Author Topic: Video card on the way (Read 522 times)

Krusty · « **on:** September 27, 2006, 01:39:59 PM »

eVGA GeForce 7600GT PCIe

That's what I ordered. It's on the way. But wait, you say, I have an AGP board!

Well a big huge heaping load of thanks goes to Wardog for pointing me to a motherboard that would allow me to move to PCIe without having to pay for a new CPU and new RAM right away.

Now I can run my older 533MHz FSB P4 and my 1.5 GB DDR and still move to PCIe.

Why?

The lousy buggers went and did it. AGP would have been around for a decade if they hadn't:

- nearly cut the production of AGP boards to 1/3 what it used to be
- gimped the performance of the AGP boards based on PCIe brethren
- raised costs of AGP cards well above PCIe equivelants
- sworn never to help the AGP fellow ever again on threat of death

Okay that last one I'm only 80% sure about.

This way I get good performance NOW, and the chance for a gradual upgrading path for good performance LATER.

But wait, you say, I have to buy a new motherboard, that must cost more!

You would think that, only they charge so much for an AGP 7600GT (in fact there is only 1 available and it is out of stock 90% of the time you can find it) and its price is so high over the PCIe variant of the same (which, by the way, are plentiful and produced by several brands), that the PCIe 7600GT and the new motherboard are only $10 more than the AGP 7600GT.

I'm not joking

So that extra $10 is going to peace of mind for future upgrades.

My sis has an ancient un-upgradable PC at the moment. I'll give her my ASUS P5P800 mobo and drop a $45 Celery in it (2.6GHz, she's at 1.5GHz now, so a big jump plus more expansion room for later).

Hopefully next week I'll be devising a strap to keep my jaw from dropping all the time, what with all the pretty games I'll be seeing

Hap · « **Reply #1 on:** September 27, 2006, 01:48:43 PM »

Krusty, hope all goes as well as you hope. The 7600GT also sits (someplace I don't know where) in my new iMac 24. I think by tommorrow evening, I'll have had a chance to see how Aces High performs on it.

~~hap~~

Krusty · « **Reply #2 on:** September 27, 2006, 02:05:25 PM »

Apparently it's damn good. It's as good as a 7800GS. Supposedly the higher memory and clock speeds make up for the slower memory interface.

Or something somesuch.

Good luck on that MAC AH test. I'm honestly a little doubtful. If you have the MAC on Intel hardware you might have a chance, but otherwise (and I may very well be 100% wrong) I just think you will run into too many problems at every turn.

Either they need to start porting FCP to PC or more games to MAC! I can't afford both systems!

Hap · « **Reply #3 on:** September 27, 2006, 02:23:45 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Krusty
Apparently it's damn good. It's as good as a 7800GS. Supposedly the higher memory and clock speeds make up for the slower memory interface.

Or something somesuch.

Good luck on that MAC AH test. I'm honestly a little doubtful. If you have the MAC on Intel hardware you might have a chance, but otherwise (and I may very well be 100% wrong) I just think you will run into too many problems at every turn.

Either they need to start porting FCP to PC or more games to MAC! I can't afford both systems!

Krusty, will keep folks posted. Your dubious assessment may be spot on. I'll know in 2 days. She does have an intel processor. From what I read, the game "should" play. I'd like to blurt on about the new toy. I won't. Thing may not push Aces High worth a darn, and I'll just look sillier than I normally do.

~~hap~~

Krusty · « **Reply #4 on:** September 27, 2006, 02:57:14 PM »

Cool. Be sure to keep us all in the loop.

RTR · « **Reply #5 on:** September 27, 2006, 03:22:42 PM »

The 7600GT PCI-E is a pretty good card, it's what i have right now.

I'm able to run at 1024 with high res pack, sliders all to detail and animated water, with FR's never below 40. (in general stays at 75, but drops when close to water etc.)

Big change from my old computer with a geforce 5200FX.

Who woulda thunk that AH was such a purdy looking sim!

You are in for a treat Krusty.

cheers,
RTR

Krusty · « **Reply #6 on:** September 27, 2006, 03:38:51 PM »

To quote Donkey, "Do you have a tissue or something? I'm making a mess. Just the word [eyecandy] make me start slobbering."

Wardog · « **Reply #7 on:** September 28, 2006, 01:18:21 AM »

Yup, the 7600 series is an excellent bang for the buck.

Im running the XFX GeForce 7600 GT XXX 590MHZ 256MB 128BIT 1.6GHZ DDR3 picked it up for $195 CDN and will be getting another on Friday as im setting up an SLI system. XFX has taken the stock 7600 GT and upped the GPU core speed from 560mhz to 590mhz and the memory from 1.4ghz to 1.6ghz right outa the factory. Its almost maxed out but i did get the GPU core to 605mhz and memory up to 1.85mhz.

Needless to say this little budget card rocks.

Forgot to add, am running this card at 1440x900 on a 19" Samsung wide screen and have to say AH looks fantastic.

Dog out..

Krusty · « **Reply #8 on:** September 28, 2006, 09:28:16 AM »

I can't wait! It shipped late last night from California on 3 day shipping. I'm guessing it'll get here Monday sometime. I'm further guessing I won't have time to install anything until maybe the following evening (unless I take a day off work -- which I can't do because of all the drama here)

EDIT: I was going for cheap, so I got a stock 560/1400, but still WAY better than the current card I have (see signature)

Hap · « **Reply #9 on:** September 28, 2006, 10:23:01 AM »

Krusty, well got past Boot Camp without a hitch. Everything went as the manuals said it would progress. XP is installed, and downloading game now.

We'll see what we will see.

hap

p.s. Shoot, you live in Denver. I lived there for 7 years. Too bad we never met and talked Aces High.

Krusty · « **Reply #10 on:** September 28, 2006, 10:57:49 AM »

Heh, hate to say it but my real life is small and confined for the moment. No social life, really. That will probably change once I get my thesis done, but who knows

Krusty · « **Reply #11 on:** October 02, 2006, 02:31:18 PM »

Well according to the tracking router, the new card's here! I'll pick it up tonight and over the next couple of days get it up and running.

I'll be switching motherboards to do it, and that means reinstalling Windows et al.

I'm thinking I can just do a repair install instead of a reformat. I've got my stuff backed up but hopefully I don't have to go through that.

Sancho · « **Reply #12 on:** October 02, 2006, 11:25:39 PM »

Which motherboard?

Hap · « **Reply #13 on:** October 03, 2006, 02:00:26 AM »

Krusty, I'm sure it'll go well and be a beaut!!

~~hap~~

Krusty · « **Reply #14 on:** October 03, 2006, 09:30:03 AM »

Sancho: ASrock 775-VSTA or whatever it's called.

Hap: It's in and running. I'm still reinstalling stuff. I only just got windows installed and updated last night, but I managed to reinstall Steam (and it recognized the steam files I already had instantly) and tried HL2 briefly. It instantly looks better, even on the menu screen. However it does get some slowdowns in certain areas. Maybe if I turn down the HDL lighting thingy (I let it default to best settings). The textures sure do look nice, with the full shaders and all. Visual effects and transitions looked good in the teleport chapter, in the G-man's intro movie, and other places as well.

Haven't installed much yet, so I didn't want to test AH. I still need a few vital things before fully testing it in games.

[EDIT: The card is far smaller than I was expecting. It's *half* the length of my 4400ti. Granted the 4400ti was one of the longest cards ever, but I was expecting something longer than this]

Unfortunately I'm down to 1GB RAM now. I traded the 512 stick to my sister so she could also have a gig (and gave her my old vid card, big step up for her).

Fortunately, that 1GB stick is now running at full PC3200 speed. The P5P800 bumped it down to 266MHz because the FSB was at 533MHz.