graphics card upgrade advice please

[hardflipman]

hi, wonder if anyone has some time to spare me a bit of advice...

i've currently got an athlon 64 3000, abit an8 ultra, 1.5gb ram and an x800gt and a dell 2007fwp monitor

just got company of heroes and it's struggling quite badly on my machine. was thinking of getting a new graphics card as an interim measure before i upgrade to core 2 and ideally a 8800 of some sorts next year.

i was thinking maybe an x1950 or 7900gs i suppose. would it make a noticeable difference?

cheers

[doddsy]

Yeah you'd notice a good difference going to a 1950pro. Pretty good upgrade and it doesn't cost too much.

[hardflipman]

think i might just go for it and hang off on the 8800 for longer. anyone know if the asus eax1950 pro on scan is any good. it's the only one they have in stock!
basically want it to be quiet...

[Queelis]

Asus' 1950PRO is said to be quiet, yes.

[sawyen]

X1950Pro FTW .. If you cant source for the Powercolour one with the AC Accelero X2 preinstalled then that would be ace as well...

[colinloves]

The fan on the Asus looks sooooooooo ugly. Like it was some fan made inthe eary 70's.

Its put me right off.

Think I wait till the Sapphire is back in stock. (love to know when)

[user1453]

couldn't you just buy any x1950pro and fit an aftermarket cooler?

[hardflipman]

i managed to kill to radeons with an aftermarket cooler! although i think it was more to do with the case not letting enough air in (the cooler was touching the side!)

anyone know if nywhere has the 1950s instock at a sensible price?

[kalniel]

The fan on the Asus looks sooooooooo ugly. Like it was some fan made inthe eary 70's.

Its put me right off.

Think I wait till the Sapphire is back in stock. (love to know when)

But.. the asus fan is much better than the Sapphire one.. Guess you have a display case or something then for looks to be that important?

[this_is_gav]

Doesn't the HS/F point towards the bottom of the case anyway? Unless you've got a 100% acrylic case dangling from the ceiling with bungee cord, you should be all right

[colinloves]

But.. the asus fan is much better than the Sapphire one..

Really?

From the pic, it just looks cheap and ineffective. Got prove that its better?

My last two ATI cards were from third party companies, and the fans have always blown up (didn't even overclock). So that effects my views.

[kalniel]

Really?

From the pic, it just looks cheap and ineffective. Got prove that its better?

My last two ATI cards were from third party companies, and the fans have always blown up (didn't even overclock). So that effects my views.

http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews.p...e__eax1950pro_

http://www.elitebastards.com/cms/ind...1&limitstart=7

http://www.techspot.com/review/30-as...pro/page2.html

Unlike the ATI reference cooling solution, the ASUS heatsink and fan combo found on the Extreme AX1950Pro makes very little noise even when under load.

[hardflipman]

just wondering if it would be silly to go for an 8800gts and hold off on upgrading mobo/cpu/ram for another year....
any opinions

[s_kinton]

just wondering if it would be silly to go for an 8800gts and hold off on upgrading mobo/cpu/ram for another year....
any opinions

I would say yes, it would be silly to do that. Your CPU will absolutely cripple the 8800GTS. The end result would be no noticeable performance increase over say a x1950pro most of the time.

Read this article. It shows CPU limitation with AMD and the 8800 series:

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/...d_cpu_scaling/

http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.php?t=92459

[hardflipman]

thank you. needed that to get a dose of reality!

[colinloves]

http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews.p...e__eax1950pro_

http://www.elitebastards.com/cms/ind...1&limitstart=7

http://www.techspot.com/review/30-as...pro/page2.html

But it does lack the Avivo chip. (sorry lost the review link)