Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: straffo on March 29, 2006, 02:07:40 AM
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Not having followed the news since 2 years I'm lost :)
The video card need to be efficient in AH (the only game I've time to play) and silent !
I'm thinking of a 7600GT
GS != GT
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Punt !
Help please :)
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I like my 6800GS a lot -- it is the best performance for its price (about $200).
The 7800GS is higher performance. Eagl was saying he likes the 7800GS, I believe.
A factory-overclocked 6800GS is about $200. The 7800GS is about $300. (For XFX brand from Newegg.com, anyway.)
However, I don't think these cards will be silent. The 6800GS I have is definitely noisy. If you want silent, I'm not sure what to suggest of any of the newer, higher-performance cards, as they all dissipate lots of heat and need substantial fans.
If you do want to minimize fan noise, here is a suggestion:
http://www.electraforge.com/brooke/misc/riva_tuner/riva_tuner.html
Or you could buy a lower-performance card that is still fine for Aces High Maybe a standard 6800, not a 6800GS, for example -- I have a 6800 in my machine at work, and it is much quiter than my 6800GS. Of course, it is lower performance, too.
Maybe someone has experience with the newer Radeon cards and can comment on their noise.
Some card reviews mention the card's noise output in db, too. If you search on the GPU (such as "6800") and the word "review", you'll find all the usual sites.
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Check Tomshardware.Com, a few weeks ago they covered a bunch of cards in that price range
Most of the manufacturers are offering some good deals on em with overclocked gpus and more ram
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The 1st question is whats is your computer, because theres no point in getting a video card that doesnt match your computers power:aok
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A64 3800 + 2 Go Ram
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agp or pci-e?
I am looking at upgrading from a AGP ati 9800 pro but seems like I have to upgrade the mb to pci-e unless I want to hit a dead end after the this next/last agp upgrade ... that adds another $150 to the upgrade idea ...
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I have a 6800GT, and on the same reasoning I used to buy the 6800Gt, I'd get a 7x00 series card right now. I think I'd suggest a 7600GT, 7800GS (for AGP), or stretch your price range a bit and get a 7800GT.
A 7800GT would be a nice match to an A64 3800, but it's a bit above what you list as your price range. I wouldn't get a 6xxx series card even though the 6800s are right there at the low end of your price range. I'd go for a 7600GT over a 6800anything, but personally I'd want a 7800GS (I have an AGP mobo) or 7800GT (if I had a pci-e mobo) if I wanted to upgrade right now.
There are even 7900GT versions for as low as $320 on newegg, so take a look at the $300 price point. Chew on it a bit. Think about it. Let the idea rattle around in your brain for a while. Convince yourself that it is an "investment". By the time you convince yourself it's a good idea, they'll be down to $290ish and you'll congratulate yourself on finding a good deal.
Seriously, AH will ROCK on any 7600GT or better card, so don't worry about it too much...
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Eagler,
Look at the 7800GS. Nvidia (bastages) crippled it relative to the 7800GT to ensure the retirement of the AGP platform, but it still performs much better than the 6xxx series. It's the fastest AGP card you can get right now and IMHO it's fast enough to justify putting off that mobo upgrade for another year at least.
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I got an Asrock dual * so I can put AGP or Pci-e I think I'll grab a 7600GT.
* and it was a present :)
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Originally posted by eagl
Eagler,
Look at the 7800GS. Nvidia (bastages) crippled it relative to the 7800GT to ensure the retirement of the AGP platform, but it still performs much better than the 6xxx series. It's the fastest AGP card you can get right now and IMHO it's fast enough to justify putting off that mobo upgrade for another year at least.
Gainward is releasing or has released a 20 pipe 7800GS with 512mb ram. Basically a 7800gt in agp , It's pricey , but the king of agp .
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=30502
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Originally posted by eagl
Eagler,
Look at the 7800GS. Nvidia (bastages) crippled it relative to the 7800GT to ensure the retirement of the AGP platform, but it still performs much better than the 6xxx series. It's the fastest AGP card you can get right now and IMHO it's fast enough to justify putting off that mobo upgrade for another year at least.
does this one look like a good brand? - haven't bought nividea in a while. does the desktop look as good as ati does now? It didn't at certain resolutions on the older nivida cards
http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/eVGA-e-GeForce-7800-GS-Video-Card-256-A8-N506-/sem/rpsm/oid/144489/catOid/-13043/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do
is this faster than anything ATI has out in AGP now?
38ruk
that looks like a heck of a card but for under that price I could get a new mb and pci v-card
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Check newegg. They have essentially the same card for $284 ($269 after mail-in rebate), and at newegg you get to see specs such as GPU and memory speed that you may not get to see at circuit city.
Newegg has the exact same card as circuit city for the exact same price, but as far as I can tell the only diff is the artwork on the heatsink cover plate. Both GPU and memory speed are the same, other specs look the same too. Only the price and artwork are different. Might have different bundled software but I usually chuck that out anyhow unless it includes a nice, un-crippled DVD player.
Other than the better deal at newegg, I don't see anything wrong with the circuit city card. As for using the money for a better cpu or mobo, I don't think you'd gain much for $300 and if you got a new mobo, you'd still need a new vid card and a $300 mobo/vid card combo won't be as fast as what you have plus a 7800GS.
As for "fastest" AGP card, there is very little diff right now between ATI and Nvidia when talking bang for the buck. ATI has an advanced texture rendering setting that looks awesome compared to nvidia, but it kills framerate. Nvidia has arguably better antialiasing. Both deliver comparable framerates. At the very high end, I think ATI has the non-SLI framerate edge but I think they're still about equal at the $300 price point and in their AGP offerings.
I don't think you'll notice much diff in pure framerate in AH. Assuming your CPU is reasonably fast, you'll be able to nearly max every setting and turn on the advanced FSAA settings and still get playable framerates in AH. If your cpu isn't fast enough to max the in-game AH settings, turn them down a bit and turn up the resolution and turn on the new FSAA settings. They ought to make AH look really smooth.
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cool -
yes, leaning towards circuit City as I have $100 gift card from Xmas to burn so it makes it $199 vcard
according to its reviews & model number it's a "CO" model which I have found out to be the middle of the pack as far as the 7800 GS go..
also found a site that compares it to my ati 9800 pro - it looks like it will blow it away:
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/evga_e-geforce_7800_gs_co_superclock_review/page5.asp
thanks again
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Use that gift card soon, as many stores have a fine-print statement that lets them take a few bucks a month off the value of the card if you don't use it right away. It's theft plain and simple, but most customers are stupid and let the store get away with it. I won't use store gift cards and buy online mostly, simply because I've run into irritating store policies like that in almost every electronics/computer chain. It's not a boycott... They're simply my last choice because I'm treated better elsewhere. Newegg hasn't tried to cheat me out of a dime, but best buy and AAFES got over $80 from my wife by bleeding unused gift cards down over time and blaming us for not using the cards. They got $80 bucks free from us, but AAFES alone has lost over $5000 in sales because of it. I guess they fleece enough suckers to make up for it because it's still their policy to devalue gift cards.
So use that card fast before they steal your money :)
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Eagler , what are your system specs, your cpu socket , speed , ram . There are alot of options depending on those .
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Originally posted by 38ruk
Eagler , what are your system specs, your cpu socket , speed , ram . There are alot of options depending on those .
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asus 8vA 939 pin
amd 64 3400
2 gig ram
ati 9800 pro
sata raid with two 80gig wd's
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Sweet , you have a 939 , so going to pci express will be alot easier . I bought the eVGA 133-K8-NF41 sli and 7800GT PCI-e for $360 back in november, i saw one about a month ago that was 339 . I'll look aroung tiger direct and see if they still have it going . Since you have a 939 , you might want to look around for combo deals . Just an idea
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Originally posted by eagl
Use that gift card soon, as many stores have a fine-print statement that lets t....
So use that card fast before they steal your money :)
just ordered the e-vga 7800GS CO, the gift card was still worth $100 ..
where can I find a good benchmark tool which would relate to AH performance so I can compare between my rig with its current ati 9800 pro and the new card when it arrives?
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which driver should I try with the 7800 for best results in AH when it arrives?
tia
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From all the drivers i have tested with my 7800gt , 81.98's seem the smoothest .
For benchmarks , i usually up a bomber formation offline , with all the ingame sliders maxed , then destroy all the fighter and bomber hangers along with fuel and ord using the destroy objects button . I then hop into the last planes top turret and check my frame rates , it will usually give you a good idea of performance gained . 38
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I've actually found that the old 3dmark2001SE is a good estimate of AH performance. In general, the PREVIOUS generation of 3dmark benchies always give more consistent real-world performance results than the latest version. Give 3dmark2001 and 2003 a try, and I think you'll see that sort of perf increase with the new card.
The last 2 3dmark versions, 2005 and 2006, seem pretty much worthless to me. A 7800 will crush my 6800GT in 3dmark2006 even with the same cpu, but in AH a 7800 will probably show less than a 10% framerate increase over my 6800 because AH is somewhat cpu limited.
The intangible thing you get with the newer vid cards, especially with AH, is that you can turn the resolution and antialiasing waaaay up, even if you can't move the in-game sliders any more. That's why 3dmark2001 and 2003 are still decent performance indicators for AH... Their scores aren't inflated by card features that AH doesn't use.
Remember, AH still runs on GF2 era hardware, so just about the only things that increase AH fps are pure fill rate and cpu power. The newer vid card features only get you eye candy like antialiasing and that's why buying a brand new but lower-end video card can give disappointing results in AH. Because the low-end cards really don't see much of a pure fill rate or "pixel pushing powr!" increase even if they support the latest accelerated standards.
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Also, there is something that needs to be pointed out regarding all of this: Spider Man's not gay. (This is a joke regarding Eagl's avatar, which is awesome, by the way.)