Simviation Forum - Where do I begin upgrading?

Reply #15 - Jan 21^st, 2005 at 3:24pm

Rivers Offline
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If I were you I would get:

AMD Athlon 64 processor with the 939 pin package.
ASUS or MSI mobo with PCI- express (note that PCI-E doesn’t mean SLI)
These two items would make your new computer future proof with more options to upgrade in the future.
NVIDIA 6800 Ultra it loses for the X800XT PE in some games but in FS9 with anti aliasing and anisotropic filter it is better, although with this cards any performance difference is so small that you won’t even notice it. And it already supports pixel shader 3.0 this will make games that support it like Far Cry and games that are still coming look much better.
And get a big Power supply unit because you are going to need it, 700W or a true 450W minimum.

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Reply #16 - Jan 21^st, 2005 at 3:39pm

svenpurple7 Offline
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Quote:

If I were you I would get:

AMD Athlon 64 processor with the 939 pin package.

Consider it done!

Quote:

ASUS or MSI mobo with PCI- express (note that PCI-E doesn’t mean SLI)

Thanks to everyone out there, I am aware of that now.

Quote:

These two items would make your new computer future proof with more options to upgrade in the future.

Future proof is rather important right now.

Quote:

NVIDIA 6800 Ultra it loses for the X800XT PE in some games but in FS9 with anti aliasing and anisotropic filter it is better, although with this cards any performance difference is so small that you won’t even notice it. And it already supports pixel shader 3.0 this will make games that support it like Far Cry and games that are still coming look much better.

The only "game" I am concerned with right now is FS9 (and looking towards FS10). I don't really play anything else. I am leaning towards the x850 xt card. Does that not do all the things that the 6800U does and then some?

Quote:

And get a big Power supply unit because you are going to need it, 700W or a true 450W minimum.

That's a hefty PSU. What defines a "true" 450 Watt PSU?

Ben.
PS, thanks for chiminig in Rivers. It is much appreciated.

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Reply #17 - Jan 21^st, 2005 at 4:56pm

Rivers Offline
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The ATI X8XX series doesn’t support pixel shader 3.0, in my opinion NVIDIA cards are better because of this feature, and the real performance difference is minimal only a few fps and FS9 is one of the games where NVIDIA outperforms the ATI cards.
Future games will require pixel shader 3.0 to be set with maximum image quality and realism; I believe FS10 will be one of them and with a card that powerful I don’t think you will be upgrading soon so when FS10 arrives you will be able to squeeze everything it can give you.

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Reply #18 - Jan 21^st, 2005 at 5:02pm

Rivers Offline
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Most PSU state only the peak wattage, I recently bought a 700W PSU but its true wattage is 300W, a true Wattage is the one it can give at any time and this is very important for hi end systems, when you buy it see if the store has one opened for you to see inside if its capacitors are huge then you know that it’s a true 300 or 400W PSW.

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Reply #19 - Jan 21^st, 2005 at 5:22pm

Rivers Offline
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As you can see my current PSU is sold as 700W, and the max wattage is 320 for 5v and 460W for 12v this is what you should look for when buying your PSU. The last one I had was 420W(the real wattage was about 230) and it didn’t handled the power when I was playing for a long period of time, it burned with the pc listed on my signature.
Now I bought a GeForce 6800GT so when my other PSU burned I bought 700W so it can handle the new hardware.

PS: My MOBO is ASUS I’m very pleased with it and I had 2 MSI video cards, both were great, the 6800 that will arrive here soon is also from MSI, so If you are concerned with the manufacture of the hardware you are buying I can recommend these from my own experience.

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Reply #20 - Jan 22^nd, 2005 at 12:32am

svenpurple7 Offline
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Thanks for the PSU info Rivers. I had no idea. I will look out for that, unfortunately I will be buying all my parts on-line and I won't have the opportunity to look at the PSU's capacitors. I guess I will have to make a run to the store before ordering.

As far as the video card goes, I may have to do some more research. No disrespect towards what you were saying about the 6800U, but everything I read shows better numbers for the x850 xt. But what do I know? Tongue

That's why I come to this forum and ask all these silly questions.

Ben.

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Reply #21 - Jan 22^nd, 2005 at 2:14am

Rivers Offline
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The X850 XT will be faster for sure, but does it really matter what are 10 or even 20 FPS when you have 150 FPS you’re eyes cant notice the difference.

ATI launched The Radeon X800 XT PE to compete against NVIDIA 6800 Ultra, after a while they launched the X850 XT, it’s the same thing as the X800XT but with a bigger cooler and “overclocked”.

What I’m trying to say is that in FS9 the 6800 ultra was faster then the X800 XT by 7,1 FPS In the Tom’s Hardware test with FS9 with all the quality on the max.

Don’t listen to fanboys to make your decision, IMHO the extra $$$ of the 850 is not worth it.

Take a look at the tests performed in the Tom’s Hardware site in VGA charts IV and V, if you are going to buy the 850 just because it’s a little faster I think you should go for the 6800 because its better for FS9 has pixel shader 3.0 support, and the card is clocked at only 400Mhz with that massive cooler you can easily OC it to boost its performance even more while the 850 is clocked at 540Mhz its in the limit there isn’t much room for OC there.

Well my friend the final decision is up to you I hope that the info I provided will help you to make the best choice for you, this is a very expensive hardware and all the options and variables should be carefully analyzed, I recommend you read all those links, you will learn allot from them Grin

Cheers mate Wink

VGA charts V
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041222/index.html

VGA charts IV(here is the FS9 test)
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041004/index.html

The THG Graphics Card Buyers Guide
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041110/index.html

Shader Model 3.0
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20040414/geforce_6800-11.html

FarCry Patch v1.2 With Shader Model 3.0
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20040705/index.html

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Reply #22 - Jan 22^nd, 2005 at 3:47am

the_autopilot Offline
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Wow, you guys pretty much explained everything.

However, I must bring this to light.

Nvidia's implenmentation of the PS3 is actually not too good.
So don't let PS3 support be the deciding factor.

Link to sig:&&Click here&&(Cannot post signature here due to current forum restrications on linked images).

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Reply #23 - Jan 22^nd, 2005 at 11:39am

Rivers Offline
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Where did you see that?
As far as I know NVIDIA GeForce FX 5XXX cards have problems with shader model 2.0, but the new cards from the 6 series doesn’t.

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Reply #24 - Jan 22^nd, 2005 at 4:57pm

svenpurple7 Offline
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WOW is right. Shocked

I have made up my mind on CPU and mobo.
I have also made up my mind on PCI-e video card. However, I am more unclear about which card to get now than I was at the begining. That is only becuase everyone has given me great feedback. You guys rock! Grin

I wish I could say I was leaning more towards one card than the other (6800U vs. x850 xt), but I can't. Tongue

I can say that it's going to be one of those two. I think that you can't go wrong either way.

Ben.

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Reply #25 - Jan 26^th, 2005 at 1:56am

the_autopilot Offline
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I would go with the x850 xt. Hands down.

The only reason I have a 6800 ultra is because I can have two of them (SLI). On my other gaming machine which is one card solution, I have a x850 xt and have no performence problems with it EVER. Infact, I've never seen it go below 30 FPS even in the most intense conditions.

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