New Computer

[ikix]

Pretty much everything is coming into place, especially with the apparent intel price drops. I am however having serious issues over the choice of graphics card. The much larger 512MB of memory fo the HD2900 and 740MHz screams out at me over the 320MB and 550MHz or so of the 8800GTS.

I've read articles about both cards yet i still can't decide

[NightshadowUK]

It's hard to make a call at the moment as ATi are still improving the HD2900XT drivers but as it stands the 8800GTS is a better choice for you.

[ikix]

It's hard to make a call at the moment as ATi are still improving the HD2900XT drivers but as it stands the 8800GTS is a better choice for you.

320 or 640?

[NightshadowUK]

For 1280x1024 and lower, go with the 320MB version.

[staffsMike]

The 8800 320mb is the safe bet card the ATi may be worth the risk. Be careful what power supply you get though. They require a 6pin and 8pin connector if you wish to overclock them and very few psu's have this. You need 2x 6pin cables to run it stock.

[ikix]

The 8800 320mb is the safe bet card the ATi may be worth the risk. Be careful what power supply you get though. They require a 6pin and 8pin connector if you wish to overclock them and very few psu's have this. You need 2x 6pin cables to run it stock.

Is that for both or the ATI?

[staffsMike]

Just the ATi

The 8800GTS uses just one 6pin

[Nemz0r]

The two games i'm really looking forward to are Bioshock and Crysis.

Hopefully this is a good indication for Bioshock:


That leaves a Crysis benchmark. I'm just hoping there will be a CryEngine2 benchmark before I upgrade so I can decide on a 2900XT or a GTS .

[ikix]

Should i go for a Quad 6600 or a Dual core, something like an E6750

[Snapper]

Pretty much everything is coming into place, especially with the apparent intel price drops. I am however having serious issues over the choice of graphics card. The much larger 512MB of memory fo the HD2900 and 740MHz screams out at me over the 320MB and 550MHz or so of the 8800GTS.

I've read articles about both cards yet i still can't decide

Current issue of Custom PC has a graphics card review - the ATi is certainly no better than either 8800GTS (the diferent memory size only affects resolution, othewrwise both the 320Mb and 640Mb card are identical) and is worse in some respects. Also, physically, it runs *much* hotter and usesd way more power (At peak power it was clocked as using nearly 100w more than the GTS and even nearly 50w more than than the 8800 Ultra). oh, and it sounds like a plane taking off. ;-)

Cheers,
Mike