GDD_Viper Posted April 7, 2006 Share Posted April 7, 2006 Im not a computer specs person, so i need some advice. Heres what i have: AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3000+ 1.81GHz 1.00 GB of RAM Geforce 6600 GT An Asus A8N-SLI Motherboard So i think i have an above average computer. I did the big upgrade last june, and decided to get a 6600 because i knew i wouldnt be able to afford 2 top of the line (back then) cards. Cant remember what the newest one was.. I run most of my stuff on high, but i turn a couple things like shadows to medium. BF2 runs well, but i have lag issues so i cant tell if any of my issues with that game is my computer or if its always my connection problem. My main question is, would the upgrade be worth getting a second Geforce 6600 GT for my SLI motherboard? I think its around 200 bucks which might be kind of steep, seeing as a PS3 is going to cost an arm and a leg, but i just want to check if its worth it. I cant really do any big upgrades so its probably either buy another 6600 or leave it as is and stick to my system of doing a big upgrade, waiting 4 years, then doing a big upgrade, etc. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Posted April 7, 2006 Share Posted April 7, 2006 I have a similar sys, better card and more mem. If I wanted to upgrade a bit, for this game I would get an Agia card. Not another Sly card. But thats me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agentkay Posted April 7, 2006 Share Posted April 7, 2006 (edited) I highly recommend the 7600GT! Not only its easielly twice as fast as the 6600GT (Its faster than a 6800Ultra!), but its dirt cheap too! The best performance/price card hands down right now. If you sell your 6600GT well, you have to invest around $100 or so, for quite an impressive upgrade. Edited April 7, 2006 by agentkay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GDD_Viper Posted April 7, 2006 Author Share Posted April 7, 2006 Thanks for the quick responses. I highly recommend the 7600GT! Not only its easielly twice as fast as the 6600GT (Its faster than a 6800Ultra!), but its dirt cheap too! The best performance/price card hands down right now. If you sell your 6600GT well, you have to invest around $100 or so, for quite an impressive upgrade. ← would i sell it on ebay? Havent really done it before but i guess i could give it a try. Or do random stores like PC Club buy them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minister Posted April 7, 2006 Share Posted April 7, 2006 (edited) I also have a 6600gt, but am just going to try things (demo) before i decide any thing,upgrade if neccesary, maybe to SLI, maybe another card, remember, this game, with mods , will 'live'some years, so there's no real hurry. Edited April 7, 2006 by Minister Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agentkay Posted April 7, 2006 Share Posted April 7, 2006 Yes sell it on eBay, and advertise it really well. I sold my ti4200 for almost $100 last year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brettzies Posted April 7, 2006 Share Posted April 7, 2006 (edited) Goto tomshardware dot com and check out the vga charts(they can be tricky to find). Getting an SLI on the lower end card might be slightly cheaper then getting a single higher end one, but not much better in performance if at all. VGA 2005 december charts My opinion, spend a little extra and get one really good 7900 like someone already suggested. I'm not sold on SLI myself, too expensive to really see the gains, and for lower end cards, not really worth it. I think the main advantage of SLI is you can run high res better, like 1600x1200. As you compare lower resolutions, you don't see much performance difference. Least from what I can remember. Edited April 7, 2006 by Brettzies Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agentkay Posted April 7, 2006 Share Posted April 7, 2006 (edited) SLI makes most sense if you have the money to buy 2 cards at once, and they should be at least in the "mid-highend" category. This is necessary due to the fact that new cards are coming out every 6 months and they are almost always twice as fast as the "old" cards. The 7900GT is an awesome card too (crazy overclocker too), but it costs around $300. Obviously it kicks the 7600GT ass performance-wise, especially if you use a lot of AA/AF. Edited April 8, 2006 by agentkay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost_Zulu Posted April 8, 2006 Share Posted April 8, 2006 Common sense would tell you, that when this game is released. It would be in your best interest to wait until the hardware guys put the game to the test. It's easy to pack your computer full of things you'd hope would solve performance gains. It's hard to fatham the idea of your hard earned money wasted on what you didn't need. The video card war is beggining to get old. Who can really tell the difference between the two cards on paper? Each hardware reviewer has their own views on performance and you can go to ten different sites and get conflicting reports. Leaving you to come in here and ask unproffessionals the mere questions that we also have. Ageia to me will utilize and allow more performance in the long run. I can't see spending 300-500 again on a video card. (ati 800xl) After awhile you'd have to ask, why do these companies keep stringing us along year by year. I'm sure most of you can agree that if they would make one card that only needed to have drivers once in awhile we'd all feel more comfortable about spending our hard earned cash.....But that would only happen in a perfect world. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightspeed Posted April 8, 2006 Share Posted April 8, 2006 (edited) viper, whats with the 1.81 ghz? that cant be right...u wanna check that. as far as video cards, dont believe the hype about all the new cards. 6600gt will run this game sweetly, Im sure of that. definitely recommend a ram upgrade for a 64, it demands a lot of memory - 2 gigs for a 64. also consider overclocking the card if u havent already. have u oc'ed it? Edited April 8, 2006 by PoW_LigHtsPeEd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VeLocityChaos Posted April 8, 2006 Share Posted April 8, 2006 I havent played the game. Going on what I've seen with other recent games. I think your current setup should be ok at 1024x768 Med settings and No AA\AF. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightspeed Posted April 8, 2006 Share Posted April 8, 2006 Viper look into overclocking your cpu. Apparently, its perfect for it, and can be pushed to 2300+ mhz. overclocking 3000 do a search around to find other sites, but i would cosnider milking the processor more, and increasing ram, b4 u spalsh out on a card that prolly wont make a lot of noticeable difference compared to a cpu tweak. my two cents, i do not guarantee oc'ing wont kill your system...lol. but i would have a go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
insane snyper Posted April 8, 2006 Share Posted April 8, 2006 viper, whats with the 1.81 ghz? that cant be right...u wanna check that. as far as video cards, dont believe the hype about all the new cards. 6600gt will run this game sweetly, Im sure of that. definitely recommend a ram upgrade for a 64, it demands a lot of memory - 2 gigs for a 64. also consider overclocking the card if u havent already. have u oc'ed it? ← Uh, why would a 64bit processor require more memory? Anyway, yeah at this point there isnt too much sense in buying another 6600GT. Really it all comes down to resolution. I love my tiny monitor (everything is right there no.....?), so I can only run at 1024x768. With my 6800GS I am counting on being able to run on "highish" settings. Remember that resolution is multiplication, so make the screen a little bigger and you have a lot more pixels to render. If your running at 800x600 then your video card is probably good for some pretty high settings. Otherwise I would recomend looking into a 7600GT (absolutely the best performance per dollar of all the gaming range cards out there), but if you have a little extra cash the 7900GT isnt all that much more. I highely recomend NewEgg as a source of computer hardware, they have prices that will beat any local store, and their customer service is nothing short of awesome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buddhiraja73 Posted April 8, 2006 Share Posted April 8, 2006 I highly recommend the 7600GT! Not only its easielly twice as fast as the 6600GT (Its faster than a 6800Ultra!), but its dirt cheap too! The best performance/price card hands down right now. If you sell your 6600GT well, you have to invest around $100 or so, for quite an impressive upgrade. ← Does the 7600GT have an AGP version and what is the price like ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VeLocityChaos Posted April 8, 2006 Share Posted April 8, 2006 I havent been able to find anything on one. I would also like to have one for my wifes computer. The fastest AGP you can buy is a 7800GS after rebate you can get one for about $270 US. I`ll wait untill prices come down abit before I get one. This will be the last upgrade I do on her computer. I`ll change her over to PCI-E after that as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buddhiraja73 Posted April 8, 2006 Share Posted April 8, 2006 I havent been able to find anything on one. I would also like to have one for my wifes computer. The fastest AGP you can buy is a 7800GS after rebate you can get one for about $270 US. I`ll wait untill prices come down abit before I get one. This will be the last upgrade I do on her computer. I`ll change her over to PCI-E after that as well. ← Thanks for the reply. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agentkay Posted April 8, 2006 Share Posted April 8, 2006 I highly recommend the 7600GT! Not only its easielly twice as fast as the 6600GT (Its faster than a 6800Ultra!), but its dirt cheap too! The best performance/price card hands down right now. If you sell your 6600GT well, you have to invest around $100 or so, for quite an impressive upgrade. ← Does the 7600GT have an AGP version and what is the price like ? ← No AGP version for the 7600GT yet, but there might come one after they sell out the 7800GS (on AGP). Gainward released a limited edition 7800GS on AGP that actually powers a real 7800GT (20 pipelines) core, but at that price point they wanted to have for that card, its really not worth it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buddhiraja73 Posted April 8, 2006 Share Posted April 8, 2006 No AGP version for the 7600GT yet, but there might come one after they sell out the 7800GS (on AGP). Gainward released a limited edition 7800GS on AGP that actually powers a real 7800GT (20 pipelines) core, but at that price point they wanted to have for that card, its really not worth it. ← Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GDD_Viper Posted April 8, 2006 Author Share Posted April 8, 2006 (edited) Left for a little while and the thread exploded,lol. Thanks alot for the advice. As for my 1.81GHz, i really dont know anything about computers. A friend built the system for me. I just copied exactly what was listed in my computer>right click>properties. Iv never tried oc'ing because i dont personally know enough to try it out, plus i saw a video where the dude shot his fan through a table er something,lol (or at least the whole motherboard broke). But i could give my friend a call and see what he could do. My monitor is actually an awesome one, by my standards. I had a 15" old ass one that was heavier than a tower, but that one broke down perfectly around my birthday and i got a lot of help to pay for a 19" LCD samsung. But i still run my games at 1024x768 because i can run most things on high on COD2, but it struggled at its designed 1280x1024. You guys are right about the video cards though. Gets really annoying that like only a few months after i got the 6600 (second newest card at the time), it was outdated by ANOTHER new 500 buck card. Guess ill just wait for the demo/game and see how it is. Was just anxious,lol. Edited April 8, 2006 by GDD_Viper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agentkay Posted April 8, 2006 Share Posted April 8, 2006 You guys are right about the video cards though. Gets really annoying that like only a few months after i got the 6600 (second newest card at the time), it was outdated by ANOTHER new 500 buck card. What sucks even more is when your card is outdated by a CHEAPER card 6 months later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HaDeZ Posted April 8, 2006 Share Posted April 8, 2006 Iv never tried oc'ing because i dont personally know enough to try it out, plus i saw a video where the dude shot his fan through a table er something,lol (or at least the whole motherboard broke ← LMFAO.....that was the point, to fry the chip lol. dont let that scare ya off. Im nervous too....I built my pc for gr2 and now its a great gaming pc but there is better....my card is a ASUS V9999/GT 256( 6800GT) runs great....hopefully it will run graw decently cuz Im not gonna upgrade again for a lil bit. GL upgrading your system bud. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
insane snyper Posted April 9, 2006 Share Posted April 9, 2006 If your looking to overclock graphics download a program called PowerStrip. Its really very easy to use, is very compatible. You just take a little slider, and turn up the speed. If you do decide to try it get some sort of benchmark (I used 3dmark 06, though it can be as simple as watching the fps in a game). With my 6800GS I just turned the clock speed up in 15mhz increments, and the memory speed up in increments of 30mhz, then ran the benchmark, checked the temperature, and did it again. I got it overclocked about 20% before I decided to stop. The temperature actually stayed pretty reasonable, only went up about 4C. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
semjonov Posted April 9, 2006 Share Posted April 9, 2006 You guys are right about the video cards though. Gets really annoying that like only a few months after i got the 6600 (second newest card at the time), it was outdated by ANOTHER new 500 buck card. ← Well the 6600 serious has never been a high end card just so you know so you cant complain about being smashed by a $500 card. The recommendation on nvidia cards is probably buy an 7900gt version with fast memory because they overcock like a madman. I seeen people go something like 700/2000 when increasing the voltage, it is so bloody insane I am actually thinking about selling of my new 7800gt....it is insanely fast when overclocked. Most people don´t get 700/2000 but 600+ on core and 1600 on memory is not unusual. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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