Graphics dilema

T

Thayne

New Member
Hi, hopefully someone can help me before I spend a chunk of money on a graphics card that looked good because it came in a nice box. I currently have an ASUS PSV-VM SE DH motherboard with a Nvidia GeForce 7100 GS graphics card, I need/would like to upgrade and I have my eye on the Nvidia GeForce 8800GT.

My question is: The memory on the 7100 is GDDR 2 and the 8800 operates on GDDR 3, does this matter and if so could someone please advise as to what would be an appropriate graphics card.

Oh and O/S is Vista::mad:

In advance I apologise for my ignorance.

Regards
 
The memory on board your card doesn't matter in the slightest. As long as your board supports PCI-E and you have a PSU which can handle the extra power requirements as well as providing a 6-pin PCI-E power cable, you should be absolutely fine =]

Post the other specs of your system so we can further help you.
 
Hopefully this is what you require:

Currently Pentium 4, 3.06GHz
Compatible Processors Pentium 4, Celeron D, Pentium Extreme Edition, Pentium D, Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Extreme
Currently 32-bit
64-bit Processors Compatibility Yes
Processor Socket LGA775 Socket
Multi-Core Support Dual-Core / Quad-core
Chipset Type Intel G965 Express / Intel ICH8
Max Bus Speed 1066 MHz

250 Gig Main HDD
500 Gig Slave HDD

RAM Installed 2 Gig
Supported RAM Speed PC2-4300, PC2-6400, PC2-5300
RAM Features Unbuffered, two DDR channels

Expansion / Connectivity
Expansion Slot(s) 1 processor - LGA775 Socket
4 memory - DIMM 240-pin
1 PCI Express x16
1 PCI Express x1
2 PCI

Cheers
 
It's good you have a G965 board, because that P4 would be a serious setback in purchasing a competent graphics card. As it is, you can upgrade to a C2d processor, the best out right now, and these would pose no bottleneck on the 8800gt, which by the way is a very good card. Only downside is that boards maximum FSB, 1066, which won't absolutely disallow the faster, cheaper 1333 chips, but it brings up the tricky subject of compatibility. Certain chipsets will support the newer chips, with a BIOS update, some will not. To be on the safe side we'll look at the older, but still very good 1066 chips.

The 8800gt requires a PSU along the lines of 400w, +12v@26 amperes. If you don't currently sport something that meets or exceeds this, (find out the wattage and amperage by looking at the side sticker on the power supply), which is my guess, then another purchase will need to be made, http://www.computerforum.com/90117-ceewi1-s-psu-recommendations.html, is a good place to look. So, altogether you're looking at a hefty investment of around $500-700 USD depending on what components are chosen. There's little leeway regarding this, but if you choose to make the jump, you'll be looking at a pretty nice gaming system.
 
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