Ok I haven’t posted in awhile. But I don’t have the time I used to have. I have a question for all you []D [] []V[] []D’s out there. I have (2) 320mb 8800 gts’s in SLI. I want to upgrade here and I have a upgrade path that I can go down. Here is the only catch. I don’t want to do the dual card solution. So here is what I am left with. I am looking at the diamond 1gb HD2900XT or a 8800GTX. Since I can get either for about the same price from my vendor, I just don’t know what one to get. I am not going to do CF or SLI but I know I am going to get the person here that will suggest it anyway. So again I reiterate. I am looking for a single card solution between the 1gb 2900 or a 8800 GTX. I might also dump this full atx mobo and so a mATX form factor. Is there a good AM2 mobo out there that will allow me to OC this 6k where I have it now? Daily driver clocks are 250 x 12. I am looking to make a change here in the next month, so you guys are going to influence my decision. Since I have no time to look all this stuff up I am putting my faith and trust in you to assist me in this task. Also I am putting up a poll to see what you think. Please no “get the (random video card name) because it is the r0x4$$ m0fo out there!” I would like some reviews and some good hard facts. I am going to make the buy of the card this week, so … yea….
Thanks in advance!
Charlie Ridinger

If i were you i would get a new processor first. Your cards are probally being bottleknecked by your processor. If you want some new gfx cards wait till mid november when the next generation gfx cards come out.

I partially agree with degu22. I don't think the CPU is a bottleneck, but if you can wait another two months or about that you can pick up a next generation card, or so I hear. If you can't wait, then the king of the hill is the 8800 Ultra, but good luck finding it. I would go for the 8800GTX, I have one (XFX) and it works great.

Keep the 8800GTS's for another couple of months, after christmas there will be a load of new cards. 8800GTS SLI is a really good solution for current games, I don't really see the need to upgrade ATM.

I voted for the HD2900XT though.

well i have to leave for work here in a few, but i thougth i should post this. I never buy the latest and greatest anymore, i stay a year behind. That way the technology is matured and i know there will be minimal issues. As for my Proc, i am waiting for a quad phenom before i upgrade. i am running into a problem with the lack of a frame buffer at high res. i game at 1650 x 1080 max everything. bioshock has a few laggy spots. just because i have 2 320mb frame buffers doesnt mean i have 640mb at my disposal. i still only have 320mb. but thanks for the info so far!

Charlie Ridinger

I have to agree with the others. Buy a new cpu. I'm not a fanboy, I alway just buy what's
best at the moment. But waiting on the AMD Quad sounds like you just want to spend money
on a sub-standard product. It's your money, spend it as you please. But supporting AMD with
that much cash sounds crazy to me. Your best $ to performance mark is Intel. AMD is already
corrupting ATI with the cheaper engineering and design concept. Instead of performance there
shooting for cheap workstation designs for the corporate market. AMD may regain some
performance in the future. But it won't be in the near future.
I'm voting keep what you've got.

You have lag in Bioshock at 1680x1050? I run that res at High settings in Bioshock with my single 8800GTS 320Mb and get no lag whatsoever. In fact I doubt id notice a difference if I added a second 8800GTS.

I can't believe that the difference between my E4300 @ 3.2Ghz and your A64 X2 6000+ is that great so maybe theres some other problem thats causing it. Is it like really bad proper lag?

I agree with DEX

You should have NO lag in bioshock bro....
Your system is more then capable of running that game...
For comparison I run an E6600 and an single 8800 Ultra *AS YOU KNOW* in 1680 by 1050 as well...Nothing lags for me at all..

I vote you wait a few months to see where the AMD path goes....or make the jump to INTEL....
Your cards arent the problem.

Maybe a driver issue or something else..

Just my two cents...

Call or Message if you need further details.

Barry

If it Lags That much, It could be spyware or something else. Get rid of the spyware and/or close any mem hungry app in the background. If you still get lag, it maybe a driver problem, which you can fix, or backup and reformat if you cant fix the driver.

Quote: Originally Posted by Nerdz If it Lags That much, It could be spyware or something else. Get rid of the spyware and/or close any mem hungry app in the background. If you still get lag, it maybe a driver problem, which you can fix, or backup and reformat if you cant fix the driver.

lol yeah

I am pretty sure Chrome is smart enough to handle the BASICS though...

He is a pretty good tech...
Your advice is good though...
I just bet hes done all this already though...

Anyone know of any issues with bioshock and his particular equipment?

The latest forceware addresses some issues with high end games and vista bro....maybe thats your fix

mi issue is that i am maxed out on everything, i have the latest forceware's and i have all the DX10 crap turnedon, plus in nvidia control panel i have all the settings maxed out to quality. the only time i get a lag, and it isnt even really a lag, but i get a FPS drop in to the 20's is when there is a really heavy rendering going on. like fire and explosions and a ton of slicers. i have vsync on so i am maxing out at 60 fps... i am a AMD fanboy, i know intel is faster, but i DO NOT WANT INTEL....lol... i also want to remove a major heat producing object from my case, hence the reason to go to a single card soultion..

i am going to get a quad phenom, end of discussion there... not a intel quad anything.

i might look at the 9k series from nvidia... or the next offering from ATI...

There are no single card solutions out that are as fast or faster than what you've got....hence, definitely wait for nvidia 9800 or ATi HD4800....3800 is merely the 65nm refresh AFAIK.

You shouldn't be having any issues with Bioshock and SLi 8800s...it's probably your CPU I guess. No problems here at any point in the game, just like Dex, with everything maxed @ 1680x1050.

I have a question for Dex, and Digital-World.
have you changed settings in the nVidia control panel? Im asking this because Im curious if anyone thinks or knows if that might cause a problem with settings from the game and settings in the nVidia control panel.
I think I may have read something that suggested leaving the settings in the graphics card's control panel set to program controlled can provide a performance advantage. but Im not sure I read that. maybe it was nothing

EDIT: oh, and Im sorry I don't have an opinion to share here about your question, and I don't mean to bend the topic of this thread even further, but I have. I think.

Quote: Originally Posted by Fire Hawk I have a question for Dex, and Digital-World. have you changed settings in the nVidia control panel? Im asking this because Im curious if anyone thinks or knows if that might cause a problem with settings from the game and settings in the nVidia control panel. I think I may have read something that suggested leaving the settings in the graphics card's control panel set to program controlled can provide a performance advantage. but Im not sure I read that. maybe it was nothing EDIT: oh, and Im sorry I don't have an opinion to share here about your question, and I don't mean to bend the topic of this thread even further, but I have. I think.

By doing that, you let the "Game" itself pick your AA and AF settings...wich may only be 2X AA and 4XAF, wich on something like a 8800Ultra would leave LOTS of image quality untapped, it could probably run 8XAA and 16XAF depending on the resolution.

Now if you don't know what it is your "Tweeking" then yeah...you can realy slow things down on a low end or midrange PC by "Maxing" everything out.

The game itself will choose rather conservatively to maintain a high level of performance, it's somewhat generic since they don't want to hear complaints the game runs like crap cause you have a "Weak" CPU, Video Card, or poorly optimised OS/Configuration.

Here is a good Bioshock Tweak Guide (They have tons of other games at that site too!)

TweakGuides.com - BioShock Tweak Guide

It goes into extreme details that will either give you better performance on a slower rig, or show you all the hidden/not so obvious settings in the driver control panel to increase image quality if your rig has some kick ass hardware.

This one will help you optimise your OS (XP and Vista)

TweakGuides.com - The TweakGuides Tweaking Companion

This is for ATI cards

TweakGuides.com - ATI Catalyst Tweak Guide

And one for NVIDIA Cards

TweakGuides.com - Nvidia Forceware Tweak Guide


Display and Graphics card settings explained (Ever wonder what V-Synch does?)

TweakGuides.com - Gamer's Graphics & Display Settings Guide

Solid said what you needed to hear....

what card are you using exactly?

Necro's the Man again. Excellant post. + rep to you :-)

Just get a 8800 GT or GTS 512 - cheaper, and the GTS 512 is better than the GTX