Best Graphics Card for me

[ardypilot]

I would like to increase my graphics on my current system, until I can afford a completely new system, properly next year.

What I would like to know is, how can I find out, or can someone tell me, what graphics card would give me the best results on current system (2.5ghz Celaron, 1.5GB ram with AGP slot for GFX).

My motherboard works best with 4x cards, and at the moment I have a GeForce FX5600 128mb card.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Cheers,

[ZK-Brock]

Well, the only AGP cards sold now are 8x.
How much are you willing to pay? $250 would get you a good one probably.

[Zöltuger]

there are a couple of geforce 7600GS that support AGP 2.0 (i.e. AGP 4x on your motherboard) on pricespy: http://www.pricespy.co.nz/pno_9606.html. i'd suggest that's about as far as you could go, and even then it's probably overkill.

be sure to check the brand of graphics card website before you go and buy it to make sure it is in fact AGP4x compatible. (like this one)

[ardypilot]

Thanks for the links guys, I will have a further look at the 7600GS.

Another quite important question, will this really enhance my experience at all, because I tried a GeForce '6600NX' in my system recently, but it only made things worse. I am not sure if it had 4x support or not though...

[gokanru]

Getting a good graphics card is only half the battle.In fact getting a top graphics card is easy.The harder part is getting a good processor that can handle the information that the graphics card passes on to it.If your present graphics card is NOT maxed out then you need to upgrade your cpu.If however your card is maxed out then go for a better card.Whichever way you go it is a compromise,try and get one that is going to suit your needs for the future.

[kiwiarcher]

Thanks for the links guys, I will have a further look at the 7600GS.

Another quite important question, will this really enhance my experience at all, because I tried a GeForce '6600NX' in my system recently, but it only made things worse. I am not sure if it had 4x support or not though...

Andrew,

Just installed a Gigabyte Geforce 7600GS, and going great, big improvement over the ATI we had, the card is superb for the price.

Bought this card so its compatible with the Matrox triplehead2go we just got.

Rob

[Zöltuger]

Getting a good graphics card is only half the battle.In fact getting a top graphics card is easy.The harder part is getting a good processor that can handle the information that the graphics card passes on to it.

i agree, you might be better off saving your money to buy a decent computer next year

[ardypilot]

Hmm, I don't think I will bother now. I will just wait until I buy a whole new system as Natas showed me how to overclock my 5600, and already I am receiving a noticeable difference in fs2004.

I saved a particularly bad flight over YSSY where I was only getting 8fps, and now I am getting 15fps I just took a very enjoyable smooth flight over Te Anau, and have to say that I see no need to upgrade for the time being (as long as I am stuck with my Celaron rig)

[Codge]

Hi Kiwiarcher, I'm quite interested in the Triple screen Matrox you have. If you buy 2 then can you have 6 screens if you have 2 outputs on your graphics card? Or would it just be too demanding do you think?
It'll be a while before I get one (or two) as they must come down in price one day and someone will bring out a competitor. But I am keen to keep up with them as I want to have 3 projectors for the view and 3 CRT's for the panels. Once I have the 3 projectors I will be seriously looking at something like the Matrox.
I'm going to build projectors out of 15" LCD screens and those OHP over head projectors that we had in school. The tutorial for these setups is at Tomshardware.com and they certainly sound like a bit of me and affordable too!
They will give good resolution at 1078x768 or better and the replacement bulbs are $30 instead of 2-300 odd $ so you can watch your telly and movies on it without worrying too much about the 4000 hours you are always eating into. And they start to deteriorate long before that 4000 hours too. So this other way has me keen even though it will look a bit ugly, but I like the idea that you put it together yourself. It's always fun using things for what they were not designed for!
And in winter I won't need heaters! All that and At least 2 or 3 PC's being pushed will keep me very warm! The power bill will keep me sane anyway.
That's my ambition for my sim anyway and it will simply take as long as it takes!

[ronindanbo]

dont forget gys when you multidisplay the card equally divides the onboard memory between each display which can bring your performance down.

[ardypilot]

I'm still looking for a new graphics card- and I'm just wondering would me getting a geforce 7600GS really make much of a differnece in my AGP 2.0 mobo?

[brownbox]

I beleive Jimmy has this setup doesnt he?

[HardCorePawn]

I'm still looking for a new graphics card- and I'm just wondering would me getting a geforce 7600GS really make much of a differnece in my AGP 2.0 mobo?

Trolly,

I have a 6600GT 256Meg 8x AGP card that you are free to 'Try and Buy'...

My old machine (XP2000+, 1 Gig RAM, 6600GT) is still sitting on my floor because I dont have the time (or money) to try to figure out what is wrong with it.

You are free to try the 6600GT for a couple of days (or a week or whatever)... if you're happy with it, you can pay the $$$ and keep it. If you're not overally thrilled, then you can give it back at no cost and i'll either have to fix the comp and use it with WideFS or start selling the bits on TradeMe.

For what its worth, it used to sit at 20 to 25fps pretty much all the time (most of the time i had it pegged at 20fps for online play with fs2004). However, at that time I didnt have all the nice RealNZ scenary etc, hence the 'Try and Buy' offer.

Given that on PriceSpy a brand-new one is anywhere from $150 to $200, and the 7600GS (AGP) is around the same, I would only want around $100 for it (its about what its worth on TradeMe).

PM me if you're interested.

[Zöltuger]

worth a try I imagine, 6600GT would be considerably faster than a FX5600. fingers crossed for AGP4x compatibility...

[Jimmy]

I beleive Jimmy has this setup doesnt he?

Yes he does

I got the old AGP 4x and got the 7600GS (PALIT), it didn't say anywere that it was 4x compatible, yet the only thign its imporved over the 5600 was the perforamce inside a cloud, although alot of clouds is still a frame killer..

I would sugest you do what im about to do trolly, buy a 8x DDR pentium D compatible mobo, so you could buy jarads old card and then buy a cheap new cpu (unless you get a mobo that suppost celeron and D) and mobo. Then save up and buy a wicked cpu and then save up and buy a dx10 card and 2 gigs of DDR2 ram and put it all in yet anothor PCIe/DDR2 mobo

If your getting almost 20fps I wouldn't think you will get anymore, aparently AGP 4x will usualy run at about 20fps, and 8x at 40. But you could just get one like I have and do the forementioned step by step plan

Good luck mate
James

[brownbox]

PALIT)

pentium D

Ofcourse, thats what I have

[ardypilot]

Well HCP very kindly came round and let me try his 6600GT today, and so far, its a loverly improvment from my 5600, getting a nice 18.3 to 22FPS on a flight in Alaska where I was only getting around 14 FPS the other day It may not sound like much but it is a noticable difference for me, so much more smoother!

Anyhow, does anyone know what driver is best to use with this card? The latest one's don't always seem to be the best with nVIDA for some reason... I'm using the disk that came in the box at the moment for drivers.

Also, I only have a 300w power supply unit (which I've hooked the card up to) which Jarred mentions may be a problem? What sort of power unit should I have? Will using it with this lower power one be a problem- if so- what will happen? Should I get a new PSU, and will that increase performance for me?

Cheers!

[Zöltuger]

pleased to hear your graphics have improved this time around

a decent power supply will give stability, and insurance that it won't blow up your PC, but not performance. enermax produce quality power supplies, check out pricespy.

as for drivers, the 9x.xx series are stable, i think the last ones were 94.60 or something like that.

[ardypilot]

Ah ok Zolt- I'll grab the latest drivers from their site. I only have the Forceware version (whatever that is) 77.72 at the moment.

When you say "and insurance that it won't blow up your PC"- would this happen if I used this graphics card with a high power consuption (I'm assuming) frequently? Is it possible to change the PSU without having to format my HDD's and loose all my data?

[HardCorePawn]

Good to hear its making some difference. As for drivers, I probably would just get the latest nVidia drivers. I have not really had any issues using those.

The latest ones on the nVidia site are: 93.71, released November 2006. So if they havent updated them for that long, I would think they were fairly stable.

In fact, they're the ones I'm using with my 7600GT

As for the power, if you dont get a little warning box popping up saying that the card is not receiving enough power, then you should be OK. I was actually using it with a 300W power supply, and didnt have any problems with it. Although my friend recommended I upgrade to a 350 or 400W unit.

However, he does silly things like run 4 HDD's, 2 Optical drives and 4 or 5 case fans in his box, so he needs LOTS of power (his new machine is going to have a 1000W PSU!!). I hate to think what his power bill is like... I only had 2 HDD, 1 Optical drive and 1 case fan.

Like Zolt says tho, a good PSU will bring all-round stability to a system. The key factor is its ability to supply constant voltages at high loads. Cheap PSU's dont, and it makes your system flakey, as when components dont get the required voltage they dont work so well... kinda like your lights dimming when there is a brown-out.

Anyway, feel free to test the card some and you can make a decision next week after you've had a chance to put it through its paces. I know I was able to peg it at a constant 20 FPS, even with crazy things like the NZAR scenary with (ugly) static aircraft. YMMV tho, so give it a good test.

EDIT: and yes... PSU's are just swap in/swap out...