The Official Graphics Card and PC gaming Thread

why avoid the rampage?

yes the EVGA classified is absolutely amazing made with the supervision of one of the worlds greatest overclockers, whoms name escapes me.

sam doesnt like EVGA though. but they make a fanstatic board.

 

Rubbix - dumping the DFI??

Although you DO say you are considering the H8 version, with full digital PWM. I remember you mentioning once that there was a big $150 AU price differential from h6 to h8, over there down under - at the bottom of the world - where you guys are upside down all the time (doesn't your blood go to your head?) but maybe prices have come down a bit.

As I recall, Sam did not have good luck with Gigabyte running system-stressing quad cf with dual X2 graphics cards, although that wasn't x58 - some of the x58 guys who had been successfully running dual X2 cards before Sam got hooked up with Shaff's mighty mobo - were, as reported on newegg reviews, running them on rampage extreme.

 

15% doa rate for the rampage or something? And apparently its not as good at overclocking as other cheaper boards. I used to have a 680i evga board, can't complain about it. Although I've heard the 3x sli x58 or whatever it's called is the first board they've actually made themselves (I think they used to be made by foxconn?)

yeah, i dont really care about the price difference anymore, just want something that works

 

where?

 

where as in where did i hear? i dont know, somewhere. its probably not that high but its out of my price range anyway 200 bucks more than anything else.

 

Well, the price isnt the issue, but I always like the best bang for the buck type of card that will be good for the next 6 months or so.

 

Agreed, an 8800GT to an HD4850 is a noticeable upgrade, but only just. It's not a lot of extra performance for the money, the HD4870 is a better bet. The GTS250 is a very good rival to the HD4850 and the GTX260 is reasonable to the HD4870, but the pricing is often slightly in ATI's favour, at least it is in the UK.
The MSI board looks good, as does the Biostar. I too have heard of issues with the new Rampage boards but thought I wouldn't mention it as one of the biggest Asus fanboys resides in this thread...
I merely don't like EVGA because if their X58 board is good, it's the first good board they've ever made.


Wolf: Price is seriously no issue? I doubt you really mean that. The best card for high-end use without costing silly money is the HD4870X2 for about £240 or $360. The MARS295 is £1000/$1500 ish and is faster, but not even as much as double, let alone quadruple, so you know, think carefully about that one

 

hehe, NEVER say anythign bad about ASUS infront of me! >8-[

LOL

 

Don't forget the 9800GTX/9800GTX+ which are also neck-and-neck with the HD4850 and the GTS250. For the right price the 9800GTX is still a potent card in most games and WILL beat out the HD4850 slightly in Nvidia games.

 

Hehe Sorry dude Well now it looks like I have to find someone in Aus that stocks the new MSI board, because I haven't seen it anywhere yet

That's kind of a contradictory statement? If price is no object, then you could get a card that will be good for a LOT more than 6 months. Did I miss something and there is a new round of cards coming out in 6 months?
It depends on what res you are gaming at I guess. If it's down the lower end of the scale the 9800GTX+ or a GTS250 would be fine, but if money doesn't really matter to you then get something like a GTX260 core 216, a GTX275, a radeon HD4870 or HD4890 - and then buy another one for sli/crossfire in 6 months or so.

 

I agree. For a truly noticeable upgrade you will need a GTX260 or an HD4870.

But I would also agree that at GTX275 would be most worth your money. They are fast as hell and go for a decent-ish price. I might have taken one if they had released it sooner than the HD4870. One of my fave Nvidia cards at the moment

 

The 9800GTX is not the right price point. They're usually still $130 or so, 40% more than the HD4850, which certainly outperforms the GTX, even if it is a close call between the GTX+ and the GTS250. Also remember a GTS250 and HD4850 can go in a single 6-pin PSU system, the 9800s can't.

The GTX275 is a very powerful card, I don't give it much higher regard than any of the other nvidia cards out there at the moment as it's very expensive compared to all the other single GPU cards out there.

 

This week's best buys:

XFX HD4870 512MB for £98:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/512M...R5-GPU-750MHz-800-Cores-2x-DL-DVI-I-HDTV-HDCP

XFX XXX OC HD4870 1GB for £120:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/155500

XFX HD4890 for £140:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1GB-...z-GDDR5-GPU-850MHz-Cores-800-2x-DL-DVI-I-HDTV

Asus GTX275 for £172:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/896M...z-GDDR3-GPU-633MHz-240-Cores-2x-DL-DVI-I-HDTV

XFX HD4870X2 for £241:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/2GB-...-750MHz-1600-Cores-CrossFire-2x-DL-DVI-I-HDTV

 

Boy, a guy just can't win LOL! GTA IV runs very well on Windows 7(probably due to DirectX 11). But Left 4 Dead runs best on XP. GTA IV is hitting some pretty low Frames at times, on windows XP. Ive seen it go as low at 17 Frames for an instant. Though it is QUITE the prick to install on windows 7!!! I can't wait til Windows 7 is more supported. It truly is the next successor. LOL, hope I didn't just hexx it. I have a way of hexxing things

 

Actually (although this obviously could be something to do with the fresh install) a friend of mines computer refused to play Last Remnant on Vista yet when he swapped to 7 it played no trouble at all.

I've never had anything refuse to work on 7 RC. And on the beta you'd find something dodgy send feedback and a few weeks later you'd try again and have no trouble.

 

I couldn't get uTorrent to work on the 7000 build a while back and haven't tried it since, but I presume whatever was wrong is fixed

Want to see what the public's response is about Windows 7, since it's only as demanding as Vista (some say even less - but it feels about the same to me) and hardware's moved on a huge amount in 3 years, so even rubbish PCs people blindly buy in PCWorld should manage it fairly well

 

One thing I would really like to see is the stripped back Netbook edition promised early in 7's lifespan.

 

I'd like to try GTA4 on Win7 because you need 8GB of RAM (about 6.7 to be precise) to run it properly on Vista, which obviously I don't have. I'm hoping 4 for Win7 might be sufficient. I doubt it really, but here's hoping

 

Left 4 Dead ran pretty good on Windows 7 last night I gave it another shot, and there were NO bugs! The tank was making me nuts on Expert! I swear he threw me 100Ft + at one point.

 

Actually Win 7 is a LOT less demanding than Vista. I have a friend running it on a 933MHz P3 with 384MB of RAM and a GeForce MX400. Runs smooth as butter...

GTA4 is a prick indeed. It runs alright in 7. OK-ish in XP, and crap in Vista...