video card line up

[gravytrain]

hey everyone,

thanks for your help on previous threads...i'm now going for
amd64 3000 939
wd 80g hd, 8mb
gigabyte k8nsc 939 mobo
lg 16x dual layer dvd burner
512mb pc3200 ram

and i'm pretty happy with all that, the only thing i'm still not sure of are vid cards...

in my price range there are:

gigabyte 128 FX5200
g'byte 256 FX5500
g'byte 128 9250 tv/9250 vivo
g'byte 256 9550
g'byte 128 x300SE

any tips on which one to go for?
or should i go for a comparable Asus card?

thanks all

[pentachris]

Dont' buy a Gigabyte card because it's Gigabyte, or an Asus card because it's Asus. Choose the price range, find the best gpu in that price range, and then choose the brand from there.

Also, I notice you're going socket 939, you're buying a video card, and yet you're getting an nForce 3 motherboard? I could understand if you planned to re-use your old AGP card from your existing computer (in that case, though, I'd choose a motherboard with VIA's K8T800 Pro chipset). But if you're buying a video card anyway, why not get the best Socket 939 chipset (nForce 4 Ultra) and get a PCI Express video card?

Also, looking around at Newegg, I don't see any AGP x300's, or any PCIe 9550's for that matter, so I think you may be a little confused about what you're purchasing.

[hockey man]

what type of slot are you planning to put the card into?

[gravytrain]

thanks for the advice,

especially on the mobo...i'm not too sure about mobo's, the one i included was the one the shop recommended...could you recommend that would match the other specs i've included?

also about the vid cards...i'm in melbourne, australia so perhaps the manufacturer types are a little different down here?

anyone know about this?

[pentachris]

First of all, again let me strongly suggest that you get a mainbord with PCIe graphics if you're going to be buying a new video card anyway. It's the wise thing to do.

The best AMD processor to go with is the Athlon 64 processor on a Socket 939 board. The best chipset for the board is the nVidia nForce 4 Ultra (or nForce 4 SLI if you want an SLI board - those are significantly more expensive, though). If you can, that's what you should get. But if you're even a casual gamer and choosing that combination is going to limit your video card choice to something less than a 6600 or X600XT, then I'd consider building on a Socket 754 board and using a Sempron processor. That'll save you about $100 (about $50 on each the cpu and the mainboard, give or take) that you could put towards a better video card, and you can still get the nForce 4 chipset with dual channel memory support. Going with a Sempron, though, will cause a performance hit on processor intensive tasks (Mpeg-2 encoding, for example - yes, it'll also be a performance hit on your gaming as well, but the better video card will more than make up for that).

For around $75, the best video card choice is prolly the X300; it is really just barely scraping by for a gamer, but it's fine for anyone who's not a gamer. For $110-$125, the 6600 and the X600XT are pretty close competition. Starting at about $175, you can pick up a 6600GT, and this is the best performer for the price of any video card on the market.

So as you can see, it really depends on what you plan to do with your system and your budget. Best case scenario, you'd have a Socket 939 FX55 with a pair of 6800 Ultras in SLI. :cool: But (almost) everyone has budget limitations, so you have to decide how to bring the price into your range while balancing the system to best meet your needs.

For a gaming system or a multimedia computer, I'd strongly consider 1 GB of RAM.

Make sure you get an SATA hard drive; the price is comparable to IDE drives of the same capacity, and the performance is superior. Also, I see you chose a WD hard drive. They're certainly a well-known brand, but many folks around here are switching to other companies because of the longer warranties they offer (Seagate, Hitachi and Samsung, for example).

You don't say anything about what power supply and case you plan to use. Make sure you do your research here. The day before yesterday, I was ordering parts for a new build of my own. While researching the mainboard I discovered that a power supply with a 24 pin connector and an additional 4 pin 12-volt connector was strongly recommended. I was planning to use my old power supply; I'm glad I read that first!

This should give you something to chew on; post back with a budget, what you plan to use your computer for and where you plan to purchase your parts, and we'll go from there.

[saphalline]

building on a Socket 754 ... and you can still get the nForce 4 chipset with dual channel memory support.Nope. The NForce4 chipset itself is capable of supporting dual-channel RAM, but remember that Socket 754/939/940 CPU's from AMD are based on the K8 architecture and have a built-in memory controller. Socket 754 CPU's specifically cannot use dual-channel, only single-channel. This is a limitation built directly into the CPU, and no chipset or mobo is ever going to change that.

[pentachris]

Socket 754 CPU's specifically cannot use dual-channel, only single-channel. This is a limitation built directly into the CPU, and no chipset or mobo is ever going to change that.

I read the same thing on Tom's Hardware a few weeks ago. Then I w0ent looking at Socket 754 boards on Newegg, and saw two advertised as supporting dual-channel RAM, this one from Epox (http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813123244) and this one from ECS (http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813135190).

I thought it was odd that they'd make the same mistake on two different products, so I thought maybe they'd found a way around this limitation.

After reading your post, I followed the links to the boards' descriptions on the manufacturers' websites. ECS (http://www.ecsusa.com/products/nforce4-a754v10.cfm) says nothing about dual channel RAM, but Epox (http://www.epox.com.tw/eng/products_content.php?ps=352) says:
Support single-sided or double-sided 2.5v DDR-333/400 DIMMs with dual channel architecture in 128/256/512Mb technologies

:confused: :confused: :confused:

[hockey man]

Back to your original question. .
Looking through the specs the best would probably be a Radeon 9550 128MB.
The cards at your price level will not be able to make good use of a 256mb card.

[saphalline]

Well, mobo manufacturers make mistakes, too! :D I've read whitepapers on these subjects, as well as several other reliable sources, so I don't know who at Epox wrote that, but it's wrong. And Newegg can't be blamed entirely since they probably don't have anyone read every single entry given them by each manufacturer to ensure accuracy. I mean really! They're a business! They sell a lot of good products, but also a lot of products that I wouldn't touch with a 100m spool of CAT5 cable!

[gravytrain]

thanks for the help all,
it's helped a lot.
now i'm going for a pci express mobo
getting a higher power supply and going for either
x600pro
or
6200tc
video card...
anyone know which is a better buy? They're both about the same price.

[saphalline]

Hmmm... I'm thinking the X600 Pro! Much much better performance!!

The 6200 Turbo Cache vid card is for grannies! The "TC" versions only have 16 or 32MB of slow vid RAM onboard, then they use the PCIe x16 bus to hijack some system RAM to fill in the gaps. At that point, you gotta wonder why!? What's the difference between a 6200TC and onboard video? They both eat up main RAM and its bandwidth to provide video support, and they're both not recommended for gamers!!

I just had to jump in here before you made a serious mistake!

[gravytrain]

thanks Sapphaline!
i'm gonna order my x600pro today :)

[gravytrain]

just one more thing....

both vid cards are 128,

does this change which card is better?

[saphalline]

No, the 6200TC eats up system RAM to get up to that 128MB. If it's one of the 16MB versions, it eats up 112MB of system RAM; if it's one of the 32MB versions, it eats up 96MB of system RAM. The listed amount for the TC's isn't what is on the vid card itself, that's just what it uses.