Should I or shouldnt I...

[Chalenge]

The prices keep dropping and I really really want a DX10 card. I would like to have a 280 but I just cant justify the expense. Is the 9800 GX2 going to be more trouble then its worth? or will it finally make AHII as beautiful as it can be?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150284

That same money could buy an awful lot of other hardware (HD Soundcard MB and RAM).

[sethipus]

Think seriously about the ATI 4850 and 4870 right now.  The 4870 is beat pretty much just by the GTX 280 in the benchmarks I've seen, and usually by only 10-15% or so, and it costs way less.  ATI haven't got the crown jewels right now, but they are competing well in the price ranges where the most cards are sold.

[The Fugitive]

get rid of vista, install winXP and with the rig you have now you could run all the eyecandy AH2 has to offer with out a problem.

[humble]

Think seriously about the ATI 4850 and 4870 right now.  The 4870 is beat pretty much just by the GTX 280 in the benchmarks I've seen, and usually by only 10-15% or so, and it costs way less.  ATI haven't got the crown jewels right now, but they are competing well in the price ranges where the most cards are sold.

Yup, the 4800 series is the best bang for the buck out there right now. I almost got a 4850 but elected to go with an 8800GT simply because of comfort level for driver support. The 8800 plays AH maxed out in all settings on all OS pegged at my LCD's 60 FPS cap. I flew rangoon last week and never had a single slow down or stutter so anything in the current upper end will go well beyond what AH needs...

[Fulmar]

Yup, the 4800 series is the best bang for the buck out there right now. I almost got a 4850 but elected to go with an 8800GT simply because of comfort level for driver support.

Exactly why I wait until Nvidia has released a product that will beat it's counterpart ATI.  So many bad ATI driver memories.  I still have cold sweats when I sleep.

[BaldEagl]

If AH is all you're worried about an NVidia 9600 series is all you need.  I've got a 512 8800 GTS and havent found anything that can slow it down yet (in AH or in other games).

[Chalenge]

get rid of vista, install winXP and with the rig you have now you could run all the eyecandy AH2 has to offer with out a problem.

AHII doesnt have that much eyecandy. I dont have the graphics detail view range maxed out because with x8 antialiasing I was getting slight drops fom 60fps and I dont know if its mipmapping or just the 'busy-ness' of terrain textures but at some distance I see anomalies that I think a little more horsepower should clear up but maybe not. Any of these are hardware related not software and I dont believe you can say Vista is at issue.

[Pudgie]

Hi Chalenge,

Just passing on to you that while you're out shopping for a new DX 10 compliant vid card, there's been some issues w/ the later PCI-E 2.0 spec'd vid cards being truly backward compatible on some older PCI-E 1.xx spec'd mobo slots on both the Nvidia & ATI platforms, especially on PCI-E 1.0 & 1.0a spec'd mobo slots.

The problem seems to be much more of an issue for Nvidia cards than ATI cards & in the Nvidia camp the major brand that seems to have the issue is the EVGA brand, but other brands have had issues as well.

What is happening is that if the PCI-E 2.0 vid card is put in the primary PCI-E 16x 1.xx mobo slot the system will not POST. Take the card out of the primary slot & install it in the secondary PCI-E 16x (4x electrical) slot the system will POST & run just fine but at reduced performance levels. On another mobo the system would not boot up w/ the card in either slot.

The mobos mentioned in the thread "IP35Pro-PCIe 2.0 Compatibility Issue" on www.abit-usa.com forums that were involved concerning this issue was the Abit IP35 Pro, the Abit IX38Quad & the Asus P5N/K series w/ a 7 to 1 ratio being teamed up w/ a Nvidia vid card as opposed to ATI. The issue is hit/miss on these mobos-some have no issues at all, some have major issues & the noted solutions have been just as hit/miss ranging from power supply replacement, mobo replacement, BIOS reflashes(vid cards/mobos) & vid card swappouts(mostly across brand names) w/ vid card swaps being the most effective method. The vid cards in question are the full PCI-E 2.0 spec(that is supposed to be backward compatible to PCI-E 1.xx mobo slots) vers not the PCI-E 1.xx vers vid cards that have PCI-E 2.0 support added.


You mentioned that you're using an Asus mobo that has the PCI-E 16x 1.xx slots so I wanted to throw this out to you (& anybody else) so that you may want to check your intended purchase for any issues or "fixes" w/ your PCI-E 16x 1.xx slotted mobo.

Not trying to scare noone off from using Nvidia-referenced vid cards either. Just passing information.

Hope this helps.

 

[Chalenge]

Hey Pudgie 

I usually do a lot of homework before buying but this one slipped past me. I will do more research before buying and yes I am using Asus (P5N-E Sli). I was also thinking about switching out the MB and taking to heart a suggestion that Skuzzy made for the P5Q which also gets along with all my hardware as far as I can tell. It only has one PCI-e x16 slot so I was considering the 9800 GX2 when Newegg announced through their mailer that the 8800 GT (EVGA) was out for $119. With too may options I havent made a decision yet and now that AHII will be supporting widescreen I have a lot more to consider.

Thanks for your input! 

[OOZ662]

Heck, I've never understood...only the biggest furballs tend to begin to slow my 3.2GHz P4/4x512MB RAM/"Unlocked" 6800/XP SP 3 machine with 4x FSAA, vertical sync, and all the spiffy stuff turned on, including hi-res pack. People keep telling me it ought not be able to do it, but it does just fine.

AHII is CPU intensive...the graphics are still rather simple. That's slowly changing as they add/redo models with the AHII quality level, though.

[Chalenge]

Please give me a little slack. I have mainly three hobbies (golf guns and computers with R/C and family being my primary hobbies). Computers satisfy my geeky engineer side golf the sports side and guns... well I wont go there. So I switch out components and do a lot of testing tweaking and modifying. My wife says Im not happy unless my computer is getting new parts and even less happy if it breaks. When the new graphics cards get here my old system (A8N-32 Sli) will probably go to the Philippines (the family there just got flooded... AGAIN) unless I find out my wife has already bought them a new one and then a squaddie will probably get it. It isnt always about AHII or F4AF and this time its FSX. When Im in the tower at SEATAC during rush hour and peak tourist season I like to see the traffic on the roads going full tilt and right now it really bogs down. Im hoping I can fix that and then I can look forward to the new rewrite of FS11 when I will have to start all over.

[sethipus]

If AH is all you're worried about an NVidia 9600 series is all you need.  I've got a 512 8800 GTS and havent found anything that can slow it down yet (in AH or in other games).

You have apparently never played Crysis.  ;-)