Graphic card Advice

[lee42lee]

Before I start here are my system specs and this is used as a gaming system.

Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-SLI board
AMD FX-55 CPU
1 Gig Ram
Dual Sli'ed BFG GeForce 6600 GT OC

One of my graphic cards went out and now I am wanting to upgrade. I was thinking about getting a pair of the new Nvidia 9600GTs and another gig of ram. I know my system is getting a bit dated now but what do you guys think? I had also thought about upgrading the mainboard and cpu later and if I do what would some of you recommend? Thanks for any help.

[George Hallam]

hello lee42lee and welcome to http://www.pcguide.com/ubb/pcgubb.gif,

Another Gig of RAM and a 9600Gt will work a charm, you will easily have 4x the performance of those SLI'ed 6600GT.

Yes in the future you will need a new MOBO and CPU its INTEL core 2 duo/quad now days :p

What wattage is your PSU?

[lee42lee]

My psu is the Ultra X2. Below is a link to the specs.

http://www.ultraproducts.com/product_details.php?cPath=61&pPath=407&productID=420

I had someone on another forum tell me to get one 8800GTS G92 512MB instead of two 9600GT's. What do you think? Also if I was going to upgrade the board and cpu what would you recommend?

[jlreich]

Last night I ordered this core upgrade for myself. Moving from a 4400+ X2, 7900GS, nForce4 Ultra mb, 2GB DDR400.

Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Conroe 2.66GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115029)

GIGABYTE GA-EX38-DS4 LGA 775 Intel X38 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128089)

EVGA 512-P3-N801-AR GeForce 8800GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130318)

CORSAIR 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145184)

About $650 after a combined $70 MIR. I bought an EVGA video card so I can use their step up program if I want when they release the higher end 9xxx cards. The 8800GT has an average 12% better performance than the 9600GT so I want to wait and see what they will have for the higher end cards.

If you are set on going SLI find yourself a nice 780i board to go with.

Something to think about if you are thinking of a core upgrade.