Buying a new Graphics card, and RAM issue

[LuDawg]

I'm currently looking into buying a new graphics card, my current card is the 7800 GT. Old card, I know, but it still runs games fairly nice though. I can play BioShock 2 with high settings on 800 x 600 resolution, get about an average of 30 FPS. Of course, I want to be able to play in a higher resolution, and get a better FPS.

My current Computer Specs:

Power Supply: OCZ StealthXStream OCZ700SXS 700W ATX12V

MotherBoard: DFI LanParty UT nF4-D 939 NVIDIA nForce4 ATX AMD

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Toledo 2.2GHz 2 x 1MB

Graphics Card: EVGA GeForce 7800GT 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16

Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS GAMER Limited Edition

Ram: OCZ Platinum 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel

Windows XP Pro. (SP3)

I'm also needing help on my Ram issue, I have recently bought the above Ram, and installed them just fine. But my old ram sticks won't work along side with the new ram sticks.

Old Ram Sticks: OCZ Gold Series 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 500 (PC 4000) Dual Channel

When I install both new and old sticks, my computer won't even boot, it just tries to load then just stops loading, and the led light infront of Tower just blinks. I'm guessing cause my Bios can't read both new and old sticks together, is there a way to fix this? Or will those sticks not work together?

Here are the Graphics Card(s) I been looking at buying:

GeForce GTS 250 1GB

GeForce 9800 GT 1GB

Which one do you think I should get? For my money, I'm looking at spending around $100 for a new GPU, but I'd prefer cheaper... know any cards that can push BioShock 2 at higher res. with high graphics?... the specs on the game say: 8800 gt 512mb recommended... but I can't find any on NewEgg. I'd rather upgrade a bit higher though, to be able to run later games. I heard the GeForce 250s are nice, are 9800 GTs nice? Or should I go with an ATI card?... keep in mind though, I don't plan on upgrading to Windows 7 untill about a year or so from now, so a DX11 card is not necessary, but would be nice. Also, a card with an HDMI hook-up would be nice.

 

[Muffin Man]

this gfx card; better than a 9800gt and very similar and sometimes even slightly better than a gts 250 at a much better price.
Newegg.com - POWERCOLOR AX4850 1GBD3-PH Radeon HD 4850 1GB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

not sure about your ram problem though. test all your ram sticks by them selves and test them in different slots to see if maybe one of your mobo's ram slots could possibly be failing.

 

[LuDawg]

I already tried the Ram in multiple ways. Took new one out, put old in, it worked. Put old one in seperate other two slots to make sure those slots were working, they worked. I then tried the new ram in all 4 slots as well, they worked. But they just don't seem to want to work together. I'll probably retry all that tomorrow, I'll let you know if I find anything new or not.

Nice graphics card man, and good price. I did a little more research, I'd like to know if I should get the one you mentioned, or this one:

GeForce GT 240 Superclocked 512MB

I do seem to get Cryostasis free with the GT 240... and it being overclocked gives it more power, right? Let me know why the Radeon 4850 is better... what I see so far is this: 1gb of memory and 800 Stream Processor. But the GT 240 has Effective Memory Clock of 3588 MHz (Superclocked) and Radeon 4850 has Effective Memory Clock of 1900MHz (effective) and GT 240 has OpenGL 3.1 and the Radeon 4850 only has OpenGL 2.0... not sure if OpenGL 3.1 is a significant update. And I'm not sure if the Effective Memory Clock or Stream Processor is that important. The Core clocks a little diff, but not by much, and I've had good customer service with EVGA. And I don't even see the GT 240 in the "Graphics Performance List" forum. Hard choice, or easy choice?

I just want to make sure I'm getting a good card, for my money.


Thanks,
Joshua aka LuDawg

 

[LuDawg]

Ok I've re-tried multiple placements of the Ram sticks, I've found that all the slots work, and the rams work... for some reason my Bios can't read both sets of ram sticks together... it can however read one of the 1gig sticks along side of one of the 512megs sticks... so I can put both in, but only 1 stick of each, and it'll read them... strange. Maybe I'll find that post I found awhile back, stating how to clear Bios settings, cause that could be the problem... the Bios probably needs to pick all 4 up at the sametime, or maybe the Bios just needs to be set-up to read all 4. I've also tried just 3 sticks, but it didn't work either.

 

[aliasaid]

The 4850 is the best card in your price range.

 

[orihS ‪‪‪Shiro]

Ok I've re-tried multiple placements of the Ram sticks, I've found that all the slots work, and the rams work... for some reason my Bios can't read both sets of ram sticks together... it can however read one of the 1gig sticks along side of one of the 512megs sticks... so I can put both in, but only 1 stick of each, and it'll read them... strange. Maybe I'll find that post I found awhile back, stating how to clear Bios settings, cause that could be the problem... the Bios probably needs to pick all 4 up at the sametime, or maybe the Bios just needs to be set-up to read all 4. I've also tried just 3 sticks, but it didn't work either.

"Other Thoughts: I had to manually disable the command per clock (2T) to run dual channel. I have Kingston Value RAM but most Generic/Value RAM won't work with 1T and dual channel. Use the orange slots."

"The last problem, while minor, is still a problem. The motherboard manual does not tell you which slots to put the RAM in. Only after I booted the computer did I recieve a message. For future reference, it's slots 2 and 4."

Not sure if that helps you out, but I found that amongst reviews of the motherboard.