Minimum Power...

[Saurian]

Ok, so I posted in here a while back that I was choosing between a Dell 20" monitor, and a Dell 20" widescreen monitor. Well, they've released the Dell 207FPW which is a stripped down widescreen with HDCP, 20.1" 1680x1050 resolution, 300cd, and 800:1 contrast.

Now, I currently am running an FX5900XT graphics card - we all know how horrid these were, and still are. I am planning on upgrading anyways, though at this point I think it will be more of a moderate upgrade then the full C2D rebuild I have been planning on. Motherboard, RAM, and graphics are all going to get replaced. My current 512MB stick has errors in memtest, my current MSI motherboard with VIA chipset is a peice, and the video card as mentioned. I'll be going with a board that supports dual core and can overclock a bit, with PCIe x16 slot and DDR2 ram. I figure if I DO buy ram, I might as well upgrade to the faster ram. If I happen to find a dual core cpu to upgrade to, then I'll grab that and have a second machine sitting around to fold on.

That said, here's my question: What is the minimum graphics card I will need to push a game properly on that size of screen? That's a big screen, and will take some rendering power. Can I get by with a X850 or 7600GT? Or do I need to step up to a 7800/7900 or X1900GT? I'd rather keep the budget down on this move, but I don't want to buy this big monitor and then have trouble playing Generals, Battfield Earth 2160, and the like at anything but the crappiest settings.

Anyways, I thought I'd throw some links for you. Here is the Dell Monitor, the Asus Motherboard (P5RD2-VM) that I'm looking at, and RAM I'll buy whatever is low voltage and has a good price at the time (though I'm partial to A-data).

Thanks for your help!

 

[ETSA]

Dell's make excellent monitors I doubt you would be disappointed. If you buy the x850 or 7900 or x1900gt you can play those games easy and probably at high settings. That motherboard is a bit of an issue there is pretty much no upgrade potential other than the graphics card I would get something that supports C2D's and the like incase you would ever upgrade.

As far as memory is concerned normally most people see the biggest performace increases with additional memory, so if it is noticeable performance increase that you want memory is always a good bagin.

I am not sure what you are asking buy those are my 2 cents. GL with the future upgrade/rebuild/whatever.

edit: I've lived in Dubuque, Iowa Ever been there?

 

[Saurian]

That motherboard supports dual core's. My other consideration was to buy a cheap (<100 dollars) C2D-supporting motherboard for later on, but that is a seperate issue. I don't even really need to upgrade the motherboard right now if I just buy an AGP card and new ram for mine, but I figure if I'm buying those I might as well go for PCIe and DDR2 with a new board. And, as C2D takes hold and everything else moves on, I'm sure we'll have people selling their dual core Pentium D's or the like here or elsewhere for relatively cheap. I also like having the integrated graphics because I plan on using all my old components to keep small small computers running for folding...and integrated means one less thing to cause instability or pay for either.

This thread is actually about just graphics, and how much of a graphics card I need to play games on that large of a display. I'm not playing Oblivion! Don't like the game, played it on 360. But I want to be able to play reasonably newer games with a fair amount of eye candy without dropping all the settings. Like with Battlefield Earth 2160 or whatever it is, I have to drop shadows and particles, as well as AA to get it to run with smooth fps. I don't want to get an X800 or something, only to then buy a decent game like Civ4 or something and have to turn all the settings down cause my display is gigantic.

Oh yeah, and Dubuque - way the hell up there! I live in Oskaloosa which is about an hour Southeast of Des Moines..and I had to drive and pick up the gf in Pella, and then drive her all the way to Dubuque for a friend's 21st birthday party. Bah! Otherwise, it is a nice town, I don't see much in the way of hills and cliffs down here..so that was interesting.