Tense about the future

[Brandinho]

I'm not really restricted with a certain budget, so whichever Motherboard is good, I'll go with it. The motherboard is one of those parts that I don't have a lot of experience with. From the list at CyberPower, I'm looking to go with the Intel motherboard. Could someone recommend me a good motherboard. Price doesn't really matter, as long as it is reasonable.

Also, would it be wise to stick with 2 Gigs of ram, or lessen that to one gig?

 

[Ronnie]

i dont know why everyone hates ECS, two of my friends and my dad has an ECS board and they work great for what they use it for

they dont overclock worth **** but if your on a budget its a really nice board

 

[Gabb]

Now I'm questioning which video card to get. I've been doing soe research, and was looking at Tom's Hardware VGA Charts. I was thinking of getting the NVIDIA Gforce 7950GX2 1 Gig, but it seems that the ATI X1950XTX out performs it quite a bit. It is also GDDR4, if that makes a difference. Also, it seems the ATI card is faster than the NVIDIA 8800 GTS with some games, including Half-Life Episode 1 and Titan Quest. With Oblivion, the 8800 beats out the 1950 by a couple of FPS. Can anyone confirm this. Maybe I'm reading it wrong, but I have both cards highlighted here:

http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics.html?modelx=33&model1=586&model2=608&chart=197

I'm considering ditching the two NVIDIAs for the ATI. Does anybody have this card? How well does it perform?

I'm surprised no one here answered your question before. Your reading the chart wrong. The ATI X1950 XTX CF only beats the 8800 because the CF stands for crossfire. Crossfire being Atis SLI equivalent which means that its actually TWO ATI X1950 XTX cards. Right now the best bang for your buck I think is the 8800, since its a DX 10 card. I'm hoping the price will lower after Atis R600 comes out ( happening within the next few months ).

 

[Brandinho]

Yeah, I saw the CF. But I was looking at the regular XTX, which beats out the 8800 in some games. It seems with AA on, however, the 8800 will beat out most games. Will I desperately need a DX 10 card now? Or can I wait a couple of months to a year or two? Or will it be to my benefit to purchase a DX 10 card now?

 

[Nagasama]

they'll be cheaper a little later this year.
a 7950gt (not gx2) would be just fine for now. really even a 7900gs or gt work fine. my 7900gs goes max settings on fear, company of heroes, and bf2 no problem. i don't have oblivion or any of the new games besides these.

 

[Gabb]

Yeah, I saw the CF. But I was looking at the regular XTX, which beats out the 8800 in some games. It seems with AA on, however, the 8800 will beat out most games. Will I desperately need a DX 10 card now? Or can I wait a couple of months to a year or two? Or will it be to my benefit to purchase a DX 10 card now?

http://www.techreport.com/reviews/2006q4/geforce-8800/index.x?pg=15

I like these benchmarks better because they provide line graphs at the bottom of the page which make reading the benchmark results much easier ( since it compares the different settings ). 2 XTXs edge out the geforce 8 just barely but and cost a LOT more. You don't desperately need a DX 10 card now ( since they are no DX 10 games out right now ), a geforce 7 is probably the best bang for your buck at this exact moment in time. However the first game to use DX 10 ( Supreme commander ) comes out as early as late feb. Planning for the future is a much better idea, so I suggest u wait a month or two if you can and go with a geforce 8, since it will far outlast your geforce 7 or 2 geforce 7s in Sli.

 

[Brandinho]

The Nvidia 7950 does look promising, although, does anybody know how the ATI X1950XTX fares? I was reading an interview with John Carmack, whom some may know of. He developed Doom and the Quake engine and is seen as one of the greatest in the computer world. He was discussing about Direct X 10 and Vista. He was saying how he would hold of for a year or so and not dive straight into Direct X 10. I don't know what I'll do yet, but for now I'm going to look at some benchmarks and see how the ATI card differs from the NVIDIA.

 

[Nagasama]

ask nosboost he'll probably find this thread. and he has had every card on earth.
im not sure, but i believe an x1950xtx would be superior to the 7950gt.