New graphics card

[congo]

OOh, nice looking Leadtek 6600GT on that page.

[rootbeer]

I got my tax refund yesterday. I want to upgrade my video card to one that will 1) play DVDs like a house afire and 2) give me screenshots that look like photographs. Which card would yous guys recommend? I'd like to keep the cost under $400 US-- I think anything too much above that is overkill. I have PCIe 16X capability.

I'd also like to upgrade my chip to the 3700+ variety. What's involved with doing that? Do I have to go in and take a chainsaw to the BIOS to make it work?

[ctjoyce]

Well for the GPU I recommend the nVidia 7900GT or the 7800GT. If your a ATi fanboy like me, then go with the X1800XT. As for the new chip, depending on your motherboard socket you may need to get a new motherboard along with the chip (which even if you have a 939 mobo I still strongly recomend you get a replacement for that eMachines crap one). Look at DFi or ASUS for overclocking, and Gigabyte for standird stable useage / light easy clocking.

Cheers
Cameron

[rootbeer]

Getting a new mobo is going too deep for me. I still have two years extended warranty on this thing. A new mobo would invalidate that. I am an ATI fanboy, like you. I became one when I was told (and later saw for myself) that ATIs were the only real choice for DVD playback. I swear by them...

[NicksFXHouse]

Getting a new mobo is going too deep for me. I still have two years extended warranty on this thing. A new mobo would invalidate that. I am an ATI fanboy, like you. I became one when I was told (and later saw for myself) that ATIs were the only real choice for DVD playback. I swear by them...

Spend the extra 150 bucks and get the X1900XTX

You wont be sorry and you will be set for 2-3 years with a high end video adaper.

Pure horsepower always wins

[ctjoyce]

Very true nick, however not in that case. The X1900XTX generates alot of heat and is also a dual slot card. So not only would we render one of his PCI slots useless, however we probibly would also cook his PSU and the card itself with an XTX. You could do the Blizzard XTX if you really wanted (has self contained watercooling) but those run $600+ Also remember that makeing any hardware changes what so ever will void the OEM warrenty, so by jsut throwing in the X700 you voided your warrenty. Also a new mobo is only about $70

Cheers
Cameron

[rootbeer]

I agree with your sentiment regarding horsepower, Nick. Because I don't trust myself to put it in, I'll have to pay retail at Best Buy and have them rip me for an additional $40 to put it in and configure it. Bummer being born so long ago...

[ctjoyce]

Step 1: Remove side pannel
Step 2: Remove PCI screw and VGA
Step 3: Replace with new VGA and attach needed power connectors
Step 4: Replace side pannel, and boot up system
Step 5: Go to www.ati.com and get Cat 6.3 drivers. Install them
Step 6: Crank that sucker up

See it really isnt that hard. I'm also pretty sure if you go to the local highschool there is some kid willing to do it for like a dozen doughnouts (me no never )

Cheers
Cameron

[rootbeer]

The warranty is OK, ctjoyce. The card was bought at CompUSA because Best Buy was out of stock re that item. It was put in at the time of sale and covered under the Best Buy warranty. It had a problem two weeks in-- one of the slot pins was found to be about .010 inches too short and caused the card to quit putting out video. I went to CompUSA, exchanged it on warranty, took it back to Best Buy, they put it in and no problems since.

Re a faster chip: What do I need to do to put one of those in? Do I have to change multipliers somewhere?

[NicksFXHouse]

I agree with your sentiment regarding horsepower, Nick. Because I don't trust myself to put it in, I'll have to pay retail at Best Buy and have them rip me for an additional $40 to put it in and configure it. Bummer being born so long ago...

Ahhhh... well that does make a difference.

[rootbeer]

So how do I really get those killer screen shots-- the ones that look like artist's renderings? Will a $400 video card do it? Do I have to change BIOS settings or whatever to get them? If it's a big hassle, I'll just take the money, head to the nearest sportin' house (brothel, for those of you outside Nevada) and have a good time instead.

[ctjoyce]

Well getting those really high end screens takes quite a few things. First you need to have a pretty nice system. Something to the tune of:

AMD 3700+ / Intel Prescott 550
1GB low latancy RAM
6600GT / X800 or better

It also takes some nice combinations of software. Personally I use Ground Envirment, Flight Envirement, and numerous terrain meshes to get my high end shots. And lastly it takes some time in tweaking. You cant just expect to get amazing quality strate out of the box (well some things you can). So all in all to get those shots your going to need about a $800+ computer, and about $300 in payware, then countless houres of tweaking to get everything in order.

Cheers
Cameron

[rootbeer]

Looks like I'm headin' to the whorehouse...

Not really; I'd just like to get rid of the jaggies when the view is at certain angles. I don't get much time to fool around on my computer, what with working nights and sleeping away most of the day. I'd like to see a little better representation of the aircraft and the scenery than what you get with what they give you. I do what little I know how to do strictly for fun-- not for the money, honor, fame, groupies and glory of professional flight simming.

[ctjoyce]

Look at an ATi Radeon X800 GTO then. Will fix all of those problems, and can do some pretty amazing things strate out of the box.

Cheers
Cameron

[rootbeer]

Roger; wilco.

I did a search and found several reviews for the X800GTO. Because all the numbers they use in these benchmark tests mean absolutely nothing to me, most of it fell on deaf ears, but I did notice in one test the X800GTO generated 20623 widgets (assumably per second or clock cycle or something) while my card, the X700Pro, generated only 18630-- a difference of 1993 widgets, or an increase of 10.7% to the better for the X800. Is less than 11% improvement in a test that I understand not what is measured worth dropping $400? I'm not sure.

My problem is that should I buy one of these new, bigger, better cards, I will be sorely disappointed when my machine boots up (after its three-minute boot cycle) and gives me a screen that says the video card cannot be recognized and would I please take the machine to a tech shop and have them tell me that I must put the old card back in if I want any video at all and please write a check to the nice man for $60 an hour. Thank you.

I'm sorry, but I have become so disillusioned in my old age...

I forgot to add, I saw one card being manufactured/assembled/marketed(?) by GeCube and the other by HIS. Are these the same card made by different companies? Who is ATI, then?

I went to eBay and looked at the X800GTO card. There seems to be several variations of it. I see Viper, Sapphire, Diamond Sapphire, Diamond Viper, Sapphire Viper, Viper Sapphire and a few others I can't now remember. I'm flummoxed. Who is responsible? What is George Bush doing about this?