Question Video Card Upgrade ( PCMech Forums Video, Audio and Multimedia )
Updated: 2009-06-04 05:20:09 (6) |
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Video Card Upgrade
Hi all,
It's been a while since I've been active around here (college taking a bite out of my free time :-), so I'm a bit out of date on current gaming gpu tech. Apparently there's something beyond an nVidia 9800 out now?
I'm considering upgrading my graphics card (would like to be able to crank up Call of Duty and possibly Fallout 3), and I'm curious how much of an upgrade makes sense in my machine (specs in my sig). At what point is my cpu going to become the bottle-neck? Will I see such an enormous improvement with a 9800 (for around $140) that I need not look any further? Or should I be seriously considering saving for something in the GTX 2xx series? How much can my PSU handle?
Any thoughts much appreciated!
EDIT: ps, I'm running XP home, 32bit, so presumably there's a limit to how much video card ram I can address.
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| Answers: Video Card Upgrade ( PCMech Forums Video, Audio and Multimedia ) |
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Video Card Upgrade
Looks like your machine is 3 or 4 years old and probably has an Agp video slot. If it is, there is probably little in the way of AGP cards that will be an improvement on your video card. All new series of cards are PCI-E 16. And yes there are cards newer than the 9800. The newer GPUs may require a minimum of a 500w PSU, so your on the low end of safe.
flanzig1
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Video Card Upgrade
My machine is about 4 years old, but does have a PCI-Express x16 slot. Do you know the power requirements for the 9800 and the 200 series? I got a larger-than-necessary psu with the intention of doing SLI down the road, but have been convinced that that's not an economically sensible upgrade option.
EDIT: additional question: What's the numbering scheme on the 200 series. I know with the old numbering, the 66, 76, and 8600s weren't serious gamers, the 78 and 8800s were, and the 79 and 8900s were a bit above that. How does the numbering system work with the 260, 280, 285 and 295?
LeftyAce
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Video Card Upgrade
Looks like there is 2 series of the 200s, a GTS which seems to be a budget card and the GTX which are the high horsepower cards. And looks like the bigger number the more power.
As for power requirements, a GTX 275 requires a mininum of 550w. The GTX 295 is 650 to 700w.
flanzig1
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Video Card Upgrade
Thanks for your help, flanzig. It looks like the GTX 260 is about the top of my price range, pretty much the max my PSU can handle comfortably, and will be a _huge_ boost of power over my current 7800.
LeftyAce
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Video Card Upgrade
Well, it got here, and is quite fast (for a little while). I can run fallout3 at maximum settings at a consistent 60fps, but after about 5 minutes it starts stuttering. This happens when I'm in buildings or outside, so I don't think it's a ram issue (indoors should mean much fewer textures to load, etc, right? Because of the lower field of view?) I can run it forever at low settings, 800x600 resolution. Seems to me like an overheating problem (how can I verify that?) Any other suggestions?
LeftyAce
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Video Card Upgrade
Run it with the side of the case off. See if that improves things.
Also, do you have another power supply to test out? Since you said you were pushing the limits with your current one, it could be the card struggles due to that.
shadowpr
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