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[BizQuick]

Hey guys.  I'm just putting this out there.  My Nvidia 8600GT died and I am looking for a decent one.  If anyone has one to sell or a lead on  a good one let me know.  It's a PCI-E

Thanks!

[wooDy]

what is your maximum resolution or the resolution at which you played before your vid card died?

[BizQuick]

I play on a Dell 22" LCD at the moment and my max res is 1680 x 1050.  That's as high as my desktop properties will let me go, anyway.

btw, I'm not an elite gamer by any stretch.  I play CSS and EVE.  Both for about 4 years now and I don't really play all that much.  I would like something that could play a recent game if I get the chance though. 

This was my old one that died.
256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT- DDR3

[wooDy]

the hd 4870 is currently the best deal if you have the money for it (~$150).  it will play nearly all current games at 1650x1080 with ALL eye candy maxed.  source games look beautiful, and so does COD.  if one of the otc'ers with the upgrade bug wants to sell you one for cheaper, you are set!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102810&nm_mc=AFC-Techreport&cm_mmc=AFC-Techreport-_-NA-_-NA-_-NA
use code VGA42215 at checkout for $150.

[Glorfindel]

Check out the following:

http://futuremark.yougamers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=164

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/gaming-graphics-charts-q3-2008/benchmarks,30.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-geforce-gtx,2270.html

If you read through those articles, you should have a pretty good idea of what would work best for your needs and budget.

Also, keep in mind that M$ is going to be releasing Dx11 with Windows 7, though I haven't heard much specifics on that yet.  I read that dx11 will also be made available for Vista.  From what I hear, they'll plan to start having Dx11 compliant cards available on the market in Q4 2009.  Like with all releases, its pretty vague, but its something to keep in mind.

[leaff]

Hey Biz,

I currently have a BFG 8800GTS 512MB I am using but I am kind of getting the upgrade "itch". If you are interested we might be able to work out a good deal. The card is a couple generations old but still should be able to handle anything out right now. Let me know what you think.

leaff

[Tracer76]

Also keep in mind about your PSU as well. It’s not always the watts it’s also the Amps you have to look at.


The 8600GT
Minimum of a 350 Watt power supply.
(Minimum recommended power supply with +12 Volt current rating of 22 Amp Amps.)
Minimum 400 Watt for SLI mode system.
(Minimum recommended power supply with +12 Volt current rating of 24 Amp Amps.)

The HD4870 posted by Woody
PCI Express based PC is required with one X16 lane graphics slot available on the motherboard
500 Watt or greater power supply with two 75W 6-pin PCI Express power connectors recommended (600 Watt and four 6-pin connectors for ATI CrossFireX technology in dual mode)
Certified power supplies are recommended. Refer to http://ati.amd.com/certifiedPSUfor a list of Certified products

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130339
The 9800GTX <--- Running two of them in SLI right now on a 750Watt @ 60A total. Which gives me room to not worry about upgrades. The PSU I have now is http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Product.aspx?C=1264&ID=1854
Minimum of a 450 Watt power supply.
(Minimum recommended power supply with +12 Volt current rating of 24 Amp Amps.)
Minimum 550 Watt for SLI mode system.
(Minimum recommended power supply with +12 Volt current rating of 30 Amp Amps.)

[Jorsh]

I run an OC'ed 4870 w/ no problems on a 380 watt PSU....  Woody will tell you those psu req's are retarded...

[Glorfindel]

I'm running a whole lot of stuff overclocked off of a $16 500w power supply just fine, I don't really buy all the hype for spending hundreds on them.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817148027

Thats running:
E6600 overclocked, Radeon 4830 overclocked, 4 case fans, 2 sets of cold cathode light bars, Huge aftermarket CPU and GPU coolers, X-Fi Platinum, TV Card,  3 hard drives, 2 optical drives, 1 floppy, and a whole bunch of USB stuff.

[Tracer76]

Jorsh you will need to get a better PSU.

http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/323050.aspx
http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/388248.aspx
http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/493743.aspx


http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=22
Power Consumption
NVIDIA's idle power optimizations do a great job of keeping their very power hungry parts sitting pretty when in 2D mode. Many people I know just leave their computers on all day and generally playing games 24 hours a day is not that great for the health. Idle power is important, especially as energy costs rise, and taking steps to ensure that less power is drawn when less power is needed is a great direction to move in. AMD's 4870 hardware is less power friendly, but 4850 is pretty well balanced at idle.



Moving on to load power.

These numbers are peak power draw experienced over multiple runs of 3dmark vantage's third feature test (pixel shaders). This test heavily loads the GPU while being very light on the rest of the system so that we can get as clear a picture of relative GPU power draw as possible. Playing games will incur much higher system level power draw as the CPU, memory, drives and other hardware may also start to hit their own peak power draw at the same time. 4850 and 4870 CrossFire both require large and stable PSUs in order to play actual games.  



Clearly the 4870 is a power junky posting the second highest peak power of any card (second only to NVIDIA's GTX 280). While a single 4870 draws more power than the 9800 GX2, quad SLI does peak higher than 4870 crossfire. 4850 power draw is on par with its competitors, but 4850 crossfire does seem to have an advantage in power draw over the 9800 GTX+.

[Jorsh]

Well in that link my power supply fell into a tier 2.  So.. I guess its a pretty decent power supply.  To be honest I dont know a whole lot about it, but I made sure to ask Woody about it before I bought the card, just to make sure I wouldnt have any problems..  He said I would be fine, and it has proved true thus far.

Q6600 @ 3.25 GhZ
4870 @ 830 core / 1130 mem

[wooDy]

a modern designed, QUALITY ~400 watt watt power supply is enough for any single socket, single graphics card mainstream system out there.  using MAX TDP values,

power:
125 AMD/intel quad cpu (including EXTREME versions or overclocked)
165 AMD 4870 / geforce 275
15 4gb ddr2/ddr3 ram
20 1 - 2 HDD
25 dvd burner WHILE burning
45 intel p45 or amd 780/790 chipset

395 TOTAL (absolute maximum possible.  nearly impossible to sustain.)


EVEN counting a workstation class system with multiple sockets and multiple video cards, anything over 800 watts is simply useless.  

please note i said QUALITY power supply.  the no name special are heavily OVER sold, which is why amd/nvidia so over rate the required power.


i agree with all the links you listed tracer, except the last eggxpert link is at least 25% over rated.  by their logic, a single 4870 x2 needs 350 watts.  oooh, i just realized that the author of that list just compiled and regurgitated the manufacturer recommendations for each product.  still, they over spec due to crappy oversight of the power supply industry (and overzealous marketing).


anything tier 3 and up with an extra 50 watts of power will work pefectly.  those are ALL name brand, well established, and solid engineering companies.  tier 1 = VERY expensive without any benefit (imho).

[ConCac]

lol my PSU is in tier 5 a 630 watt raidmax i got a while back for 75 dollars

[wooDy]

lol my PSU is in tier 5 a 630 watt raidmax i got a while back for 75 dollars

$75 OW i had a raidmax that worked great for better than a year (until i loaded it close to its maximum.. it was only 400 watts.  it up and died.)  well, since you got a "630" power supply, i bet it is closer to 450, but that should be plenty for single socket, single gpu computers.  next time, ASK IN FORUMS!

[Tracer76]

a modern designed, QUALITY ~400 watt watt power supply is enough for any single socket, single graphics card mainstream system out there.  using MAX TDP values,

power:
125 AMD/intel quad cpu (including EXTREME versions or overclocked)
165 AMD 4870 / geforce 275
15 4gb ddr2/ddr3 ram
20 1 - 2 HDD
25 dvd burner WHILE burning
45 intel p45 or amd 780/790 chipset

395 TOTAL (absolute maximum possible.  nearly impossible to sustain.)


EVEN counting a workstation class system with multiple sockets and multiple video cards, anything over 800 watts is simply useless.  

please note i said QUALITY power supply.  the no name special are heavily OVER sold, which is why amd/nvidia so over rate the required power.


i agree with all the links you listed tracer, except the last eggxpert link is at least 25% over rated.  by their logic, a single 4870 x2 needs 350 watts.  oooh, i just realized that the author of that list just compiled and regurgitated the manufacturer recommendations for each product.  still, they over spec due to crappy oversight of the power supply industry (and overzealous marketing).


anything tier 3 and up with an extra 50 watts of power will work pefectly.  those are ALL name brand, well established, and solid engineering companies.  tier 1 = VERY expensive without any benefit (imho).

Sorry Woddy but you are also highly mistaken and misinformed about CPU and GPU power usage. AMD and Intel even new ones can take 140Watts this is the i7 core and phemon II BE 940, 955. not all will take a 125Watt. Also the Radeon 4870, and 4870X2 take more power under load then you may think.


http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=2304&page=3
ATI Radeon HD3870 X2 1GB in Crossfire 630watts under load on a 3D app.
Palit HD4870 X2 2GB  426 Watts under load 3d app

http://lly316.blogspot.com/2008/11/4870x2-vs-gtx-280-power-benchmark.html

http://ht4u.net/reviews/2009/power_consumption_graphics/index8.php
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-radeon-power,2122-4.html


And believe it or not when you do start OC'ing a rig you do use more Watts and Amps.  And if you do your research at all the 4870 and the 4870X2 use the most power even over the GTX280. And now with the 4890 release to the public as well it does take about 50 watts more then the 4870.