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Need new video card - Nvidia or ATI?


indianarchie

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I am looking for a 512MB video card around 5000-6000 bucks. How are the 9600GT and 9800GT? Price wise, 9600GT is for 5k, and 9800GT is for 6k in mumbai.

I will be using this card mostly for gaming on a 22" Samsung T220. Which card is better for gaming? Will I be able to play the latest games with these cards?

Also, I dont know much about the ATI cards but have heard positive feedback. Is it recommended instead of Nvidia and if so, which model in the comparable price/performance range?

I presently have a 256MB 7100GS which is rubbish...it hangs on playing a game as old as need for speed most wanted...even cricket 2007 doesnt run full screen without lag

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edit: PC specs given in siggy below.

Edited by indianarchie
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The nVidia 9xxx are mostly renamed to a 2xx series by now so when you buy a mostly lower clocked 9600 or 9800 you will have an "outdated" video card for the latest games. To add, nVidia keeps messing up their drivers so if you like a stable system without hassle I would leave nVidia where it is for the moment and move on.

So, what will be good then? Well, that's hard to say, I can't tell what is sold over there where you live but go with an ATI HD4770 or HD4850, those are mostly well priced and give great stable performance. When you pick one, make sure they don't use the stock ATI cooler and that your PSU can pull enough to run those cards (so, we have a question there for you, what PSU are you going to use with it?). ASUS, Sapphire and MSI have in general the non stock ATI coolers so take a look at them first. There is another model of ATI, the HD4830 but that one is slower than the HD4770 and a bit more in price, it's also being replaced by the HD4770 so don't border with that one.

By the way, upgrade your memory too, else you will still have laggy gaming ;).

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Personally, I have always gone for NVIDIA for graphics. The performance is excellent and although ATI make better hardware, they don't seem to make better drivers yet which tends to show. (although they may have improved lately, I have heard) I have a GeForce 9600GT and I can say that it is an excellent card, well worth the money I paid for it. However, as the poster above has said, your memory is a bottleneck. Even playing games like Half-Life 2 can get fairly laggy with such little RAM.

Also, may I suggest you upgrade to XP service pack 3, I have noticed great speed improvements with it. If you can't for whatever reason, it doesn't matter too much though. ;)

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I do intend to upgrade the RAM to 2GB...just a thought here: my current RAM is ddr2 533Mhz while I'll probably be getting a new 2gb ddr2 667MHz stick (coz 533MHz is double the cost of 667 in my area). Can I use both the sticks to get a total of 2.5gb RAM or will I need to discard the 512 stick?

I just looked up the prices of HD4850 on ebay.in and its double the cost of the 9800GT. I'll check out the store prices but it looks out of my reach. HD4830 is expensive too and I couldnt find the HD4770 on ebay.in, so no idea about the price there. Also, I wouldnt want a card that makes too much noise so the more silent the better! Fanless would be best I guess...what are the pros and cons of fanless cards?

How do I check the PSU power supply? Is there any utility which lets you do that?

Also, any idea about how these cards perform:

http://cgi.ebay.in/Palit-Ati-HD-4650-Super-512-MB-VGA-PCIE-Video-3d-Card_W0QQitemZ160340931530QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_203?hash=item25551073ca&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A1|66%3A1|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A0|293%3A3|294%3A25

http://cgi.ebay.in/PowerColor-ATI-HD-4650-1-GB-VGA-VIDEO-GRAPHIC-CARD-PCIE_W0QQitemZ160340931657QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_203?hash=item2555107449&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A1|66%3A1|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A0|293%3A3|294%3A25

http://cgi.ebay.in/PALIT-ATI-Radeon-HD3850-512MB-DDR3-PCI-E-HDMI-DUAL-DVI_W0QQitemZ190313645774QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_203?hash=item2c4f93c6ce&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A1|66%3A1|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A3|294%3A25

http://cgi.ebay.in/NEW-MSI-HD-R-3450-ATI-Radeon-PCIE-512MB-Graphics-Card_W0QQitemZ400054742435QQcategoryZ96874QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp3286.m221QQ_trkparmsZalgo%3DDLSKWL%26its%3DK%252BD%26itu%3DMBMS%252BUCK%26otn%3D2%26ps%3D61

Edited by indianarchie
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Personally, I have always gone for NVIDIA for graphics. The performance is excellent and although ATI make better hardware, they don't seem to make better drivers yet which tends to show. (although they may have improved lately, I have heard)

That driver statement had some truth in it...about 3-4 years ago? ATi's drivers are as good as nVidia's these days.

Anyway, at the moment, the ATi HD4770 and HD4850 will give you the best bang for the buck, especially with the recent announced price cut for the HD4850.

Edited by beats
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Hey there, as long as you have the latest NVIDIA drivers you are plenty safe. Never had an issue in 7+months of use (I upgrade my drivers every time a new one comes out and never have issues) and have just recently overclocked my 9600GT to be about 10%-15% faster than stock (about as fast as a 9800GT but for no extra cost). The only 9xxx card that has been re branded to a 2xx card is the GTS 250 (was a 9800GTX+) but since the newer version of the GTS 250 uses less power, runs even cooler and has a shorter PCB, I would say it is not exactly the same :whistle:

So I am not sure what you are saying puntoMX "The nVidia 9xxx are mostly renamed to a 2xx series by now" :unsure:

It bugs me when people complain about drivers on the internet yet the problems usually lie elsewhere. I have never seen a problem with the NVIDIA drivers on any PC I have built with an NVIDIA card once. I also have a friend with a 9600GT and another friend with a 9800GT and they are very happy with them. Will play mostly any game on max settings on a 22inch monitor (maybe not crysis!).

I don't just recommend NVIDIA cards though and if you can afford it a 4850 would be perfect for any game (as long as you can get one cheaper the a GTX 260, or it is bad value). The rest of your system would probably be a bit of a bottle-neck if you did get anything better than a 9800GT though (although upgrading the RAM will definitely help a lot) PuntoMX's advice on not using the stock cooler with the latest ATI cards is good as they run very hot! As for NVIDIA cards the stock coolers on the current cards do plenty good enough and you can run a 9600GT with no fan at all when idle. The fan on my 9600GT runs at 25% of full speed at idle (with temps between just 35-40C) and only 50% of full speed at load (with temps never going above 60C!)

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Just an update:

I've added a 2gb stick of RAM and it runs alongside the existing 512mb stick just fine.

I think I have a 350watt PSU though I am not absolutely sure. Will try to post a picture of the sticker here later. Will this be enough for the above cards or do I need a new PSU as well? :(

The 4850 looks out of my price range tho.

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Just an update:

I've added a 2gb stick of RAM and it runs alongside the existing 512mb stick just fine.

I think I have a 350watt PSU though I am not absolutely sure. Will try to post a picture of the sticker here later. Will this be enough for the above cards or do I need a new PSU as well? :(

The 4850 looks out of my price range tho.

Nice now you have a good amount of RAM :D

I would say if it was a high quality 350W PSU then a 9600/9800GT would work and if you were to get the newer revision GTS 250 it may be OK (the new GTS 250 only has one 6 pin PCI-e connector verses two on the 9800GTX+ and uses a good amount less power). If you post a pic of the sticker on the power supply (or just say what brand and model it is) then it would be easier to tell you if a new card would work. :hello:

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  • 1 month later...

Sorry about replying back this late, but I have just now gotten around to taking the pic of my power supply. The thought of having to buy a new PSU if I get a new card does put me off a bit though. Please have a look...will my PSU support a 512MB 4770/4830/9800GT? What do you all think?

copyofpsuwattage.jpg

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I really doubt it. A 350 is pretty weak.

It VERY much depends on which 350W, just like Zenskas said. A lot of people go for super high wattage PSUs merely because they buy the lowest end junk, and find out later they bought junk, and then try to buy higher-powered junk to replace it (or what claims to be, anyhow). If you're unsure a all what I mean by that, then have a look at this (first page, a 650W unit dies -- at 184W load! And another 650W that dies way short of that on page 3. Those tend to take the motherboard down with them too -- misery likes company). That should put off anyone from buying low-end junk ever again.

I bought a pair of Seasonic SS-350ET (last black friday for like $30), and they're a million times better than his (not just in terms of how much power it can deliver, but overall quality, throughout the whole thing, parts and design).

Power wise, the 12v rail is what matters the most these days. His PSU has only one rail, which can deliver 17A max. That's pretty weak, and the 3.3/5v rails are pretty high, which points to an older ATX 1.3 design to begin with -- and most likely it has group regulation too, so the extra load on the 12v rail isn't too good to have (affects the other voltages). By comparison, my inexpensive, entry level, but also good quality 350W PSU can deliver 324 out of 350W on its 12v rails (27A -- nearly 50% more).

And that's assuming they didn't overstate anything on the label, which is actually extremely common in low-end units (not only 350W isn't super high, but it was pretty weak for a 350W unit, now think it's even worse -- loads of under-spec'ed parts I bet). And that the tests used are somewhat bogus i.e. tested at unrealistically low temps, whereas in real world usage, with normal temps, it would be rated lower than that by as much as 100W! (likely about 250 watts when you consider everything). If your case has poor airflow/high temps, or ambient temp is kind of hot during summer, then subtract some more. And since it seems like an older design and is inside what seems like an older machine (only had 512MB of RAM), bad caps is a possibility. These old units usually have so-so regulation and ripple, almost none of the optional protections, missing EMI filters, no Active PFC (of course), cheap and not so quiet fans, tiny heat sinks, small gauge wiring with no sleeving and so on.

A decent PSU isn't that expensive. I'd be replacing this one for sure. If you get a 80plus model (like the one I picked) it'll essentially pay for itself anyways. Chances are the old has a pretty poor set of connectors anyways (it might not even have SATA power connectors). But if I was planning on gaming, I'd get a little more than 350W for sure, as the next card you pick might need it.

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Yep CoffeeFiend has hit the mark, that 350W PSU won't handle a half-powerful card at all! I had a friend with a very similar setup who went and bought a 9800GT (which was fast, and he loved it) but his cheapo 400W PSU couldn't handle it when he added just one extra HDD (only two drives!) and blew a fuse.

A new PSU that is QUALITY 400W+ will handle it however. Look at the PC in my sig with an older (about 2 yrs old) 430W PSU. Its quality, and even though it is getting on a little bit, it handles my PC with ease and only cost AU$35 second hand (which is like US$15 second hand as prices here for parts are terrible). Buying a new PSU will make your PC more electrically stable and will output more power when needed and shouldn't cost much at all as CoffeeFiend has shown.

Edited by Zenskas
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