My sad little OC story.

[Le Québécois]

No topic really...just wanted to share my little sad story....I got a super cpu....amd3200(939) running since last night at 2.4 gig with the stock fan..very stable..what sux is that while benchmarking.....I saw that my 9800PRO is the bottleneck of my system when running my game at normal resolution....1024 AA4xAF8x.... :Q

Just a question like that...what would be the perfect GPU match for running with let say a 3800?

 

[LTC8K6]

NV6800GT

ATI X800XL would be good too, but they are still vaporware.

 

[Creig]

I'm surprised that you say your 9800Pro is holding you back at 1024/768 4xAA/8xAF. That's a fairly low resolution to be running with that card and I seriously doubt it's really working all that hard.

What are you basing your statement on?

As you can see here, the 9800 Pro doesn't really start to break a sweat until 1600x1200. And those benches were done back in May of '03. ATI has come a LOOONG way since the Catalyst 3.4 drivers, which makes the card that much faster today.

 

[Le Québécois]

I didn't do extensif testing but on doom3 I get a big 0% and in hl2 1.5%...that's why I say its bottleneck...or am I missing something?
And if I run my benchmarks at 640 I get a huge boost in speed, 15% for a 20% OC in UT2004 for exemple.

 

[gururu]

yea its all vid-card dependent. the 6800gt will start to set you free with those games. And the X800XT and 6800GT will make your cpu the bottleneck.

 

[Creig]

Let me put it this way. At 1024/768 4xAA/8xAF, it won't really matter if you upgrade to a newer video card as you'll most likely not notice any difference in gameplay. Framerates will, of course, be higher on a 6800GT, but at those resolutions you won't be able to visually see any between the two cards.

Now if you crank up the resolution to 1600x1200 4xAA/8xAF, now you'll begin to notice the difference between the newest release of video cards and the previous generation.

Just because the video card can't keep up to the CPU is no reason to upgrade. You won't be able to tell the difference between 80fps and 130fps. If your games/applications begin to suffer from poor performance, that's another matter.

 

[mwmorph]

Originally posted by: Creig
Let me put it this way. At 1024/768 4xAA/8xAF, it won't really matter if you upgrade to a newer video card as you'll most likely not notice any difference in gameplay. Framerates will, of course, be higher on a 6800GT, but at those resolutions you won't be able to visually see any between the two cards.

Now if you crank up the resolution to 1600x1200 4xAA/8xAF, now you'll begin to notice the difference between the newest release of video cards and the previous generation.

Just because the video card can't keep up to the CPU is no reason to upgrade. You won't be able to tell the difference between 80fps and 130fps. If your games/applications begin to suffer from poor performance, that's another matter.

exactly. if it aint broke, dont fix it.

 

[imported_Computer MAn]

Originally posted by: mwmorph

Originally posted by: Creig
Let me put it this way. At 1024/768 4xAA/8xAF, it won't really matter if you upgrade to a newer video card as you'll most likely not notice any difference in gameplay. Framerates will, of course, be higher on a 6800GT, but at those resolutions you won't be able to visually see any between the two cards.

Now if you crank up the resolution to 1600x1200 4xAA/8xAF, now you'll begin to notice the difference between the newest release of video cards and the previous generation.

Just because the video card can't keep up to the CPU is no reason to upgrade. You won't be able to tell the difference between 80fps and 130fps. If your games/applications begin to suffer from poor performance, that's another matter.

exactly. if it aint broke, dont fix it.

The only reason I would upgrade now is if you want to play at higher resolutions.

 

[Le Québécois]

Well..maybe im crazy...but getting 46.7fps in doom3 or 50fps in hl2 isn't enough for me...you see...i'm the kind of guy who like to play with vsync and not have the fps under 42.5. Now the question I'm also asking is if buying a sound card could do some difference in the fps...right now i'm running the onboard AC97.

Is the extrapower not used because of my videocard bottleneck will compensate for the lack of soundcard?

 

[Fern]

No the question I'm also asking is if buying a sound card could do some difference in the fps...right now i'm running the unboard AC97.

A sound card might free up some extra cpu cycles, but you already seem to think the vid card can't keep up with the cpu. So, a sound card, seems to me, would only put your cpu further ahead of your vid card?

Fern

 

[cbehnken]

Get a 6800 non ultra

$250.00 easy and you'll have 70 FPS at 1280x1024 in Doom3

I did....

 

[iversonyin]

turn off AA and AF and play at higher resolution?

if you are a eye candy guy, you need a new video card

 

[Le Québécois]

Yes I am.....the onlything i could let go would be AA...then again....it's only a extrem mesure

 

[ts3433]

The most worthwhile upgrade would probably be to a 6800GT (eVGA's is $388 at Newegg). (I know the 6600GT isn't really a big leap over the 9800 Pro, and the regular 6800 might not be either, in which case the $200-300 for one of those cards is unjustified.) If you can't do that, turn off some settings/overclock your card a bit.