Video card help

[james]

Looking to get a new video card. I usually go with ATI. The one I currently use is an nvidia 9600gt oc though. I've had good luck with it and will be using the power supply and video card in a different pc. This means I get to upgrade my rig. I'd like to stay with the nvidia cards but the only things that really are clear are the amount of ram on them to me. I don't know what is better or faster between alot of them.  It's between either the BFG - NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250 OC 1GB GDDR3 PCI Express Graphics Card or the BFG - NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT 1GB GDDR3 PCI Express Graphics Card. They both have 1 gb of ram and the rest is really not clear to me which will be the better of the two. Any help at all would be great guys!

Current system: dual 1.8 ghz dell inspiron 530, 4 gb of ddr3, 9600 gt oc edition, 24" monitor 2.5MS refresh rate, 32bit vista home edition, saitek everything with Trackir running when I play.

[Masherbrum]

Low Power eVGA 9600GT.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130485

This is of course as long as you have a 350W PSU rated at a minimum of 20A on the +12V rail.   You mentioned Dell, so I am assuming you do not have a PC Power & Cooling PSU or other aftermarket PSU. 

[BaldEagl]

First of all most 512 Mb cards will outperform the same card with 1 Gb of memory.  The reason for this is that they typically have faster memory clock speeds and can therefore move data in and out of memoty faster (memory bandwidth).

In selecting a video card there are several things to consider.  I'll try to list them in order of importance:

- Pixel Pipelines:  This is really the "meat" of the graphics processing unit and how much data it can handle.  More is better.
- Memory Speed (i.e. DDR2, DDR3, etc.):  This is the memory bus or how many lanes are on the highway.  A bigger number is better.
- Memory Clock:  This is the speed at which data is handled or going back to the highway analogy, the speed limit.  Higher is better
- Core Clock:  This is the speed at which the graphics processing unit itself can respond to data requests.  Higher is better
- Memory:  More is better

Note how low total memory is on the list.  What you really want are a lot of high speed lanes to keep traffic flowing.

Hope that helps.

[EDIT]:  Your 1.8 Ghz CPU is going to be a bottleneck for you so I wouldn't go beyond a 9800 series card.

[james]

  Quote from baldeagl-Your 1.8 Ghz CPU is going to be a bottleneck for you so I wouldn't go beyond a 9800 series card. It's a dual 1.8, does that change anything?
Also, there currently is a 400watt psu in it, forgot to put that in the current specs list. I'll be getting a 550 watt psu when I get a new card as well as a cooling fan. I currently run a 9600gt oc edition with 512mb of ddr2.

[Masherbrum]

Again, your CPU is what is limiting you right now, more so that your VC. 

[BaldEagl]

  Quote from baldeagl-Your 1.8 Ghz CPU is going to be a bottleneck for you so I wouldn't go beyond a 9800 series card. It's a dual 1.8, does that change anything?
Also, there currently is a 400watt psu in it, forgot to put that in the current specs list. I'll be getting a 550 watt psu when I get a new card as well as a cooling fan. I currently run a 9600gt oc edition with 512mb of ddr2.

It's still a bottleneck.  Is that an AMD or Intel CPU?  Regardless it's probably also got a low front side bus speed.

That 9600 card should be able to run full graphic settings already, or very close to full, so if it's not you're already being limited.  You will see a slight improvement with a 9800 series card but not a lot.  A 2xx series card will be total overkill.

If the CPU is a socket AM2 or AM2+ or an Intel LGA775 you could upgrade the CPU relatively easily.  How far will depend on your motherboard and it's FSB limitations.  Knowing Dell they put in a processor and motherboard combination that will limit upgrade options and sadly, because it's a Dell you can't even overclock it to get a little more out of what you already have.

[james]

Guys thanks for the replies! That seals it as far as i'm concerned. It's simply time to build one from scratch when windows 7 hits full steam. I will simply turn the dual core into an iPod home network station and start with win 7 in a rediculous build that won't need an upgrade for a while. I kind of figured I was behind the curve when the pc won't run armaII specs. It's an intel pc I got january of 2008. At least I can finally piece together a pc over time in a spare case I have from 2 pc'sbefore this one. Now that I know what to look for in a card I looked up specs to try and find a good benchmark to start with. Would still be in the dark without you guys on alot of stuff. Again thanks for the help on these boards and keep it up. My next pc is going to be insane!

[eagl]

Good decision on waiting for a new build.  I think we'll see surges and drops in prices as people upgrade to win7, and it's almost time for the next-gen nvidia and AMD GPUs as well.  You ought to be able to build a killer rig near the holidays or early next year, and parts that are mainstream today will probably be available for a bargain.

I personally wouldn't go for less than an nvidia 260 vid card.  From a 9600GT to a 9800...  Well, you might be disappointed in the boost even if you match it to a new cpu that doesn't hold back the video card.  A new mobo/cpu/ram plus 260 or better vid card, plus win7 so you get DX10...  That ought to be a difference you can really see, more than just a few more frames per second