What's a good card for gaming db? I'm kinda disappointed with the ATI 4670 which an upgrade from an nvidia 7900GTO.
It all depends on how much you want to spend. This is what I have and I HIGHLY recommend it. They have been pretty hard to come by for whatever reason, and now they are 30 bucks more than when I purchased it. Gotta love Supply and Demand.
It all depends on the quality of your PSU. You can buy some no-name branded 1000 watt supply and it won't be nearly as good as a 500 watt by one of the major guys that create clean power with their supplies (Antec is my personal favorite). I am running a 550 watt Antec...the new video cards are pretty similar to the predecessors as far as power consumption goes, so I'm sure you'll be fine.
What does my current 4670 card compare to nvidia wise?
That Enermax is fine...it'll power a new card fine. I would stay away from Nvidia right now...ATI has them beat in nearly every single price point. If you're getting a new card, get up into the 5xxx series and you'll be getting a better card than the Nvidia equivalent. I put a ATI 5750 into my buddies PC recently and that one is pretty nice as well at the 130-150 dollar price point. Sure, it can't run with the 5850, but for the price, it's fantastic.
OK thanks. Is the difference between 128 bit and 256 bit interface that noticeable? Cause mine is a 128 bit.
What I do notice is that the 4670 smokes my 7900 GTO when playing the NFS Shift demo. It was a slide show with the 7900 and I can MAX OUT the settings with the 4670.
My big problem I guess is with the drivers as older games don't seem to run as good with the ATI drivers as they did with the nvidia card.
Rodster wrote:OK thanks. Is the difference between 128 bit and 256 bit interface that noticeable? Cause mine is a 128 bit.
What I do notice is that the 4670 smokes my 7900 GTO when playing the NFS Shift demo. It was a slide show with the 7900 and I can MAX OUT the settings with the 4670.
My big problem I guess is with the drivers as older games don't seem to run as good with the ATI drivers as they did with the nvidia card.
Anything from the ATI 5000 series should serve you well. You won't be able to get anything comparable from nVidia in the mid-range price/performance range until April-May at best as they just announced their new high end card will be out at the end of Q1. That means budget cards will come out much later as nV is struggling with 40 nm process yields and the new "Fermi" architecture....
And EA games typically run better on ATI hardware the past several years which has been my experience....
Thanks for guys for your input. I decided to go with nvidia for now. I picked up a 9800GTX from Newegg.com
You guys are right that performance wise ATI has the edge along with image quality but my reason for switching back to nvidia is basically due to ATI drivers, nothing more nothing less.
I gave away my 7900GTO to my friend and he ain't giving it back. But when I had my 7900GTO it ran all of my older games in W7 very well.
A lot of my older games which I still play like Grand Prix 3 and Grand Prix 4 run like crap in Windows 7. I'm not a big fan of ATI's CCC which is a bloated mess whereas nvidia's version is more streamlined.
edit: Forget everything above. I found the workaround. I'll install Windows XP instead.
Rodster wrote:Thanks for guys for your input. I decided to go with nvidia for now. I picked up a 9800GTX from Newegg.com
You guys are right that performance wise ATI has the edge along with image quality but my reason for switching back to nvidia is basically due to ATI drivers, nothing more nothing less.
I gave away my 7900GTO to my friend and he ain't giving it back. But when I had my 7900GTO it ran all of my older games in W7 very well.
A lot of my older games which I still play like Grand Prix 3 and Grand Prix 4 run like crap in Windows 7. I'm not a big fan of ATI's CCC which is a bloated mess whereas nvidia's version is more streamlined.
edit: Forget everything above. I found the workaround. I'll install Windows XP instead.
Sorry, but I have NO issues running any older games on my 4870X2....and while ATI's Control Panel is not ideal, neither is nV's. They are both useable if you simply spend some time learning what each of them do. Good luck with your new card.....
DivotMaker wrote:
Sorry, but I have NO issues running any older games on my 4870X2....and while ATI's Control Panel is not ideal, neither is nV's. They are both useable if you simply spend some time learning what each of them do. Good luck with your new card.....
The problem with those older games I mentioned is that they are very CPU intensive if no 3D solution is found. Grand Prix 3 was made in 1998.
While in the game it has a built in CPU meter called Processor Occupancy. In Windows 7 32 bit running those games my "PO" shot up to 230% whereas when I was using my nvidia 7900 card I would run about 45% "PO". Huge difference as the game literally becomes a 1 second slide show.
Hey guys I need to run some old, old games i.e. MS-DOS games in Windows 7. I'm using DOSBox and I can't remember how I got my games to run before.
Anyone up on old DOS commands? I think I need to have at least a DOS config.sys file in order to make it work. Damn I can't remember how I did it the last time.
So far I can mount the CD drive and directory I created for the game in DOSBox. I even tried running the install executable in admin mode. What I get is the game creates another directory, the screen quickly flashes and i'm back at the DOD prompt.
DOS? Seriously? Do you still play your Intellivision too?
Good luck in Windows 7. Ever since XP went away they essentially removed DOS functionality and you're in for a world of hurt using emulators to get the job done. Time to move on bro.
dbdynsty25 wrote:DOS? Seriously? Do you still play your Intellivision too?
Good luck in Windows 7. Ever since XP went away they essentially removed DOS functionality and you're in for a world of hurt using emulators to get the job done. Time to move on bro.
Damn I actually had it working in Windows 7 and I got rid of my config.sys file and instructions on how I did it. Thanks for the encouragement.
Got two of em at work (one for me and one for the boss)...absolute badass 24" for 230 bucks? Are you kidding? When I bought my Dell 24" it was a grand. Damn I love technological advancement.
Got two of em at work (one for me and one for the boss)...absolute badass 24" for 230 bucks? Are you kidding? When I bought my Dell 24" it was a grand. Damn I love technological advancement.
You're right it would be great if I had eyes like this:
Keep in mind I sit less than two feet in front of my monitor.
But when I had my 7900GTO it ran all of my older games in W7 very well.
