Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: DREDIOCK on June 22, 2008, 09:09:38 AM
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Ok Mother board (GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3L P35 RT)and Case are here.
Ordering the E8400 CPU as soon as this check clears.
Next up.
Video card.
Best for Under $200?
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I haven't looked at them lately to see where pricing is but I suspect it's still the 8800 GT. Got to http://www.tomshardware.com They post a "best cards for" various price ranges updated monthly.
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http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/graphics-cards,1942-4.html
PCI-EXPRESS INTERFACE: $200 to $275
BEST PCI-E CARD FOR $210:
GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB
Codename: G92
Process: 65 nm
Universal Shaders: 128
Texture Units: 56
ROPs: 16
Memory Bus: 256 bit
Core Speed MHz: 600
Memory Speed MHz: 900 (1800 effective)
DirectX / Shader Model DX 10 / SM 4.0
The 8800 GTS is essentially an 8800 GT with a little more firepower; it sports 128 universal shaders compared to the GT’s 112. It bests its 8800 GT brother, but not by much—however, the dual-slot reference cooler on the 8800 GTS 512 MB is quieter than the reference cooler on the 8800 GT, and forces hot air out of the case. If silence and a cool case are important to you, the 8800 GTS 512 might be a better choice.
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I use a VisionTek ATI Radeon 512 mb HD 3850 for gaming. It's pretty good. Tom's hardware recommended it. Be careful though. Not all HD 3850s are the same This came with 700 core speed and 875 memory. I overclocked it, or actually auto tuned, to 710 and 940.
I've seen the 3850 in a wide variance of speeds. So check the speeds before you buy. I think it's right around $150 right now.
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Go for a 9600GT. I hear they are about as fast as the 8800, but a bit cheaper.
I found many for under $175 on newegg...
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Easily the 8800GT/S 512Mb and when you have another $200 pick up a second one for SLI :D
Assuming you have a good power supply of course..
<S>...-Gixer
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Go for a 9600GT. I hear they are about as fast as the 8800, but a bit cheaper.
I found many for under $175 on newegg...
Here here!! I got my 9600GT for $139.00 from TigerDirect (it's an EGVA)... It's better than the 320 meg version of the 8800GTS budget card..
It's on par pretty much with an 8800GT like you said.. I'm totally happy with it!! Plays EVERYTHING at at EVERYTHING (16X AA, 16X AF, etc.)
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Here here!! I got my 9600GT for $139.00 from TigerDirect (it's an EGVA)... It's better than the 320 meg version of the 8800GTS budget card..
It's on par pretty much with an 8800GT like you said.. I'm totally happy with it!! Plays EVERYTHING at at EVERYTHING (16X AA, 16X AF, etc.)
The 9600 only has 64 stream processors, it's a nice mid-ranged graphics card but for only about $30 - $40 more you can pick up an 8800GT with 112 stream processors. I use one myself and it runs Crysis on High no AA at 50FPS. It keeps AH at 75FPS all the time, it would be a lot higher but V-Sync won't let it go past my Refresh Rate(A good thing). So my advice would be to pick up an 8800GT, XFX and EVGA both are good manufactures of NVIDIA's graphics cards.
EDIT:
Just looked it up to be positive and the tests don't lie, the 8800GT outperforms the 9600GT.
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/1293/nvidia_geforce_9600gt_512mb_g94_tested/index.html
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The 8800GT is the best bang for buck and is more than what is needed for Aces High. Just no DirectX 10 features with it. That's not important except for other games, using Vista, some point in the possible future, maybe.
If you want to spend a little more, keep an eye on the 4850. Just in from ATI. http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=12157
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The 8800GT is the best bang for buck and is more than what is needed for Aces High. Just no DirectX 10 features with it. That's not important except for other games, using Vista, some point in the possible future, maybe.
If you want to spend a little more, keep an eye on the 4850. Just in from ATI. http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=12157
Actually the 8800GT is capable of using DX10, it was probably one of the first to do so. I haven't seen much of the difference from 9.0C to 10 yet myself though because I'm still to stubbron to use Vista. But if your worried about not having DX10 you don't have to with the 8800GT.
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I have to revise my recommendation. I was just at Newegg and the 8800 GTS 512 (G92) is now $199. It's what I have and I love mine. It's a slightly better card than the 8800 GT and, as mentioned above it's a dual slot card that uses one slot to exhaust heat out the back of the PC. The 8800 GT just blows the heat into the case.
That's strictly by your under $200 request. At ~$150 now the 8800 GT is a great card for the price.
Regardless what you get, if it's NVidia, download RivaTuner and set your fan speed at a constant 65-70%. It will keep your card temps <50C, otherwise they tend to run hot (60C idle, 70C load).
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Ok Mother board (GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3L P35 RT)and Case are here.
Ordering the E8400 CPU as soon as this check clears.
Next up.
Video card.
Best for Under $200?
ATI 4850 out performs the Geforce 9800 GTX and the 8800GT and has a MSRP of $199 (USD) but can be found anywhere in the $150 to $200 range online.
Anandtech ATI 4850 review (http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3338&p=1)
ack-ack
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so it looks like its narrowed down to the
(in no particular order of prefrence)
ATI 4850
8800 GTS 512
8800 GT
continuing arguements/opinions of one over the others?
BTW Ordered the E8400.
Anyone ordering from Newegg. dont bother with experess shipping. Your order usually arrives within 1-2 days anyway.
Least thats been my experience.
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Anyone ordering from Newegg. dont bother with experess shipping. Your order usually arrives within 1-2 days anyway.
Least thats been my experience.
Depends on where you live. They have two main warehouses IIRC. One in CA and one in NJ. 3 day UPS has never failed to get there in more than 3 days.
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I read up on that 4850. On newegg it gets 5 eggs or highly rated. However, they all said it runs HOT!
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Depends on where you live. They have two main warehouses IIRC. One in CA and one in NJ. 3 day UPS has never failed to get there in more than 3 days.
Well being in NJ.
that would explain it then LOL
I'll take it
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Between the 4850 and 8800GT its going to be about $50 extra for the 4850 for about 15-40% more performance depending on which game you're playing.
If you're just going to play Aces High, save the $50 and get the 8800 GT. If you're going to play other games that are more demanding than Aces High, I'd say the 4850 is definately worth the extra cost. IMO.
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I read up on that 4850. On newegg it gets 5 eggs or highly rated. However, they all said it runs HOT!
Yeah, it does run hot. 3rd party manufacturers in most cases will end up putting their own cooling system on them or you can also get an after market cooler and add it yourself. I also heard that the 4850's come with their fans set at 75% by default and with programs like RivaTuner, you can manually adjust the fan speed to 100%, which does help bring down the heat some.
ack-ack
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Well I built a puter a month or 6 weeks ago, and I bought a Evga 8800gt 512mb video card for it. It rocks. :rock And a small kicker that gets lost in this day and age, :O I actually recieved my 30.00 rebate a couple days ago. Yes folks, Evga did not try and screw me out of my rebate. I have been screwed out of a lot of other rebates in the past as there was always "something" that didnt pass muster. If/when I need another card Evga will receive top consideration.
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I like Visiontek's higher end graphic cards - come with lifetime warranty for an ATI card 3870 or 4850 series
or next best ATI card would be ASUS with a 3 year warranty
then you those 2 lifetime Nivida card makers to chose from
I myself just got a new ASUS 3870 512 meg DDR4 card from newegg for around $146.00 ( promo /customer discount )
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BFG and EVGA offer lifetime warranties as well.
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A very comprehensive review of the ATI 4850, it looks like the new price/performance king, dethroning the 8800GT at last:
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTUyNCw5LCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==
With these latest reviews, there's no question I'd buy a 4850 over a 8800GT if I were in the market for a new video card today.
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Original plans for the 4850 line also included a DDR5 version, wonder if ATI is going to stick with that or only include DDR5 with the 4870 line.
ack-ack