Buying Graphics Card... 8800 GTS?

I'd really recommend the X1950Pro, and its not because I'm an ATI fanboi...

But it all depends on what Dell may offer you. I'm not sure about their warranty rules, but changing parts may void your warranty, and after-sales service may also be affected. These may not apply to the XPS line though, cos they're trying to lure enthusiasts to this line, and we do alot of crazy things on our comps, changing parts is probably the least of their worries

Thanks

Yeah thanks man, but it wont need a better PSU will it ? and how much 'mb' does it come with? and i should get 512mb +

Erm anymore advice??

Do not buy from Dell!!! If you have to buy check out Alienware HERE.

I don't rank Dell very high, but I'd probably rank Alienware lower. Talk about a price premium... you might as well be buying a Mac.

Dell and Alienware are basically the same. And Dell's XPS line is top-notch (never mind their others, they're a waste) so it's not all that bad. Alienware has infinitely bloated prices so if you're getting a PC from them, you're either not willing to build one yourself or you have a lot of cash to throw around and you're feeling lazy.

I just love people who screams out something, and have nothing to support their views.

Fanboi.

As for the video card, there are 256MB and 512MB of the X1950PRO available. Memory size in video cards only makes a difference in texture loading, where in games such as Oblivion and Company of Heroes, most of the textures will be loaded into the video card's memory instead of the RAM, making areas load faster. So you will only see around a 5% increase in performance with a 512MB card.

Thanks

Thanks Rage and everyone else thats helped

Cleared things up about how memory size on graphics cards affect it, thanks for that. And im currently satisfied with DELL, there computer have never let me down although Alienware maybe so much better DELL imo is still a fairly decent make. I cannot afford an alienware computer, and its my aprents who are buying the computer and they wouldnt buy all the different parts because they would doubt they i could put it together and they wouldnt trust me lol. And alienware is out of the budget.

Thanks again, should be buying new computer in the next couple of months and will probably buy the ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 256/512MB depending on price.

I vote an eVGA e-GeForce 7900 GS.

Reviews have showed the X1950Pro outperforms the 7900GS, although it is a pretty slight margin.

Or I might be confusing myself with the 7600GS. Either way, I'm getting a computer within a week, and I'm getting the X1950Pro. I'm not just giving advice here, I'm actually following it.

Yeah

According to some benchmarks, apparently there is a problem with the ATI x1950 pro, i think if its a dual cpu or something its better to buy 7900 GS SLI.

If i bought the 8800GTS 320MB i would have to upgrade my PSU? and how would i do that? Wouldnt the PSU on the computer be good enough?

The benchmarks for this card seem to be quite a bit better than the x1950 pro card, anyways anything about the PSU i can be enlightened on?

Your probably all thinking make up your mind but this graphics card has to last a long while, and this card is a DX10 card (as you know), and although no DX10 games are available at the moment it will be useful when they're are.

Thanks.

The 8800GTS has the most powerful GPU out there today, the G80 from NVIDIA. It will blow away any card, barring its big brother the 8800GTX. And you would need a much heavier PSU upgrade for the 8800 series than you would need for the X1950PRO since it sucks more power and I doubt the PSU on ur current PC would be enough for either. The problem with the X1950PRO that you are talking about would be if you use two of them in Crossfire. ATi hasn't completely ironed out problems with Crossfire yet so there are performance issues with some games. But if you need something to play DX10 games as well, the 8800GTS is the way to go. Just make sure you get at least a 500W+ good-quality PSU to be in the safe zone. Good, reliable PSU makers include (but not limited to) Antec, FSP Fortron, Thermaltake, OCZ, CoolerMaster and Enermax.

DX10 games probably are overrated at the moment, DX9 hasn't even been used to its full potential yet. You'd be looking at at least a year before DX10 cards are really needed.

But if you're set for the 8800gts, by all means, its a pretty good value for money card. If I had an extra 200 bux, I'd have put it there.

But yes, you'd need another PSU or something to power that up.


My personal take on Dual GPU systems: Not good value. Unless you're thinking on inserting one as an upgrade. Buying 2 to put in there brand new would not be cost effective. You get the show-off factor tho.

Yeah

I looked at some benchmarks, and scanned through it overall looking like X1950 Pro was better compared to 7900GS SLI but apparently the X1950 has some problem with it be slow.

I was going back to the 8800GTS 320MB gfx card, would i need a better PSU for this? i looked at benchmarks for this and its really good, if i do need a better PSU wouldnt it depend on the DELL computer i buy??? and would it cost a lot if i needed to???

Thanks.

Well, as far as I know, Dell computers (not including their top end XPS line) generally ship with less than adequate PSUs. If you're talking about replacing your graphics card with something thats of similar power, sure, you can just pop it in without worrying a thing.

But here, you're talking about the 2nd biggest graphics card out there at the moment. And unlike the biggest CPU range out there, these are pretty much power hogs where graphics cards are concerned. My bet would be that you'd need a new PSU to run an 8800GTS without problems. I'd sleep better too.

A new PSU that'll perform pretty well sould set you back about 100-150 bux. Shouldn't need to look into anything above 600W. I'd recommend something at least 500W, but that might be cutting it abit low.

I'm building a new comp, and I'll be getting myself an Antec TP3 650W, and I'm pretty sure that should cover an 8800gtx if I needed to upgrade.

No because if you bought a mac, you would get one of the best operating systems in the world.

But Dell or Alienware, they're both horrible. If I wanted to spend way too much on a PC I would at least get a Falcon Northwest.

I wouldn't say a MAC is the best operating system in the world, but something like this can be debated till the cows come home.

About which company you're gonna buy from, I think all 3 (with Dell specifically just their XPS line) should be pretty good. Either way, you're spending alot more than what you get for your system, but you've already said that you're not allowed to build it yourself, which is a shame.

Or maybe you can wait for the Commodore gaming PC to come along...

dell bought alienware fyi...

Anyway, You could look at the 8800gts with 320mb instead of 640mb of ram. The performance drop isn't that big and it gets you a really nice card for about
$300.

Never had alienware in Australia, I just know its a pretty well known brand....

Btw, does Dell even offer the 8800gts as an upgrade?