Upgrading your videocard for this game? Read on....

[JG27_Arklight]

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2895

Good article at anandtech about the performance of various videocards with Vegas.

Hope this helps anybody out there considering upgrading their videocard.<div class="ev_tpc_signature">

Ark
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"My parents told me I could be anything I wanted when I grew up, so I became an a**hole" - An unnamed 82nd Airborne Soldier

[RLCSeMPeRFi]

Seems like alot of money to drop on a card when dx10 is right around the corner. You can get a sm3 card that will play Vegas very well for around $100 then get you a sweet dx10 card next year.<div class="ev_tpc_signature">

http://www.RaVeNLaNCLaN.com
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[JG27_Arklight]

Originally posted by RLCSeMPeRFi:
Seems like alot of money to drop on a card when dx10 is right around the corner. You can get a sm3 card that will play Vegas very well for around $100 then get you a sweet dx10 card next year.

I agree.

Buying a really expensive card right now doesn't make a whole lot of sense with DX10 around the corner (though it may be a little further off then some think since it may not be in Vista right away).<div class="ev_tpc_signature">

Ark
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"My parents told me I could be anything I wanted when I grew up, so I became an a**hole" - An unnamed 82nd Airborne Soldier

[v2k4]

I wouldnt read into this article that much

I get about 10 more fps than this article suggests on a 7300GT 800x600 on low quality

Athlon 64 3200+ @ 2272
256MB 7300GT @ 430/845
1024MB DDR 400

i get from 25 - 40 fps. mostly 28 - 33. 800x600 low quality

And thats from a slower CPU and RAM apparently.

but to add to this. I would heavily suggest getting a far better card than i have and possibly wait for patches.<div class="ev_tpc_signature">

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Mobo: AsRock 939Dual-SATA2
CPU: Athlon 64 3200+ @ 2272MHz
RAM: 1024MB DDR 400 RAM
Graphics: Nvidia 256MB Geforce 7300GT @ 425/845
Audio: SB Audigy
Hard Drive: 160GB SATA2 HDD
Hard Drive: 80GB IDE HDD
Hard Drive: 12GB IDE HDD
OS: Windows XP Professional x64 Edition

[Teriander]

Direct X 10 cards are already out. Geforce 8 series cards.<div class="ev_tpc_signature">

"Always bring more ammunition than food. You can always take food from the guys you just killed." - Buff

[RLCSeMPeRFi]

Yes but nothing supports dx10 or sm4 as of yet. Unless you're a hardcore enthusiast there really isn't a need for a G80 card right now. Wait a few months 'till the prices start to drop.<div class="ev_tpc_signature">

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[JG27_Arklight]

Originally posted by RLCSeMPeRFi:
Yes but nothing supports dx10 or sm4 as of yet. Unless you're a hardcore enthusiast there really isn't a need for a G80 card right now. Wait a few months 'till the prices start to drop.

Yep.

IIRC, Nvidia is also already working on a new set of cards with the 45nm process, and ATI is going to be set to release their new series of cards fairly soon as well.<div class="ev_tpc_signature">

Ark
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"My parents told me I could be anything I wanted when I grew up, so I became an a**hole" - An unnamed 82nd Airborne Soldier

[prostreetcamaro]

Originally posted by RLCSeMPeRFi:
Yes but nothing supports dx10 or sm4 as of yet. Unless you're a hardcore enthusiast there really isn't a need for a G80 card right now. Wait a few months 'till the prices start to drop.

Apparently you dont mind running this game at lower resolutions with lower quality settings then huh?

Personaly I enjoy this game at 1680X1050 with everything maxed out and no lag what so ever. Never ever drops under 45fps and the average is 60+.

[JG27_Arklight]

Originally posted by prostreetcamaro:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by RLCSeMPeRFi:
Yes but nothing supports dx10 or sm4 as of yet. Unless you're a hardcore enthusiast there really isn't a need for a G80 card right now. Wait a few months 'till the prices start to drop.

Apparently you dont mind running this game at lower resolutions with lower quality settings then huh?

Personaly I enjoy this game at 1680X1050 with everything maxed out and no lag what so ever. Never ever drops under 45fps and the average is 60+. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>


He is saying that the card can't really be used for what it was intended for, so why buy one now when it will be cheaper in a few months.

Sure, it can run most things out currently at high settings at high res., but at what cost? In a few months, I'm guessing the G80 series will drop quite a bit in price with the release of the next series of products (which is true in any tech scenerio), therefore it may not be the best idea to purchase one "right now". The games it can currently run great aren't going anywhere, so why run out and buy one right before the next evolution?<div class="ev_tpc_signature">

Ark
-----------------------------
"My parents told me I could be anything I wanted when I grew up, so I became an a**hole" - An unnamed 82nd Airborne Soldier

[FI_FlimFlam]

Not to mention that the move to the 45nm process will produce smaller cards with less heat problems and less power requirements. We saw this happen with the 6000 and 7000 series (the reduction of heat and power requirement). It will also happen with the 8000 series as well.

One of the things that some people fail to keep in mind when moving to the 8800 is that they are power hogs. The GTX can peak at over 500 watts (ref Toms Hardware review). That means no only might you have to shell out $500+ for the card but possibly at least another 100-200 for a new power supply if your's isn't at at least a 650 watt rated (most sites are recommending higher wattages PSU).

I have been holding off as well. I purchased 2 7600GS cards to run in sli for approx 120.00 about 3 months ago until at least the 2nd generation of Dx10 cards hit.

Save your money and wait IMO. If you HAVE to have something to tide you over and you have an SLI mobo get a couple of 7600's and save a ton of money until they get the kinks worked out.

[bent_scissors]

Well, I would say this...if you really play this game a lot, then,the 8800 gtx might be a good investment because it is a lot smoother than anything else out there, and the way I look at it, your depriving yourself for 4 months to save 100.00 on the card...is it worth it when "vegas" screams to be played with this card?...great game by the way ..I've put "Gears of War" aside cause GOW on xbox can't match PC- vegas on an 8800!!! Beeeeutiful!!!

[prostreetcamaro]

Originally posted by FI_FlimFlam:
Not to mention that the move to the 45nm process will produce smaller cards with less heat problems and less power requirements. We saw this happen with the 6000 and 7000 series (the reduction of heat and power requirement). It will also happen with the 8000 series as well.

One of the things that some people fail to keep in mind when moving to the 8800 is that they are power hogs. The GTX can peak at over 500 watts (ref Toms Hardware review). That means no only might you have to shell out $500+ for the card but possibly at least another 100-200 for a new power supply if your's isn't at at least a 650 watt rated (most sites are recommending higher wattages PSU).

I have been holding off as well. I purchased 2 7600GS cards to run in sli for approx 120.00 about 3 months ago until at least the 2nd generation of Dx10 cards hit.

Save your money and wait IMO. If you HAVE to have something to tide you over and you have an SLI mobo get a couple of 7600's and save a ton of money until they get the kinks worked out.


WRONG the 8800GTX doesnt use any where near that much power. I am trying to find the real specs for you so I will post that later. Anyway my friend has a E6600 clocked at 3.4 on a EVGA 680i board, 8800GTX, 2 optical drives, 2 250GB SATA2 drives in raid 0, many case fans and so on and it runs perfectly fine with his 550watt Antec NEO psu. If just 1 8800GTX required that much power then his computer would be completely unstable with his overclock and its not. He scores 11,120 in 3DMark06, can run dual prime 24/7 and it doesnt produce any more heat than any other video card out there.

There are alot of false statements about the 8800 cards and most of them started before the card was ever released. They were all speculation and nvidia put the hammer down with a super card. Sure there will be a smaller die process eventually. Thats the way technology works. When that is released there will already be something else thats only a couple months away that you should wait for instead. Its a never ending battle and if somebodys system is chokeing I say dont wait just get it now because no matter how long you wait your stuff will be outdated in 6 months anyway.

[Legion27]

Originally posted by prostreetcamaro:
Its a never ending battle and if somebodys system is chokeing I say dont wait just get it now because no matter how long you wait your stuff will be outdated in 6 months anyway.

What Flimflam and a couple other are saying isn't that the card is going to be outdated in a few months, they are saying why spend through the nose to get a card that isn't fully utilized yet. Why spend 400-500 dollars on a card that can't even be fully utilized yet? It isn't that 6 months from now it will be outdated. It is the exact opposite. It is that 6 months from now the card will be a couple hundred dollars cheaper and you can then buy it and use it with games that will actually be able to take advantage of some of its features. Paying 400 dollars just for performance is crazy. There are a lot of ways you can get performance out of a card. Not to mention with R6V, it is hit or miss as to whether or not you will get good performance with your system. Some people have GeForce 8800's and are having issues with R6V.

[KungFu_CIA]

My two cents:

I am going to upgrade to PC-E and a Conroe chip very shortly. I've estimated the cost to be around $790-825 depending on the components I choose and the ones I already have (monitor; DVD drive; etc.)

In my case, I would rather spend the money stepping up to PCI-E and Dual Core and get something like the 7950GT 512 MB DDR3 PCI-E card for around $230 (included in my system upgrade estimate) and be able to play almost everything on the market right now including Vegas with high detail settings and reasonable frame rates.

This is just my personal opinion, but I am also going by what others have said and that is wait for the DX 10 and Vista hardware to come down and see what else is in the pipe from both Nvidia and ATI and then upgrade just that one (or two for SLi/Crossfire) component which will be a much cheaper upgrade in the long run if you can time it right.

[bent_scissors]

don't forget that ram for a dual core is ddr2 and will run you 2- 3 hundred... I would say at this time, it makes sense to let ATI release its r600 and nvidia to counter with an 8800 upgrade which all should be before 2k7 is released but it would seem that an 8800 or better is required for optimum performance with lots of visuals to play the Unreal 3 engine

[tkim86]

70+ FPS on 1600x1200 maxed with an 8800 GTX? is that average frames? as soon as i enter an area that casts shadows, my fps drops by like 50% from where it was. if theres like 5 or 6 other people in the room with me all casting shadows, i drop to 25 fps and gets really choppy...

[Yen Lo]

In addition to Vista/Dx10 right around the corner, PCI-E 2 and DDR3 ram, I believe are due out this summer. Iam not sure how much faster the fsb and such will be, but for me cheaper now is better later. Then again theres alot of folks for who money dosent matter, more power to them.<div class="ev_tpc_signature">

Where Life had no meaning, death sometimes, had it's price. That is why the Bounty Hunters appeared.
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[bent_scissors]

Originally posted by JG27_Arklight:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by prostreetcamaro:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by RLCSeMPeRFi:
Yes but nothing supports dx10 or sm4 as of yet. Unless you're a hardcore enthusiast there really isn't a need for a G80 card right now. Wait a few months 'till the prices start to drop.

Apparently you dont mind running this game at lower resolutions with lower quality settings then huh?

Personaly I enjoy this game at 1680X1050 with everything maxed out and no lag what so ever. Never ever drops under 45fps and the average is 60+. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>


He is saying that the card can't really be used for what it was intended for, so why buy one now when it will be cheaper in a few months.

Sure, it can run most things out currently at high settings at high res., but at what cost? In a few months, I'm guessing the G80 series will drop quite a bit in price with the release of the next series of products (which is true in any tech scenerio), therefore it may not be the best idea to purchase one "right now". The games it can currently run great aren't going anywhere, so why run out and buy one right before the next evolution? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
It's very doubtful that nvidia's counter to the ATI r 600 release will be a major improvement on the 8800 gtx and unless the R600 leaves the 8800 series in the dust, a major price drop is highly unlikely for quite awhile...that's why I say spend an extra 100 now and give yourself the advantage