TonyBurns

iTrader: (3)

All,
So is PCI-E better than AGP?
If so what sort of price is reasonable for a PCI-E card (though im not looking to buy one in the near future as ill be needing much upgrading of my old system but like to keep on top of the technology).
Whats better at the moment, Geforce4 or ATi?

Thanks!

Tony

Neil Smalley

Today, There's very little difference in them(AGP usually just nudges ahead). PCI-E boards are at their infancy, so it's likely any native performance increases will come from later revisons.

I'd go for Nvidia if you decide you are going to go for PCI-E, as you can buy another Nvidia card and run them in Parrallel(SLI) later on(within a year, given the rate of development of cards). SLI does offer some advantages, esp in benchmarks but to be honest who can tell the difference between 80fps and 110fps. So it's best to wait until the games come out that need the power

If you upgrade every couple of years then AGP has a lot going for it, especially in the choice of available cards. You can then go to PCI-E then, when it's more stable and performs better.

TonyBurns

iTrader: (3)

Cheers Neil!

Tony

Lum

Doom3.

No card in the market is capable of running it at it's highest settings currently, as it needs 512MB of texture memory.

Excellent game though, I'm suprised there have been no threads about it here, considering all the HL2 threads we've had.

Neil Smalley

Doom 3 is an ok game with good graphics. It was discussed back in August when it first came out. I know of some hackers who've managed to kludge a 512mb card together and apparently there's little difference.

One of the reasons HL2 gets a lot of praise(and rightly so) is because it manages to look better than Doom 3(although it's not quite as technically advanced) on a lot lower hardware spec.

I'm not sure what game i'm looking forward to at the mo, certainly nothing in the next 4-6 months

TonyBurns

iTrader: (3)

Havnt Nvidia just released a 512mb card?
Anyway, another quick question
I know that the core clock speed is what you need to look for, with some as low as 350 and some as high as 600, but how much difference does this make if you have a 400 v 600 but the 400 has 256mb of mem and the 600 has 128mb? Will it improve if you add more mainboard memory or will it just use the ammount on the Graphics card and slow down?

Tony

Neil Smalley

Tony,
The answer is, it depends. A GFX cards performance is'nt a simple as clock speeds and texture memory. Things like the number of pipelines, the driver maturity, and even the revision version of the card can make a difference.

The best idea is to check out the reviews from www.hardocp.com, www.tomshardware.com and www.andandtech.com and see how the cards perform in real life games. Artificial Benchmarks are ok for like for like comparision on the same system, but are'nt as representitve for real games.

Blow Dog

I've just specced my new PC and it's including a new PCI-E MoBo and I'm being quoted for dual ATI X800 PE's (PCI-E). Cards are coming in at about £320 each. Performance gain from single to dual is massive.

Cem

Neil Smalley

Cem

I did'nt think ATI had their version of SLI out yet? Performance stats so far give a big increase in some games, and marginal in others.

Blow Dog

Hi Neil,

Yes, that's the one downside, it's game dependant as not all support it. Wierd.
I've not yet confirmed the system but I've been quoted a few days delivery of the cards.

Cem

Neil Smalley

Cem

I would really look into if ATI's SLI is out yet. All the info I could find says it won't be out til next year(Q2)

http://www.dvhardware.net/article3404.html

Blow Dog

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal...00_Series.html

Lee

heh Cem I imagine if your PC spec is anything like your spending on cars, it will be awesome.

But I can pip you on this I am sure. I've just spec'd a new PC, the focus of which is the new Apple 30" display. Its taken me flippin ages to decide on a card which will run that, in the end I went for a Quadro 3400 which (in cost) is around the same as 3 of your cards the 4400 I could not justify, it not being much better than the 3400 and coming in at around £1800

Dual Xeons and 4 x 15k U320 SCSI RAID10 are the order of the day. Its more of a workstation that will play games than a consumer PC.

You will have far better gfx performance than me for sure, although SLI doesn't simply mean doubling, there are overheads...

however I had to find a card with Dual Link DVI which is for resolutions > 1920x1200 (this is native res on my sony 23" TFT) - the apple is something like 2560x1600. ATI tell me no card they make will do. I'm sure that was duff advice though, the FireGL seems same as quadros....

What mobo did you spec ? the current 6800's reckon they take up 2 slots in terms of width - do yours ? Do both slots run x16 ?

As Neil put it - PCI-e is still a bit young...lots of gotchas ahead I'm sure...

Blow Dog

Sorry for the late reply -

I understand both will run x16, but I've recently been told there have been problems running these cards in dual SLI right now. Time will tell.
I was also thinking of a 23" Apple, but opted instead to buy 2 x 20" Viewsonic LCD's with 16ms refresh time. Currently running 3200 x 1200 desktop and it's great for desktop operations. What did the 30" set you back?

Cem