Graphics card upgrade time

[graham@edinburgh]

Anyone got any recommendations?

SLI wouldn't be a bad idea as I now have three monitors so if I can get 4 DVI outputs, that'd be great.

Otherwise AGP + PCI would be the order of the day.

Current nForce3 motherbard is not PCI-E, just "regular" PCI. Would prefer to avoid upgrading it really just because it's a faff, but will do so if it's worthwhile to get a particular "must get" vid card.

Currently running a GF 6800 GT which is ok, but if I want to get all 3 displays running it might be an idea to upgrade the lot anyway.

[FourWheelDrift]

I upgraded my AGP from a Nvidia 6600 card not too long ago. Bought a Gainward 7800GS Nvidia card (512mb).

www.gainward.net/products/product.php?products_id=48

Performance has been brilliant. I'd recommend this or any other Gainward card


Plus if you buy one you get a choice of free game from here - www.gainwardgamingzone.com

Edited by FourWheelDrift on Friday 22 December 12:27

[graham@edinburgh]

Can you get one in PCI(E) as well? As I'd be wanting to pair up for the multiple displays.

For anyone's reference for motherboards (which I'll probably need to upgrade too), requirements are SATA and AMD :



Can't remember the type of chip though - 7xx or summat?

Oh and DDR, not DDR2

Edited by graham@edinburgh on Friday 22 December 12:46

[graham@edinburgh]

Actually, forget all that - gonna upgrade the whole shebang

[FourWheelDrift]

You can get AGP or PCI-E versions.

[Rednut05]

It's worth getting PCI-express as AGP is a dying technology.

New Athlons (duel cores) use DDR2 and Intel's use DDR2 RAM as well I think.

As you do photography, you may want duel core as its become the standard, thinking along the lines of Photoshop open with other processes running.

SLI is Nvidia and Crossfire is ATI. Same thing, different brand. Both cards have to be the same, but I think there is some exception but as a general, majority rule.

Most new cards, good ones have 2 DVI outputs so 3 monitors and an SLI or a Xfire setup should be just dandy.

[Zod]

graham@edinburgh said:

Anyone got any recommendations?

SLI wouldn't be a bad idea as I now have three monitors so if I can get 4 DVI outputs, that'd be great.

Otherwise AGP + PCI would be the order of the day.

Current nForce3 motherbard is not PCI-E, just "regular" PCI. Would prefer to avoid upgrading it really just because it's a faff, but will do so if it's worthwhile to get a particular "must get" vid card.

Currently running a GF 6800 GT which is ok, but if I want to get all 3 displays running it might be an idea to upgrade the lot anyway.

SLI has nothing to do with mulitple monitors. It's running two or more cards in parallel for more procesing powere. Two cards could run four monitors, but not in SLI. SLI is single monitor.

SLI is academic for you anyway as it requires a motherboard with two CI-E slots. You don't have any.

If you are not upgrading the motherboard, you are stuck with AGP. PCI cards are hard to find nowadays, but they do exist if you look hard enough. If you want to game, the fastest AGP cards are the nvidia 7800GS and the ATI X1950. If you are not planning on gamin, you can get slower cards that will run two monitors. Almost all modern cards will do so.

If you want the latest and greatest (it is seriously fast), the nvidia 8800 series, you will have to upgrade motherboard, processor and RAM too.

[spenny_b]

I just bought an MSI 7900GTO card from Scan for my new 'rig....cracking card, as the text in the URL below says, it's really a throttled-back 7900GTX (one of the fastest DirectX v9 cards before DirX v10 generation cards started coming along), but can easily be overclocked to GTX speeds should you need it. (It's just the RAM thats clocked-back).

I got mine for £161 +VAT & Del...look to have gone up again now, but worth keeping an eye on. It cetainly posts some good 3DMark06 benchmark results in stock form

www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=465758

Tis a PCI-E card though...just go the whole hog, buy a new Mobo, you know it makes sense, its Xmas after all!

[FunkyNige]

This may be a bit cheeky to ask but if anyone's getting rid of an AGP card around the £50 mark and can't be bothered with the hassle of eBay I may be interested as mine has just died a horrible death.
I'm not that bothered about what make/model it is, being better than a 128MB 9600 pro would be a bonus

[mr_yogi]

FunkyNige said:

...anyone getting rid of an AGP card around the £50 mark...

Or you could try THIS

Edited by mr_yogi on Wednesday 27th December 15:14