A philosophical question

C

chaka8

n00b
Joined
Dec 14, 2007
Messages
5
Hi,

I have a kind of philosophical question for the experts here, although I assume that the answers will be skewed in one direction.

I’m an occasional player (being a dad and a grad student takes up most of my time…) so I’m not really hard core. For the last year I’ve been playing with a 6600le ($50-new) and it’s been fine for me (guess I’m not a pixel gourmet). I’ve played with it FEAR, Far Cry, Oblivion etc, and no problems.

Recently I’ve decided to upgrade and found a deal for a Foxconn 7600gt for $29 (zipzoomfly)!!!! (After a $40 rebate, I heard the stories about the Foxconn rebates, but I’m optimistic).

Now, I think that the 7600gt will work perfectly well for me for at least the next year of so.

So to my question, if I’m not a game connoisseur, why would I invest over $200 in the latest card + $50 for a new power source, when I can buy a perfectly good (?) card for $30. Am I totally off base here? :confused:

And another, I have a athlon 3500+, one hard drive, one optical drive, nothing fancy, can I get away with a 300W (12V-19amp) power source although the recommendation is for 350W “minimum”?

Thanks!
 
7600 GT for your needs seems alright. I would personally get something like the 8800 GT, but I am a graphics whore.

When I spend a boat load of cash on a piece of hardware I am not buying it because it gets sick 3dmark06 scores, but I am buying a better experience. Having a game looking as good as possible, running super smooth gives me a better experience. Honestly playing Oblivion maxed out, seeing objects way out in the distance, grass rendered far, and deep is much more involving then cranking down the settings. Why buy a kick ass TV with a sweet sound system when you can use your old CRT TV to watch the same movie. You have a much better time watching the movie with the fancy things.

You don't have to buy the best card to have a good time, but if you are like myself and see games as an experience, not just a time waster then spending money on better hardware is worth every penny.
 
Hey HotGore,

I understand where you are coming from, but is there really that much of a difference in Oblivion graphics between a 7600gt and a 8800gt?
It looked pretty awesome to me with the 6600le…

And if you are really a graphics whore, don’t you need to spend hundreds of dollars every couple of months on upgrades?
It seems that the pace of new graphic cards and game requirements is exponential, seems like the game developers and the graphic card manufacturers are in cahoots…
 
chaka8 said:
Hey HotGore,

I understand where you are coming from, but is there really that much of a difference in Oblivion graphics between a 7600gt and a 8800gt?
It looked pretty awesome to me with the 6600le…
Click to expand...

I have a FX5500 which I'm sure you're way better off than I am, and my games (Half Life 2, CS:S, FarCry) look GOOD to me...but that's only because I haven't seen them rendered with my 8800 GTS that's coming in the mail =) and I'm used to playing at around 20-40fps...I haven't really experienced a higher frame rate and an overall more aesthetically pleasing graphic look.

I guess once you see something and compare it, only then will you be able appreciate what you have. But hey, the FX5500 has suited me for some long years, but eventually it's time to upgrade. I say, hey if a graphic card suits your needs, then go for it.
 
chaka8 said:
So to my question, if I’m not a game connoisseur, why would I invest over $200 in the latest card + $50 for a new power source, when I can buy a perfectly good (?) card for $30.
Click to expand...

If you're not into anything that requires an expensive video card, there's no reason to drop a bunch of money on one. The reason that many people on [H] do spend hundreds on video cards is because they care about gaming, benching, etc.
 
Got you Castel,

But still, what is the difference in appetence between a 7600gt and a 8600gt?

And another, do you get the expensive top of the line at the time (FX5500, 8800GTS) and switch every several years, or do you get a discounted not newest card (7600gt for $29) and switch every 1-1.5 years?
 
Duro,

Ya, but the “requires” is the big mystery or me.
Does Oblivion (on the box – supports GrForce 6000 series) require a 8800gt to play at a good graphics level? Is the difference really that obvious?
Is it like Castell says, you don’t know the difference until you see it?
 
chaka8 said:
Got you Castel,

But still, what is the difference in appetence between a 7600gt and a 8600gt?

And another, do you get the expensive top of the line at the time (FX5500, 8800GTS) and switch every several years, or do you get a discounted not newest card (7600gt for $29) and switch every 1-1.5 years?
Click to expand...


I didn't get the top expensive at the time, but I did spend I think $130+ on this card when I first got it. But back then I could careless about serious gaming, I was just getting into computers, but now I have a completely different mindset.

Ya, but the “requires” is the big mystery or me.
Does Oblivion (on the box – supports GrForce 6000 series) require a 8800gt to play at a good graphics level? Is the difference really that obvious?
Is it like Castell says, you don’t know the difference until you see it?
Click to expand...

I'll give you an example, I bought Guitar Hero for PC the other day, installed it, and well it pretty much ate my FX5500 alive. That's when I realized that I needed a new graphics card. Now a 6800 or what not I'm sure would of been fine, but I'm willing to spend more and get the top of the line card that will last me a LONG time, just like my FX5500 did, so this will be my FIRST time upgrading my card in the past 5 years, from when I initially bought my FX5500.

Now if you are smart, you'd get an EVGA graphics card, and pay the difference with the step up program and get the new g92 cards coming out in Feb (so I've heard)...that should last you even longer!
 
The "Requires" is usually the bare minimum it has to have to run, Oblivion does require some power to run at medium or high details which for most of the people on this forum is the only way to play. The difference between the detail levels is very obvious, see this link for a comparison:

http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/2006/03/31/elder_scrolls_oblivion/2

If you arent a hardcore player it doesnt make sense to drop a lot of cash on new hardware, in fact i would suggest you stay where you are because once you taste ultra high details at 60+ FPS it can become an addiction and then you'll be like us :p
 
alphablu,

"in fact i would suggest you stay where you are because once you taste ultra high details at 60+ FPS it can become an addiction and then you'll be like us"

Good point :), and I don't have the cash anyway....
 
Also your relative power needs also depends on your monitor's size. Once I made the jump to 24" monitors a few years, midrange cards really didnt do it anymore. Now I'm addicted to eye candy and high resolutions, an ever worse addiction, hehe.
 
The 7600gt will suit a gamer like you just fine, its not slow but its not a powerhouse. If you could muster it up though I'd suggest a 8600gt simply because ive had such good luck in OC'ing mine on my other system to the point where it anihilates 8600gts's and only cost $80.
 
chaka8 said:
Hey HotGore,

I understand where you are coming from, but is there really that much of a difference in Oblivion graphics between a 7600gt and a 8800gt?
It looked pretty awesome to me with the 6600le…

And if you are really a graphics whore, don’t you need to spend hundreds of dollars every couple of months on upgrades?
It seems that the pace of new graphic cards and game requirements is exponential, seems like the game developers and the graphic card manufacturers are in cahoots…
Click to expand...

Ya every 3 or 4 months I drop a ton of cash on something. In October I dropped a boat on my RAM. Every pay check I usually buy something small.

I used to think like you. I payed doom 3 with a 9200 SE. I thought it was fun, and I was fine with he graphics turned down. When I build my new system with an x800xl I was able to max almost everything out. Wow that game looked way better, and so did every other game. It then became an addiction. When Oblivion came out I bought another 7800 GT so I could squeeze out 1600x1200. Ya the game looked a bit better and ran smoother. Maxed out the game looks so much better, and add in the mods for graphics and it looks wild.

All in all go as high as you can afford to.
 
It mostly depends on the games. If you want to play the latest games, chances are that your 7600GT will be the bare minimum for a couple of games on the store shelves next year. I just went to Best Buy and actually saw the recommended specs being a 7600GT for one of the newer games!

That means it would have to be played at 800x600 resolution with details turned down quite considerably, or else it would be a slide-show.

In 1994, my friend and I played Doom on his dad's computer at roughly 1 frame per second. It was truly a slide show. Heck, we thought it was fun. That is because we didn't know better, and thought that the graphics were still pretty cool-looking with those monsters. It was quite a challenge playing with that weird "new" alien 3-D shooter slide-show game. Then his dad upgraded his computer that summer and OMG, Doom ran fluidly!!! It was so fast and amazingly immersive. The performance leap was over 30 times (30-60 fps compared to 1fps). I just stood there with my jaws dropped, marvelling in awe at how a simple computer upgrade made the game "come alive".

Now, you know the moral of my childhood story. With some newer games, a 6600le could actually reduce a game into a slideshow at its default settings whereas an 8600GTS will run it smoothly.
 
well i do know for a fact that you will tell a pretty big difference in the 6600-7600. you can pretty much max out oblivion with steady 25fps
 
While a 7600 GT is certainly much better than a 6600 GT, there is no way you can max out Oblivion with it unless you game at 800x600. My 7800 GT struggled with high settings at 1280x1024 (and I haven't even tried it with my new-ish 1680x1050 monitor). [H]ard|OCP found medium settings at 1024x768 to be the optimal for it. If you don't mind those kinds of settings, by all means have fun, but don't expect miracles from the 7600 GT either.
 
Chaka8,

The move from 6600LE to 7600GT is significant in terms of performance. Not only would you gain the kind of playability you're used to on many more games than your current card can handle, but you could go back and try some of your older ones with higher settings for a taste of what you missed. At $29 it's a steal.

Make sure the 7600GT's type (almost certainly PCI-E at that price) is compatible with the graphics slot on your motherboard before you buy.
 
I suppose it depends on what you view the gaming experience as. For some, it is a past-time, a luxury. For others, it is almost like something they live for. Differing perspectives make people do different things. Or maybe you just haven't experienced what it would be like to play a game at maximum detail with good performance. It is like showing a person a palette of just four colors, he will only be able to compare and choose the colors out of what is on the palette. He won't even know that other colors exist so he might just think that this is as good as it gets and he picks one. That one may even become his favorite, until you show him 8, or 80 or 200.[/philosophizing]
 
I deal with this kind of question at work all the time. I would say get what you need first and worry what you want later. Besides a little money saved here could mean a better card later.:D
 
I agree with anime4u I deal with this one a lot also.

Just get the $30 card. You can toss it and upgrade at any time. My biggest gripe is the rebate. It is more than the card. I have gotten rebates back from Foxconn, but I don't usually trust rebates for end-of-life products that are more than the price of the item. If you don't get that rebate back, you could have purchased an 8600gt or 2600Pro for the same money.

Another possibility is to hold off just a few more weeks and see if the 8800GT 256MB cards come down to the $150 mark. There's just no way to go wrong there, especially with how you describe yourself as an occasional gamer.
 
chaka8 said:
Hi,

I have a kind of philosophical question for the experts here, although I assume that the answers will be skewed in one direction.

I’m an occasional player (being a dad and a grad student takes up most of my time…) so I’m not really hard core. For the last year I’ve been playing with a 6600le ($50-new) and it’s been fine for me (guess I’m not a pixel gourmet). I’ve played with it FEAR, Far Cry, Oblivion etc, and no problems.

Recently I’ve decided to upgrade and found a deal for a Foxconn 7600gt for $29 (zipzoomfly)!!!! (After a $40 rebate, I heard the stories about the Foxconn rebates, but I’m optimistic).

Now, I think that the 7600gt will work perfectly well for me for at least the next year of so.

So to my question, if I’m not a game connoisseur, why would I invest over $200 in the latest card + $50 for a new power source, when I can buy a perfectly good (?) card for $30. Am I totally off base here? :confused:

And another, I have a athlon 3500+, one hard drive, one optical drive, nothing fancy, can I get away with a 300W (12V-19amp) power source although the recommendation is for 350W “minimum”?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

So, are you basically asking us where we think your priorities should be?
 
I'm the same way OP. The 7600GT is a great card for that price, but the rebate kind of sucks. You WILL notice a big improvement in the majority of your games. I just returned a Best Buy 8800GT because it was an impulse buy and I myself got caught up in the it's newness.

Also, people get WAY to caught up in their hardware. People spend way to much time looking for "Jaggies" or bad graphics in video games when they should just be playing the game for what it is worth. I myself look for playability first, then graphics second. It seems the enthusiasts out there have that priority skewed when it comes to PC gaming, so they put graphics and FPS first, then playability.
 
Simple preference of quality, i want very high graphical fidelity in my games, I want to run as many at native res (2560x1600) as possible with as many of the settings maxed out as possible, I "blow" as much of my disposable income on video cards as I can afford and that lands me with the rig I have in my sig.

I still have more money than sense though, I still aim for good kit that overclocks well, I didn't blow £500-600 on a CPU when I got this one for £150 and it overclocks to that speed, other than that it's more or less whatever I can afford without sacraficing a weekly beer or 2
 
You cant go wrong with that great deal on the 7600gt. If you need a faster card in the future you can always keep the 7600gt for a spare computer or give it to a friend.
 
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