Advice on Upgrade

D

dexterz

Weaksauce
Joined
Feb 6, 2008
Messages
74
Hi,
I'm currently using Galaxy 7300 GS 256MB upto 512 TurboCache PCI-e graphics card.

I want to upgrade to better one because it's not performing in the newer games.
I'm from India and I've gathered some rates in INR and their equivalent in US$.
Here are my options

XFX 8600GT with a 540MHz core clock and 256MB DDR3 memory 1.4Ghz
This one costs $137
XFX 8600GT with a 540MHz core clock with 512MB DDR2 memory 800Mhz
This one is $155
POV 8600GT $150 256 MB Core Clock : 540 Mhz Memory Clock : 1400 Mhz

Also my computer's display unit is a 17" Samsung CRT and I'll play the games mostly at 1024*768 with default settings.

I don't know much about ATI cards and would like to know which card to buy ?
Any advice or suggestions as to which card to buy or to wait for some more time would be great.
 
The 8600 is an improvement over your current card, but it's not very good at all for gaming. I'd recommend picking up a used 7800 or 7900 series card over the 8600.

If you can pick up an ATI Radeon HD 3850 for around the same price as the 8600s or a little more and your budget will allow it'd be a far, far, far better option. The HD3870 is even better, but is usually a good bit more expensive.

On the Nvidia side of things I'd recommend the 8800 GT, though it's likely a good bit more than the Radeon HD 3850. If you can pick up a used 8800 GTS 320MB that'd be plenty for your resolution, and with the newer G92 based 8800 GTS 512MB cards out prices should've gone down on them.
 
If you're willing to pay up to $155 for an 8600 (crappy for that price), you mind as well get an HD 3850 around the same price which KILLS 8600s. :D
 
the price of the ATI 3850 is 265US$ here.
also a 8800GT/GTS cost around 330/455US$ ....
also a Radeon 512 MB GDDR4 3870 costs 366 US$.....

there is a big change in price when compared to the US and here. also i don't think the online shops will ship to india.
 
Oh, didn't catch that you were from India. Forgive me for that. :eek:

I suppose those cards would do at that price point, I was under the assumption that you were ordering from the US, and I tend to skim a lot of posts, so I only saw "8600" and "$150" so my anti bad-deal sensors went off. :eek:
 
 
GeCube RX1950 PRO 256MB DDR3 is 245US$
GeCube RX1950XT 512MB DDR3 is 353 US$
 
I also wanted to know if its a must to go for a DX10 enabled card when I know i'm not going to upgrade to Vista which will create driver issues for some of my addons.
So logically a DX9 card is enough .right?:confused:
 
There will be no issues running a DX10 capable card in DX9 mode under XP. Just out of curiosity, what of your hardware has issues with Vista? Nothing I'm seeing in your sig should have problems.

If you can get your aunt to pick up either the 3850 or 2870 (the 3870 is a good bit faster and will last you longer, so if you can afford it and your Aunt will order it for you I'd definitely go with that. I'd take the Gigabyte card over the Sapphire due to its better HSF.

This Gigabyte Radeon 3870 512MB is your best option at $220. It is /worlds/ faster than any Geforce 8600 (even the GTS SSC you linked), much faster than any of the X1900s, and will last you longer than the Radeon 3850 due to its higher clock speeds and 512MB of video memory. $220 is a really good price on that card. If you can't afford it the 3850 is your next best bet.
 
silent-circuit said:
This Gigabyte Radeon 3870 512MB is your best option at $220. It is /worlds/ faster than any Geforce 8600 (even the GTS SSC you linked), much faster than any of the X1900s, and will last you longer than the Radeon 3850 due to its higher clock speeds and 512MB of video memory. $220 is a really good price on that card. If you can't afford it the 3850 is your next best bet.
Click to expand...

The 8800GTs are finally dropping in price and there are some out there at around $220 also, which would be a better deal.
 
kllrnohj said:
The 8800GTs are finally dropping in price and there are some out there at around $220 also, which would be a better deal.
Click to expand...

The 3870 and 8800GT are neck and neck -- some titles one is faster, some the other is faster. The 3870s have a lot more OCing headroom, too. Doesn't matter that much either way.
 
silent-circuit said:
The 3870 and 8800GT are neck and neck -- some titles one is faster, some the other is faster. The 3870s have a lot more OCing headroom, too. Doesn't matter that much either way.
Click to expand...

The 8800GT is definitely faster than the 3870 by a good amount.
 
kllrnohj said:
The 8800GT is definitely faster than the 3870 by a good amount.
Click to expand...

3 FPS on average at the same resolution in a preview review with old drivers. Doubtless it has improved somewhat since then. About the only thing it falls 'far behind' in is Crysis, and Crysis, while pretty, is hard on everything and not that much fun anyway. Even the 8800GTS would have trouble with it.
 
silent-circuit said:
3 FPS on average at the same resolution in a preview review with old drivers. Doubtless it has improved somewhat since then. About the only thing it falls 'far behind' in is Crysis, and Crysis, while pretty, is hard on everything and not that much fun anyway. Even the 8800GTS would have trouble with it.
Click to expand...

Err... what review are you looking at? In the [H] review the 8800GT is shown to be a good bit faster. ( http://hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTQxOSwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA== )
 
silent-circuit said:
There will be no issues running a DX10 capable card in DX9 mode under XP. Just out of curiosity, what of your hardware has issues with Vista? Nothing I'm seeing in your sig should have problems.
Click to expand...

There are no drivers for the creative sound blaster card and also the TV tuner card and a bluetooth dongle under vista.
If I can find the drivers for them then I can upgrade with no issues.



just checked for drivers for my tv tuner it seems i can get drivers for vista for it,but the other 2 are still ??

otherwise i need to remove it and use the on board realtek HD
 
also what would be the PSU requirement for the HD 38x0 and the x19x0 cards?

currently i'm using a 400W PSU


i can afford the HD 3870 at the US price but not the local one.but the local dealer said that there will problem when trying to claim warranty in case of any problem. then i guess i have to ship it back and get it RMA'd .but hey can't have it all :)
 
You'll need to upgrade that PSU for a Medium to high range card.
 
dexterz said:
will a 500W will be enough or should i go for a 600W?
Click to expand...

A Corsair 520HX or 550VX will be plenty. You could actually get away with a 450VX if the other two can't be had within budget -- amps on the 12v rail/rails and quality of the over-all supply are what's important with modern machines, more than over all output rating in watts.

You could also look in to the 8800GT 512MB, as it's getting down in to the same range (at least after rebates) as the 3870 and is a bit faster (as another poster said).
 
in that case i'll mostly get both the card and the PSU from US itself but i should first check if the PSU will support the 220V power supply here
 
dexterz said:
There are no drivers for the creative sound blaster card and also the TV tuner card and a bluetooth dongle under vista.
If I can find the drivers for them then I can upgrade with no issues.
Click to expand...

Creative has drivers for Vista now - at least my old Audigy has Vista 64-bit drivers anyway :D

As for bluetooth, Vista has a built-in bluetooth stack (albeit not all that great of one), so you *should* be fine there.
 
great also I found a site by the name www.ewiz.com which does ship world wide and the cost is that of US market.
lets see if that is of any help to reduce the overall cost:p


just checked out the shipping rates which just double the cards' prices :(
 
thats good to know ....also like my dealer said will there be warranty issues when using the card here when its origin is US?
 
well i'm going to try and mail them for the warranty information and see what turns up.
also have to find out how long it will take to ship it and will it be safe to ship ie. no damage or etc....
 
is 8600GT or 8500GT enough for games like crysis or UT3? coz i got in touch with another dealer of mine and he boasted that they are enough for these games :mad:..... also I think I'm going to skip the ATI cards since ,from the reviews I read, they seem to run hot and I live in a country where the ambient temp is 35C....my 7300GS idles at 56C and 58 to 62 on load .....


but back to question...will the 8600 or 8500 support the above 2 games at default settings?
 
The new ATI cards usually run cooler than most of nVidia's offerings, so not sure what reviews you are reading. 3870's idle at 35-40C on 50% fan load which is near silent.

The 8500GT is a trash card, ignore it. 8600 could handle UT3 fairly well, but with Crysis... perhaps medium settings and 1024x768 res.

Problem with the 8600 is you're going to have to upgrade much sooner later down the line.
 
dexterz, I'm willing to bet that a kind soul on this board would be happy to Purchase a higher-end video card here in the US for you at US Prices, test it out, and Ship it to you for Cost to help you out.

OR..

Have them mark the Customs form as a "Engineering Sample" to avoid added customs fees.

PM Me for Details if you like.
 
AceCR42 said:
The 8500GT is a trash card, ignore it. 8600 could handle UT3 fairly well, but with Crysis... perhaps medium settings and 1024x768 res.

Problem with the 8600 is you're going to have to upgrade much sooner later down the line.
Click to expand...

The 8500 and 8600 won't run Crysis playably at 800x600 with everything on medium. They probably won't play it well with many things on low. The differential between the 8600s and 8800s is massive -- they might as well be in entirely different series/lineups.

Wherever you're getting your info from, OP, I wouldn't trust that guy a bit anymore. He's probably just spewing back the company line, but still.
 
silent-circuit said:
The 8500 and 8600 won't run Crysis playably at 800x600 with everything on medium. They probably won't play it well with many things on low. The differential between the 8600s and 8800s is massive -- they might as well be in entirely different series/lineups.

Wherever you're getting your info from, OP, I wouldn't trust that guy a bit anymore. He's probably just spewing back the company line, but still.
Click to expand...



guess your right about that.....well guess I'm gonna ship a card and a PSU from the states....
 
ATI and Nvidia support just replied and they don't support international warranty :(.....guess i'm going to have to go for a 8600GT or a x1950XT :( :(.


i was a step away from ordering the Card and the PSU....aaarrrggh

if only i could get international warranty
 
dexterz said:
ATI and Nvidia support just replied and they don't support international warranty :(.....guess i'm going to have to go for a 8600GT or a x1950XT :( :(.
Click to expand...

I'd personally just run the risk, but I'm crazy like that. I've had...

- S3 Virge PCI
- 3DFX Voodoo 3 3500 AGP
- ATI Radeon 64MB DDR AGP
- ATI Radeon X800XT 128MB AGP
- Nvidia 8800 GTX 768MB PCIe

They all still work just fine, back to the one circa 1995. They're actually all still in use. I know people running TNTs and Voodoo 1's in "retro gaming" rigs without issue. If you're in a hot environment make sure you keep good case airflow and don't OC the card, plus using RivaTuner to jack up the fan speed from the stock defaults. Make sure you insure the shipment from the US to home, though, in case it's DOA.
 
even with 3 or was it four fans the temp runs at around 50~55C for the CPU,40's for the mobo and 40C for the HDD and 56~62 for the Graphics card....
since summer is around the corner the temps are bound to go even up with room temp being in the 40C range.
 
Have you had cards fail due to this? I mean, it'd suck, it'd take /forever/, it'd cost a good bit, but you could always ship /back/ to the US to RMA in the unlikely event something went pearshaped on you.
 
considering the temps my rig's have been going good even when i had no such extra cooling.
 
I have purchased things for international friends and shipped them out before. I don't have a problem doing this if you are willing. At US prices, I would definitely recommend the 3850 at a minimum.
Jason
 
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