Noob need help!!

bogwalrus

Nuilding my first gaming pc and thought i did all the research and now need help.


I got an Abit fatality fp-in9 and a 7950gx2. The VGA dont fit cause of the big blue heatsink at the end of the Pci slots. Im just wondering should i try and replace the heatsink with a smaller one or will i just go an get another mobo?? The graphics card is pretty good for the money i had to spend on one and just wondering if you could recommend another mobo that would be suitable.

On another note. Is there a point in me getting another gx2 to put in sli or would it make much a difference. It would be a quad sli technically wouldnt it as there are two gpu's on each card? i saw a review on toms hardware that said the 7950 gx2 had lower framrates than the cheaper 7800gxt. Whats the deal with that?? this card sells for more and since it has two gpu's it should kick all the cards under its ass.

any help would be great

(i think i hav the lingo down after a month of research=)

dazftw

7950gx2 was a terrible card I know a few friends who got it regretted it immensely... The whole 2 cards stuck together things is a joke same with the new 9800GX2 I can see alot of people buying this thing thinking its the greatest thing since the ultra and most will wait for the next card! Dont get SLI unless you have a huge monitor 24" plus it will be a waste otherwise.


Can you not try the card in a different PCI slot? If your going upgrade to a new board dont get Asus lol Im saving for a new mobo. The asus one is just terrible

bogwalrus

the two pcix16 slots wont take the card as the heatsink blocks. The Pcix1 can fit it but would that hinder the cards performace?

I read a review that it is possible to get the card in quad sli provided you have a huge monitor and at really high resolutions. What does this mean though? Is higher resolution good or not. Surely higher resolution means better looking graphics. SO if i have a big monitor with v.high resolution wont this mean savage fps? Surely this card working in quad sli would kick ass and have the best looking game graphics.

Or have i made a big mistake=(

Oh could you recommend a good sli board if not abit or asus=)

Beelzebub

bogwalrus wrote: »

the two pcix16 slots wont take the card as the heatsink blocks. The Pcix1 can fit it but would that hinder the cards performace?

I read a review that it is possible to get the card in quad sli provided you have a huge monitor and at really high resolutions. What does this mean though? Is higher resolution good or not. Surely higher resolution means better looking graphics. SO if i have a big monitor with v.high resolution wont this mean savage fps? Surely this card working in quad sli would kick ass and have the best looking game graphics.

Or have i made a big mistake=(

Oh could you recommend a good sli board if not abit or asus=)

The NVidia 7xxx series is old technology it doesn't support DX10.
Get the 8800GT.
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=342780
You shouldn't have any problem with them physically in SLI.

Use this: http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_sli2007.html?modelx=33&model1=1068&model2=812&chart=362
to help you make up your mind.;)

RoyalMarine

jesus dont waste money on the 7950 gx2. i bought one a while ago on adverts and i hate myself for it.

now im trying to flog it and cant get much for it.

bogwalrus

I was using toms hardware as a reference and saw that the gx2 was in near the top single graphics cards , just before it went 8 series. I got this card also cause i hear that there were problems with the dx10 and that Crysis doesnt exactly perform any better in dx10 than with xp in dx9 (even worse). It really came down to costs and i didnt want to spend loads on an 8series card when i could get a 7 series that would work as good for much cheaper.

I did read a review though that in higher resolution with the right monitor and solid quad core cpu you could get quad sli performance far greater than the reference toms hardware gives to its sli performance.

supposedly the only problem the card has in being in quad sli is that it cannot support quad sli in low-mid resolutions. I dunno though. fairly new to all this lingo and still really dont know what i am talking about half the time.

dazftw

Ive two 8800GTX's and playing crysis on my 30" monitor I can get about 30fps thats it..

That whole quad sli with the GX2 gpus is all hype imo. Same goes for the new 9800GX2. I can only imagine the people who buy 3 9800's and think that have six cards in sli lol

Work out about 50fps in crysis lol

RoyalMarine

dazftw wrote: »

Ive two 8800GTX's and playing crysis on my 30" monitor I can get about 30fps thats it..

That whole quad sli with the GX2 gpus is all hype imo. Same goes for the new 9800GX2. I can only imagine the people who buy 3 9800's and think that have six cards in sli lol

Work out about 50fps in crysis lol

and spend over 1,000 euro :D

dazftw

lol probably more when the 8800's came out there were like €700

estimate the 9800's at 600 each 3 X 600 = €1800

"0mGz I @m s0 1337 crysiS at 50 FPS I h@ve t3h swEEtest R1G 1N t3h w0rLd"

bogwalrus

is 30fps bad? what resolution are you on?

Another reason i didnt want to go 8 series is casue i didnt want to go vista cause i hate it. have it on my laptop and it really annoys me. uses up my cpu speed with alot of junk i dont need running that is just inbuilt in the vista op. Its way too flashy and not functional and optimised for performance. I think Visat is a joke bill gates let loose on the world before he stepped down.

dazftw

You dont need vista for 8800's

Im running on 2560X1600 everything on high I get 30fps max if I lower stuff down ill get about 50fps.

bogwalrus

IS it not better to run at a lower resolution and play with higher fps?

Just curious as i said i am new to this.

I have a link here to a forum on them talking about quad sli.

http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/63831/

i stumbled on a few others but couldn find them again.

What do you think they mean about it only working with hi res. is it worth it?

TerrorFirmer

For example - say you had 500 euro - you have the choice of one 8800GTX or 2 8800GT's in Sli.

The problem being, that while the 8800GT's might match or surpass the 8800GTX in some scenarios at high resolutions, not every game supports Sli, and some games might even experience degraded performance with it enabled. I know when I had a GX2 I had to disable one card entirely just to play Medal of Honor Airborne. So your performance, despite what it may be on paper, is never concrete or reliable in games.

Not that I'm recommending you get a GTX mind, just an example. But owing to the patchy nature of either Sli or Crossfire, it's never economical to invest in it brand new - maybe a few months down the line when your card is starting to fail at high resolutions, it's somewhat more practical to add a cheap second card then get a new one all over again.

How much did you pay for the GX2? While it may have been fairly top dog in the old series of cards, it's old tech now, and even patchy Sli support aside, would fall by the wayside in comparison to even the latest budget cards...

Shiminay

I have a single 8800GTX (plus a C2D @ 2.67GHz) and run in a resolution of 1360X768 (using a 27" Samsung TV for my gaming cause I'm some sorta weirdo ) and whilst I haven't had Crysis running on it yet (installing it later), older games like Battlefield 2 or Prey all run very smoothly at very high details (FPS figures I can't quite remember). I'd personally be of the opinion that lower res and higher frame rate is better. It is of course better to run in the monitor's native resolution. Just build a machine for my brother and it's a similar setup to my own but has a Quad Core chip (same ram and video card) and have things running in 1680 X 1050 (Samsung 22" monitor) and got fairly decent performance on Crysis with things maxed and very good performance with things turned down 1 notch.

Hope that helps.

dazftw

Yea one 8800GTX and a 22" is absolutely perfect. I had it for a long time and never had SLI cause I didn't need it! Only once I got the new monitor did I notice a drop in performance. In battefield 2 went from 99fps non stop down to 40's - 60's depending how I was playing same for games like counterstrike source once I got the second GTX those FPS went back up to 99 non stop and stayed well over 100fps in CSS.

(using a 27" Samsung TV for my gaming cause I'm some sorta weirdo )

lol made me laugh I wanted to to do that with my 32" TV for Crysis but I must buy adapters DVI-HDMI and I cant justify spending €60 on one.

About what you said running games in lower resolutions yes this is true I know aload of guys that play cs 1.6 play it at like 800 X 600 even though they have like a 22" lol they say it makes it easier to kill people.

bogwalrus

i got the card for 150euro. Thanks for the help lads but im still trying decide on what to do. Since i have an sli mobo with one gx2 and have enough cash to get another now, am i better off just getting one 8800 gtx instead and then when that goes down in price getting a second.

Have a look at this other review and let me know what you think. He goes on about x8 and x16 aliasing at v high res to give unreal graphics and performance. If i do get a setup i will intened on keeping it the same for a good while.

thanks

bogwalrus

forgot to paste link

http://www.pcworld.com/article/125661-1/article.html

Shiminay

The prices have dropped reasonably well for 8800GTXs - mine was about €530 when I got it in April and I've seen them for about €380 on ebay (new) in recent weeks.

dazftw wrote:

lol made me laugh I wanted to to do that with my 32" TV for Crysis but I must buy adapters DVI-HDMI and I cant justify spending €60 on one.

I think I have a DVI to HDMI cable at home that I'm not using. I'll check this evening and post back here if you're interested (my TV has a VGA port, but no DVI unfortunately and I plan on getting an XBox 360 Elite some time this year which'll want that HDMI port on it).

srdb20

dazftw wrote: »

lol made me laugh I wanted to to do that with my 32" TV for Crysis but I must buy adapters DVI-HDMI and I cant justify spending €60 on one.

There only twenty euro in Peats, i bought one a couple of weeks ago, i think there bi directional i will check when i get home, im using my one as described above ill check this evening and confirm the make and model!

HDMI to DVI

dazftw

srdb20 wrote: »

There only twenty euro in Peats, i bought one a couple of weeks ago, i think there bi directional i will check when i get home, im using my one as described above ill check this evening and confirm the make and model!

HDMI to DVI

Sweet thanks for that ill order that over next couple of days :P There were €60 in argos :eek:

Sqaull20

dazftw wrote: »

Sweet thanks for that ill order that over next couple of days :P There were €60 in argos :eek:

http://www.dabs.ie/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4DTV&SearchType=1&CategorySelectedId=11018&SearchTerms=hdmi+to+dvi&PageMode=3&SearchKey=All&SearchMode=All&NavigationKey=11018

Dabs have them for €16 plus €5 postage,peats is €14 postage

RoyalMarine

bogwalrus wrote: »

i got the card for 150euro. Thanks for the help lads but im still trying decide on what to do. Since i have an sli mobo with one gx2 and have enough cash to get another now, am i better off just getting one 8800 gtx instead and then when that goes down in price getting a second.

Have a look at this other review and let me know what you think. He goes on about x8 and x16 aliasing at v high res to give unreal graphics and performance. If i do get a setup i will intened on keeping it the same for a good while.

thanks

thats a year old article. games like crysis wont be great with the card.

games like counterstrike, call of duty 4, doom 3 do look amazing with it on a big screen. the 7900gx2 will handle those games very well.