Which card is better?

[DJ Dodgy]

I have a Sapphire ATI Radeon X800XL 256MB (AGP).

Would a Nvidia GeForce 7600 GS 512MB (PCI) perform just as well, or is it at least as good as/similar.

Im not sure if the Nvidia is modded or not.

Thanks, DJ.

 

[TimeParadoX]

well are you AGP or PCI?

 

[DJ Dodgy]

well my old computer that broke was the ATI AGP. The new PC im getting is the PCI nvidia. Are they roughly the same?

 

[wolfram]

You have to be talking about a PCI-Express Nvidia card. There aren't any 7600gs video cards using the ancient PCI bus.

And I think that the X800XL has to be better than the 7600gs. It's an older generation card, but it's still quite fast. At least faster than the 7600gs

 

[TimeParadoX]

Yeah also it depends on what kind of gaming you want to do, more modern games today like F.E.A.R and BF2 need Pixel Shader 2.0 and Vertex Shader 2.0 or better ( if there is better ) to run with a good performance, my PCI card right now has 1.4 pixel and 1.1 vertex I think and I can still play some games like WoW and BF2 but on very low settings

 

[wolfram]

More modern games today like F.E.A.R and BF2 need Pixel Shader 2.0 and Vertex Shader 2.0 or better ( if there is better ) to run with a good performance, my PCI card right now has 1.4 pixel and 1.1 vertex I think and I can still play some games like WoW and BF2 but on very low settings

The first thing, there a newer version, called Shader Model 3 (pixel and shader 3.0) , and the newest PCI cards, like the ATI X1300 and the Geforce 6200 support SM3

 

[TimeParadoX]

oh really? I got Radeon 9250 right now.. it's pretty good but I want to upgrade my system to PCI-E and get Nvidia 6800 or better

 

[wolfram]

Yes, that 9250 supports SM 2.0, and it's Direct X 9 (or maybe 8.1, can't remember )

 

[DJ Dodgy]

but would the nvidia still run games smooth? Does the 512 MB memory improve frame rates over the ATI?

 

[wolfram]

Only if you play at really high resolutions, with tons of antialiasing, and anisotropic filtering, but I highly doubt that a 7600GS can do that.

 

[TimeParadoX]

so RAM affects how you can play ( graphics )?

 

[DJ Dodgy]

OK so in a nutshell will the 7600 GS run games like Call of Duty, broken sword 4, dawn of war at 1440X900 with no AA/AF without any noticeable lag?

Thanks for your replys, DJ.

 

[wolfram]

It will lag, because that's a high resolution, they MIGHT be playable, but it really depends on your other system components, like CPU, RAM, Chipset, etc.

so RAM affects how you can play ( graphics )?

Yes, a lot

 

[TimeParadoX]

Ok =P I got 512mb ram ( which I think most computers have ) and I can run games ok with little lag but Im thinking of building my own PC with 1gig ram and a PCI-E bus

 

[DJ Dodgy]

CPU: Intel® Pentium® D Processor 915 Dual core
Chipset: Intel® 945P express chipset
1 GB RAM

Whats more the bottle neck, the RAM? I could always upgrade to 2 GB.

 

[wolfram]

You have a pretty good PC. 1GB RAM is more than enough, but if you want Windows Vista, and those fancy Aero effects, better get 2 GB.

 

[TimeParadoX]

Personaly im not getting vista till it's required to do anything and after they have better security.. That's right I read the TechSpot frontpage! =P

 

[DJ Dodgy]

Im glad to hear its good!, im not quite up on what the numbers mean :S

Ok my final question. Heres my old comps specs: unsure about chipset

AMD Athlon 64 3400+
Radeon X800XL 256 MB
1 GB RAM

New comp:

CPU: Intel® Pentium® D Processor 915 Dual core
Chipset: Intel® 945P express chipset
GeForce 7600 GS 512 MB
1 GB RAM


Will this new comp run games at least nearly as good as the old one?

Many thanks again, DJ.

 

[TimeParadoX]

Nice, so did your new computer come with the videocard? or did you buy it along with it?

 

[DJ Dodgy]

It comes with it. Well, I suppose I'll have to upgrade it if it dosent perform well.

 

[wolfram]

Im glad to hear its good!, im not quite up on what the numbers mean :S

Ok my final question. Heres my old comps specs: unsure about chipset

AMD Athlon 64 3400+
Radeon X800XL 256 MB
1 GB RAM

New comp:

CPU: Intel® Pentium® D Processor 915 Dual core
Chipset: Intel® 945P express chipset
GeForce 7600 GS 512 MB
1 GB RAM


Will this new comp run games at least nearly as good as the old one?

I'm afraid to say, but maybe your older computer will be faster... AMD processors are usually faster than Pentiums... Even if the Pentium D is dual core, in most games, the Athlon PC will be faster. Faster videocard, faster CPU...

 

[TimeParadoX]

Nevermind Wolf explained it =P

 

[MetalX]

You have a pretty good PC. 1GB RAM is more than enough, but if you want Windows Vista, and those fancy Aero effects, better get 2 GB.

I have vista and 1GB and I don't have any problems at all with the aero effects... which IMHO aren't all that great.

 

[wolfram]

I have vista and 1GB and I don't have any problems at all with the aero effects... which IMHO aren't all that great.

Yeah, 1GB might be enough now... But maybe in 1, 2 years, 2GB will be the minimum. Remember what happened with XP. You could run it fine with 512MB, and now, you need at least 1 GB if you want to run it fast and smooth