Need Graphic Card advice

Additional question. What is the difference between 256Mb cards and 512Mb (aprt from the obvious), I assume it makes little difference unless your system is low on System Ram.

So I'm thinking that as I have 1Gb ram, which is not as high as it could be these days, I should get a 512Mb card to alleviate the pressure on my system ram.

GPU RAM is not used for system RAM. You would be better off adding system RAM, and making sure your video drivers are up to date.

More memory on the video card lets you load higher resolution textures and run with them more effectively. VRAM is filled first with textures and only after does it overflow to system memory, which is slower.

Personally, I'd advise going for an 8800GT if you're buying right now, but that's a fair chunk over your ideal price range. It's presently the best bang for your buck, and would carry through into a new machine a ways down the road as well.

The 8600 OTOH would give you a pretty small performance boost in most DX9 games (if any), and since you're on XP, the DX10 features would be completely moot. Making it mostly useless overall.

The best compromise would probably be to go for a 7900 instead. It won't last as long as an 8800, but it'll give you more punch than an 8600.

Thanks guys, and great answer Kryo.

Regards budget its fine paying extra for a card if it extends the life of the PC, so if I can push back date I need to upgrade my machine then the card pays for itself. I have a fast processor even though its a single core. So its the 8800GT I have to go for.

I'm a little confused why a 7900 beats a 8600, but I will wiki that one. What I'm wondering is this.

1: Should I buy a 8800GT 256Mb or 512Mb, and if the former should I upgrade my system ram, I guess I'm asking where my new bottleneck will be if I add this card?

2: Is there anyway I can get my system to tell me how much power it is drawing or its peak draw? I don't know if I need to upgrade my PSU at the same time?

A 8800GT 512 would be ideal. It's not so much a matter of holding off future upgrades, as it is one of making them cheaper--a 8800GT 512 should still be pretty good in a year's time, so you won't need a new video card when you do get around to upgrading.

More RAM is always welcome. Depending on what kind you need, there are some great deals to be had right now. I just built my new machine and got 4GB of PC6400 for $90 (and there are now some even better deals than that).

The PSU could be an issue. Amperage on the 12v rail(s) is going to be your major concern; I believe nVidia's spec for 8800GTs is somewhere around 36A in total. If you have multiple 12v rails though you'll want to base your figures on 2/3 to 3/4 of their total amperages.


Re 8600 vs 7900, midrange cards are generally only an upgrade to lower or equal cards, even compared to the prior generation. At the equivalent levels in the product lines, the difference is usually pretty slim, and the only major difference lies in the features supported. Such is the case here, and the extra features (DX10) are not usable to you since you're on XP.

Looking at some more benchmarks, the difference between a 7900GS and an 8600GTS is less than I first saw. Which one comes out better varies from game to game, but the 7900 seems to do better in general with high anti-aliasing and filtering settings. The 8600's only major advantage seems to be in synthetic benchmarks (3dmark) rather than in actual games. So if you must choose between those two, it's more a toss up than I first thought. You'd best be served doing some research for benchmarks comparing them, to see how they compare at the settings and games you plan to play.

Thanks again, I took your advice and have commissioned Amazon to ship me with all haste:

One Corsair HX Series 520 Watt Modular PSU
and one nVidia Inno3D 8800GT 512MB

I'll grab extra system ram if needed, after I put those in.

I'll see how that goes, if I can run Crysis even on medium settings smoothly I'll be happy. I also note that stardock has some rather impressive real time space sim on route, so I'll have that too!

EEK.

I'd highly advise stopping the order right now and choosing another PSU. Corsair is a quality PSU brand (Seasonic builds them), but the G92 firmware does not get along with them (as well as some Antec and Silverstone units, also quality brands). I in fact had that exact model in my initial build of my new machine, and had to RMA it for a different one.

More specifically, the issue is that the firmware controls how much power the GPU draws, but doesn't properly detect or manage it in conjunction with those PSUs. As such it thinks it's not getting enough power (which is most likely untrue, but moot), and the drivers automatically downclock the card such that it's completely unable to play games.

My 8800GT512 can do Crysis on high at 1680x1050 with the framerate in the upper 20s, though I've got a e6750 and 4GB of ram as well. But you should be pretty pleased with the card alone.

Ah, I choose express delivery and they are already preparing the order for delivery. So I have it now tomorrow anyway. I guess I need to return it later tomorrow and try the next on the list, an OCZ or an Atrix.

That said, It seems like quite a big issue. Would Nvida not have released a firmware update by now, or maybe their is a Corsair utility that can disable its features that upsets the Graphic card.

I shall try a spot of googling to see what comes up.

http://www.houseofhelp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=64885&page=4

A Corsair forum, the thread is discussing this very issue. From page 4 onwards Corsair admit there is a problem with 20% of cards and is looking into it.

Yeah, I expect nVidia will fix it... eventually. I certainly wasn't going to wait around with a useless computer waiting for them, though. I got an OCZ to replace the Corsair and it's been just fine so far. Antec claimed to have fixed the issue on their end in the models that had the problem, but another stardockian just built a machine as well with an Antec PSU and 8800GT, and also experienced the problem.

Regardless which manufacturer is at fault, what it boils down to is that one should simply avoid those brands (good though they may otherwise be) at present for use with G92 GeForces until there's word that these problems have been resolved one way or another.

I chose an MSI NX7600GS, 256MB, dual DVI PCI-e 16X for my main system, along with an Antec PSU. I have no problems, cause I guess the problem mentioned here is limited to the 8800 series. I saw no point in getting an 8800, since I use XP and have different needs.

So far so good. I figured I had it now so I'll at least try it. Hooked up the new PSU and GPU. Everything so far seems perfectly fine.

Tried The Witcher on High settings and it was fine for the most part. The framerate did drop out when loading new screens, but in all fairness the rest of the machine is 2 years old.

Tried COD4 on high, fine.

I'll nick my copy of Crysis back off my brother this weekend and try it, I'll also download some of those Nvidia stress tests to see what happens.

But it may be ok, I assume Kyro that when you had your incompatibility issues it was immediately evident, as opposed to an intermittent fault? The Corsair forum does suggest that it is a minority of 8800GT's that have this problem.

For most people it was, but for me it didn't start until I tightened up my memory timings. It went downhill from there, to where it was doing it no matter what.