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| Dorling |
  Posted 19th Sep 2006 10:41pm |
L4Y Member
Post 96 / 97
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Yeh, I'm buying an Alienware Aurora m9700 System. I can't stretch out for the extreme Dual 512MB card stuff no way. I'm going for a single card with 1GB memory. What I'm working out is whether it's better to go for a 1440 x 900 or 1920 x 1200 with the specs that I desire. Will one mak it slower overall? Please help. |
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Garner  |
Posted 19th Sep 2006 11:24pm |  |
Post 2485 / 4125
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To be perfectly honest a 256Mb card is pretty much all you need... 512Mb is good enough... heck I'm using a 6800 128Mb card and its handling all the current games just fine. Plays GRAW in 1280*1024 perfectly... and thats a game that screams for a speedy gonzales graphics card.
Memory on a GFX card isn't really all that much special if you ask me...
SLI/Crossfire helps.. sure... but isn't needed to play any game. Dual GFX cards are really only for people who absolutely must have the best graphics in the very latest games at the fastest framerates and will give their lifesavings to NVidia/ATI to do it.
Alternatively get a decent card now and spend what you saved by not buying the second one on a new card in 2-3 years time that will quite likely be more powerful than todays dual setups. Not to mention support pixel shader 4 or 5 or whatever we're on by then 
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"Science is this extraordinary transnational, transcultural, trans-everything language which is the only way to discover Truth and its regrettable that billions are still stuck in the Middle Ages believing the crap propagated by Popes and priests..."
- Peter Atkins |
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| Garner |
Posted 19th Sep 2006 11:25pm | |
Post 2486 / 4125
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Oooh forgot... you've gotta be a bit silly to be buying a graphics card now anyway.
DirectX 10 is just around the corner with Vista poised for release. Current cards are only DX9 compliant... if you're looking at spending $XXX on a graphics card you'll probably want it to last longer than 6 months before DX10 games start hitting the market eh? |
"Science is this extraordinary transnational, transcultural, trans-everything language which is the only way to discover Truth and its regrettable that billions are still stuck in the Middle Ages believing the crap propagated by Popes and priests..."
- Peter Atkins |
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| DVL_IAC |
Posted 19th Sep 2006 11:39pm | |
L4Y Member
Post 1009 / 1417
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| Quoting Dorling | | Yeh, I'm buying an Alienware Aurora m9700 System. I can't stretch out for the extreme Dual 512MB card stuff no way. I'm going for a single card with 1GB memory. What I'm working out is whether it's better to go for a 1440 x 900 or 1920 x 1200 with the specs that I desire. Will one mak it slower overall? Please help. |
The 1440x900 would probably run better in games but the 1920x1200 would probably look better in games but might not run as smooth. I'm guessing they would both be pretty close though because 1920x1200 is only 480x300 bigger then 1440x900 which really isn't much. |
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sobe  |
Posted 20th Sep 2006 7:51am |
Post 1967 / 3194
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Yes, what Garner stated was correct about the memory on a video card. It's honestly pointless now days though... Someone pops up with a GeForce 6200 256MB and says it's faster than a GeForce 6800GT 128MB  I thought THAT was funny.
But yea, I'm using a 6600GT with 128MB RAM that runs ALL the latest games on my system fine, including F.E.A.R, BattleField 2, etc.
And about DX10 vid cards, I thought about this. Once DX10 cards hit the market, I'm sure they are probably going to be more expensive than average card prices. I myself am waiting for the release of these cards, in hopes that DX9 cards will go down in price. I am looking at a 7900GT or 7950GT atm.
P.S.
Don't go AlienWare The company I highly recommend is Falcon NorthWest.
http://www.falcon-nw.com/
Quality stuffz ^_^
Btw, AlienWare ARE good computers, but if your going to buy a pricey prebuilt, I'd say go for Falcon NW. |
| "Apparently, Plaintiff believes that he could sue an egg company for fraud for labeling a carton of 12 eggs a dozen, because some bakers would view a dozen as including 13 items." - Western Digital 2006 |
Modified Sep 20th, 07:53am by sobe |
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| Dorling |
Posted 20th Sep 2006 4:14pm |
L4Y Member
Post 97 / 97
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Ok that's cool. But does anyone know when DX10 is due for release? Will the market be focusing on releasing games compatible for it and will games still be made for 9? |
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| Garner |
Posted 20th Sep 2006 7:09pm | |
Post 2487 / 4125
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Sobe - DX10 cards will be exactly the same as other new card releases... its just the next gen cards as normal. I seriously doubt it'll push prices down that far on DX9 cards.
Once DX10 is out, expect a transition period of a couple years where DX9 games currently in development are released.. especially for the first year after DX10 is out.
There are games in development however that are already stating DX10 release next year. The highest profile of those probably being Halo 2 on the PC.
A DX9 card will still run a DX10 game (probably?) but it'll just ignore anything it wont understand... just the same as a DX8 card with DX9 games... it'll run it... but not nearly as well.
I've got a 6200 256Mb in my machine at work. Its absolutely pathetic at any decent game, CSS is quite playable but a bit jerky. GRAW... well... forget it. Memory means nothing if the card doesn't have the horsepower to use it effectively. A budget graphics card isn't worth the circuit board its bolted to. |
"Science is this extraordinary transnational, transcultural, trans-everything language which is the only way to discover Truth and its regrettable that billions are still stuck in the Middle Ages believing the crap propagated by Popes and priests..."
- Peter Atkins |
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| cyrus5 |
Posted 20th Sep 2006 7:54pm |
[CP] Director
L4Y Member
Post 224 / 241
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The issue with ram on GFX cards is a delicate one. Its less of a problem now since development in memory bus technology has slowed down a little, but it used to be a git.
What you want is the card with the widest bus. ie 128bit interface vs 256bit, the 256bit is going to be faster, regardless of ram size. If you examine the cheaper cards in more detail, you find that the memory interface is smaller.
The other problem is latency of the ram vs the clock rate. If they are not matched nicely, you will end up with a higher rate of cache misses and stalls. <-- you dont really need to worry too much, most clock rates are well tuned on gfx cards, it is all set by the card designers. Its more of a problem for your general cpu and ram as you are the one picking and setting it up.
1gb of vram is not going to be very useful for a while yet, most people dont even have that much normal ram in their pc, and no console does [yet], ps3 and xbox 360 are going to drive the game requirements for most games for the forseeable future, so you really dont need more than double what they have. by the time the next wave of consoles come out, your pc will be obsolete anyway.
DX10 is out with vista. You will need vista to play halo 2 or 3 or whatever they are on now. This is microsoft being twits, in reallity most games will not be so restrictive.
The biggest addition to dx10 is the new shader architecture, and cards with unified shader engines are slowly reaching market (my company, PowerVR, is producing one for the mobile market, our PowerVR SGX chip). In short, games will be using these features very soon, you want to wait for dx10 cards at the moment. If you need your pc now, dont spend loads on the card, get a reasonable one, and ebay it later, jsut make sure your pc is ready for the upgrade (SLI ready if you want to go that way).
You can never safely future proof a pc, but if you give it some thought, line it up with release of new OS's (vista) and new consoles (PS3/xbox), this will give you the longest life based on the games you will be playing. Processors change (and devalue) too rapidly to warrant getting the 'current top model', so dont even think about making that the priority, the difference in performance is nothing like the difference in price.
Long one, but hope it helps. |
Only the dead have seen the end of war - Plato
I think it would be a good idea. - Mahatma Gandhi, when asked what he thought of Western civilisation.
cyrus5.co.uk! |
Modified Sep 20th, 08:02pm by cyrus5 |
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| sobe |
Posted 21st Sep 2006 8:29am |
Post 1970 / 3194
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Yes, I also say that you should upgrade every 3-5years. |
| "Apparently, Plaintiff believes that he could sue an egg company for fraud for labeling a carton of 12 eggs a dozen, because some bakers would view a dozen as including 13 items." - Western Digital 2006 |
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| DVL_IAC |
Posted 21st Sep 2006 9:25pm | |
L4Y Member
Post 1010 / 1417
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| Quoting sobe |
P.S.
Don't go AlienWare The company I highly recommend is Falcon NorthWest.
http://www.falcon-nw.com/
Quality stuffz ^_^
Btw, AlienWare ARE good computers, but if your going to buy a pricey prebuilt, I'd say go for Falcon NW. |
Don't get Falcon Northwest. Stick with the Alienware. Aliens are cooler then falcons! Who wants a bird when you could have an alien? |
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| sobe |
Posted 21st Sep 2006 10:56pm |
Post 1972 / 3194
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Falcon North-West is better recommended |
| "Apparently, Plaintiff believes that he could sue an egg company for fraud for labeling a carton of 12 eggs a dozen, because some bakers would view a dozen as including 13 items." - Western Digital 2006 |
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| DVL_IAC |
Posted 22nd Sep 2006 2:18am | |
L4Y Member
Post 1011 / 1417
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I dont know what "better recommended" means but Alienwares have cooler cases. |
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| sobe |
Posted 22nd Sep 2006 2:32am |
Post 1974 / 3194
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... Do I have to argue this out to the death
Falcon North-West do custom spray painted cases Look more into it, rather than trying to kill it! lol
Btw, the custom designs for their cases, are teh uber awesome! |
| "Apparently, Plaintiff believes that he could sue an egg company for fraud for labeling a carton of 12 eggs a dozen, because some bakers would view a dozen as including 13 items." - Western Digital 2006 |
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| Schuy01 |
Posted 22nd Sep 2006 2:39am |
L4Y Member
Post 116 / 245
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I'd rather have a nice and sturdy case with a custom paint, than a case that gets its looks from molded plastic.  |
◄ "Si vis pacem, para bellum!" - Flavius Vegetius Renatus ►
My current project! |
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| DVL_IAC |
Posted 22nd Sep 2006 3:18am | |
L4Y Member
Post 1012 / 1417
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The plastic is just a covering. There's a metal case under it. But its super strong plastic, I use my comp as a seat sometimes or stand on it and it can hold my weight fine. I rather the molded case because If you get a spray painted pic from a game, in a year or 2 the game will be outdated and so will your case. But aliens never get out dated... until we finally meet up with them and see there nothing special and no one cares about them any more. |
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| sobe |
Posted 22nd Sep 2006 3:49am |
Post 1975 / 3194
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From a game.... CENSORED ?!
Falcon NW do all types of custom paint jobs... You can request one for a game, yes, but it can be anything from fire around the case to a character you like.. And OMG at the sweetness of the custom paint, makes you just want to drool. |
| "Apparently, Plaintiff believes that he could sue an egg company for fraud for labeling a carton of 12 eggs a dozen, because some bakers would view a dozen as including 13 items." - Western Digital 2006 |
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