything, to counter, if nothing then its going to be expensive.
 
WhiteCrane said:
Wow really?

I would have thought that Nvidia would have an "MX" or "GT" model of the geforce 9 series thats only $250
Click to expand...

At some point sure, but look at the last generation for an example of release. The Geforce 8 series launched with the 8800GTX and GTS at very high prices with no mid range or performance offerings, in fact they didn't come till a significant time later. Even then, the 8600GTS couldn't match the last generations performance in its launch price. So something tells me that the 8800GT is going to be the card to have in its price range for some time. Look at the X1950 Pro for example last generation, the card was a tremendous value and was just NOW beat out by the HD 3850/3870/8800GT 256MB in performance for your money. These late generation performance parts offer awesome value and staying power, this is when I always purchase my video cards.
 
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