New Graphics Card

[Joe 90]

Morning :)

I'm considering a graphics card upgrade...

I'll soon be gettin a 42" FHD tv and will be using it for PC/Xbox - plus i've been wanting to update for a while as my PC is 4 yrs old.

Currently got a ATi 850XT but now looking at either a 8800 GT or a 3870 HD, basically a spend of around £150

What do people think?

[Admiral Huddy]

You'll need an SLi or Crossfire combination to be running on that sort of size screen so it's going to be costly.

[Joe 90]

lame. maybe i'll end up with a new PC rather than a laptop then... doesn't look like my mofo (http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=1860) has sli :(
ah well. Gotta pay for the TV first as that's been ready for shipping for a while now.

maybe i'll just buy a new tft for my PC... dedicated xbox on the tv :D
current tft's backlight recently gave up one me :(

[Stan_Lite]

Pay no attention to Huddy.

That TV will have a native resolution of 1920x1080. An 8800GT will easily do that. If you're going to play PC games on it, you may have to turn a few fancy bits down but the card should work fine - alternatively you could play games at a lower resolution.

[Mark]

You'll need an SLi or Crossfire combination to be running on that sort of size screen so it's going to be costly.
Well, to be fair, that depends entirely on what you're going to do with it. Either card should be able to do 1080p (though I can only vouch for the 3870 from personal experience) but if you're thinking of running Crysis on that, then you may have a big problem. :)

[Joe 90]

I don't really play PC games anymore.... i've sold out to my xbox :o:evil:

PC is used for browsing/msn/web dev/image processing/ocassional MS Office useage.


i'm swaying towards the 8800GT as i was once a fan of nVidia... anybody know if there is anywhere i can find out whats in the retail boxes? would be nice to know what free stuff comes with the cards.

[Desmo]

Aye, it only needs to handle 1920x1080 and most cards should do that. Hell, even my crappy onboard laptop one runs on the TV just fine :)

[Joe 90]

sound.

anyone know what the 'AMP' is that differs these two cards -
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/productlister.aspx?s=13&se=Zotac,GeForce,8800GT

[Mark]

Just a marketing slogan that doesn't 'stand for' anything in particular. However, what its getting at is that that card has higher clock speed.

I do admit to being slightly curious as to why you're upgrading though. The intended use isn't that demanding so unless you're going hi-def and want HDCP support or there's a problem with the old card I don't think you'll gain much, especially with the PC being as old as it is.

[Joe 90]

Well i'm not dead set on it atm... was just toying with the idea of upgrading and thought it'd be the easiest upgrade to make as the alternative would basically be to change everything to dual core and ddr2.
Plus i wasn't sure how well my current system would coap at running on 'my' new tv, and just assumed that an extra 256mb would help in that sense. tbh i've been detached from the PC hardware market for too long to really know what i'm on about anymore when it comes to capabilities...

[Mark]

I just did a quick test for you and had no trouble at all running full screen video at 1920x1200 (upscaled from Freeview) on my X800XT. That's higher resolution than you'll be using on an older card. You only need to upgrade if you're doing 3D/Gaming stuff, and as you aren't, save your pennies. :)

[Joe 90]

sound. i'll wait till later in the year when i go back to studying and working with 3DsMax :)
thanks/.

[Stan_Lite]

Money saved, another happy customer :D

[Admiral Huddy]

:o