Your thoughts on an ATI gfx upgrade.

Trunkzeh · Oct 31, 2005, 10:53 PM

I bought myself a 9800SE (£32 from ebay) about a week or so. It should keep me content until November-ish. Found out that my local Cex (computer exchange) store will fork over £32 cash (or £42 as an exchange voucher.. ) for the card. So I'm not at lost there.

I've been reading some reviews on the X800 series, and before you guys start saying why not get yourself a nVidia, I'm what you call a patriot.. Except, its not towards one's country lol.. Stick with AMD & ATI till thy death I say =p.. I live in the UK, so I'm kinda wanting your opinions, as well as sites to where I can get myself an X800 (or whatever card of your recommendation).

Note ~ I am a student, currently in AS levels. (Not A2 ;p) So watch the budget folks

Oh, and my beautifull mobo is AGP, not PCI-E incase some ask

(My PC specs are in meh siggy ._. )

niceguyrichy · Oct 31, 2005, 11:40 PM

don't see a siggy.

but so long as your specs are above mine, you'll benefit from any x800 enormously, even the very base 128mb model should make a world of difference.

MindlessOath · Nov 1, 2005, 12:08 AM

i say stick with amd and ati also! i have experiance with both and some others more than i want to but AMD and ATI are the best so far. even tho ati has some downfalls at times (at times only)... they are the best out there.

I suggest waiting on the video card you want.

see the score differnce from an x850XT vs say an 1800xl not much differnce right, but you get like alot more features and better openGL performance with the x1800xl

the price differnce i belive is somewhat large (somewhat).

i would suggest to wait for prices to drop, but they likly wont drop to resonable levels. i say a nice x800XT PE can be bought for about 250$ mabe more, and thats a really really good price.

then you also have to consider AGP vs PCI-E and what you have currently and what you want to get in the future.

remember that if your CPU is to slow your video card will be throttled by your CPU... lets just say anything like x800 and up, your going to want to get an AMD 64 system, because anything less will just not show the potential of the video card, and it would be a waste of money.

if you dont have PCI-E then you have to get a new motherboard etc... may cost alot more than you thought.

H3X4D3C1M4L · Nov 1, 2005, 01:33 PM

Get an X800XL and be done with it. Kills the crap out of the 9600SE.

artofterran · Nov 1, 2005, 03:07 PM

i would recommend Connect3d GTO(good chance to flash to x850xt pe) or Sapphire's GTO2 (100% chance to x850xt pe, but hard to find one), if u have extra money and dont want to take risk of flash card, then go with x800xl!

Trunkzeh · Nov 2, 2005, 05:31 PM

Dunno why the hell my siggy didnt show up, anyways.. it shows up now ;o So you can guys can 'evaluate'.. I'm not so sure to get an AMD 64, the only reason that it wud beat my current CPU (XP 3200+) is that it has HyperTransport. 64bit isnt that substantial in games, especially since its practically new.. xD I mean, lets say I had the choice between an AMD Athon XP 3200+, or an AMD Athlon 64 3200+.

The AMD 64 would "theoritically" be beating the AMD XP. Once I get me those SWEET 2x 512MB Corsair PC3200 (DDR 400) sticks, stick em in dual channel and rig up 'smore voltage to em, I'd pretty much think the AMD XP would be one heck of a rig overall. Sure, if the AMD 64 had the corsairs, then the system would benefit from its internal dual channel management, as well as hyperthreading.

But I'm not ready yet to fork over around £120 for an Asus PCI-E socket 939 mobo, with an AMD 64 CPU :P. (If I sell my current CPU on ebay, I'll get around £50 - £60 excluding P+P, and the mobo can pretty much fetch around.. £40..) And the fact that I'd have to buy a PCI-E card xD.. I'll stick with my current rig for now, just need a nice lil graphics performance. I seriously want to unlock the multipliers on that damned CPU!.. Damnit -__-" , the heatsink and fan is already overkill for it. (Its a £35 fan and heatsink ;p)

H3X4D3C1M4L · Nov 2, 2005, 08:04 PM

Since when did AMD get HyperThreading off of Intel?

riles9262 · Nov 2, 2005, 09:52 PM

I'd do the x800gto2 (easily modded to xt) or the x800xl...both are great cards and the price is right. As for where to get them, the ad at the top of this site/forum for komplett seems decent.

Trunkzeh · Nov 3, 2005, 11:11 PM

HyperTransport lol.. Not HyperThreading xD.. My mistake.. Anyways, £130 for a gfx card is breaking the bank, the mortgage, and the country for my sake ;p

INSTG8R · Nov 4, 2005, 12:02 AM

I would invest in a better PSU that Qtec is horrible and that 9800 or any other upgrade is gonna require some juice. I know Qtec suck for fact as I have one my wife bought(she was trying to take care of a problem on her own its a Qtec 400W Gold) and needless to say its "400W"(notice the quotes) would barely run stable on a P4 2.4C 4x512 and a 9800Pro in comparison to my old Sparkle 300W. They are bottom of the barrel in the power dept.

Trunkzeh · Nov 4, 2005, 03:35 PM

I've had my QTec 350w since my AMD XP 1800+ (just over a year I guess). And with my current system (look at the siggy) its running like a happy lil pup. I thought I'd need to get a new one when I bought the Maxtor 160GB, but so far no power faults xD..

I mean, apart from the obvios ones below, here are the extra things that use power from the PSU:

The Thermaltake CPU Fan (It gets its power from the standard drive molex, and the CPU mobo fan socket.)

Three fans. Two (at the back) which use the onboard mobo fan connectors, and one (side) which uses a standard drive molex.

A blue cathode light, which uses a standard drive molex.

As you can see, I am pretty much sucking the life outta the PSU, and its still running happily

H3X4D3C1M4L · Nov 4, 2005, 08:18 PM

You won't be in the future. I have a 350 and kept upgrading then hit the problems bad even though voltage rails were always perfect and its been surviving like a champ @ 100% load....

Need a new one now though.

Trunkzeh · Nov 5, 2005, 11:20 AM

I think I'll get myself a higher watt PSU once I upgrade the RAM. I'll be buying 2x GEIL 512MB PC3200 DDR sticks (for dual channel ;p). The timing's are 2.5-4-4-8, these babies will cost me £63 including delivary. They come with GEIL's ramsinks, so thats an added bonus I guess. (I didnt want Crucial's alternative, because I didnt know the timings, and they didnt come with ramsinks. Oh and the fact that the price was slightly lower, from the same place ;p) I'll probably pop down to ebuyer and get me a 450w PSU from there. Or perhaps ebay xD.. Or just buy another QTec. Only £25 for a 450w ;o

Sandok · Nov 5, 2005, 11:55 AM

Dude, it's always better to spend a BIT more for a more stable PSU... Trust me

redsolar · Nov 8, 2005, 06:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sandok

Dude, it's always better to spend a BIT more for a more stable PSU... Trust me

I concur. When dropping top Dollar (pound, yen, Euro, you name it) for good PC Parts, a solid PFC is simply a must.

Check this thread for the good ones (fit a lot of budgets really). A lot of times it's better to buy a conservatively rated PSU that believe into a fake gazillion watt rating.

Trunkzeh · Nov 9, 2005, 07:02 PM

Well, QTec aint on the 'uber bad' list of PSU makers. So thats a start, I'll have a look over at ebay or ebuyer.co.uk, and see if any of the PSUs that are in the mid-range (on that topic) are in there, at a reasonable price. (Willing to spend $40 to $60 dollars inc delivary ;p.. Thats £20 to £30 btw

.. I just converted to dollars for u guys)

Oh, and I'm gonna get the Corsair memory sticks, not the GEIL ones. Although the Corsair dont come with ram sinks (£1 from ebuyer each anyway lollies!), the timings are 2.5-3-3-6 compared to GEIL's 2.5-4-4-8. Same price as GEILs ones. ^_^

Edit ~ After a quick look on ebuyer, most PSUs on there are generic. On ebay, I saw a few Tagan ones (around the £60 mark.. -__-") and two antec ones. Ebay seems to be swarmed with generic crap as well =/ .. There are some QTec's there an all, but thats the only feasible brand on there >_<

I've been tinkering around with my 9800SE for a few hours now. Thru ATI Tray Tools, I stopped at 376Mhz GPU, and 640Mhz Memory Clock. This is using the stock cooler, and no ram sinks on the gfx card. I ran it for artifacts (using the tray tool's lil program thing..) for about 20minutes, and it was fine. I just decided to do a 100Mhz increase from both the memory and gpu, and it was fine. Pretty sure I can crank it up even more, but anyways ;p.. To benchmark the lil fella, I played Quake 4 on Medium settings ;p (No way on earth that'll run High, let ALONE.. ultra high ;p), and on average it was playable. (There was only the slight lag where there was around 10 or more monsters around me, that problem was solved slightly by more ram I freed up ;p.. Closed MSN etc..)

Then once it ate up around 8hrs of Quake 4 (I beat the game! Ending's rubbish >_< ..) it went through a good few rounds of Battlefront 2. Strangely enough, all the 'quality' settings were on high, and even AA was on 4x, without any obstructive lag. Even on the map where you fight with Yoda, agaisnt the oh 50 or so lil droid buggers.. Although puttin AA on 6x made it lag, obviosly ;p.. But all in all, its one heck of a card

.. Kudos to ATI

(This is the crappy 128bit version, with straight line memory. Aka the one you cant softmod ;p)

Dazz · Nov 9, 2005, 09:48 PM

I am thinking of going Xfire myself, going from a X800XL to a X1600XT then a little later add a X1600XT XFire.

nitrousoxide52 · Nov 9, 2005, 10:09 PM

You probably wouldn't want to upgrade to the x1600xt, despite the name, it is a midrange card, and the card you have now is more of a high range card. So getting the x1600xt would actually be a downgrade, other than sm3.0, and avivo (i think).

Trunkzeh · Nov 10, 2005, 09:07 AM

Hmm, I'll just get me the 256bit version of the card (9800se) so that I can either softmod it to 9800pro, or flash the lil bugger to a 9800xt

.. Ofcourse, I'll need some better gpu cooling, and probably.. some ram sinks if the cooling doesnt actually cover the lil bugger ;p

Wootsies! Tomorow I shall be gettin my Corsair stikies! After that.. its world domination!!!

Another small question, I was thinkin of gettin this cooling for my 9800se card:

Arctic Cooling ATI 3 (9800XT 256MB) VGA Silencer (HS-004-AR)

That would work fine on it right? I know it says its suitable for the 9800XT 256MB, but it should work fine eh? :P.. The one for the 9800:

Arctic Cooling Rev.2 ATI 1 (9700/9800) VGA Silencer (HS-002-AR)

Is kinda crap, and also is out of stock

.. So ya, lil questions for you folksies

H3X4D3C1M4L · Nov 10, 2005, 01:45 PM

I believe the ATI 3 should work on a pro but it depends on the layout of the memory chips....something like the 9500's and the I/L layouts made them softmoddable or not

Dazz · Nov 10, 2005, 01:53 PM

I would like to go back to a dual GPU system one that is more flexable. Had a 6600GT
and 6800 And got rid of them as few games support SLi. I still think the X1600 has alot in
it as the reviews are using very early drivers that did not show the full potential of the X1800
cards. The new cards got a 33% increase i would expect it to be higher with the X1600 as
it will need lower latency due to low mandwith speeds. SO maybe they can get it to increase
by as much as 50%. Thats my 2 Cence.

Trunkzeh · Nov 12, 2005, 10:06 AM

Meh.. Well, the only reason I'm wanting to get an X800 is because of HIS's uberly kewl fan ;o.. I mean, not only is it huge, but it looks funkeh as well lolz.. Oh, and plus its slightly more expensive than the rest of the x800s, and cant find it in the UK ;p

OmegaRED · Nov 12, 2005, 10:29 AM

You have the same board as me and a much betterprcoessor and ram my X800XL handles all games out just the processor kills me. Get an X800XL or Gforce 6800GT/Ultra

Trunkzeh · Nov 15, 2005, 07:31 PM

I'm a nVidia hater rofl.. Always has been, and always will.. Same with Intel ;p The problem with me, is that I'm REALLY bad at saving up. I mean, I can just hold out till my next paycheck

.. SO I might just be able to hold myself from buying into the world's candy floss market for a week or two, but apart from that.. I'm as loose with money as women are with.. shoes o.O

Edit ~ How do I find out if my RAM's actually performing at Dual Channel? I ran my two babies on Sisoft 2005.RC2, and they werent that impressive of a deal, as I had thought DC to be. For those who have the A7N8X-E Deluxe Mobo, the two ram sticks are in the 'blue' slots, and when I boot, it does say RAM In dual channel.. And my RAMs rather decent anyway, so I dunno X.x

Oct 31, 2005, 10:53 PM	#1
Trunkzeh DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 59 Rep Power: 0	Your thoughts on an ATI gfx upgrade. I bought myself a 9800SE (£32 from ebay) about a week or so. It should keep me content until November-ish. Found out that my local Cex (computer exchange) store will fork over £32 cash (or £42 as an exchange voucher.. ) for the card. So I'm not at lost there. I've been reading some reviews on the X800 series, and before you guys start saying why not get yourself a nVidia, I'm what you call a patriot.. Except, its not towards one's country lol.. Stick with AMD & ATI till thy death I say =p.. I live in the UK, so I'm kinda wanting your opinions, as well as sites to where I can get myself an X800 (or whatever card of your recommendation). Note ~ I am a student, currently in AS levels. (Not A2 ;p) So watch the budget folks Oh, and my beautifull mobo is AGP, not PCI-E incase some ask (My PC specs are in meh siggy ._. ) __________________ AMD Athlon XP 3200+ (Cooled by a Thermaltake Polo 735 ) Sony Trinitron Multiscan 200ES @ 1024x768 on 85Hz Sapphire Radeon 128MB 9800Pro on PowerColor 9800XT Bios Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe Mobo Qtec 450w PSU 2x Corsair 512MB PC3200 2.5-3-3-8 @ DC & 2.7 volts 200GB SATA Western Digital HD 160GB & 40GB PATA Maxtor HDs. 16x12x8x8x48x40 Samsung 16x DVDRW DL 48x12x48 LiteON CDRW 2x Logitech 2.1 Speakers Last edited by Trunkzeh; Nov 2, 2005 at 05:26 PM.

Nov 1, 2005, 12:08 AM	#3
MindlessOath DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2003 Posts: 1,121 Rep Power: 0	i say stick with amd and ati also! i have experiance with both and some others more than i want to but AMD and ATI are the best so far. even tho ati has some downfalls at times (at times only)... they are the best out there. I suggest waiting on the video card you want. see the score differnce from an x850XT vs say an 1800xl not much differnce right, but you get like alot more features and better openGL performance with the x1800xl the price differnce i belive is somewhat large (somewhat). i would suggest to wait for prices to drop, but they likly wont drop to resonable levels. i say a nice x800XT PE can be bought for about 250$ mabe more, and thats a really really good price. then you also have to consider AGP vs PCI-E and what you have currently and what you want to get in the future. remember that if your CPU is to slow your video card will be throttled by your CPU... lets just say anything like x800 and up, your going to want to get an AMD 64 system, because anything less will just not show the potential of the video card, and it would be a waste of money. if you dont have PCI-E then you have to get a new motherboard etc... may cost alot more than you thought. __________________ ATI Radeon X800XT PE <---- LOOK UPDATED!! AMD Athlon 2Ghz, nforce2, 512mb ddr3500 LINKS U SHOULD KNOW!!!! DriverCleaner - use every time u install new drivers! ATI driver feedback - to report driver problems Tacticalcenter - my Gaming website and forums ATI 3rd party Optimized Driver Compairison

Nov 2, 2005, 05:31 PM	Thread Starter #6
Trunkzeh DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 59 Rep Power: 0	Dunno why the hell my siggy didnt show up, anyways.. it shows up now ;o So you can guys can 'evaluate'.. I'm not so sure to get an AMD 64, the only reason that it wud beat my current CPU (XP 3200+) is that it has HyperTransport. 64bit isnt that substantial in games, especially since its practically new.. xD I mean, lets say I had the choice between an AMD Athon XP 3200+, or an AMD Athlon 64 3200+. The AMD 64 would "theoritically" be beating the AMD XP. Once I get me those SWEET 2x 512MB Corsair PC3200 (DDR 400) sticks, stick em in dual channel and rig up 'smore voltage to em, I'd pretty much think the AMD XP would be one heck of a rig overall. Sure, if the AMD 64 had the corsairs, then the system would benefit from its internal dual channel management, as well as hyperthreading. But I'm not ready yet to fork over around £120 for an Asus PCI-E socket 939 mobo, with an AMD 64 CPU :P. (If I sell my current CPU on ebay, I'll get around £50 - £60 excluding P+P, and the mobo can pretty much fetch around.. £40..) And the fact that I'd have to buy a PCI-E card xD.. I'll stick with my current rig for now, just need a nice lil graphics performance. I seriously want to unlock the multipliers on that damned CPU!.. Damnit -__-" , the heatsink and fan is already overkill for it. (Its a £35 fan and heatsink ;p) __________________ AMD Athlon XP 3200+ (Cooled by a Thermaltake Polo 735 ) Sony Trinitron Multiscan 200ES @ 1024x768 on 85Hz Sapphire Radeon 128MB 9800Pro on PowerColor 9800XT Bios Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe Mobo Qtec 450w PSU 2x Corsair 512MB PC3200 2.5-3-3-8 @ DC & 2.7 volts 200GB SATA Western Digital HD 160GB & 40GB PATA Maxtor HDs. 16x12x8x8x48x40 Samsung 16x DVDRW DL 48x12x48 LiteON CDRW 2x Logitech 2.1 Speakers Last edited by Trunkzeh; Nov 3, 2005 at 11:10 PM.

Nov 2, 2005, 09:52 PM	#8
riles9262 Driverheaven brewmaster Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: British Columbia, Canada Posts: 4,842 Rep Power: 72 System Specs	I'd do the x800gto2 (easily modded to xt) or the x800xl...both are great cards and the price is right. As for where to get them, the ad at the top of this site/forum for komplett seems decent. __________________ A beer a day keeps the doctor away.

Nov 3, 2005, 11:11 PM	Thread Starter #9
Trunkzeh DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 59 Rep Power: 0	HyperTransport lol.. Not HyperThreading xD.. My mistake.. Anyways, £130 for a gfx card is breaking the bank, the mortgage, and the country for my sake ;p __________________ AMD Athlon XP 3200+ (Cooled by a Thermaltake Polo 735 ) Sony Trinitron Multiscan 200ES @ 1024x768 on 85Hz Sapphire Radeon 128MB 9800Pro on PowerColor 9800XT Bios Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe Mobo Qtec 450w PSU 2x Corsair 512MB PC3200 2.5-3-3-8 @ DC & 2.7 volts 200GB SATA Western Digital HD 160GB & 40GB PATA Maxtor HDs. 16x12x8x8x48x40 Samsung 16x DVDRW DL 48x12x48 LiteON CDRW 2x Logitech 2.1 Speakers

Nov 1, 2005, 01:33 PM	#4
H3X4D3C1M4L DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 6,794 Rep Power: 0	Get an X800XL and be done with it. Kills the crap out of the 9600SE.

Nov 1, 2005, 03:07 PM	#5
artofterran DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 67 Rep Power: 0	i would recommend Connect3d GTO(good chance to flash to x850xt pe) or Sapphire's GTO2 (100% chance to x850xt pe, but hard to find one), if u have extra money and dont want to take risk of flash card, then go with x800xl!

Nov 2, 2005, 08:04 PM	#7
H3X4D3C1M4L DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 6,794 Rep Power: 0	Since when did AMD get HyperThreading off of Intel?

Nov 4, 2005, 12:02 AM	#10
INSTG8R DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Canadian lost in Norway Posts: 527 Rep Power: 0	I would invest in a better PSU that Qtec is horrible and that 9800 or any other upgrade is gonna require some juice. I know Qtec suck for fact as I have one my wife bought(she was trying to take care of a problem on her own its a Qtec 400W Gold) and needless to say its "400W"(notice the quotes) would barely run stable on a P4 2.4C 4x512 and a 9800Pro in comparison to my old Sparkle 300W. They are bottom of the barrel in the power dept. __________________ Sys. Specs. Intel E6600@3.2\|Abit IP35 Pro\|2x1024 Crucial Ballistix PC8500 \|Sapphire HD4870 512\|Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500G SATAII 16MB w/PRT\|SB X-Fi Fatality\|TT Tough Power 1200W\|TT Kandalf L.C.S.\|Samsung 204B 20" 5ms LCD\|Logitech G25\|Logitech G5\|Logitech G15\|Saitek X-52+Pro Rudder Pedals\|TrackIR w/Trackclip Pro 3DMark06

Nov 4, 2005, 03:35 PM	Thread Starter #11
Trunkzeh DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 59 Rep Power: 0	I've had my QTec 350w since my AMD XP 1800+ (just over a year I guess). And with my current system (look at the siggy) its running like a happy lil pup. I thought I'd need to get a new one when I bought the Maxtor 160GB, but so far no power faults xD.. I mean, apart from the obvios ones below, here are the extra things that use power from the PSU: The Thermaltake CPU Fan (It gets its power from the standard drive molex, and the CPU mobo fan socket.) Three fans. Two (at the back) which use the onboard mobo fan connectors, and one (side) which uses a standard drive molex. A blue cathode light, which uses a standard drive molex. As you can see, I am pretty much sucking the life outta the PSU, and its still running happily __________________ AMD Athlon XP 3200+ (Cooled by a Thermaltake Polo 735 ) Sony Trinitron Multiscan 200ES @ 1024x768 on 85Hz Sapphire Radeon 128MB 9800Pro on PowerColor 9800XT Bios Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe Mobo Qtec 450w PSU 2x Corsair 512MB PC3200 2.5-3-3-8 @ DC & 2.7 volts 200GB SATA Western Digital HD 160GB & 40GB PATA Maxtor HDs. 16x12x8x8x48x40 Samsung 16x DVDRW DL 48x12x48 LiteON CDRW 2x Logitech 2.1 Speakers

Nov 4, 2005, 08:18 PM	#12
H3X4D3C1M4L DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 6,794 Rep Power: 0	You won't be in the future. I have a 350 and kept upgrading then hit the problems bad even though voltage rails were always perfect and its been surviving like a champ @ 100% load.... Need a new one now though.

Nov 5, 2005, 11:20 AM	Thread Starter #13
Trunkzeh DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 59 Rep Power: 0	I think I'll get myself a higher watt PSU once I upgrade the RAM. I'll be buying 2x GEIL 512MB PC3200 DDR sticks (for dual channel ;p). The timing's are 2.5-4-4-8, these babies will cost me £63 including delivary. They come with GEIL's ramsinks, so thats an added bonus I guess. (I didnt want Crucial's alternative, because I didnt know the timings, and they didnt come with ramsinks. Oh and the fact that the price was slightly lower, from the same place ;p) I'll probably pop down to ebuyer and get me a 450w PSU from there. Or perhaps ebay xD.. Or just buy another QTec. Only £25 for a 450w ;o __________________ AMD Athlon XP 3200+ (Cooled by a Thermaltake Polo 735 ) Sony Trinitron Multiscan 200ES @ 1024x768 on 85Hz Sapphire Radeon 128MB 9800Pro on PowerColor 9800XT Bios Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe Mobo Qtec 450w PSU 2x Corsair 512MB PC3200 2.5-3-3-8 @ DC & 2.7 volts 200GB SATA Western Digital HD 160GB & 40GB PATA Maxtor HDs. 16x12x8x8x48x40 Samsung 16x DVDRW DL 48x12x48 LiteON CDRW 2x Logitech 2.1 Speakers

Nov 5, 2005, 11:55 AM	#14
Sandok DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 9,472 Rep Power: 0	Dude, it's always better to spend a BIT more for a more stable PSU... Trust me

Nov 9, 2005, 07:02 PM	Thread Starter #16
Trunkzeh DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 59 Rep Power: 0	Well, QTec aint on the 'uber bad' list of PSU makers. So thats a start, I'll have a look over at ebay or ebuyer.co.uk, and see if any of the PSUs that are in the mid-range (on that topic) are in there, at a reasonable price. (Willing to spend $40 to $60 dollars inc delivary ;p.. Thats £20 to £30 btw .. I just converted to dollars for u guys) Oh, and I'm gonna get the Corsair memory sticks, not the GEIL ones. Although the Corsair dont come with ram sinks (£1 from ebuyer each anyway lollies!), the timings are 2.5-3-3-6 compared to GEIL's 2.5-4-4-8. Same price as GEILs ones. ^_^ Edit ~ After a quick look on ebuyer, most PSUs on there are generic. On ebay, I saw a few Tagan ones (around the £60 mark.. -__-") and two antec ones. Ebay seems to be swarmed with generic crap as well =/ .. There are some QTec's there an all, but thats the only feasible brand on there >_< I've been tinkering around with my 9800SE for a few hours now. Thru ATI Tray Tools, I stopped at 376Mhz GPU, and 640Mhz Memory Clock. This is using the stock cooler, and no ram sinks on the gfx card. I ran it for artifacts (using the tray tool's lil program thing..) for about 20minutes, and it was fine. I just decided to do a 100Mhz increase from both the memory and gpu, and it was fine. Pretty sure I can crank it up even more, but anyways ;p.. To benchmark the lil fella, I played Quake 4 on Medium settings ;p (No way on earth that'll run High, let ALONE.. ultra high ;p), and on average it was playable. (There was only the slight lag where there was around 10 or more monsters around me, that problem was solved slightly by more ram I freed up ;p.. Closed MSN etc..) Then once it ate up around 8hrs of Quake 4 (I beat the game! Ending's rubbish >_< ..) it went through a good few rounds of Battlefront 2. Strangely enough, all the 'quality' settings were on high, and even AA was on 4x, without any obstructive lag. Even on the map where you fight with Yoda, agaisnt the oh 50 or so lil droid buggers.. Although puttin AA on 6x made it lag, obviosly ;p.. But all in all, its one heck of a card .. Kudos to ATI (This is the crappy 128bit version, with straight line memory. Aka the one you cant softmod ;p) __________________ AMD Athlon XP 3200+ (Cooled by a Thermaltake Polo 735 ) Sony Trinitron Multiscan 200ES @ 1024x768 on 85Hz Sapphire Radeon 128MB 9800Pro on PowerColor 9800XT Bios Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe Mobo Qtec 450w PSU 2x Corsair 512MB PC3200 2.5-3-3-8 @ DC & 2.7 volts 200GB SATA Western Digital HD 160GB & 40GB PATA Maxtor HDs. 16x12x8x8x48x40 Samsung 16x DVDRW DL 48x12x48 LiteON CDRW 2x Logitech 2.1 Speakers Last edited by Trunkzeh; Nov 9, 2005 at 07:48 PM.

Nov 9, 2005, 09:48 PM	#17
Dazz DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Newcastle, UK Posts: 12 Rep Power: 0	I am thinking of going Xfire myself, going from a X800XL to a X1600XT then a little later add a X1600XT XFire.

Nov 9, 2005, 10:09 PM	#18
nitrousoxide52 Driverheaven.com err .net Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 1,719 Rep Power: 0	You probably wouldn't want to upgrade to the x1600xt, despite the name, it is a midrange card, and the card you have now is more of a high range card. So getting the x1600xt would actually be a downgrade, other than sm3.0, and avivo (i think). __________________ AMD Athlon64 X2 3800+ XFX Geforce 7800GT ABIT AN8-SLI BFG Tech 650w

Nov 10, 2005, 09:07 AM	Thread Starter #19
Trunkzeh DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 59 Rep Power: 0	Hmm, I'll just get me the 256bit version of the card (9800se) so that I can either softmod it to 9800pro, or flash the lil bugger to a 9800xt .. Ofcourse, I'll need some better gpu cooling, and probably.. some ram sinks if the cooling doesnt actually cover the lil bugger ;p Wootsies! Tomorow I shall be gettin my Corsair stikies! After that.. its world domination!!! Another small question, I was thinkin of gettin this cooling for my 9800se card: Arctic Cooling ATI 3 (9800XT 256MB) VGA Silencer (HS-004-AR) That would work fine on it right? I know it says its suitable for the 9800XT 256MB, but it should work fine eh? :P.. The one for the 9800: Arctic Cooling Rev.2 ATI 1 (9700/9800) VGA Silencer (HS-002-AR) Is kinda crap, and also is out of stock .. So ya, lil questions for you folksies __________________ AMD Athlon XP 3200+ (Cooled by a Thermaltake Polo 735 ) Sony Trinitron Multiscan 200ES @ 1024x768 on 85Hz Sapphire Radeon 128MB 9800Pro on PowerColor 9800XT Bios Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe Mobo Qtec 450w PSU 2x Corsair 512MB PC3200 2.5-3-3-8 @ DC & 2.7 volts 200GB SATA Western Digital HD 160GB & 40GB PATA Maxtor HDs. 16x12x8x8x48x40 Samsung 16x DVDRW DL 48x12x48 LiteON CDRW 2x Logitech 2.1 Speakers Last edited by Trunkzeh; Nov 10, 2005 at 09:30 AM.

Nov 10, 2005, 01:45 PM	#20
H3X4D3C1M4L DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 6,794 Rep Power: 0	I believe the ATI 3 should work on a pro but it depends on the layout of the memory chips....something like the 9500's and the I/L layouts made them softmoddable or not

Nov 10, 2005, 01:53 PM	#21
Dazz DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Newcastle, UK Posts: 12 Rep Power: 0	I would like to go back to a dual GPU system one that is more flexable. Had a 6600GT and 6800 And got rid of them as few games support SLi. I still think the X1600 has alot in it as the reviews are using very early drivers that did not show the full potential of the X1800 cards. The new cards got a 33% increase i would expect it to be higher with the X1600 as it will need lower latency due to low mandwith speeds. SO maybe they can get it to increase by as much as 50%. Thats my 2 Cence.

Nov 12, 2005, 10:06 AM	Thread Starter #22
Trunkzeh DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 59 Rep Power: 0	Meh.. Well, the only reason I'm wanting to get an X800 is because of HIS's uberly kewl fan ;o.. I mean, not only is it huge, but it looks funkeh as well lolz.. Oh, and plus its slightly more expensive than the rest of the x800s, and cant find it in the UK ;p __________________ AMD Athlon XP 3200+ (Cooled by a Thermaltake Polo 735 ) Sony Trinitron Multiscan 200ES @ 1024x768 on 85Hz Sapphire Radeon 128MB 9800Pro on PowerColor 9800XT Bios Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe Mobo Qtec 450w PSU 2x Corsair 512MB PC3200 2.5-3-3-8 @ DC & 2.7 volts 200GB SATA Western Digital HD 160GB & 40GB PATA Maxtor HDs. 16x12x8x8x48x40 Samsung 16x DVDRW DL 48x12x48 LiteON CDRW 2x Logitech 2.1 Speakers

Nov 12, 2005, 10:29 AM	#23
OmegaRED Relapsed Gamer Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Ottawa , Canada Posts: 5,686 Rep Power: 173 System Specs	You have the same board as me and a much betterprcoessor and ram my X800XL handles all games out just the processor kills me. Get an X800XL or Gforce 6800GT/Ultra __________________ E Penis Specs: <------------- See System Specs

Nov 15, 2005, 07:31 PM	Thread Starter #24
Trunkzeh DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 59 Rep Power: 0	I'm a nVidia hater rofl.. Always has been, and always will.. Same with Intel ;p The problem with me, is that I'm REALLY bad at saving up. I mean, I can just hold out till my next paycheck .. SO I might just be able to hold myself from buying into the world's candy floss market for a week or two, but apart from that.. I'm as loose with money as women are with.. shoes o.O Edit ~ How do I find out if my RAM's actually performing at Dual Channel? I ran my two babies on Sisoft 2005.RC2, and they werent that impressive of a deal, as I had thought DC to be. For those who have the A7N8X-E Deluxe Mobo, the two ram sticks are in the 'blue' slots, and when I boot, it does say RAM In dual channel.. And my RAMs rather decent anyway, so I dunno X.x __________________ AMD Athlon XP 3200+ (Cooled by a Thermaltake Polo 735 ) Sony Trinitron Multiscan 200ES @ 1024x768 on 85Hz Sapphire Radeon 128MB 9800Pro on PowerColor 9800XT Bios Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe Mobo Qtec 450w PSU 2x Corsair 512MB PC3200 2.5-3-3-8 @ DC & 2.7 volts 200GB SATA Western Digital HD 160GB & 40GB PATA Maxtor HDs. 16x12x8x8x48x40 Samsung 16x DVDRW DL 48x12x48 LiteON CDRW 2x Logitech 2.1 Speakers