My current system is a Lenovo 3000 J115 7387 with a few upgrades. I have 4GB of RAM and my current video card is an MSI NX8600GT-T2D256E-OC. I actually have 3 identical systems (whole family into gaming) and two of video cards had the fans die, the other has a working fan but the card is crashing the system. The base system has PCI Express x16 (no SLI or Crossfire) and 3 PCI slots below it. I need to keep one PCI slot in use for wireless network cards since the PCs are not directly wired to the router.
So what I'm looking at is a recommendation on replacing with an upgraded video card. These PCs are multipurpose systems including gaming (World of Warcraft, Sims 3, Spore, HL2, and other similar games). I know I'll need to replace the power supply since the Lenovo system only has a 250W PSU. As much as I'd like to go out for a new NVIDIA GXT 480, I do need to keep price in mind (I have 3 systems to upgrade).
So questions:
- Can the dual GPU cards (single card w/ two GPUs) work in a single PCI Express system? I know it will sit over the next PCI slot, but I can afford to give up one of them if it works.
- The card hierarchy chart at Tom's Hardware ( http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best… ) shows a hierarchy video cards. Is the 9800 GTX2 on par with a single GTX 260 or GTX 275?
- Any recommendation on brand of video card? My 3 MSI cards died within 3 years of use so I have a distaste for the brand at the moment.
- How much video RAM is really needed for the games I listed above (is more than 1 GB overkill)? Keep in mind the underlying system I have since I won't be upgrading for another 1-3 years.
- Which PSU brand and or model would work well with the upgrade?
- Should I stick with NVIDIA or go with ATI/AMD Radeon? I've been using NVIDIA lately but the new Radeons seem to be cheaper and higher performing by the charts.
Models I've considered: 9800 GTX+, 9800 GTX2, GTX 260, GTX 275, GTX 285.
Guess I'm just looking for some input from others that went through a similar upgrade.|||Easy ones first -
dual slot PCI Express cards simply block the next slot over. There's nothing to plug in, so they'll work fine in a single PCIe system (assuming the card fits in the case, PSU is big enough, etc).
The 9800 GTX2 and GTX 260 have roughly equal performance. Going beyond the 260 is usually more expensive than the additional performance warrants as the gains are minimal compared to the cost.
Now, the real question is how much graphic power do you need? The 8600GT is middling/low range. The games you list aren't overly demanding, a GT 240 (GDDR5 version) would give you high framerates even at high settings, and be very cost efficient. I'd still recommend a PSU upgrade to 400W (550+W if you're thinking about upgrading the motherboard/cpu in those systems in the next couple of years).
Video memory is overhyped in my opinion, probably because it's cheap for the card manufacturers to add and brag about. 512MB is enough for screen resolutions up to 1680 x 1050 or so. 1GB is enough for anything beyond that. A card with a low-end processor is still going to give poor play, even if it has 1GB of memory installed.|||Since a few of my searches lead to similar Y!A post, here are the specifics of my selection:
Base system: Lenovo 3000 J115 7387 (yeah, not a great base, but what I am working with)
GPU: XFX Model: HD-577A-ZN
PSU: Corsair Model: TX650W
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|||Performance is moderate as far as World of Warcraft goes. I have max settings and I get about 30 FPS on average. Will dip as low as 20 in heavy areas and as high as 60 (at least highest I've noticed). Spent about $300 for the two components from Best Buy (probably find cheaper online).
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|||Oh, running in window mode. Might perform better if running full. Since I run dual screens with a Ventrillo and browser up, window mode is preferred.
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|||i would jus get the 9800 GTX+|||9800|||I have a single GTX 275 (upgrade from a 8975) on my SLI motherboard, and found it to be card enough, though I don't raid much, I'll play other video intensive games with ease. The trick with the 275 was the sheer size of the thing. Length was an issue more than width. I actually upgraded my case to an Antec 902 to be able to mount the card on my Crossfire motherboard.
My 275 is driving a 40" TV. I'm with your son on this one... I only used dual displays when working with Photoshop palettes.
VRAM as far as I know is where your video card works with 3D data. If you have less video RAM, it will offload it to the system RAM. The more 3D involved (which is most games these days) the more you will need that vRAM. WoW has been around since before these kinds of cards were available, but with expansions the system requirements have increased. The Sims 3 in particular is a brutal resource hog when it comes to 3D, and the system requirements are not to be taken lightly, and should be exceeded.
The only game I had any problems with recently was Fallout, which was fairly crash happy, but I dont believe that was due to the video issues, and more due to processor and code bugs. Some in-game settings brought the crashes down to a minimum.
I have not switched sides (ATI to GeForce or vice versa) in quite some time. Years ago I had gone from ATI to GeForce and had problems with it, which tech support told me would only be resolved by doing a full OS reinstall. I told tech support they were crazy if they thought changing videocard driver sets should be a valid reason to suggest this kind of extreme response, but I think that the problem was at the time that there was no proper uninstallation utility for the Radeom drivers. I don't know if this is still true, I'm just relaying my expereince.
To this day, if I start out with one or the other, I tend to stick with the same driver family.|||I recommend EVGA 01G-P3-N981-TR GeForce 9800 GT 1GB DDR3 PCI-Express 2.0 Graphics Card http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001OV7…
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