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[spongebob206]

Hi all,

Looking for a better graphics card.
I don't want to burn out my machine. Running a PCI Express ATI X300 128m card at present.

What do you recomend as a replacement.

I think my PSU is around 300.

Thanks

[creator2003]

8800 gts nivdia geforce or the likes pci express

[markll]

QUOTE (creator2003 @ Dec 14 2008, 01:42 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

8800 gts nivdia geforce or the likes pci express

Yeah, although there was a mention of only a 300w power supply, so that card might be a bit much for his system...

[spongebob206]

QUOTE (markll @ Dec 14 2008, 02:18 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah, although there was a mention of only a 300w power supply, so that card might be a bit much for his system...

Thanks,

What do you recomend?

Should I purchase a new PSU?
I don't want to burn out my mother board either.


I am running 2Gb Ram, just feel bigger card would improve graphics.
What 256 or 512 card could i use?

Cheers

[pilotgallagher01]

Whats ur budget??

Any new cards like the 8800 GTS and require power supply 450+ or around there, Will still work with your current 300W but you could run into issues. Also if your are into FSX or FS9 and are wanting to upgrade your Graphics Card to improve frames, May I suggest to you that you invest in a better CPU if you don't have a latest one (What is your CPU)

FSX and FS9 use CPU more than Graphics (Although graphics card are needed, CPU is a better investment to improve frames)

Also don't go by the amount of ram on a card, for example you could get a Nvidia 7500 512MB which sounds good but a 8800GTS 320MB will kick it's ass.

Have a think mate and hope my advice has been helpful to you and just answer the questions I asked and I might be able to help you more.

Cheers

Chris

[spongebob206]

QUOTE (pilotgallagher01 @ Dec 14 2008, 06:32 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Whats ur budget??

Any new cards like the 8800 GTS and require power supply 450+ or around there, Will still work with your current 300W but you could run into issues. Also if your are into FSX or FS9 and are wanting to upgrade your Graphics Card to improve frames, May I suggest to you that you invest in a better CPU if you don't have a latest one (What is your CPU)


Cheers

Chris

Hi Chris,
Thanks

Cpu is a P4 3.06 Intel.

Was top of line when purchased 2 years ago. Mrs would go ape O if I tried to up grade.

Whats a PSU and grapics worth for my machine?


Cheers
Derek

[pilotgallagher01]

No offense but CPU is a bit out dated. Still ok though. You intending it for FSX or FS9 . FSX I would suggest you upgrade the CPU. You can get a nice fast Core 2 Duo which will improve frames and performance like mad for under $500 and somtimes even cheaper than graphics cards. Check Trademe as they have some great deals.
As for Power Supply, You can get a 500W power supply brand new for about $100-$150 which will let your machine run more power heavy parts like SLI Graphics Cards.
Also another thing is to know about is your Motherboard. If you want to do any upgrading then check what your motherboard is and what it can handle. No point buying a powerful Graphics card if your motherboard can't handle it.

Also if you arn't willing to spend, Find out what card you have at the mo and you might be able to increase the performance by 30% on a Cheat $100 graphics card off trademe.

Depends how much you want to spend.

Hope this was useful.

Cheers

Chris

[creator2003]

I think you would be sweet just getting a 8800gts and a cheap power pack ,i very much doubt it would burn any parts out doing this and with a upgraded ram aswell your 3.0ghz single core will work sweet ..
dual would be the way to go in the future but that computer should last well with some simple pimp mods ..

[pilotgallagher01]

FS9 ur sweet mate as creator 2003 said, FSX I would suggest upgrading.

What one you intending it for?

[pilot.masman]

im running i really old Pentium D, 3ghz, its dual core... but FSX is almost intolerable (all other games are sweet, FS9, FS2002, Lock On, etc)... i advise getting a new Dual-core (the pentium D is one of the first dual cores so it is surpassed by others)

GPU i found didnt make much difference when i upgraded from my old 7500LE 256mb to a new Radeon 3870 512mb, i only got an increase of about 3-4FPS and hardly any graphics increase

check your MB before you upgrade, because ive had past experiences where people have bought new stuff only to find its un-supported by their MB

PSU's are generally cheap, id say 450-500W is your sort of range, and as said above, they are very cheap and have almost become a throw away good (almost no resale value)

[HardCorePawn]

QUOTE (pilot.masman @ Dec 17 2008, 12:30 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

PSU's are generally cheap, id say 450-500W is your sort of range, and as said above, they are very cheap and have almost become a throw away good (almost no resale value)

Only if you don't care about quality... or your components!

A computer cannot run without electricity, so do not overlook a decent PSU. A quality (Enermax, Silverstone etc.) unit will run quieter, cooler and produce more stable voltage/current levels. This helps to stop voltage/current spikes and/or drops which can cause issues and shorten the life of your components...

Having said that, if you main goal is to just whack a new card into an aging system to try to stretch it out for another 6-12 months, then by all means go the budget route... as you'll probably need to discard everything but the GPU when you eventually upgrade everything anyway...

With new gen GPU's... you will need around 450W minimum... the more stuff you have (Optical Drives, HDD's etc.) the higher your power requirements...

[pilotgallagher01]

[quote name='HardCorePawn' date='Dec 17 2008, 09:19 AM' post='8233858']
Only if you don't care about quality... or your components!

If you know where to get it from then it's cheap

[pilot.masman]

QUOTE

Only if you don't care about quality... or your components!

A computer cannot run without electricity, so do not overlook a decent PSU. A quality (Enermax, Silverstone etc.) unit will run quieter, cooler and produce more stable voltage/current levels. This helps to stop voltage/current spikes and/or drops which can cause issues and shorten the life of your components...

Having said that, if you main goal is to just whack a new card into an aging system to try to stretch it out for another 6-12 months, then by all means go the budget route... as you'll probably need to discard everything but the GPU when you eventually upgrade everything anyway...

With new gen GPU's... you will need around 450W minimum... the more stuff you have (Optical Drives, HDD's etc.) the higher your power requirements...[/quote]

lol, you mistake what im saying, and i think pilotgallagher got it...

if you kniow where to get it from, you can get a decent 500W PSU for VERY cheap...

for instance i just upgraded mine from the Std HP 300W to my new SilverStone 500W , cost me $120 (from my supplier )

[HardCorePawn]

Nope... you just have a different idea of 'cheap' and 'throwaway' than I do...

I was thinking $40 450W no-name brand PSUs... not $120 Silverstone... which is not what I would call "VERY cheap" (or hard to find) considering that's what they're listed for on PriceSpy

$120 to me is almost an hours flying in the 152... about 2 months worth of gas for my car... 1-2 weeks of groceries... about 5% of my monthly mortgage repayments ... almost a weeks dole money... 60 Giant Marshmallow Toasties from the vending machine at the flying club... about 25 cups of coffee from the cafe

Everything is relative I guess...

[spongebob206]

QUOTE (HardCorePawn @ Dec 17 2008, 02:46 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

$120 to me is almost an hours flying in the 152... about 2 months worth of gas for my car... 1-2 weeks of groceries... about 5% of my monthly mortgage repayments ... almost a weeks dole money... 60 Giant Marshmallow Toasties from the vending machine at the flying club... about 25 cups of coffee from the cafe

I love your humour HCP.
Always gets me with a sore gut.
Can't wait for another catch up at the next airshow, buy you one of those 25 cups of coffee.
Cheers and thanks for the advice.



Thanks all for thoughts and advice also.
Yes I am running FSX at pretty much max settings.
This machine although out dated is running well. I am quite surprised.
FSX run like a 3 legged dog until I increased the Ram to 2GB, then smooth.
Switching screens is a bit slow but I thought a new PCI-E card would help due to mine only been a 128MB.

Think I might go with Mikes PSU and card option at present.
That might be a fight as I just purchased FSX Twin Otter and Tahiti.

Might have to be my birthday present next year now.

Again thanks all and Happy Flying

[pilot.masman]

lol Hard Core

true we all have different ideas of what is cheap and what is deer....

if your used to getting top-off-the-line stuff your general prices would be high and your cheap would be someone elses deer...

im generally used to getting the max i can (when i can afford it )

[pilotgallagher01]

Good to hear mate,

Still if your wanting FSX on max, Upgrade your CPU first. As a graphics card probably won't do anything of 3Frame difference. Only get a new graphics card if your CPU is a new high end one.

[Alex]

I found that my CPU (Intel P4 3.4GHz HT) runs FSX absolutely fine, and upgrading my graphics card - which was similar to what spongebob was using, made a mammoth difference to the way FSX looked and ran. Not sure which course of action would suit best, but good luck regardless.

Alex

[HardCorePawn]

The whole CPU vs. GPU issue with FSX has come about because of the shift from single-core to dual/quad-core CPU's...

What a lot of people have failed to realise, is that a Dual-core does not necessarily = faster than single-core...

A good example of this was when I first got my Dual Core CPU.... Mike and his Single Core P4 3.0 GHz machine ran FSX better than my flash new (at the time) Core2Duo E6400... despite my CPU being 2 generations newer than his!

The (over)simple reason was his CPU was 3.0GHz and mine was only 2.16GHz... (putting aside architecture improvements ie. smaller manufacturing process 90nm vs. 65nm, bigger cache etc). I'm fairly sure my dual monitors didn't help matters either...

You see, the individual core's on a Dual Core Machine tend to have a slower clock speed than the single core machines... but by putting two of them together you 'double the speed' (a simple explanation that is not exactly true, and only when actually using both cores etc.)...

So for guys who are running single core P4's in the 3GHz+ Range... with older GPU's with smaller mem (ie 128 or 256megs), you might find sticking with the old CPU and upgrading the GPU = big increase in visuals and performance... as opposed to getting a new CPU, unless you're stepping up to the top end of the CPU range...

FSX is a tricky one, as there is no 'magic bullet'... it really does require the right combination of CPU, GPU, RAM etc...



I think it is a conspiracy between Mobo, RAM, CPU & GPU manufacturers and Microsoft!!

[pilotgallagher01]

Yes and No, People sometimes think if they have a Intel Core 2 Duo 2GHZ that it may be faster than a P4 3.GHZ, Some case yes and others no. Core 2 Duo dosn't really mean u add two 2GHZ CPus together which =4GHZ. But they are faster for there GHZ and newer tech. A 3GHZ core 2 Duo will waste a 3GHZ P4 though. Quad core is sorta the same. A E8400 GHZ Core 2 Duo overclocked to 4GHZ will easily beat a Quad Core 2.5GHZ though.

Hope all makes sense and get clear to all, Pentium 4/D are old tech guys, Ok some chea deals for them and eys they will run quite nice. But they are old and its the end of 2008, Core 2 Duo/Core 2 Quad is the latest. SO if your going buy a new CPU go for those ones.