Dx10 card?

[squirrel]

Hello,
Was just wanting to know if you think it is worth purchasing this 8500 or 8600 or if it is better off to save for that little bit longer for this 8800? I want the 8800 but don’t know if its really worth waiting that extra time to save.
Thanks in advance

[jlreich]

First, are you running vista or plan on running it soon?

What is you current video card?

How long is a little bit longer?

What are the rest of you system specs?

[Ajmukon]

squirrel:
DX10 only works with VISTA and it would be worth the wait to get a great DX10 card when:
1) More games come out that use DX10 (as far as i know, less than 20 games use dx10 right now, but this is somewhat older information and it may have changed since then)
2)VISTA becomes more "stable" and "reliable", etc

If you are willing to wait to get the 8800, then you probably should wait

[squirrel]

The system I am planning on building is…
Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe
Athlon64 3800+ 2.4ghz
Barracuda 7200.10 250gb
Crucial 2x1gb DDR2 800mhz
Vista 32bit
I may end up making some changes before I end up purchasing the parts but that’s mainly what I want to end up with.

I currently have a Radeon 9700pro but the rest of my system isn’t that great so anything will be a massive improvement (currently have a 800mhz processor and 512mb ram)

A little bit longer will be around two months maybe three.

[Ajmukon]

I would wait for the two/ three months to buy the better card- it will be worth it-

[jlreich]

Well you will need a video card for your new system. I would either get the 8500 to hold you over, or if you are going to hold the entire build up I would wait and get an 8800, or perhaps even ATI will release their R600 by then and prices will drop further on the 8800.

The 8500 and 8600 are not very good cards other than the fact that they support DX10. Kind of the 8xxx equivalent of the 7200 or a X1300. Or in the case of your 9700pro era cards a 9550SE. Watered down low end budget cards.

[Ajmukon]

If i were to build a new computer and could afford to wait a few months, i would- by then, the price will have dropped (a little) and i would get more "bang" for a little less

[saphalline]

If you're going with a totally new system, you'll need a dual-core CPU! That's more important right now than a DX10 vid card!

You also need to be a little more cautious about Vista. It's a very... interesting OS. On the one hand, it's great for future gaming. On the other hand, it sucks for old software. The best combo right now would be WinXP (standard 32-bit Pro version) and Vista Home Premium 64-bit in a dual-boot. That ensures you can run older Windows-based programs when you need to and experience the best of DX10 gaming. And FYI, it's OK to buy OEM versions of WinXP, but you'll need the full retail version of Vista in order to be able to upgrade your mobo in the future (the OEM Vista versions tie their key to the mobo). If you're having any doubts about the WinXP vs Vista battle, play it safe and use WinXP for now.

As for the vid card, I'd say you need to consider a 7900 GS, 7950 GT, 8600 GTS, or any of the 8800's. That's where you need to stay right now for SLI. And there are trade-offs on the lower end. An 8600 can't keep up in most DX9/WinXP gaming compared to a 7950 GT or Radeon X1900/X1950 series. What the 8600's are really for is shader-intensive DX10/Vista gaming. So in essence, you need to decide now what you want. WinXP and DX9 performance or Vista and DX10 performance?

[squirrel]

Thank you all for your time and help, I think I will wait for the 8800, hopefully by the time I get it the price would have dropped at least a tiny bit. Definitely want the dx10 and vista.

Originally I chose the single core cpu as I was only planning to build a system that would do everything average or so, so that I could get it asap. But then I decided I might as well spend that tiny bit extra to get that better performance which is making me wait so much longer =( be worth it though. Was only questioning the 8800 as I will have to change the power supply I was getting also.

Will this cpu do the trick? I thought that there were not many programs available that would take advantage of the dual-core cpu? Guess it will still be better then the Athlon 3800+ single core =)

[saphalline]

You want this one if you can afford it. Or this one.

I thought that there were not many programs available that would take advantage of the dual-core cpu?

Programs? No. Games? You bet your @$$ there are! I've found more than a dozen games that use dual-core, and I know there are a couple that can use quad-core. In addition to that, several upcoming Vista/DX10 games will require dual-core. As in, no dual-core, no installing game (much less playing it!).

[squirrel]

Thanks, at least I found out now before I brought it all lol