Buying a new (cheap!) GPU -any opinions?

jph_wacheski · Post by **jph_wacheski** » Wed Nov 11, 2009 4:23 pm

I have done a little looking, but there are far too many issues to contend with, in these instances I normaly research for a while, then I get fatigued with all the stats and opinions,. and in the end just grab the best deal based on what I have learned. Just interested in what you guys may think, has anyone looked into this recently?

So far I like this one;

EVGA GeForce 9800 GTX+

from these local guys;

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/ ... CatId=3585

I am also thinking to upgrade my memory from 1gb to 4gb,. same 800MHz, DDR2 stuff,. and perhaps if i can afford it, setting up a duel HD setup (to mirror the data) as I noticed 500GB drives are down to $70 now. (prbably I chould just clean up the one I have, but mirroring to protect data seems a good investment) Any known issues I should be concerned with ?? Thanks.

Post by **VilleK** » Thu Nov 12, 2009 8:11 am

Yes trying to find the right hardware is very tiring. I never know about the latest hardware unless I'm about to buy something because it's a full time job just too keep up with new software. I also need to upgrade my workstation and currently I'm leaning towards buying one of the new iMacs and installing Windows 7 on it.

I'm not familiar with that graphics card but it looks good enough from the specs. Maybe after we all upgrade we can include ZGE-support for more GPU-features such as geometry shaders?

kattle87 · Post by **kattle87** » Thu Nov 12, 2009 6:42 pm

that GPU is almost identical to a nvidia GTS 250 that is my card (same processor but shrinked) and it's quite good. But is not the newest available. It can run Mirror's Edge @ 1650 x 1080 with details maxed and 2xAA with little framerates drop, but nothing major.
It is not the cheapest deal you might find however... some ATI are cheaper and can provide almost same horsepower... maybe a 4850 card or a 4870 if you find good deals!

BTW: I'm not completely disappeared, but I do admit I have getting a really hard time at university... Studying somewhat hard.

PS: Ville, did you knew that Stockholm university might be a really nice place for an Erasmus project?

I am getting interested in coming to sweden for 6 months next school year!

Post by **VilleK** » Fri Nov 13, 2009 3:22 pm

Be sure to come by and say hello if you visit Stockholm, kattle. Not sure you'll enjoy living here though, it is quite dark and cold almost half of the year. Which is good for spending time indoors in front of the computer

.

jph_wacheski · Post by **jph_wacheski** » Wed Nov 18, 2009 9:46 pm

Did a bit more searching, and now looking at these two, both feature HDMI outs;

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/ ... =H231-4658

or

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/ ... =G458-0242

or perhaps swaping memory for speed at the exact same price, this one with DDR5 memory;

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/ ... =G458-0240

not sure wich to go with,. nvidia or ATi,. . may come down to a coin toss

y offs et · Post by **y offs et** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 2:12 am

A number of years ago I got quite friendly with an internet cafe owner who also put together systems. The one piece of advice that stuck with me was "no one buys computers in February". I've noticed good price cuts in that month.

jph_wacheski · Post by **jph_wacheski** » Sat Jan 02, 2010 5:50 pm

I got a XFX HD 5770,. still working the bugs out on the install,. comercial 3d games run faster,. TF2 and Perpetuum are looking good,. altohugh the later has some major shadow problems,. FBO size issues i would guess.

ZGE seems to work well,. although my SunMurderer game works, it runs rather choppy,. I will have to look into that. Also some of my old shaders just don't work,. I do hope if I can get stuff working on this ATI they will still work on the nvida cards,. and how to check? Guess I will build a spare basic system around that old card.