Video Card for GRAW?

[CR6]

I said it once and I'l say it again: geforce 6800GS. $200 and it will play any game that comes out this year, and part of next year on highest settings. Will last 4-5 years turning down the settings.

←

Your statement is incorrect. Do you have a 6800GS?

I am running a 6800GT which is clocked faster than a 6800GS and the GT struggles playing the latest high-end games (BF2, COD2) at decent framerates (consistent >40-60fps) at higher resolutions (i.e. >1024x768) with all the graphics settings turned up.

The 6800GS will play any game that comes out this year (but not much faster than a 6600GT), and maybe the next 1-2 years.

In 2-3 years, many new games will be using the PS3/Xbox 360 spec as the miniumum (i.e. GF 7800/X1800 level graphics).

[semjonov]

I said it once and I'l say it again: geforce 6800GS. $200 and it will play any game that comes out this year, and part of next year on highest settings. Will last 4-5 years turning down the settings.

←

Your statement is incorrect. Do you have a 6800GS?

I am running a 6800GT which is clocked faster than a 6800GS and the GT struggles playing the latest high-end games (BF2, COD2) at decent framerates (consistent >40-60fps) at higher resolutions (i.e. >1024x768) with all the graphics settings turned up.

The 6800GS will play any game that comes out this year (but not much faster than a 6600GT), and maybe the next 1-2 years.

In 2-3 years, many new games will be using the PS3/Xbox 360 spec as the miniumum (i.e. GF 7800/X1800 level graphics).

←

Yes, a 6800 gt/gs card just won´t cut it. My 6800gt have horrible problems with COD2 (On most resolutions actually.) 1024,2xAA, 4xAF 25-50fps in singleplayer, the odd thing is that lowering the settings on textures and stuff don´t do much. I can barely run FEAR at 1024, 2AA, 2xAF with texture and some other settings at medium, but in that game it seems like I have to little ram!

Cutting down the AA to nothing helps a little, but make everything horrible jaggy, maybe gain 10fps in both games.

Also the 6800gs on agp is clocked lower than the one on pci-e but and is also more expensive (But the agp version can have pipes unlocked apparently, they both have only 12 vs 16 on the gt and ultra 6800 cards.), about $80 I guess here in Sweden, apparently some kind of bridge thing is needed for the agp card (I haven´t got this confirmed just what I read on a forum.) so you might aswell buy a cheap mainboard that supports you cpu (If you don´t want to upgrade that) and has pci-e for the $80.

I get my 7800gt tomorrow and I will slap everything into the computer and sell of the other stuff as fast as possible before the 6800gt card loses to much value. I hope to get a good buck for it because high end nvidia/ati cards for agp is kind of expensive here ...;o)

Oh, I also bought more ram because 1024MB barely cuts it...

So if you guys buy a card for high end gaming do NOT buy anything less than a 7800gt or you will regret it. How the 7800gs (Are there actually coming one, they denied it at least once?) will do is for the future to se, if there really comes one this year.

This is with a:

3400+@2600Mhz

1024MB ram

6800gt

Soundblaster audigy

Edit: I still think a 6800gt/gs is a fast card but some new games demands is bloody redicolous. A 6800gs is a good upgrade for a "cheap" buck if you like gaming with high settings on you will really need atleast a 7800gt, thats a minimum. But the step above that is up to the 512MB high end ati/nvidia cards and those are redicelously expensive. And don´t go out and think that "I will just buy two cheaper cards and run sli". Buying something like 2x6600gt and expect miracles is stupid, you could as well buy an 6800gs and get as good performance (Or maybe better I think). Also thinking, I will buy this good card and buy another one later is not an option, for after a year or two you can probably sell of your old card and get a new card that blows your sli planned setup away with the money you get for your old card and the money you planned to use on buying the other card for sli.

Found some benchies on the 6600gt sli, it get whopped by an 6800gt.

I bet there probably are somethimes it can do better than a gt but it is more expensive to but two cards than the faster singlecard. There is also the need for the sli-motherboard that is a tad more expensive.

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=930&page=6

Edit: About 7800gt vs 7800gtx. I don´t think the price difference really makes sense because they are to close performance wise. The really big and hugely costly step is up to the 512MB nvidia gtx card that got superfast memory and are clocked high like hell, but that one is REALLY expensive, I don´t feel like the ATI x1800xt 512MB card is anywhere near it in performance, but it is a good bit cheaper, at least here.

Edit2: (More like edit5 but I cheated a little.) You are gonna need at least 1.5GB ram this year for running games in high settings.

Edit:3 (More like edit7 but I cheated some more) 7800gt, decent price high performance. It is like 50%, often more like 30-40%, faster in some games than the 6800gt (But I must say that it was a bit of an impulse buy for me, the 6800gt=>7800 difference is not huge, but my 6800gt does not overclock very well, not at all basically so I am hoping for the 7800gt and overclock it a lot, I probably get a good amount of cash for the 6800card so it is not like I spent a huge amount of money for a "small" upgrade.).

Edit4:

Upgrade guide:

6800gt/gs minimum upgrade, do NOT buy anything slower

7800 decent price high performance

x1800xl to slow for its price

7800gtx to slow for its price

x1800xt expensive, really fast

7800gtx 512MB very, very expensive! Really really fast!!!!!

If you got an insane amount of money get the 7800gtx 512MB, I could, but I rather pay on my student loan. There we could talk about an insane amount of money....

If you got an computer with high end cpu and everything contemplate buying a new mainboard with pci-e and a an pci-e graphics card. Then you can easily upgrade the vga card later then. If you buy an agp-card it is both more expensive and you don´t get the easy vga upgrade later.

If you got a low end computer, sell everything and buy everything new. The new pci-e mainboard you can easily plug a better card into later so if you cant afford a really good card you can just upgrade the one you buys later.

I would not recommend going sli at any time! Reason mentioned above...somewhere. And buy 2GB of RAM! Go AMD, cheapest is singlecore, dualcore don´t mather much right now and costs the double for an equally fast cpu in games that got no support. Jesus, that was a huge post.....

Edited January 17, 2006 by semjonov

[Logos]

At Anandtech; testbed is using an FX-57:

BF2 at 1024x768 with 4xAA

6800GS -- 51 fps

BF2 at 1280x1024 with 4xAA

6800GS -- 39 fps

7800GT -- 53 fps

FEAR at 1280x1024 with 4xAA

6800GS -- 20 fps

7800GT -- 29 fps

BF2 at 1280x1024 with NO AA

6800GS -- 48 fps

7800GT -- 70 fps

FEAR at 1280x1024 with NO AA

6800GS -- 38 fps

7800GT -- 56 fps

If you can afford it, a 7800GT is going to be worth your investment. FEAR is the most demanding game out right now, and my guess is that GRAW will be similar. My guess is that a 6800GS will run GRAW at 1024x768 with NO AA and playable framerates, but why not shell out another $100 and get the 7800GT, be happier now, and be happy into the next year.

Also, in response to another question, the 7200 is slated for February and the 7600 for March.

--Logos

[Logos]

I would not recommend going sli at any time! 

←

Agreed. SLI is for suckers and people with enough disposable income for dual 7800GTX's. For those who think SLI is so they can upgrade their system a year later with a second matching card, there will be several midrange cards a year from now that by themselves will be better purchases/performers.

And buy 2GB of RAM!

←

Might as well do it now and get two 1GB sticks. You'll wish you had later if you don't. I didn't, and I regret it.

Go AMD, cheapest is singlecore, dualcore don´t matter much right now and costs double for an equally fast cpu in games that got no support.

←

Testify!

By the way, for anyone building, go Athlon64 and DFI for the motherboard. My Winchester (stock-clocked at 1.8) runs at 2.7, and my lowly DDR1 (Samsung TCCD chips) runs at 600MHz. That's on air, folks. DFI roxors.

--Logos

[Specter]

I said it once and I'l say it again: geforce 6800GS. $200 and it will play any game that comes out this year, and part of next year on highest settings. Will last 4-5 years turning down the settings.

←

Your statement is incorrect. Do you have a 6800GS?

I am running a 6800GT which is clocked faster than a 6800GS and the GT struggles playing the latest high-end games (BF2, COD2) at decent framerates (consistent >40-60fps) at higher resolutions (i.e. >1024x768) with all the graphics settings turned up.

The 6800GS will play any game that comes out this year (but not much faster than a 6600GT), and maybe the next 1-2 years.

In 2-3 years, many new games will be using the PS3/Xbox 360 spec as the miniumum (i.e. GF 7800/X1800 level graphics).

←

Yes, a 6800 gt/gs card just won´t cut it. My 6800gt have horrible problems with COD2 (On most resolutions actually.) 1024,2xAA, 4xAF 25-50fps in singleplayer, the odd thing is that lowering the settings on textures and stuff don´t do much. I can barely run FEAR at 1024, 2AA, 2xAF with texture and some other settings at medium, but in that game it seems like I have to little ram!

Cutting down the AA to nothing helps a little, but make everything horrible jaggy, maybe gain 10fps in both games.

Also the 6800gs on agp is clocked lower than the one on pci-e but and is also more expensive (But the agp version can have pipes unlocked apparently, they both have only 12 vs 16 on the gt and ultra 6800 cards.), about $80 I guess here in Sweden, apparently some kind of bridge thing is needed for the agp card (I haven´t got this confirmed just what I read on a forum.) so you might aswell buy a cheap mainboard that supports you cpu (If you don´t want to upgrade that) and has pci-e for the $80.

I get my 7800gt tomorrow and I will slap everything into the computer and sell of the other stuff as fast as possible before the 6800gt card loses to much value. I hope to get a good buck for it because high end nvidia/ati cards for agp is kind of expensive here ...;o)

Oh, I also bought more ram because 1024MB barely cuts it...

So if you guys buy a card for high end gaming do NOT buy anything less than a 7800gt or you will regret it. How the 7800gs (Are there actually coming one, they denied it at least once?) will do is for the future to se, if there really comes one this year.

This is with a:

3400+@2600Mhz

1024MB ram

6800gt

Soundblaster audigy

Edit: I still think a 6800gt/gs is a fast card but some new games demands is bloody redicolous. A 6800gs is a good upgrade for a "cheap" buck if you like gaming with high settings on you will really need atleast a 7800gt, thats a minimum. But the step above that is up to the 512MB high end ati/nvidia cards and those are redicelously expensive. And don´t go out and think that "I will just buy two cheaper cards and run sli". Buying something like 2x6600gt and expect miracles is stupid, you could as well buy an 6800gs and get as good performance (Or maybe better I think). Also thinking, I will buy this good card and buy another one later is not an option, for after a year or two you can probably sell of your old card and get a new card that blows your sli planned setup away with the money you get for your old card and the money you planned to use on buying the other card for sli.

Found some benchies on the 6600gt sli, it get whopped by an 6800gt.

I bet there probably are somethimes it can do better than a gt but it is more expensive to but two cards than the faster singlecard. There is also the need for the sli-motherboard that is a tad more expensive.

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=930&page=6

Edit: About 7800gt vs 7800gtx. I don´t think the price difference really makes sense because they are to close performance wise. The really big and hugely costly step is up to the 512MB nvidia gtx card that got superfast memory and are clocked high like hell, but that one is REALLY expensive, I don´t feel like the ATI x1800xt 512MB card is anywhere near it in performance, but it is a good bit cheaper, at least here.

Edit2: (More like edit5 but I cheated a little.) You are gonna need at least 1.5GB ram this year for running games in high settings.

Edit:3 (More like edit7 but I cheated some more) 7800gt, decent price high performance. It is like 50%, often more like 30-40%, faster in some games than the 6800gt (But I must say that it was a bit of an impulse buy for me, the 6800gt=>7800 difference is not huge, but my 6800gt does not overclock very well, not at all basically so I am hoping for the 7800gt and overclock it a lot, I probably get a good amount of cash for the 6800card so it is not like I spent a huge amount of money for a "small" upgrade.).

Edit4:

Upgrade guide:

6800gt/gs minimum upgrade, do NOT buy anything slower

7800 decent price high performance

x1800xl to slow for its price

7800gtx to slow for its price

x1800xt expensive, really fast

7800gtx 512MB very, very expensive! Really really fast!!!!!

If you got an insane amount of money get the 7800gtx 512MB, I could, but I rather pay on my student loan. There we could talk about an insane amount of money....

If you got an computer with high end cpu and everything contemplate buying a new mainboard with pci-e and a an pci-e graphics card. Then you can easily upgrade the vga card later then. If you buy an agp-card it is both more expensive and you don´t get the easy vga upgrade later.

If you got a low end computer, sell everything and buy everything new. The new pci-e mainboard you can easily plug a better card into later so if you cant afford a really good card you can just upgrade the one you buys later.

I would not recommend going sli at any time! Reason mentioned above...somewhere. And buy 2GB of RAM! Go AMD, cheapest is singlecore, dualcore don´t mather much right now and costs the double for an equally fast cpu in games that got no support. Jesus, that was a huge post.....

←

Well, you are definitely the exception, not the rule, when it comes to that 6800GT. I can run everything on high, no runs, no drips, no errors.

You are the first person I have heard from that had any kind of trouble with that card, let alone the trouble you mention.

Sounds like you either got a bad card, or you have a faulty driver install. something.

But that 6800GT is one of the best cards out there.

[insane snyper]

Your statement is incorrect. Do you have a 6800GS?

Yup. Very happy with it. I can run BF2 and COD2 both so fast that I cant tell the difference between them and Americas Army (Well over 100). Dont actually know how to check framerates in BF2 and COD2, but theyre clearly at least 60. 1024x768 on all highest settings with the AA and AF both set to 4x.

On the other hand if you can pick up one of the 7800GT deals that comes with COD2 then your basically saving $50 on a card that only $100 more than 6800GS to begin with. That is assuming you want COD2 which is a fun action game for when you need to let off steam

[semjonov]

Don´t miss out on the Cod2 singleplayer part that is really awesome. For multi it seems to lack a lot of things.

And for people claiming the 6800gt/gs is a really good card at COD2:

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/call_o...vidia/page5.asp

I wouldn´t excactly call that performance good.

Edited January 18, 2006 by semjonov

[Cpl Ledanek]

How do you document your framerates?

I got the following games that I can use, which one is a benchmark?

GhostRecon (duh)

SplinterCell:Chaos Theory

COD2: demo

BF2

LOMAC:FF

IL-2:FB

NFS:MW demo

HL2

Should I like, screen capture it then post it?

Here are some older benchmarks. Some are done with 3DMark 03/3DMark 05/AquaMark3TRISCORE...I never compared it, coz I have no clue. I just do the benchmark and wait for ppl to tell me if its good or not.

benchies

[Specter]

How do you document your framerates?

I got the following games that I can use, which one is a benchmark?

GhostRecon (duh)

SplinterCell:Chaos Theory

COD2: demo

BF2

LOMAC:FF

IL-2:FB

NFS:MW demo

HL2

Should I like, screen capture it then post it?

Here are some older benchmarks.  Some are done with 3DMark 03/3DMark 05/AquaMark3TRISCORE...I never compared it, coz I have no clue.  I just do the benchmark and wait for ppl to tell me if its good or not.

benchies

←

Do it the easy way, bro.

turn everything up to where you think it should be, and if it dsoesn't stutter, and you are happy with it, the frame rates are more than likely 60+.

I just turn up my quality settings as high as they go and then see if I'm happy with it.

I hate benchmarks, and I don't like to run alot of miscellaneous crap when I'm gaming.

Otherwise there are 3rd party proggies that will eat resources that will doc the framrates for you, and most games have a framerate command that you can either turn on at the command console, or like with GR, go into the Options file in the game directory, and set Show Framerates to True or sometimes 1(As some games use 1 for on and 0 for off; and True for on and False for off).

[semjonov]

Well, as he said a lot of games has an benchmark thing. Some games like FEAR has the benchmark thing clearly visible in the options, but for just that game thebenchmark do not reflect actuall gameplay. Allmost all games has an option to run on an fps counter, if not you can use frapsm don´t affect framerate to much as long as you don´t record.

He got 6000p in 3dmark 05 with an 6600gt, I was like ###### thats even a couple more points more than my 6800gt. After that I realised it was sli....=)

Edited January 18, 2006 by semjonov

[Cpl Ledanek]

He got 6000p in 3dmark 05 with an 6600gt, I was like ###### thats even a couple more points more than my 6800gt. After that I realised it was sli....=)

←

see, again, its all Charlie Brown to me: WaaWaa WaaWaa waawaaa...I don't know what that means. Is that good?

PC Gamer and Falcon-NW said this two 6600GT was better on one game SC:Chaos Theory. At the time of build, that was the game I was building my pc for.

Monkey see-monkey do approach.

So again, is it good?

[semjonov]

He got 6000p in 3dmark 05 with an 6600gt, I was like ###### thats even a couple more points more than my 6800gt. After that I realised it was sli....=)

←

see, again, its all Charlie Brown to me: WaaWaa WaaWaa waawaaa...I don't know what that means. Is that good?

PC Gamer and Falcon-NW said this two 6600GT was better on one game SC:Chaos Theory. At the time of build, that was the game I was building my pc for.

Monkey see-monkey do approach.

So again, is it good?

←

Yes, 6000p in 3dmark 05 is really good. Think I got my 6800gt up to 5700 when overclocked but it gets problem in that high speeds in some games then. But the 6600gt sli will probably get is butt handed to it in most games by the same card. The design of the cards, 128MB with memory and also the 128bit architecture drags it down.

[Cpl Ledanek]

Disclaimer: NOT BRAGGING. Just giving stats just in case someone is building. I'm just posting for referrences, not sure what I'm doing here also. I looked at ppl's stats/specs/forums when I was building my PC. I asked a thousand questions. Ask the ppl here who DOES KNOW what they are doing, and how many nights/months I asked questions when I was building.

I'm on the same boat as everyone here, wondering what IS THE BEST CARD for OUR FAVORITE GAME.

I wish I understand how come a game was in production in years made with technology years ago, by computers built years ago, cannot be be played decently on a system/video card built with todays technology.

If any of the moderators can simplify this Statistics pls help me do so.

I wish I knew how to upload the movie so you can see the difference framerates I was getting.

I had BF2 at medium setting 1024x768@75hz

Screenshot of Display settings

I wish this effort would help somebody.

This came from a Fraps Demo:

MinMaxAvg:

Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg

683, 19766, 29, 41, 34.554

Fps:

31

30

34

37

35

35

34

35

33

34

36

35

35

35

36

34

36

35

35

Frame, Time (ms)

1, 0.000

2, 39.799

3, 73.389

4, 104.735

5, 140.774

6, 172.129

7, 201.916

8, 232.026

9, 267.216

10, 298.838

11, 329.007

12, 365.509

13, 396.035

14, 427.685

15, 460.688

16, 500.209

17, 532.491

18, 564.108

19, 600.543

20, 632.394

21, 662.812

22, 693.829

23, 729.554

24, 759.932

25, 791.069

26, 827.289

27, 858.556

28, 889.913

29, 921.957

30, 967.693

31, 998.349

32, 1029.954

33, 1072.612

34, 1107.052

35, 1144.142

36, 1176.855

37, 1213.091

38, 1241.905

39, 1271.632

40, 1305.541

41, 1335.450

42, 1364.963

43, 1397.684

44, 1432.028

45, 1461.866

46, 1492.855

47, 1528.848

48, 1558.307

49, 1588.318

50, 1618.533

51, 1639.736

52, 1683.571

53, 1715.559

54, 1744.032

55, 1780.580

56, 1810.024

57, 1839.442

58, 1866.977

59, 1907.953

60, 1935.819

61, 1966.455

62, 2000.752

63, 2029.198

64, 2057.680

65, 2086.823

66, 2128.871

67, 2156.444

68, 2183.546

69, 2203.642

70, 2238.255

71, 2266.635

72, 2299.698

73, 2326.142

74, 2358.641

75, 2386.474

76, 2412.272

77, 2437.588

78, 2475.531

79, 2504.609

80, 2529.709

81, 2555.180

82, 2647.972

83, 2679.492

84, 2710.819

85, 2736.208

86, 2761.833

87, 2787.869

88, 2819.474

89, 2845.629

90, 2860.670

91, 2887.994

92, 2918.357

93, 2942.549

94, 2962.046

95, 2988.135

96, 3013.562

97, 3032.115

98, 3062.145

99, 3086.929

100, 3112.088

101, 3134.771

102, 3164.973

103, 3188.946

104, 3214.780

105, 3230.972

106, 3256.725

107, 3288.757

108, 3313.884

109, 3331.068

110, 3355.289

111, 3384.819

112, 3401.014

113, 3427.116

114, 3452.157

115, 3475.573

116, 3491.613

117, 3525.140

118, 3550.201

119, 3566.732

120, 3592.444

121, 3626.833

122, 3652.195

123, 3677.547

124, 3694.377

125, 3722.343

126, 3754.543

127, 3780.762

128, 3798.206

129, 3835.644

130, 3877.139

131, 3918.639

132, 3967.710

133, 4007.608

134, 4035.693

135, 4066.022

136, 4100.806

137, 4128.138

138, 4156.334

139, 4183.766

140, 4202.696

141, 4240.128

142, 4268.006

143, 4296.891

144, 4330.141

145, 4357.389

146, 4384.659

147, 4405.381

148, 4435.722

149, 4471.800

150, 4500.365

151, 4528.757

152, 4563.606

153, 4590.571

154, 4618.257

155, 4639.080

156, 4669.107

157, 4702.433

158, 4729.491

159, 4757.143

160, 4792.347

161, 4820.009

162, 4849.407

163, 4867.167

164, 4898.759

165, 4931.658

166, 4959.414

167, 4988.378

168, 5022.664

169, 5051.315

170, 5069.622

171, 5102.686

172, 5129.651

173, 5167.913

174, 5194.568

175, 5224.313

176, 5256.399

177, 5284.065

178, 5302.095

179, 5332.220

180, 5358.942

181, 5391.774

182, 5418.855

183, 5438.167

184, 5469.526

185, 5503.881

186, 5529.888

187, 5557.114

188, 5584.317

189, 5605.020

190, 5641.829

191, 5668.898

192, 5698.353

193, 5732.027

194, 5758.856

195, 5788.178

196, 5818.885

197, 5838.013

198, 5874.392

199, 5902.201

200, 5929.141

201, 5964.322

202, 5991.154

203, 6021.917

204, 6048.715

205, 6067.365

206, 6103.698

207, 6131.649

208, 6160.086

209, 6192.628

210, 6221.907

211, 6249.262

212, 6266.996

213, 6299.635

214, 6332.627

215, 6360.611

216, 6388.245

217, 6424.878

218, 6454.093

219, 6482.761

220, 6502.139

221, 6549.010

222, 6579.759

223, 6606.995

224, 6634.061

225, 6667.144

226, 6694.638

227, 6724.073

228, 6751.837

229, 6772.205

230, 6806.068

231, 6833.835

232, 6860.974

233, 6894.647

234, 6921.824

235, 6949.216

236, 6968.215

237, 7000.609

238, 7032.338

239, 7061.320

240, 7089.992

241, 7127.047

242, 7158.305

243, 7187.282

244, 7217.691

245, 7235.949

246, 7270.450

247, 7298.727

248, 7326.056

249, 7358.154

250, 7385.859

251, 7413.180

252, 7430.314

253, 7462.716

254, 7498.229

255, 7526.067

256, 7554.885

257, 7588.018

258, 7616.727

259, 7637.084

260, 7665.575

261, 7694.607

262, 7729.437

263, 7757.892

264, 7787.620

265, 7822.549

266, 7850.604

267, 7871.580

268, 7902.199

269, 7929.492

270, 7965.200

271, 7995.127

272, 8025.473

273, 8058.412

274, 8086.792

275, 8115.173

276, 8133.498

277, 8164.728

278, 8198.904

279, 8226.948

280, 8255.598

281, 8289.835

282, 8317.844

283, 8338.865

284, 8369.933

285, 8399.774

286, 8433.825

287, 8462.045

288, 8491.710

289, 8527.291

290, 8555.187

291, 8583.280

292, 8601.742

293, 8647.983

294, 8682.009

295, 8710.017

296, 8738.086

297, 8772.150

298, 8800.001

299, 8828.381

300, 8856.640

301, 8892.042

302, 8919.931

303, 8951.670

304, 8969.083

305, 9006.932

306, 9035.496

307, 9063.734

308, 9091.616

309, 9126.728

310, 9157.533

311, 9187.138

312, 9222.848

313, 9250.414

314, 9267.857

315, 9299.286

316, 9328.589

317, 9364.793

318, 9392.623

319, 9421.958

320, 9456.125

321, 9483.508

322, 9502.858

323, 9534.581

324, 9564.888

325, 9601.460

326, 9628.773

327, 9657.839

328, 9693.710

329, 9721.766

330, 9751.393

331, 9771.967

332, 9800.697

333, 9834.419

334, 9861.581

335, 9889.467

336, 9925.625

337, 9954.374

338, 9981.162

339, 10000.423

340, 10029.952

341, 10062.633

342, 10089.764

343, 10118.335

344, 10136.706

345, 10174.108

346, 10202.313

347, 10230.283

348, 10257.339

349, 10290.839

350, 10317.821

351, 10336.396

352, 10366.216

353, 10400.430

354, 10428.694

355, 10456.152

356, 10483.990

357, 10504.999

358, 10540.053

359, 10567.897

360, 10595.068

361, 10629.340

362, 10656.839

363, 10686.308

364, 10713.340

365, 10731.432

366, 10766.432

367, 10793.757

368, 10820.639

369, 10856.333

370, 10884.507

371, 10903.661

372, 10936.196

373, 10965.114

374, 10999.273

375, 11027.403

376, 11055.526

377, 11089.867

378, 11117.486

379, 11135.790

380, 11173.318

381, 11197.158

382, 11230.870

383, 11257.171

384, 11283.633

385, 11301.636

386, 11336.769

387, 11363.828

388, 11390.184

389, 11417.366

390, 11434.723

391, 11476.948

392, 11504.608

393, 11533.338

394, 11566.899

395, 11594.120

396, 11620.442

397, 11648.599

398, 11664.669

399, 11715.155

400, 11741.758

401, 11768.668

402, 11801.940

403, 11828.511

404, 11855.424

405, 11884.153

406, 11901.256

407, 11937.912

408, 11965.332

409, 11997.419

410, 12031.921

411, 12059.367

412, 12085.763

413, 12114.172

414, 12131.750

415, 12169.333

416, 12196.979

417, 12226.942

418, 12260.970

419, 12289.556

420, 12315.773

421, 12334.086

422, 12364.703

423, 12400.430

424, 12431.015

425, 12458.428

426, 12492.789

427, 12519.972

428, 12548.560

429, 12565.730

430, 12598.842

431, 12631.776

432, 12658.770

433, 12686.187

434, 12719.278

435, 12736.757

436, 12766.157

437, 12794.035

438, 12819.965

439, 12854.007

440, 12880.627

441, 12900.551

442, 12929.831

443, 12964.282

444, 12992.268

445, 13029.384

446, 13058.961

447, 13093.932

448, 13120.476

449, 13148.190

450, 13164.539

451, 13206.317

452, 13234.414

453, 13260.877

454, 13288.808

455, 13322.397

456, 13351.720

457, 13379.888

458, 13398.990

459, 13433.299

460, 13460.062

461, 13489.085

462, 13516.432

463, 13535.368

464, 13568.420

465, 13597.491

466, 13625.077

467, 13657.452

468, 13684.808

469, 13704.441

470, 13730.709

471, 13757.183

472, 13790.514

473, 13817.631

474, 13847.118

475, 13866.505

476, 13901.800

477, 13929.220

478, 13956.519

479, 13985.687

480, 14004.373

481, 14038.677

482, 14064.971

483, 14094.969

484, 14127.761

485, 14155.581

486, 14182.862

487, 14202.501

488, 14229.936

489, 14261.913

490, 14288.512

491, 14314.742

492, 14334.451

493, 14372.450

494, 14400.745

495, 14427.165

496, 14454.726

497, 14487.980

498, 14515.188

499, 14534.335

500, 14567.960

501, 14601.691

502, 14629.312

503, 14657.522

504, 14685.270

505, 14705.719

506, 14738.914

507, 14766.365

508, 14792.811

509, 14827.265

510, 14856.741

511, 14883.278

512, 14902.048

513, 14929.990

514, 14964.399

515, 14990.901

516, 15019.481

517, 15055.106

518, 15081.567

519, 15101.114

520, 15128.611

521, 15155.337

522, 15193.658

523, 15220.423

524, 15248.581

525, 15267.318

526, 15303.606

527, 15330.256

528, 15358.954

529, 15386.922

530, 15420.672

531, 15450.229

532, 15469.196

533, 15498.061

534, 15533.543

535, 15561.707

536, 15590.409

537, 15617.715

538, 15635.500

539, 15672.834

540, 15701.165

541, 15728.708

542, 15762.215

543, 15789.141

544, 15816.108

545, 15836.890

546, 15865.209

547, 15900.773

548, 15930.076

549, 15964.235

550, 16003.961

551, 16030.891

552, 16057.436

553, 16084.985

554, 16101.336

555, 16154.162

556, 16186.285

557, 16220.524

558, 16249.129

559, 16265.356

560, 16293.362

561, 16320.408

562, 16354.174

563, 16381.240

564, 16398.659

565, 16429.075

566, 16463.851

567, 16491.268

568, 16518.022

569, 16535.545

570, 16564.412

571, 16598.874

572, 16625.683

573, 16652.350

574, 16668.167

575, 16707.636

576, 16734.205

577, 16760.768

578, 16786.908

579, 16820.624

580, 16848.106

581, 16864.818

582, 16894.116

583, 16928.505

584, 16956.835

585, 16983.645

586, 17001.684

587, 17031.290

588, 17065.630

589, 17091.983

590, 17119.153

591, 17137.414

592, 17173.519

593, 17200.876

594, 17233.783

595, 17262.562

596, 17298.645

597, 17326.701

598, 17354.933

599, 17389.606

600, 17416.625

601, 17435.657

602, 17464.734

603, 17493.572

604, 17527.575

605, 17555.352

606, 17582.329

607, 17601.905

608, 17637.755

609, 17666.539

610, 17692.841

611, 17723.556

612, 17757.603

613, 17785.361

614, 17803.550

615, 17833.780

616, 17867.240

617, 17894.364

618, 17924.230

619, 17951.032

620, 17968.071

621, 18008.151

622, 18034.987

623, 18062.026

624, 18096.641

625, 18124.846

626, 18152.163

627, 18178.814

628, 18195.351

629, 18247.176

630, 18274.985

631, 18302.193

632, 18335.834

633, 18362.235

634, 18389.033

635, 18416.565

636, 18434.761

637, 18473.784

638, 18501.735

639, 18528.728

640, 18562.312

641, 18589.459

642, 18616.332

643, 18634.883

644, 18664.434

645, 18699.107

646, 18725.875

647, 18754.382

648, 18789.457

649, 18816.990

650, 18836.496

651, 18865.918

652, 18894.175

653, 18927.976

654, 18956.833

655, 18984.364

656, 19001.452

657, 19037.765

658, 19063.459

659, 19089.589

660, 19115.713

661, 19132.554

662, 19167.200

663, 19194.936

664, 19228.112

665, 19261.167

666, 19286.791

667, 19313.647

668, 19330.510

669, 19361.876

670, 19394.107

671, 19420.211

672, 19447.937

673, 19464.436

674, 19500.754

675, 19527.159

676, 19552.851

677, 19579.159

678, 19595.084

679, 19633.466

680, 19659.181

681, 19686.080

682, 19719.162

683, 19736.536

Spec r in the temp sig:

[Logos]

Well, you are definitely the exception, not the rule, when it comes to that 6800GT.  I can run everything on high, no runs, no drips, no errors.

←

This thread started with a "what do I need" to run GRAW question, yet the opinions offered, even for those pitching 6800GT, are still high above actual NEED. The NEED question is not really a good question because the answer is that you'll probably only NEED a 4200Ti; it's just that you'll be running at 640x480 with DirectX 8 features. Really, this comes down to "What would you people recommend for a new system that will be playing high-end 3D games like GRAW?".

As for our answers, I think we may need to qualify things like "everything on high" because that can mean a lot of different things. Everything on high to me means 1600x1200 with 4xAA, 8xAF, soft shadows, bla, bla, bla; i.e. EVERYTHING. The 6800GT definitely WILL NOT run all the eye candy at 1600x1200.

Now, if you're talking about all the eye candy at 800x600 or maybe 1024x768, I'll buy it. But with so many people out there these days with 19 and 21 inch CRT's or 17 or 19 inch LCD's, 1024x768 doesn't cut it. I know that I didn't buy a 19-inch trinitron to run at 1024x768. For others, that may be fine.

Then, with the 17/19-inch LCD's in particular, where the native resolutions are 1280x1024, you NEED to run at the native resolution, else image quality will suffer immensely. A 6800GT, for example, WILL NOT run FEAR at 1280x1024 with "everything on high" without stuttering. So if the person building a new system is planning on getting a 17/19-inch LCD, I would recommend a 7800GT or better.

Basically, the type of monitor you're using and what resolutions you need or want to run at should play a big role in what videocard you should buy. I played the FEAR demo with a lowly 6600GT, and it was fun, and it looked pretty good, but all the features weren't turned on, and it would have looked a whole lot better with a 7800GT. If you're using a CRT, are willing to run at 1024x768, and don't mind upgrading your vidcard in a year, a 6800GT might be all right.

One more thing to consider, people, is the X-Fi soundcard from Creative that offloads most of the sound processing to the soundcard. I have a friend who (6800GT, AGP version) couldn't play FEAR at better than 800x600, but he was able to play at 1024x768 with most of the candy turned on after switching to an X-Fi AND installing a new NVidia driver that takes advantage of Intel's hyper-threading procs. He thought it was the driver that made the difference, but I suspect it was freeing the proc of the sound processing. That X-Fi should make whatever videocard you have last a little longer.

--Logos

[semjonov]

As far as I know the X-fi don´t help much in games compared to a regular Audigy, but everything is better than onboard audio. Also in some games it is very important to have updated sound drivers. Also in some games you might need to change the sound settings to lower, I remember playing COD1 and at the last level I got double the framerate when turning of eax with my audigy. Also gofing around with the sund settings in FEAR and there one of the eax settings gave the best framerate, but the difference there was small.

Edited January 18, 2006 by semjonov

[Logos]

This came from a Fraps Demo:

MinMaxAvg:

Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg

   683,     19766,  29,  41, 34.554

←

What were your anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering settings?

The human eye will see fluid motion at roughly 24 fps or better. This means that a "playable" average framerate for your system with that game is (AT LEAST) 30, preferably higher. If you get a lot of movement on a screen, a lot of individual objects moving at once, a lot of special effects at once, or any other number of things that can suck up system resources, your fps will drop significantly. As your fraps demo shows, your lowest framerate is almost 6fps lower than your average. That's less than what I would expect. Honestly, 29 - 41 is a pretty tight range, and I would bet if you played the game for a longer period of time, you would find a MUCH broader range from lowest to highest. Better yet, play the game multi-player online, join a squad, play a whole round, and see what your range is then with all the extra info your system is handling.

Also, if you can run fraps on the Fear demo and play the whole demo, I would be curious to see the range there.

--Logos

Edited January 18, 2006 by Logos

[Logos]

As far as I know the X-fi don´t help much in games compared to a regular Audigy, but everything is better than onboard audio.

←

Nice call. I went to look it up to give some numbers on differences in CPU utilization, and I can't seem to find anything that is entirely trustworthy.

I've found reviews that put CPU utilization at the same level as an Audigy4 (more efficient that an Audigy2, btw), but with better sound and effects, and I've found reviews that say CPU utilization is almost zero. I will continue to look, and I will post here if I find something that looks particularly reliable.

--Logos

[Cpl Ledanek]

This came from a Fraps Demo:

MinMaxAvg:

Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg

   683,     19766,  29,  41, 34.554

←

What were your anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering settings?

The human eye will see fluid motion at roughly 24 fps or better. This means that a "playable" average framerate for your system with that game is (AT LEAST) 30, preferably higher. If you get a lot of movement on a screen, a lot of individual objects moving at once, a lot of special effects at once, or any other number of things that can suck up system resources, your fps will drop significantly. As your fraps demo shows, your lowest framerate is almost 6fps lower than your average. That's less than what I would expect. Honestly, 29 - 41 is a pretty tight range, and I would bet if you played the game for a longer period of time, you would find a MUCH broader range from lowest to highest. Better yet, play the game multi-player online, join a squad, play a whole round, and see what your range is then with all the extra info your system is handling.

Also, if you can run fraps on the Fear demo and play the whole demo, I would be curious to see the range there.

--Logos

←

this is the screenshot of my setting on the Display Properties. Was that you were referring to? Or the game itself.

I will take another screenshot and dig up the FEAR DEMO. Thanks for explainging things to this 6yr old.

[Papa6]

I believe that GRAW will be backwards compatible for those who have slower machines

[Logos]

this is the screenshot of my setting on the Display Properties.  Was that you were referring to? Or the game itself.

I will take another screenshot and dig up the FEAR DEMO. 

←

Sweet wallpaper, btw.

I really am curious about how that would play out in multi-player, especially if you're part of a squad. I actually take a performance hit when I join squads. I don't know why. It doesn't seem like the squad would be THAT much more info than what the system handles when I'm not in a squad, but it happens.

--Logos

Edited January 18, 2006 by Logos

[Logos]

I believe that GRAW will be backwards compatible for those who have slower machines

←

Bo said something once about it being scalable so that older hardware would still play it, but he wasn't very specific on what that meant. HL2 will play on junk, but it looks like junk if you compare it to HL2 on a high-end system. Again, it comes down to what you want out of the game and what you're willing to give up.

--Logos

Edited January 18, 2006 by Logos

[CR6]

As for our answers, I think we may need to qualify things like "everything on high" because that can mean a lot of different things.  Everything on high to me means 1600x1200 with 4xAA, 8xAF, soft shadows, bla, bla, bla; i.e. EVERYTHING.  The 6800GT definitely WILL NOT run all the eye candy at 1600x1200. 

Now, if you're talking about all the eye candy at 800x600 or maybe 1024x768, I'll buy it.  But with so many people out there these days with 19 and 21 inch CRT's or 17 or 19 inch LCD's, 1024x768 doesn't cut it. I know that I didn't buy a 19-inch trinitron to run at 1024x768.  For others, that may be fine.

←

Good post Logos. I think people are talking on 2 different levels here about what is "acceptable". It is difficult to recommend cards since ppl's budgets and opinions on graphics are different. There are people here that will pay for 7800 GT SLI, and others that can just afford a GF 6200 ... in the end, it's all good if you're satisfied with your purchase.

I bought my 6800 GT to drive a 20" Dell Widescreen at native res (1680x1050) and it isn't cutting it for newer games. It works great for GR1, Halo PC etc, but not 2005 games. I have made an objective comparison with FRAPS as I hooked up my widescreen to my X800XT PE which run the same games significantly faster.

I'm also not crazy about benchmarks, but there is no way to objectively compare cards without them. Just saying that if the game doesn't look like it's stuttering then it's likely >60 fps is not objective, e.g. I can tell if a CRT's refresh rate is less than 70 Hz but not everyone can, and the only way to know the true Hz is with cold hard numbers on your monitor's on screen display.

The easiest way to check your framerates in almost any game is FRAPS. Just turn it on before you fire up your game and you will know exactly how much fps you are getting.

[Cpl Ledanek]

20" Dell Widescreen...Hmmmmm

[semjonov]

Just had to say that I put the new stuff in my computer now.

Leadtek 7800gt and I switched one of my meories to a 1GB so now I have 1.5GB total. I thinking about testing a 1GB stick more that I have on my desk, but I am not shure it is compatible with my mainboard, thinking about just sending it back and I can´t do that if I used it.

COD2 really runs like a dream now, at same settings as my 6800gt i probably get usually 30-100% better framerate. I was amazed by the performance in some places. I still use 2xAA and 4xAF, 1024x768, everthing at high except smoke that is on lowest. I usuallly get above 50fps when going through smoke.

Didn´t overclock as good as I hoped for but I get about 8000p in 3dmark 05. But Fear runs a lot better but COD as i mentioned runs like a dream. Now I just have to test it online.

[semjonov]

And also for the people planning to buy new computer stuff just for GRAW. It is over three months there and that is if it get released on time. Even if it get released on time it is not shure that the stuff that are most worth to buy right now still is then, there might have come a $200-250 card that reallly whop an 7800gt or it might be just that a 7800gt costs a lot less. By the way ther have started to pop up 7800gt cards with 512MB of relatively high speed memory, a tad expensive right now but who knows?

I bought my new stuff mostly for COD2 and FEAR, considering that my 6800gt just didn´t cut it for those games I certainly think that it will be a tough 2006 for the 6800 cards.