Graphics Card and Power Supply

[Swingman]

I am looking to upgrade my graphics card and found out that my current 250 watt power supply isn't good enough. So I got two things that I need advice on.

I found a good deal on xFX Geforce 6800 ($168 on Newegg) and was wondering if that was a good gaming card. I can't afford the 6800 GT or anything above $200 so let me know if you think that is my best option.

As for power supply, I have a Compaq with an Athlon 64 3200 (Asus K8v) processor. On HP's website, it says DC5V, DC12V next to power supply if that means anything. I also think I need ATX12v PSU. Basically, what are good brands to look at? I found a Cooler Master PSU that might work but I don't know anything about PSUs so I'm worried about everything working.

Thanks for the help.

[madportagee]

I have the gforce 6800 gt and love it, i noticed a couple days ago someone putting up a link to refurbished ones for $212 on the forum, I'll try to help find that.


http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=63477&highlight=6800gt

But i think it needs a 350w power supply :(

[BasketCase1080]

If I were you I would go with this. http://shop.ati.com/product.asp?sku=2700726

I just ordered one since you cant beat the performance for that price.

[Swingman]

Thanks for the links. I saw on another thread that a Athlon 3400+ (which is one notch faster than mine) couldn't take advantage of the power of a Geforce 6800 GT so is it worth the extra cash to buy that?

I realize I'll need a better power supply and I really need help figuring out which PSU would be a good choice.

[Swingman]

too bad I'm always on family vacation during black friday. can't they do that day away from a holiday? geez lol

[BasketCase1080]

get the card i linked and you wont need a new power supply.

[Swingman]

Went to the link, even that cards says it needs a 300 watt PSU.

[madportagee]

Thanks for the links. I saw on another thread that a Athlon 3400+ (which is one notch faster than mine) couldn't take advantage of the power of a Geforce 6800 GT so is it worth the extra cash to buy that?

I realize I'll need a better power supply and I really need help figuring out which PSU would be a good choice.


I'm not really sure, I have a 3.2 P4 and I get to max out every game so far, I love the card, havent had any problems, but the card is huge also, might have to take that into account, depending on your case. Like mine after the power supply connections has like an inch left to where my HD is located. I imagine as long as you dont have one of those cube cases though you should b fine. On the other hand that ATI card is awesome too, one of my friends runs it, either way you can't go wrong.

I dont know anything bout brands of power supply at all, just know mine came w/ a 350w.

[Swingman]

I've never gone with ATI so I'm not familiar with the different versions. I know the XT is the best version but is pro the waterdown version or the medium version? I know with nvidia, you should stay away from the watered down cards.

[guyver2077]

yea nvidia is recommended...i have a 6600 gt and i can run anything....a 6800 would be great but that line requires alot of juice...

i have a real good ocz 450w ps...so i dont have that sort of problem..


good thing also that the new 7 series nvidia cards actually require less power...

[Swingman]

nevermind, i found that the pro is comparable to nvidia's GT so that's good. All i need to know now is what 400 watt PSU will work in my computer.

[Swingman]

I think I'm going to get a Cooler Master Real Power 450 Watts power supply unit.

Also leaning towards a refurbished Leadtek Geforce 6800 GT video card for $211.

[spidey]

The cheapass in me says get the plain 6800 and cross your fingers on unlocking it.

Link - http://firingsquad.com/hardware/geforce_6800_unlocking/default.asp

If you can unlock it, jump for joy. If you can't, you can still be happy with a 6800.

You can use the money you saved from buying a 6800 rather than a GT refurb or X800 Pro refurb and use it to buy a quality power supply.

I went a similar direction. I unlocked 4 pipes and two shaders on my 6800LE (LE even cheaper than a 6800) and overclocked it a little past 6800 specs. Needless to say, I'm happy.

[Swingman]

Thanks for the advice. I read up a little and it seems refurbished leadteks don't have the greatest record of reliability so I'm going to probably get the eVGA 6800.

I just ordered the power supply http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817171005 so I'm going to wait to see how the installation with that goes before I order the Geforce 6800. Hopefully it isn't too hard to install the power supply.

[BasketCase1080]

or you could always unlock that x800 pro to and x800 xt, even if you didnt overclock it youd see better results than a 6800 some games better than a 6800 ultra. Honestly, think about getting this card.

[Swingman]

I ended up just ordering the eVGA 6800 for $162 after $20 mail in rebate. Hard to beat that deal (https://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=M&Product_Code=190140&Category_Code=VC-NV)

I just decided I don't want to take a chance with a refurbished card and the above 6800 is a killer deal.

[spidey]

If you can stretch your budget, definitely get the X800 Pro and unlock with XT BIOS.

EDIT: Chimed in too late. Good luck on unlocking your 6800. You'll be happy either way. It was such a big jump for me moving from a GF4 Ti4600. Let me know how it goes.

[Swingman]

Sure thing. I'm using a Geforce FX 5200 right now but I need to prepare for Elder Scrolls Oblivion. I know my current card isn't nearly up to that task. I'm barely able to play Far Cry.

[psiufoxx2]

As someone else said, cross your fingers on unlocking it.

If you can open up the vertex shaders, and unlock the extra 4 pipes, you'll be in 6800GT heaven. :)

[Vegan]

250 watts?! Jesus christ.....

[irrossistable]

Power supplies always seem to be forgotten about when people upgrade computers, for some reason.

[Vegan]

And it's probably some little cheapy that's in reality supplying 175-200 watts at most, too. I'm shocked that such a computer runs in the first place, especially powering a newish 64-bit CPU. Wow. Just wow.

[Swingman]

Since I don't have the funds to spend a lot on gaming systems, I buy the best cheap computer I can and then upgrade graphics and memory when I need to in order to play games. Obviously I stay away from celeron processors and bad memory and such but for 600 bucks, the following is a nice start.

Athlon 64 3200+
512 MB PC3200
160 GB Hard Drive
DVD+R drive and CD drive
128MB Geforce FX 5200
250 Watt PSU

for 300 more bucks it will be

Athlon 64 3200+
1 GB PC3200
160 GB Hard Drive
DVD+R drive and CD drive
128MB Geforce 6800
450 Watt PSU

Not a bad system for around 900 bucks total. Next time around I'm going to give it a go at building a computer but this one should handle games for a while I hope. Hopefully Windows Vista will be fully compatible with current PC games. A 64 bit OS will hopefully get even more power from my processor. I tried to get another 512 MB but the 3rd party memory (Crucial I think) crashed my computer so I'll probably just get HP memory instead.

BTW, good thing I didn't forget about the PSU, the 6800 would have fried my PC most likely. I agree and I think it's the fault of companies like HP and Dell not really saying much about it. I had to open up my case to find out what PSU was in my system because they told me almost nothing on the website.

[BasketCase1080]

Since I don't have the funds to spend a lot on gaming systems, I buy the best cheap computer I can and then upgrade graphics and memory when I need to in order to play games. Obviously I stay away from celeron processors and bad memory and such but for 600 bucks, the following is a nice start.

Athlon 64 3200+
512 MB PC3200
160 GB Hard Drive
DVD+R drive and CD drive
128MB Geforce FX 5200
250 Watt PSU

for 300 more bucks it will be

Athlon 64 3200+
1 GB PC3200
160 GB Hard Drive
DVD+R drive and CD drive
128MB Geforce 6800
450 Watt PSU

Not a bad system for around 900 bucks total. Next time around I'm going to give it a go at building a computer but this one should handle games for a while I hope. Hopefully Windows Vista will be fully compatible with current PC games. A 64 bit OS will hopefully get even more power from my processor. I tried to get another 512 MB but the 3rd party memory (Crucial I think) crashed my computer so I'll probably just get HP memory instead.

BTW, good thing I didn't forget about the PSU, the 6800 would have fried my PC most likely. I agree and I think it's the fault of companies like HP and Dell not really saying much about it. I had to open up my case to find out what PSU was in my system because they told me almost nothing on the website.

Damn, my pc is the ultimate budget deal compared to yours.

Athlon 64 3000+
DVD-rom drive
16X dl liteon dvd burner
160gb sata drive
1024 mb ddr ram
ati x800 pro
15 inch lcd screen
canon pixma ip 1500 printer

all this for 550 dollars. My pc was 300 after rebate with a monitor and printer. Im happy.

[Swingman]

I got mine a year ago though. Prices on computers tend to drop. Guessing you bought yours recently?

How did you get all the for 300? i might be better off cancelling my orders and just getting a new computer lol

[BasketCase1080]

closeout sale at office depot on an emachines.

[psiufoxx2]

Damn, my pc is the ultimate budget deal compared to yours.

Athlon 64 3000+
DVD-rom drive
16X dl liteon dvd burner
160gb sata drive
1024 mb ddr ram
ati x800 pro
15 inch lcd screen
canon pixma ip 1500 printer

all this for 550 dollars. My pc was 300 after rebate with a monitor and printer. Im happy.'


wtfpwn. Nice computer for an insane price.

What was the Motherboard on that piece?

[Purkeynator]

If I were you I would do some serious research on your current power supply. I have an Hp Pavilion and had to do a lot of digging to discover that my power supply is proprietary to my case and motherboard. Therefore I cannot upgrade my power supply. Keep in mind that Compaq is HP owned now. Also I learned some Dell computers use proprietary power supply units also. So my HP Pavilion with Athlon 64 processor that I bought only a year ago came with only a 250 watt power supply. After doing a lot of research the fastest card that I could find on an AGP 8x bus that my power supply could support was a Radeon 9600 XT All in Wonder card. All other cards faster than that needed a 300 watt power supply and a separate power connnection directly to the PSU. Just make sure you know what you are getting into.

[Swingman]

thanks for the warning but too late. I already switched my power supply and everything is working fine.

What do you mean by proprietary to your case and motherboard? it's all owned by me now, i'll switch what I want to :). If it's not supposed to work with other PSUs then I've already proven that wrong as I've already upgraded and PC is working better and quieter than ever..

[spidey]

Some companies are known to use non-standard connections for parts so that you have to purchase their products to upgrade. Dell is one that comes to mind. He was worried that your machine might have the same problem.

[Swingman]

glad that isn't the case. companies should be sued for creating monopolies like that. I think that's why my 3rd party memory stick didn't work though but at least they didn't do that with the power supply (HP doesn't even sell power supplies to my knowledge).

[Swingman]

Got everything in my computer now. Just installed the Geforce 6800 and I am not too happen with the performance. I thought I'd be able to play Far Cry at a good resolution without getting lag but not quite. Maybe I need to mess with more of the settings but I couldn't take it above the middle resolution without it lagging up.

Maybe I'll get better results after trying to overclock it but I'm going to do that another day. At least it's working fine and I was getting better performance than my Geforce 5200 FX but not as much as I was expecting.

[spidey]

You should be getting much better performance with the 6800 compared to your FX5200, especially in FarCry. FarCry isn't even playable with the FX5200 at very high settings and 1024 res.

Do you have AGP Fastwrites on? Turn that off to see if it helps. Fastwrites may cause instability.

[Swingman]

I am getting somewhat better performance. I had to put Far Cry on the lowest resolution and settings to get anywhere near smooth. Now I can go middle of the road settings and get very little lag.

I was thinking with a 6800 I shouldn't be getting any lag though or at least not noticeable lag.

Not sure if have AGP fastwrites on, whatever the default is on that setting probably. Is there an easy way to check that?

[spidey]

An easy way to check is using RivaTuner, the same program to unlock the extra pipes on the 6800. You can also reboot and look in the BIOS.

[Swingman]

I turned it off but still got about the same results in Far Cry. Maybe it's due to only having 512 MB memory. Wish I could run my own benchmarks and see how my PC does compared to what reviews say it should do

[psiufoxx2]

I turned it off but still got about the same results in Far Cry. Maybe it's due to only having 512 MB memory. Wish I could run my own benchmarks and see how my PC does compared to what reviews say it should do

You certainly can!! The freeware version of 3DMark05 is yours to download.

3DMark®05 Free Version (Build 1.2.0) (http://www.futuremark.com/download/?3dmark05.shtml)

Run it at the default settings and compare to other posted speeds on review sites.

GeForce FX 5200: 128-bit, GPU 250mhz, Memory 200mhz, 4 Pixel Pipelines
GeForce 6800: 256-bit, GPU 325mhz, Memory 700mhz, 12 Pixel Pipelines

Over at Tom's Hardware, this comparison shows a bunch of cards tested with 3dMark05 (http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20050524/vga_charts-02.html#3d_mark_2005). Your card came in at 2635 with no AA/AF, and at 1990 with 4AA/8AF (at 1280x1024).

They used this setup:

CPU AMD Athlon64 4000+ FSB 200MHz
Motherboard ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe (nForce 4 SLI)
Memory 2x Corsair CMX-512-3200C2, 1024MB
HDD Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 120GB S-ATA (8MB)
DVD Hitachi GD-7000
LAN Netgear FA-312
Power Supply Antec True Control 550W (ATX 1.0)

[psiufoxx2]

Damn, my pc is the ultimate budget deal compared to yours.

Athlon 64 3000+
DVD-rom drive
16X dl liteon dvd burner
160gb sata drive
1024 mb ddr ram
ati x800 pro
15 inch lcd screen
canon pixma ip 1500 printer

all this for 550 dollars. My pc was 300 after rebate with a monitor and printer. Im happy.

Wow where'd you get that deal?

[psiufoxx2]

oops too many posts

[Swingman]

I unlocked the other 4 pixels and overclocked it so I have the following on my 6800

16 pixels (6 vertex units)
363 MHz Core Clock
836 MHz Memory Clock

Is that good? I heard some cards don't work when unlocking the extra pixels and that overclocking doesn't always work so it seems I was able to get a good amount more out of it. What do you think?

BTW, I took Far Cry to the lowest resolution and I'm still getting severe lag. Maybe I need to reinstall the game because that's insane.

[psiufoxx2]

I unlocked the other 4 pixels and overclocked it so I have the following on my 6800

16 pixels (6 vertex units)
363 MHz Core Clock
836 MHz Memory Clock

Is that good? I heard some cards don't work when unlocking the extra pixels and that overclocking doesn't always work so it seems I was able to get a good amount more out of it. What do you think?

BTW, I took Far Cry to the lowest resolution and I'm still getting severe lag. Maybe I need to reinstall the game because that's insane.

Certainly sounds like something else is conflicting. Make sure you download the latest patch 1.33 from the www.ubi.com as well. Here's to hoping it all works out.

[Swingman]

Well, ended up just doing a clean install of windows xp and things are working a bit better.

I can play Far Cry without much lag at a resolution of 1024x768x32 and most graphic options on very high.

Apparently I really needed a fresh install of XP because my pc is also booting up much faster now.