Recommended: 7600 GT
Last year for the con it fell to me to put together a con box. I recommended then and have been since that players get the 6600GT from nVidia. This card is just the best price point bar none. Even today you can find these cards for about $120 and they are well worth it. But things change and in the past year the 6xxx series has given way to the 7xxx series. As has been the case with each of the last 2 generations in graphics cards, there is a huge jump in performance. I'm usually one to suggest being one step behind bleeding edge, not the least of which is because I'm poor. Like I said things change.
Today nVidia launched the 7900 series. A chip upgrade from the 7800 series that unfortunately doesn't show a huge jump in performance but there is improvment. Luckily, nVidia chose today to unveil the 7600 GT. This card uses the new 7900 chip but chops a few of the features down to make it hit a price point of $200. Take a look at the review and you'll agree. This card is a heck of a deal. Now if they would just go ahead and make me an AGP so I don't have to upgrade my mobo just yet...
Thanks to the guys at Firing Squad for the always exhaustive and informative review.
Link
Today nVidia launched the 7900 series. A chip upgrade from the 7800 series that unfortunately doesn't show a huge jump in performance but there is improvment. Luckily, nVidia chose today to unveil the 7600 GT. This card uses the new 7900 chip but chops a few of the features down to make it hit a price point of $200. Take a look at the review and you'll agree. This card is a heck of a deal. Now if they would just go ahead and make me an AGP so I don't have to upgrade my mobo just yet...
Thanks to the guys at Firing Squad for the always exhaustive and informative review.
Link
8 Comments:
Re: AGP version
Amen to that... although I suspect that AGP would just hamper these cards too much. With the new higher res textures, the graphics bus is becoming more and more of a bottleneck.
I just wish I could get a "reasonable" upgrade path figured out. I haven't found a mobo that will give me PCI-X and use my current CPU and RAM, yet allow me to go to faster CPU and RAM later on. I really don't want to replace the "big four" right now.
That's kinda where I was when I upgraded. Instead I upgraded the CPU and mobo and ram but went with a mobo tthat I can replace at 70 bucks when I want to go to PCIe.
And with the new 7600GT out today, that time is coming neear.
Based largely on this link, combined with my computer's propensity to not turn on when I want it, has forced me to upgrade the big 4. All total was about $800...AMD 64 X2 3800, 7600GT card, 2GB of RAM and a sufficient MB, combined with a 250GB hard drive out of necessity.
My latest mobo upgrade has done something wonky to the power on as well. The case switch rarely works and when I select shut down, it shuts down but donesn't power off for a looong time.
Good call on the upgrade there. There's a lot of buzz about AMDs new sockets and the move to DDR2 but the speeds are going to be relatively the same I think and I probably won't be looking to go that route for at least 18 months.
How's the frames on that rig?
We shall see. I ordered the parts yesterday and they are scheduled to arrive on Monday, hopefully I won't have any problems in the build and I can report back later.
I've been running a 7600GTX XXX Edition for about 2 months now. It cost me £360 (450$) and it has been excellent, Quake4 on full, WWiiOL on full (less radial clutter), HL2 full at 1280x1024. Can't beat it, well you could but you'd damage it :)
Got mine today. Will have it in the con box this year.
I finally got my box put together at about 3am last night and only had the energy to play for a few minutes, but I was impressed with the results. I used to get about 17-25 FPS in a medium size town with a medium to large amount of combat. Now, I was getting in the high 40s, but more importantly to me, it was SMOOTH! This is also with all of the graphical enhancements turned on...spent about an hour playing Obilivion this morning and it ran very nicely as well. Computer boots in about 20 seconds now...that is very nice.
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