gfx card question

Post by **Buster** » Sun Aug 24, 2008 11:22 pm

very simple one

Ati 3870 1gb vs geforce 8800 512k ???

Is it a clear winner either way or a more subjective answer?

Zim Zum · Post by **Zim Zum** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 12:42 am

8800 gt or gts or gtx?

Post by **Buster** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 11:04 am

Not sure at the moment and can't get into the dell outlet store page I was looking at. Will update again when I can access that specific page.

But generally is ATi or GeForce on top at the moment? Normally one has the better specs, just curious which has the lead right now?

Also is Vista 64 now worth considering over Vista 32? Been seeing mixed comments so would like an opinion from you guys.

Superfast Oz · Post by **Superfast Oz** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 11:37 am

vista in any form is truly the worst. I still use XP.

Post by **Buster** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 4:34 pm

It's;

512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT

Vs

512MB ATI® Radeon® 3870

Vs

1GB ATI Radeon 3870 X2

Most likely between the 2 512Mb ones though as price will be an issue. But opinions on all 3 please.

Post by **senji** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 5:57 pm

Zim Zum wrote:8800 gt or gts or gtx?

I think gta is the best.

King Cyric · Post by **King Cyric** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 6:27 pm

I've got the 8800gt, no idea how good it is as I only really play css/tf2 etc.

Night · Post by **Night** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 8:42 pm

Superfast Oz wrote:vista in any form is truly the worst. I still use XP.

Truth

Zim Zum · Post by **Zim Zum** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 9:19 pm

8800GT is the best bang for buck card around at the moment, GTS is only slightly better although much better if you use larger monitors and higher resolutions, or output to TV etc.

GTX is obviously the best of the 8000 series. However there are lots of new Nvidia cards out at the moment. the 280 seems to be one of the best around, better than any of the 9000 series. Then you have the GX2 which is the equivalent of SLI with just one card, but actually not as good as it sounds.

Just like Intel thrashing AMD at the moment, the Geforce series seems to also be on top right now. The latest generation ATI cards are running ridiculously hot.

Senji, GTA sucks.

Villa · Post by **Villa** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 11:22 pm

I bought a 9800gtx the other month.
I had to send it back because my PSU couldn't supply it with enough power.

Shame, as it seemed quite impressive on paper, but the requirements from the PC were pretty high.

Post by **Buster** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 6:17 am

Ok, started pricing up components on dabs.com as i've dealt with them before and always had decent service, if anyone knows of these components cheaper then let me know.

Antec Nine Hundred/Ultimate Gamer Case no PSU - £68.25

Corsair Memory 650W TX SERIES ATX - £65.78

XFX GeForce 8800GT XT Ed 512MB DDR3 PCIE Dual DVI TV - £103.56

Corsair Memory 4GBKIT (2X2GB) 800MHZ NON ECC CL5 - £53.66

Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 3.16GHz 6MB Cache S775 1333MHZ - £124.71

XFX S775 nForce 680i LT SLI DDR2 ATX - £62.45

Samsung Spinpoint 500GB 7200RPM 16MB SATA300 - £42.05

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit OEM - £68.22

total (inc VAT) - £588.68

Totally unsure on the PSU, just went for a Corsair one that looked decent.

About the same price as i had quoted for the dell outlet pre-built system and roughly the same spec, but with superior components i should imagine.

Currently have Vista Home Premium 64 selected, is there any reason why i should go up to the Ultimate one?

Night · Post by **Night** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 6:20 am

Power and heat are the biggest concerns when building your own system. If you have to fit your own heatsink/fan to your CPU you'll need steady hands (and small fingers usually). Additional case fans (front and back) normally make a big difference.

An under-rated psu and demon graphics card are usually the largest contributers to system instability in my experience.

Zim Zum · Post by **Zim Zum** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 7:41 am

Yeah I've had that problem. Sometimes you don't realise your PSU is the problem because the system fires up, but then when you load a game the extra drain from the GFX card makes it reboot.

Nixon · Post by **Nixon** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 4:31 pm

I'm away to buy my new PC this week, just decided to spend £300-400 tops, getting a powerful graphics card etc, is gonna be an absolute waste for me. Prebuilt will do the job, my PC is nothing more than a glorified DVD / sound system for me.

I saw your other thread buster, a lot of good info there to.