View Full Version : Graphics card setup help for..........
Hello
i am a beginner in the PC building world and need some opinions and advice on what graphics card setup to go for.
m current setup is a Antec 900 case, Asus P5N-E (650i nvidia chipset) e6420 CPU core 2 duo 2.13Ghz,Zalman cnps9500a CPU cooler, 2GB DDR2 800mhz ram, 2x Nvidia Geforce 6600GT(SLI bridge) OCZ GameSteamX 700w PSU
i want to be able to run and play the latest games such as COD 4(if possible) but dont know what graphics cards are compatible with my motherboard etc. can people help with ideas etc, i really need the help and pointers!
my budget will be £350 all in.
cheers
Bren
p.s if i've left out anything that anyone needs to know let me know and i'll post it up, thanks once again. ;)
An 8800 GT would fit the bill perfectly, you could either just go ahead and get one for around £140, which would play CoD4 absolutely fine. Or, if you really want to spend all of your budget, you could go for 2 in SLi.
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/PCI-E/nVIDIA+GeForce+8+Series/nVidia+GeForce+8800GT+512MB+PCI-E+?productId=29148
I'd opt for a single nVidia GeForce 8800GT/GTS 512mb graphics card. From ~£140 to £200, they'll be well over twice as quick as your 6600GT's in SLI and will compliment the rest of your system very well. Perhaps later on if you feel like adding another, you always could but I'd suggest getting one at first.
My next suggestion is related to your CPU. These graphics cards maybe held back slightly by your CPU at stock clocks. You've got a decent motherboard and a decent cpu cooler so if I were you I'd look into overclocking that CPU. The gains will be significant with mose E6420's hitting 3.0GHz with little effort.
Those are the two things I'd do to a system like yours to make it a COD4 (or similar) killer. :)
awesome!
thanks for the advice both of you.
should i buy an original Nvidia 8800 or will a different make such as XFX be better, or does it not really make a difference either way?
didn't realise i could overclock the cpu that much! i'll give it a go and slowly bring it to see how it copes. would you recommmend waiting until i've bought and fitted the new graphics card or just go for it?
thanks once again 8)
Bren
PeterStoba
25-03-08, 22:38
It makes no difference on the model, some are factory overclocked but not worth the £40+ more
The actual physical parts used can be better on more expensive brands, but nothing major really.
I've always gone BFG/EVGA when buying nVidea for the extended warranty :)
right, so, would everyone recommend i go for the 512mb 8800GTS rather than the GT or are they once again basically the same?
i will be just buying 1 now as first suggested then i'm going to save the remainder of the money to put towards a new monitor to update from my 17" crt.
once again, thanks for all the help. cant believe how many replies i got in my first post on the forum 8)8)
PeterStoba
26-03-08, 10:58
Get the GTS!
~£20 difference on the Aria site between the GT and GTS for higher core and memory clocks, 128 stream processors (vs 112 on the GT) and a quality dual slot cooler. No brainer in my opinion. So long as the budget allows, get the GTS 512mb.
right so thats it settled then! i will buy a Geforce 8800GTS and put the rest of the money towards a quality monitor!
lovely jubbly:P
As for your overclocking question, as soon as you know what you're doing just go for it. Why wait :D
i've finished installing the drivers etc for everything now that i have the current setup running smoothly.
i bought both my graphics cards 2nd hand with no boxes/manuals/reciepts etc etc and they were advertised as 2x geforce 6600gt's but now that the pc has installed them and got them running in sli mode it says that they are 256mb nvidia geforce 6800's. does anybody have any information on these?
Get a program called GPU-Z and give us a screenshot of the results :)
Get a program called GPU-Z and give us a screenshot of the results :)
no problem mate....... why does it say Nvidia SLI - Disabled even though it is activated in the Nvidia control panel?
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t254/ebe572y/Screenshot.jpg
They look like plain 6800 vanilla's to me. Decent cards back in their day. Each one would perform somewhere between a 7300GT and a 7600GS. A single 8800GTS should still run circles round SLI'd 6800's anyway.
If SLi is enabled in the nV CP and as far as you're aware they've been performing about right, I'd say it's a GPU-Z glitch.
They look like plain 6800 vanilla's to me. Decent cards back in their day. Each one would perform somewhere between a 7300GT and a 7600GS. A single 8800GTS should still run circles round SLI'd 6800's anyway.
If SLi is enabled in the nV CP and as far as you're aware they've been performing about right, I'd say it's a GPU-Z glitch.
lovely jubbly mate thanks for the info
i will DEFINATELY be getting a 8800GTS next week so i'll take these out and keep them as spares
p.s what do you mean by 6800 "vanilla's"??? :confused:
I recently bought 2 x XFX 8800 GT Alphadogs XXX. SLi ..
What I will say is on games that can make use of SLi it kicks ***, but games that can't it slows them down. !! all u have to so is disable SLi in Nvidia Ctrl Pannel. Still a slight Pain.
Also what i didn't realise when i bought them, with XFX if u register it, u get a LIFTIME WARRANTY.. has to be within 20 days of purchase, but that was a pleasant surprise...
Happy hunting, i would also check out my posts in this section and see what the guys advise when i was asking much the same questions
hello scrumpy
i'll check out your past posts tomorrow and have a proper read through them
cheers
p.s here's another screenshot
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t254/ebe572y/aria.jpg
The 6800 was released in a number of varieties. 6800LE, 6800XT, 6800, 6800GS, 6800GT, 6800 Ultra. To avoid confusion with the plain 6800, it was often called the 6800 Vanilla as it was just a way of saying, not a 6800 with a suffix at the end but a plain 6800.
The 6800 was released in a number of varieties. 6800LE, 6800XT, 6800, 6800GS, 6800GT, 6800 Ultra. To avoid confusion with the plain 6800, it was often called the 6800 Vanilla as it was just a way of saying, not a 6800 with a suffix at the end but a plain 6800.
nice one. thanks for letting me know. 8)
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