Just bought a geforce fx 5700 Ultra(your thoughts)

[klane]

well i used to play americas army religiously until about a year ago when expansion after expansion i just couldnt play the game because i was getting way too much lag. i then was running:

1.8 ghz
256mb ram
geforce 2 graphics card
40 gb hdd

soo ive had an itchy trigger finger lately, i wanted to get back into it so i purchased a geforce fx 5700 Ultra in hopes i could play it again. i will probly be upping my ram soon, but the problem is it is RDRAM pc800. which i have found pretty expensive. do you guys think ill be able to play AA alright? have you or do you have the Gfx card and what do you think of it?

 

[ssvegeta1010]

What did you pay for that? A 6600 for $120 would be better...

 

[BobDaMenkey]

Poor choice on the upgrade path man. The FX line was total poop, and still is. It'll play DX8 stuff just fine, but has a heck of a time with DX9 stuff.

If I were in your shoes I'd not bother with upgrading the RDRAM, because it's just not worth it. Get yourself a new mobo and DDR instead of trying to run RD RAM. Better yet, get yourself a new processor while you're at it. A switch to something like a Socket 754 Athlon 64 system wouldn't be that expensive, or for a bit more 939.

I'd do my best to ditch the RDRAM, and pick up 512mb at least of DDR.

 

[Crescent13]

You are going to be two series behind. you are in 5, 6 is now outdated, because of the 7 series. You should have got a 6600.

 

[klane]

yea im not really worried about keeping up with the v cards, new ones come out monthly. i got this one from a friend for $30 bucks, figured it was a good upgrade from a geforce 2. dont really care for all the big games like bf2 and mmorpgs, just want to play army.

 

[klane]

also, in switching Mobo's and grabbing a new processor, can u guys guide me. i will need something that will fit into my current case, it is a dell 8200.

 

[johnnqq]

i think that getting an fx was a very uneducated decision

 

[klane]

was it really that bad of a choice tho...only $30 bucks. and ill be the first one to admit it, i dont know much about computers.

 

[ShadowBlade]

no amd processor will fit in a dell computer without modding the case
the screw holes are different and where the screws around the cpu attach to the mobo tray, they arent normal standoffs, but the bumped up sheet metal

 

[hans030390]

30$ for that card is fine considering you don't play all the pretty games. If you do see problems with the 5700, then you can ask us about upgrading. wait, why do you care if you already bought it? its kinda rude to give it back, right?

 

[SneakyStuff]

it was $30... YES, thats a good deal.

 

[klane]

im not giving it back, just asking about others experiences with it.

 

[gac009]

30 was fine and if it plays the game you want it to play then what else do you need?

 

[klane]

we will see either tomorrow or the next day, my friend lives out of town and shipped priority this morning....so hopefully ill get it soon

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: klane
was it really that bad of a choice tho...only $30 bucks. and ill be the first one to admit it, i dont know much about computers.

LOL-SCORE

Dude, $30 for this card is WAY cheap. You got the deal of the century, a HUGE upgrade over a GF2.

Celebrate.

Yes it is not a GF6 series, but it's a LOT better than what you had.

 

[nRollo]

Check it out:

http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041004/index.html">http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041004/index.html</a>

This is a low end system to be sure, but if you stay away from DX9, you should be able to play 10X7?

 

[JBT]

For $30? You did the right thing. A 5700 Ultra kills a GF2.

 

[klane]

lmao thats what i thought.

 

[Avalon]

$30 for that card is great, and it should prove to be a hefty upgrade over your GF2 MX.

 

[agent2099]

Unfortunately whatever you upgrade you are going to run into bottlenecks. You will probably have to upgrade your entire system if you want to get the best performance from each part.

At the minumum:

AMD Sempron and Motherboard : $80
New Case with Powersupply: $50
512DDR: $70

Total: $200

You can probably keep your HDD and Optical Drives if you are happy with them. A 5700 for $30 was a good start .

 

[anandtechrocks]

He doesn't want a whole system upgrade he's just asking what any owners of the FX 5700 felt about the card. I too play Americas Army and I used to run it on a FX 5700 (mine was the regular with 256 MB, not the Ultra). I played on 1024x768 with an AMD Athlon XP 2000+ (stock speeds 1.66 Ghz) and it played very smoothly. This was AAO version 2.1 I think. You will be just fine with that set up.

 

[agent2099]

Well the system upgrade was instead of upgrading RDRAM, which would be a complete waste at a hundred bucks. Obviously there will definitely be an improvement with the 5700, that is if the Dell power supply can handle it. If the PSU cannot handle it a system upgrade may be the only option considering dell uses proprietary parts.

 

[imported_Rampage]

UM $30? I'd buy 5700 Ultras all day for $30. What the hell is $30?!

The 5700/5900s are fine cards. Its the 5600/5800 I was wary of. Is the 57/5900 my first pick? FOR $30 IT IS.

They arent THAT bad. By the 5700/5900 revisions they were decent cards.. comparable to the competing ATI. I almost bought a 5900XT IIRC.. and I'm an "educated consumer", they were at a very good price at one time and performed very well.
The extra vertex shader on the 5700 and other revisions done to it made it worthy purchase.

More so than the competing solutions? No, probably not.
But it wasnt too far off of comparing the awesome Geforce6 lineup to the SM2-only X-series lineup.

Now the 7800GTX, that solidified the dominance of Nvidia.

 

[klane]

ha agent how about you guide me through it then . first off where can i start buying the stuff, its going to be a process and will take a few months i just want someone to guide me in the right direction, it seems that AMD is much prefered at this site. so, what case do you suggest? hopefully i can get it here cheaper.

 

[RazeOrc]

For places to find new computer goodies check out www.newegg.com It isn't always the 'absolute cheapest' out there, but their service, delivery times, and RMA policy is top notch. Over the past 5 years I have purchased about 5k worth of related computer components from them. Go to www.fatwallet.com forums and find the hot deals if you don't mind waiting, jumping through some hoops, and just want things for virtually nothing. Otherwise check out the FS/FT board on this forum as it's a good place to find inexpensive used wares.

BTW, I too just bought a FX5700 w/VIVO to replace my GF2-Ti. Many on this board will tell you you need to upgrade your entire system because quite frankly it's a support forum for computer junkies, I should know, I used to be one of them. Any upgrade where you jump 'generations' of technology usually yields a very substantial gain. I used to be a 'power gamer' with an ridiculously expensive computer that recieved upgrades on a monthly basis and let me tell you it's not worth getting the 'computer bug' if you're only interested in very specific tasks. I'm not trying to dissuade you from doing a rebuild, just think about what you'll be getting for the price & time investment and be realistic. It's cool to have the biggest and the best, until it isn't anymore and you remember how much you spent on it