how bad is my card going to slow my system down?

M

Matt

I'm trying to decide if I should upgrade my 9500 Pro or not. I'm
getting a new system tomorrow and I can't really afford a new card...
but I might find a way if it's going to really hurt me. I don't think
it will slow me down too much but I thought I'd ask your opinions.

AMD ATHLON 64 3500+
ASUS A8V DLX
2 - KINGSTON KVR400X64C3AK2/1G 2X512MB (MATCH PAIR) PC3200
WD 36GB 360GD SERIAL ATA 150 10,000RPM 8MB BUFFER HARD DRIVE
Microsoft Windows XP Professional
 
I

Inglo

I'm trying to decide if I should upgrade my 9500 Pro or not. I'm
getting a new system tomorrow and I can't really afford a new card...
but I might find a way if it's going to really hurt me. I don't think
it will slow me down too much but I thought I'd ask your opinions.

AMD ATHLON 64 3500+
ASUS A8V DLX
2 - KINGSTON KVR400X64C3AK2/1G 2X512MB (MATCH PAIR) PC3200
WD 36GB 360GD SERIAL ATA 150 10,000RPM 8MB BUFFER HARD DRIVE
Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Click to expand...
All that stuff isn't going to make a bit of difference in games unless
you upgrade your card or play at 640x480. Games will play at nearly the
same if you had an XP2000 and 512 Mb of RAM.
That's not the whole truth, there are a few games that'll like the extra
horsepower, like Far Cry.
A couple years ago I just about doubled the speed on my overall system
but held onto my GeForce3, fps in games didn't change at all.
The 9500 Pro is still a good card though. After all that upgrading I
wouldn't advise going and dropping any more bank for a while.
 
J

JLC

Depends on what you are going to do with your system?

If you are crunching numbers, surfing the web, sending emails, ... then your
video card won't be the bottleneck. However, if you're wanting to play 3D
games like "FarCry" at 1600rez with max details, then your video card is
certainly going to be the bottleneck.

I just bought an ATI 9800 Pro 128meg video card on sale for $200. And I
saw a jump in 3D gaming performance. Recommend that you check out the
benchmarks for video cards at the following websites.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/index.html
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20031229/index.html
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=1896

There's lots of other sites that you could search and find benchmarks for
video card X, Y, ...Z.

Bottom Line: you only need a high end video card for Video/Graphic
applications or wanting to play latest 3D games.

JLC
 
D

Dark Avenger

I'm trying to decide if I should upgrade my 9500 Pro or not. I'm
getting a new system tomorrow and I can't really afford a new card...
but I might find a way if it's going to really hurt me. I don't think
it will slow me down too much but I thought I'd ask your opinions.

AMD ATHLON 64 3500+
ASUS A8V DLX
2 - KINGSTON KVR400X64C3AK2/1G 2X512MB (MATCH PAIR) PC3200
WD 36GB 360GD SERIAL ATA 150 10,000RPM 8MB BUFFER HARD DRIVE
Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Click to expand...

The 9500 Pro will scale up fine, surely an 9800 Pro will offer more memory
bandwidth and speed. But it won't offer more functions...

If you are happy now with how the games play, you ought not to upgrade the
9500 Pro.

I self got an 9500 Pro wich is very fine and sufficient in most situations
for me, bought myself a 9800 Pro.. it would be fine it I actually could USE
the 9800 Pro as a pro..but seemingly even with Arctic Silencer it still can
only run it at 9800NP speeds.. and it's even an R360 ...

Nope my fine Hercules 9500 Pro is a fine little piece of quality more
stabile then my 9800Pro@NP
 
M

Matt

Inglo said:
On 7/1/2004 12:24 PM Matt brightened our day with:
All that stuff isn't going to make a bit of difference in games unless
you upgrade your card or play at 640x480. Games will play at nearly the
same if you had an XP2000 and 512 Mb of RAM.
That's not the whole truth, there are a few games that'll like the extra
horsepower, like Far Cry.
Click to expand...

well Far Cry comes free with the mobo... but my other games are older
 
J

JLC

So install FarCry, run it in the desired graphics settings and see if your
card can handle it. If not, decrease your graphics details until you get a
smooth frame rate. Then ask yourself are you happy with the graphic
details. If not, think about upgrading your card.

The same would apply for your graphics work. Does your current card
provide enough horsepower to get the job done for you?

If you answer the above questions, and feel that you really need to upgrade,
then check out the benchmarks for the newer video cards. And then price
them out. The brand new Nvidia (6800) and ATI (X800) cards just came out
and have amazing performance. But cost around $500 too. If you don't
game that much, and don't have a lot of $ to blow, then consider either the
ATI 9800 Pro 128 meg (make sure it's a Pro version not SE) or the Nvidia
5900 128meg. Both go for about $200 and will run most of todays games with
no problems.
 
D

Darthy

well I'll mainly be doing graphics work... but FarCry comes free with
the mobo..
Click to expand...


The 9500 will not slow your system down... but your gaming performance
will NOT be what it could be.... but thats okay. Its a good card.
Save $250~350 for an X800 in a few months.



- - - - -
Remember: In the USA - it is dangeroud to draw or write about Heir Bush in a negative way. The police or SS are called, people threaten to kill you. (What country is this again?)

- Fahrenheit 9/11 - Unless you see it for yourself, don't call it "a bunch of lies"... that would be unAmerican.
- White House blows cover of an undercover agent because her husband said there were no WMD (before the USA started the war) - her job was finding terrorist.
God bless the land of the free. Where you can burn the Constitution... Ashcroft does it every day.
 
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