[strikermed]

The first one is good... I, and it would be perfect if it had crossfire support, and a firewire port, so that I wouldn't have to use a pci card. And I like Asus, that's a plus.

the second one is good also, never used an msi board. I like that it left room for a large video card in one of the slots. Again though, it doesn't have firewire which I would really like. I also like that that uses a better ram, and faster one... Still I need another pci slot.

And the last one is actually really good minus the on board video, although that will most likely be a good choice, just incase my video card crashes on me... Don'tlike that it doesn't support crossfire, but again maybe onboard video is a good idea. And I really like that it leaves a gap for the video card to leave room for the fan and cooling. I would probably consider this one over the other 2. And in a plus, I like the HDMI connection.

Here is one I've been looking at, and considering... I might go with it and get an HD card sometime that supports crossfire: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813131095

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Older chipset but it will do.
Just keep in mind that you will not find a motherboard that can run crossfire and allow you to use all 3 PCI ports, assuming you have dual slot coolers.
James

[james_8970]

Older chipset but it will do.
Just keep in mind that you will not find a motherboard that can run crossfire and allow you to use all 3 PCI ports, assuming you have dual slot coolers.
James

[strikermed]

hmmm, I will keep that in mind... I might go and conside getting that asus motherboard you brought up... I still have a few months still I have to decide. I'm just wondering if my X800 GTO is still a respectable video card for today's games

[james_8970]

No that video card isn't very good by todays standards. If you game on lower resolutions it might just get you buy, otherwise you'd probably want to upgrade if you game.
Do you know if that is AGP or PCIe?
James

[strikermed]

it's a PCI express... I might consider then, going to Geforce card, instead of a Radeon.... Then I would consider also looking into SLI, but is SLI like Crossfire where you can use a board without having to put 2 cards in, and what not... I was looking at an article comparing SLI and crossfire and I liked that crossfire allowed you to do so much more, in options, and different ways of using it.

[james_8970]

There are very few motherboard which will alow you to do SLI with one card. They'll likely be out of your price range as the 780i motherbaords are the only ones on the market which are capable of doing this.

Yes. crossfire is ATI version of nVidia's SLI.

Crossfire scales a bit better then SLI in terms of performance.

If your looking to update your video card, give me a budget
James

[strikermed]

I'm looking at around 150, to get a decent one...


I still am wondering if crossfire motherboards will let me run with only one card. Until I can afford an additional card, or [bleep] the crossfire card.

I've been looking at the ati website, and they have this trade up program going on, but I'm not really familiar with it.

[strikermed]

I've been looking around the amd website, and their crossfire website... I'm wondering what all I would need to do that. I'm more worried about my power supply, and what a powersupply needs to be able to run that sort of set up.

This is the set up I'm looking at:

500 Watt X connect psu
Asus M2R32-MVP (considering a more recent mobo) http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813131095
Corsair 2 GB DDR2 800 Ram http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820145034 (may change depending on mobo decision)
AMD 64 X2 5200+ http://www.newegg.co...N82E16819103056

debate between one of these 2 cards
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814127303
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814161097


I am wondering about different configurations you can run crossfire on... I'm almost positive you couldn't use one of these cards, and my current card (X800 GTO) and run crossfire on that. I read they had to be the same GPU, so I would have to buy another HD2600 XT sometime.

But I am still wondering if you can run a Crossfire motherboard just using one video card until I can get the money together in the future to buy another one. It might be an upgrade I will want to do so I can play those future games when the one HD2600XT goes out of date... I can just add another then and I will be set

[james_8970]

This video card is your best bet.
It comes to $160 after mail in rebate.

Yes you can run a single card configuration on a crossfire setup.

If that video card is to much money, what resolution do you plan on gaming at?

I'd really suggest a higher quality PSU then the one you have mentioned, Ultra makes very poor PSU (excluding the their 3rd generation).

Crossfire is not recommended for budget to mid range GPU cards, it's only advisable for the upper end as there isn't much benefit, unless you play at very high resolutions.

James

Edited by james_8970, 18 January 2008 - 11:17 AM.

[strikermed]

well I plan on playing at 1024x768... That's what I have been playing at and I'm satisfied with that resolution. I need something that will not over heat and is powerful, I bought that x800 GTO card 2 years ago thinking that I would be ok for a few years.

[strikermed]

I was comparing one of the cards I found: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814127303 and the card that you suggested, the only difference, that I found was that your's had a higher bit rate. And the core clock and memory clock on the card I've been looking at is higher.

So which really is the better card, except the fact that the card you suggested, is a newer GPU.

[Titan8990]

The 3850 that James suggested blows that 2600XT away. Defiantly go with the 3850. Also HIS is known for their superior coolers.

Edited by Titan8990, 18 January 2008 - 03:34 PM.

[strikermed]

ok, well my questions is what makes it so much better? what aspect of it... I'm just curious so I know what to look for in others. And what makers of video cards are good? Like there are saphire, HIS, etc.

[Titan8990]

What makes it better I couldn't tell you but the numbers speak for themselves: Tom's Hardware VGA Comparision Chart. The manufactures of the cards typically don't make much difference. Some people say the HIS have slightly better coolers than most other brands. Also I have heard horror stories about Sapphires support. Performance wise they are all the same.

[james_8970]

You cannot understand how a cards performance will be by just looking at the spec sheet. Hardware just doesn't work that way.
You need to compare one card to the next on the tomshardware charts to get a better understanding.
Drivers, microarchitecture, GDDR type, ROP amount, unified shader amount all effect the performance of a card. But you cannot make an impression of a card without looking at benchmarks.
James