[glen_m_32]

I am looking at upgrading my graphics card, andwould like to know what people think and if anyone has any suggestions.

the card i am looking at is the Sapphire Radeon X1650PRO 512MB DDR2. i am upgrading from a ATI X700 256Mb,

This upgrade is for PCI-Express, eventually i will be upgrading to a new MoBo, so what is better, SLi of Xfire?

I have approx £100 to spend!

thanks

glen

[Advertisements]

I have never used xfire or sli but from what I told and from what I read from other geeks they are more or less marketing gimics. People are saying to hold off on buying a new card becuase ATI will be releasing their competition to Nvida's 8 series very soon. It would definatly be a good idea to try and get one of these new DX10 cards becuase a year from now that what all the new games will run on.

[Titan8990]

I have never used xfire or sli but from what I told and from what I read from other geeks they are more or less marketing gimics. People are saying to hold off on buying a new card becuase ATI will be releasing their competition to Nvida's 8 series very soon. It would definatly be a good idea to try and get one of these new DX10 cards becuase a year from now that what all the new games will run on.

[james_8970]

Neither, they are marketing gimics, don't spend 100% more to get a 30%(at the very best) performance gain, just doesn't make sence do it. Don't choice a card because of these technologies but the performance behind the single card. Maybe in a year or 2 when the technologies perfect themselves, or if they ever do, but till then just ignore that xfire and SLI even exist.
The new line of graphics card will be released at the end of may beginning of June high end being named 2900xtx and the budget being the 2600 series.
Nvidia will be releasing their products shortly, but I find it hard to recommend a product that hasn't be released yet, I'd recommend waiting a seeing what they can prove, it'll also drive prices of cards such as these down, the main reason why I suggest waiting.
James

Edited by james_8970, 07 April 2007 - 12:24 AM.

[glen_m_32]

I understand that SLi and Xfire are not 100%, but it will become the future, i have seen cards with SLI built onto the board itself, but these are priced at £2000+ too much money!

I was definatly looking into DX10 cards, but is there any other hardware needed torun these or is there any recommended hardware to create a reasonable performance machine. I play gaems like Half-life 2, Quake 4, doom 3 (abit boring, but good atmosphere) and at the moment i'm playing HALO, i know these all run on the spec i have, but why stop there when the future is creeping up fast.

i would like the option to have either SLi or Xfire in the future (i might not use it) i need SATA (ihave 2 SATA 250gb HD's) DDR and the option to upgrade to DDR2. and of course LGA775 because that way i can buy things slowly and still use my current hardware until i upgrade!

does all this make sense?

thanks again, i knew i could rely on you guys!!!

Glen

[Titan8990]

Yes, it makes sense. The only one of those things that you will not be able to do is have DDR with an option to upgrade to DDR2. The two are completly uncompatable. A DDR stick won't even fit in a DDR2 slot.

[glen_m_32]

Oh rite,

I didn't know that! Maybe i will buy all the things, store them, then once i got all the parts assembly!

as long as i coulduse the old CPU for now and upgrade as i get more money or they get cheaper!

[james_8970]

Also I don't understand where you get the impression that it'll be 100%, Nvidia and ATI have hit a wall, the same wall that was hit by 3dFX (the creators of the technology), I can never seen this technology surpassing 80%......and that's a long time away. The only way that I can see the percentages jumping is if you have one card processor physics and the other doing everything else, right now they split all the task down the middle and one the information gets back to the CPU it has to organize everything and diversify what goes to which GPU causing a loss of performance. Not to mention I believe there is a bandwidth bottleneck on the braket that transfers the information from one card to the other.
There are no requirements other then having a SLI or xfire enabled motherboard and then having the graphic card able to do so. Remember older models can't and you'll probably have to use an external dongle. But under your surcomstances I really don't suggest xfire, your card is a dying bread, it's time all use gamers wait a month or two and jump onto the DX10 bandwagon, after seeing Crysis Pictures you'll understand what I mean. Besides if your graphics card is keeping up to what you currently play, why upgrade?
Well get ready, because prices are about to nose dive.
James

[troppo]

In comparison to the X1650 and 7600GT which are around the same price the 7600Gt is by far the better by in my opinion look at this review i found from tech spot
it might help you to decided on the card ( that is you are not wanting to go to DX10 just yet and dont want to spend much money)

ive just gone through the same upgrade process i ordered a XFX 7600GT after reading this and a few others

http://www.techspot....geforce-7600gs/

hope it helps a little bit
Troppo

[james_8970]

That review does portray that, but other reviews differ, each card will do better on different games. In the end, whatever one you can get for the cheaper price, leap for it over the other because the difference between the cards isn't all that noticeable or else one game will perform better on card "A" but another game will perform better on card "B".
Check out these benchmarks as well
http://www23.tomshar...m...9&chart=200
James

Edited by james_8970, 07 April 2007 - 11:48 PM.

[glen_m_32]

Thanks for all your help, i will wait for the DX10 cards. Does anyone know a date when either Nvidia or ATI are going to release their larger (and cheaper) range of cards?

The reason i want to upgrade is because i want to start getting ready for the future!

thanks again

[james_8970]

There is a rumor beginning to circulate that ATI's cards are going to be released on April 22nd as well as the cuts from Intel. But I wouldn't get my hopes up just yet, no benchmarks have been released nor have we heard any formal announcement from ATI, where as they had menioned a while ago that they'd be released at the end of May"ish".....
It's really up in the air right now, but ATI's card is also rumoured to have a sound card in it as well but unless you have a HDMI monitor or suround sound your still going to have get a sound card.
As for Nvidia they as well haven't set a firm date, but I'd expect them to release before the end of April, there was one site that had benchmarks for Nvidias cards but I can't find them at the moment.
James

Edited by james_8970, 08 April 2007 - 11:22 AM.

[james_8970]

Here are the 8600's benchmarks. They are Nvidia's mid range DX10 GPU. Now that we see the benchmarks we know the release will be following shortly.
http://hardwarezone....p?cid=3&id=2231
James

Edited by james_8970, 08 April 2007 - 04:38 PM.

[glen_m_32]

at least there is some information slowly coming to light now!

i will be upgrading my monitor to a 26" sony tv with HDMI v soon, so i'm hoping for some real HD quality stuff! obviously i'll need teh hraphics card to get it running top notch!

[james_8970]

Hmm if you getting a TV with HDMI, you might want to wait to the release of the ATI cards, they are rumored to have a intergraded sound card that'll be broadcast over HDMI hook ups, but if you have a set of good computer speakers this is irrelevant. So far the "leaked" picutres havn't shown any HDMI ports, so right no I'm skeptical on wether or not it'll be released at the first wave of cards, or else the cards will be revised and then they'll add it. This isn't a rumour by the way there was a formal announcement from AMD's CEO.
If you want to wait thats up to you, your looking at another months wait, but like I said, I not to sure if it'll be released right of the bat so that decision is up to you whether or not you want to wait.
Good luck on the TV buy, you shouldn't need as high of an end video card as you would have needed if you bought a 26" monitor. But just to double check could you tell me the resolution of the TV?
For HD you'll also need a decent processor, graphic card is of more importance however.
James

[warriorscot]

the 2900 from ATI will have HDMI as well as 5.1 sound, i dont know whether the full range will have 5.1 sound but they should all come with an HDMI.