New Video Card

[Methais]

I have a Radeon x1950 pro right now. It's decent but I wanna upgrade. I'm looking at a GeForce 9500 GT, except there's 4782304237 different ones on newegg, and I'm sure some of them are shitty.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=GeForce+9500+GT&x=0&y=0

Any recommendations?

[Androidpk]

I hear awesome things about the HD 4850 cards. You can get them for around $130.

[Renian]

I have two GTX 280s. They make my e-peen so hard.

And by that I mean 60 frames per second with just one on literally anything I run at max settings, unless it's Fallout 3 looking across a hell of a lot of the Wasteland, or Crysis. Running them in SLI gives me 60 frames per second period.

[Androidpk]

You would get better performance from just a single 4870 x2 card then SLi 280s. Cheaper too.

[The Ponzzz]

If it were me, I'd get something that supports dual monitors, has its own cooling system and then meets what ever specs you want.

[RichardCranium]

Just buy the evga on the link there. $40 after mail-in rebate.

[Sean of the Thread]

If it were me, I'd get something that supports dual monitors, has its own cooling system and then meets what ever specs you want.

Doesn't that fit almost any card on the shelves now days?

[The Ponzzz]

Cooling, no, but dual monitors pretty much. One thing I have noticed is there aren't two actually outputs on some of them, but more or less an HD and a standard, but it won't support both running at the same time.

[BigWorm]

SLI is for suckas, but so is pretty much the whole top end of the video card market.

Since you already have a chipset picked out, I would make sure it doesn't come in different memory configs (and pick what you want if it does), and then pick the one you want based on manufacturer. I totally agree with the eVGA recommendation because they have been really awesome about replacing things when they break, even when its not really their fault. They have an awesome warranty program. The other factor you should use to decide is what outputs you want. Some people want multiple monitors, some people want TV out, etc, but most manufacturers will offer multiple cards that fill these niches.

[BigWorm]

If it were me, I'd get something that supports dual monitors, has its own cooling system and then meets what ever specs you want.

I am a hardcore proponent of passive cooling because I have fans bitch out and fail on me, frying the chip. Not on a video yet (knock on wood), but my southbridge fan quit on me and the chip got cooked in one of my servers not too long ago which fucking sucked hardcode.

[Ashliana]

I used to be behind ATI 100%, but they've really, really disappointed me in recent times. They have made a small comeback with the 4870/4850, but the driver support (my roommate has a 4870, I've got an 8800GT) has been really poor on ATI's side lately.

I wouldn't expect the 9500GT to be an enormous upgrade for you--there are a few only slightly pricier, but heavier performing cards out there. The HD 4830 or the 9800GT might suit your needs if you plan on playing games at good (but not necessarily maxed out) settings.

[mgoddess]

but the driver support has been really poor on ATI's side lately.
ATI's driver support has always been* craptastic, compared to nVidia.

(*and by always, I mean at least since WinXP.)

[Ashliana]

Okay. Especially poor, lately. Friend had to use Omega Drivers (which aren't bad, he just prefers officials most of the time) to get around a nasty bug that ATI still hasn't addressed.

And neither of us can stand the catalyst control center or the Frame X.0 bullshit that it requires.

[Methais]

I'm not really playing anything very grapic intensive right now, mainly just WoW. But I find myself having to turn down a lot of video settings on it these days if I want to have a decent framerate...normally I have everything turned all the way down except spell detail, and I have my view distance set about halfway, and I hate playing like that.

If I'm anywhere with a lot of people or a detailed background that goes way off into the distance (i.e. Shattrath or flying over Terokkar), my framerate turns into a slideshow. I'm pretty sure it wasn't nearly this bad when I first got this PC, but it was never quite as smooth as I wanted it to be.

I'm running a P4 3.0 GHz with 2GB of RAM, so I doubt that's the problem. Maybe I just need to do a good cleanup on my system? I really don't wanna have to reinstall Windows XP because it'd just be a huge pain in the ass, plus I'm not sure where my discs are anyway. Other than defragging, is there anything else I can do to clean things up some? I probably have a ton of registry errors and other garbage like that, but I have no idea how to clean that up.

Anyway, I browsed around some 9800GT cards too, if anyone has a suggestion off that list. I sorted by rating, and that EVGA one at the top seems like a good one. Plus it has a lifetime limited warranty. I think I might get that one, unless there's some reason I'd be better off with something else. But like I said, I'm mainly just playing WoW on here for the time being, so would this card be overkill? Only thing I'm worried about is power supply. Mine's a 330v I think, but one of the reviews said the card requires two 6-pin inputs, which I'm not sure if mine has that or not:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&Description=geforce%209800gt&bop=And&Order=RATING

EDIT: Maybe I'll get that EVGA 9600GT instead, as it's only $70 after rebate, since I'm not playing anything cutting edge.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130360

Looks like I'll need a new power supply anyway, as that requires 400/450v. So uh....

http://www.newegg.com/Store/Category.aspx?Category=32&name=Power-Supplies

I'll probably just get a cheaper one, unless they're extra shitty for some reason. This one seems pretty good for the price:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817152037

[mgoddess]

I'm running a P4 3.0 GHz with 2GB of RAM, so I doubt that's the problem.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&Description=geforce%209800gt&bop=And&Order=RATING

EDIT: Maybe I'll get that EVGA 9600GT instead, as it's only $70 after rebate, since I'm not playing anything cutting edge.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130360
Uh, does your P4 board even have PCI Express slots on it? If I remember correctly, most P4 boards (that take Socket 478, which is what most/all P4's were) didn't have PCI Express.

[Martaigne]

Uh, does your P4 board even have PCI Express slots on it? If I remember correctly, most P4 boards (that take Socket 478, which is what most/all P4's were) didn't have PCI Express.

I think it may, the X1950 is PCI Express, and I only know because one of my older machines has the highest ATI AGP card I can get and it's a an X1650 GT.

[Methais]

Uh, does your P4 board even have PCI Express slots on it? If I remember correctly, most P4 boards (that take Socket 478, which is what most/all P4's were) didn't have PCI Express.

Yeah it does. My current video card is PCI-E.

I went with the EVGA 9600GT and Thermaltake TR2 W0070RUC 430W ATX12V Power Supply. Just ordered it, so should be here early next week.

[mgoddess]

Yeah it does. My current video card is PCI-E
Ah, good. (That's what I get for not looking up what your current card was... *headdesk*)

[Silvanostar]

the thing i don't like about evga cards is that the onboard cooling isn't that great. i had 1 burn out a few months ago. service was decent, but when i got the replacement, i made sure to get an external fan that fit in a pci slot right below the pcie slot

[Androidpk]

If WoW is the most graphic intensive game you play then 9600 GT is more then good enough. Up until last week i've been playing since launch on a 6800 ultra and even that ran it perfectly on high settings.

[Methais]

Got the new video card and power supply in today. Just hooked it all up, and my PC doesn't seem to be detecting the new video card. It's in the slot all the way too, so I know that's not the problem. I checked it 47380294 times to make sure.

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a162/DoyleHargraves/Clipboard01-3.jpg

There's not even a "Display Adapter" section on there like there usually is, and I'm guessing the Video Controller (VGA Compatible) is my onboard video.

When I run the CD that came with the card and tell it to install drivers, it says "The NVIDIA Setup program could not locate any drivers that are compatible with your current hardware. Setup will now exit."

I went to NVIDIA's site and DL'd a driver from there, and got the same thing. I'm running through my onboard video right now, because my screen just stays black if I plug into the video card.

Now I did forget to disable/uninstall my old video card before putting the new one in if that makes any difference. So I put the old card back in, plugged the thing into the end of it and booted up, and right away the PC starts beeping with a big red message flashing across my screen saying I didn't plug the power cable into the video card, except it was plugged in and I made sure it wasn't loose or anything.

Anyone have any ideas what the problem might be and how to fix it? I'm gonna drop it off at the shop in the morning if I can't get it going tonight.

[Bobmuhthol]

If you think your P4 3.0 GHz is not the source of games running poorly, you're terribly wrong.

[Methais]

Yeah, and I'm quite sure that's the reason it's apparently not detecting the card right?

Most things run pretty good on it even with the x1950 Pro, including stuff like Bioshock and COD4. Can't max it out, but it gets the job done. Doesn't run poorly by any means.

And a P4 3.0 should be more than enough for something like WoW.

Anyway, once I get this bullshit figured out to where the new card is actually running, then I'll worry about processors and shit.

[Methais]

Fixed it. Was plugging in the old 6-pin power connector instead of the new one that was coming right off of the power supply.

WoW runs much smoother so far. Runs better now maxed out than it did with the x1950 with most of my settings turned down. It still gets rough in the middle of Shattrath and Dalaran, but everywhere else seems pretty smooth.

Maybe I'll check into getting a new processor/motherboard next. Any suggestions?