Black Friday is coming up (sort of) and I want to upgrade my computer. I want either a DX10 card. My current build is:
x2 4200+
7800gt
2GB RAM
Note that I'm running PC3200 RAM and a Socket 939 motherboard.
My budget is at most $250. I'm hoping the 8800gts 320mb (which retails for anywhere from $270-$350) will be discounted enough on Black Friday, but having never been to a sale I don't really know what to expect.
My questions is this: can I expect the 8800gts 320mb to be discounted enough or is it simply impossible to predict? Also, will I be severely CPU-limited here? Lastly, I heard lower-end DX10 cards don't even give playable framerates in DX10. Will this be an issue with my (potential) setup?
The main reason I want to upgrade is because I have some money to spend and I haven't bought myself anything in a looong time. It's not the most rational decision but...whatever. I figure going DX10 is the best upgrade available--to upgrade my CPU, I'd need a new motherboard
and a new CPU.
I already have Vista, by the way. Oh, and I also run at 1280x1024.
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Personally, I would wait for Nvidia's next generation of video cards before making any major purchase decisions. The next generation will support DX10.1, which isn't supported by the current cards on the market (noticing a trend here?).
I know I don't need to upgrade, I'm playing games on medium-high right now. I'm just splurging because I haven't treated myself in ages. How long until the 10.1 cards are out? I don't really want to wait, though, because then I'll end up constantly waiting.
I have a very similar setup, except that I have a 4400+, and a 7900GT. I upgraded the 7900GT last week (I have a 1080p TV, and I wanted to run my games at that resolution) to a 8800GTS 640MB, and I couldn't be happier. I bought it from newegg for $400 (350 with rebate) with an included copy of Quake Wars. I doubt there would be much of a difference between the 640 and the 320 mb versions in your case because of the smaller resolution. You'll definitely see a significant performance increase, I went from 25 FPS in UT3 on medium to 60 FPS maxed out.
Other rumors speculate that they should have a sufficient quantity at this hard launch. It sounds sweet, but I want to know how it stacks up against the 8800gts-320 and 8800gts-640.
Here is the current gaming-age discussion.
EDIT: @freddyD's graph. I don't know how closely you watched the 2900XT's release SNAFU, but it's been fairly well shown that 3DMarks!=real world performance.
BTW, what are some good bargain hunting sites? I don't know of any, I've always just used Newegg or a local brick and mortar store.
In what case?
The 8800 GTS, BOTH of them, in MOST games kick the 2900XT's ass and for less $$$, less heat, less power.
3dmark is useless in that respect
I've always felt that 3dmark is not an accurate way of testing at all since that you should be able to run a test on the same set of hardware and get the same result each time and that isn't the case. From a diagnostic point of view that seems like a flawed system given the input and output.
3ds friend code: 2981-6032-4118
naw it DOES have uses. for example, testing against someone with the same (or very close) hardware, lets you know if you're getting the most out of your setup or you did something or have something wrong somewhere
I hope it comes out on October 29th. That plus HGL will make for one damn expensive week.