nvidia cards!

[invisik]

Wats the better card for playing games like cod4, crysis ut3, or later games such a far cry 2?
deciding between a 9800gx2, 2 9800gtx or a gtx 280. no ati cards since i have an sli board. all these cards r priced around between 375-425$ so money isnt a issue as long as its under 500$
Thanks

 

[jackieboy]

2 9800gtx in sli if I were you....save a few bucks

 

[mathiasschnell]

You could try and get 2 GTX 260s and SLI those. Granted I doubt you can get them for under $500 right now, but I think soon you will be able to or perhaps if you find nice rebates you can do it now.

 

[invisik]

really?! money isnt a issue at all around those prices soo would those 2 9800gt beat a gtx 280? im looking for the best performance.
when r the 9800gtx+ coming out?


2 gtx 260 ya i was thinking that but its gonna come out to 600$ then shipping. if they were like 260$ a piece then maybe price drop anytime soon?

one last thing where do i get an sli cable ati includes it in there cards.

 

[geofelt]

The GTX280 is generally the best card of the three. It should run most games very well. If you should ever need more(which I doubt) , I think it would be the easiest to SLI.

 

[Guest]

you can get gtx 280's for 400 now...

but i'd recommend 260 sli... you can get them each for about 250 now

(prices after rebates)

 

[L1qu1d]

^ I'll second the sli, but the 4870 in CrossX scales better and outperforms the 280 GTX in alot of games surprisingly (or comes close).

The 9800 GX2 is a good option, but it can be a hassle when the game isn't full on par with sli requirements (GRID wasn't when it was released).

They are sold really cheap now though, here they are around 399.99- 450. And on Newegg I saw a couple for 350$

2 9800 GTXs will slightly outperform 1 GX2, (some games the GX2 has the upper hand since it tends to scale better in single slot.

The only hassle you'll have is with Quad SLI, I've only seen the GX2 shine on COD4 to make a fuss over it. It beat 3 280 GTX in tri-sli and in Reg-sli.

Other than that the GX2 seems to have problems with most users, my friend says its just rumours for most games, but it holds its own...but I'm sure you don't want to risk it.

My ultimate Suggestion would be wait for the 4870 X2. 1 of those cards will be stronger than buying a 280 GTX or buying 2 260 GTXs, and also cheaper for now.

If you don't have a CrossX board, I still think it would be a good solution since, well its already sli (rumored to work as a single GPU).

Thats my 2 cents

P.S

I think if you really wanna go cheap, I'd look into the 8800 GTS G92s as well (alot better than 2 9800 GTXs for P/Performance

 

[th_username]

280gtx sli of course

 

[L1qu1d]

^ what a waste of money (atleast for now) 2 8800 GT hold their own in current gen gaming...

If you don't have something useful to say, don't say it at all.

No Supporting Information at all. Ever think about the general 10% difference in performance between the 4870 and the 280 GTX?

 

[invisik]

you can get gtx 280's for 400 now...

but i'd recommend 260 sli... you can get them each for about 250 now

(prices after rebates)

really do u no wat site they have them for 250$ i only found them at around 299$ im sure the avg price would drop soon so i could wait and get the gtx 260 sli.


But one problem that might occur is that right now my pc has 4 gigs of ram and i have a 9800gx2 (which im returning one of the dvi port is dead) for some reason my pc only uses 2gigs. in the bios it says 4gigs so i contacted the manufacturer they said the problem was the 32bit os. so my mobo uses 1 gig and my graphic card uses 1gig so im limited to 2gig. so now if a get 2 gtx 260 896+896=1792+1gig for mobo=about 2.8gig. so my ram will be limted to 1.2gig will this be bad for my pc?

 

[mathiasschnell]

Woah woah woah woah. RAM does NOT get used like that. Also, I think you're confusing RAM with VRAM.

RAM (as in, DDR2/DDR3 RAM) comes in the sticks you put into those long slots probably near the CPU.

VRAM is what's put on the PCB of the graphics card. This is dedicated to the graphics card, meaning it WILL NOT take the RAM on your Mobo and use it like that. Maybe if the RAM on the PCB gets full or if the card needs more memory it will, but that would be seen as another process using resources or something, you wouldn't just lose the RAM.

Now, if you really do have 4 GB of the stuff, then what's gonna happen is that your 32-bit OS should only recognize roughly 3.5 GB. I think that's the limit for a 32-bit OS. Your motherboard, BIOS, graphics card, etc. DO NOT automatically take up a gig of RAM here and there and then your OS can't see it. That's just not true. Probably what's going on is that one of your RAM sticks could be dead (if you have 2 sticks 2 GB each) and while your BIOS knows you have 4 GB installed, there's only 2 GB that are actually usable because the other 2 GB are faulty. Try booting up using only 1 stick of RAM, then switch it for the other. If you don't boot with one of them, then it's a bad stick and that would explain why you only have 2 GB of RAM showing in your OS. Otherwise... I dunno.

 

[invisik]

i have 4 1gig ram installed i tired one at a time and they all work. but once i put the 3rd or 4th stick in the 2gig usage on my pc doesnt change. is it possible that something in the setting is messed up so i can change it does i seem like a hardware issue? on 3dmarkvantage i viewed my pc spec and for the memory portion it said this
Total Physical Memory 1.98 GB
Free Physical Memory 1.28 GB
Total Pagefile Memory 4.23 GB
Free Pagefile Memory 3.39 GB
normal?

 

[invisik]

anyone?

 

[mathiasschnell]

Try shrinking your pagefile size down. With all that RAM you don't really need a big pagefile. Maybe 1 GB would be enough. That could also be what's causing the OS not to use all the RAM.

 

[invisik]

finally someone with an answer im sry but im a noob when it comes to computers lol how do i shrink my pagefile size step by step instructions would be much appreciated.

 

[mathiasschnell]

Control Panel > System > Advanced Tab > Performance Box - Settings > Advanced Tab > Virtual Memory - Change

Once you get to the window for changing your virtual memory try, click the radio button 'Custom Size'. I'd say set the lower limit to 1024 and the higher limit to 2048 (1 GB - 2 GB). After that's done, restart your computer and see if anything's changed.

 

[invisik]

i tried nothing happend. =[

 

[mathiasschnell]

The only thing I can think of then is that either I was wrong and 32-bit OS's only use a max of exactly 2 GB or your motherboard doesn't support more than 2 GB. Then again, that'd have to be an old mobo I think.

 

[invisik]

no 32bit uses 4gig max but i dont no y its limiting to me 2. the mobo i have is pretty new its the msi p6n diamond. well watever so if i get the 2 gtx 260 and my pc only has 1.3gig of ram to use will it suffer in performance then?
sry for asking so many questions.

 

[Mousemonkey]

finally someone with an answer im sry but im a noob when it comes to computers lol how do i shrink my pagefile size step by step instructions would be much appreciated.

no 32bit uses 4gig max but i dont no y its limiting to me 2. the mobo i have is pretty new its the msi p6n diamond. well watever so if i get the 2 gtx 260 and my pc only has 1.3gig of ram to use will it suffer in performance then?
sry for asking so many questions.

Noob to all knowing expert in two posts, not bad.

 

[cjl]

It is true that the total memory allocation (video memory included) can only be up to 4 gigs in a 32 bit OS. That still sounds a bit low though - most systems that I've seen report somewhere between 2.6 and 3.3 gigs (with 4 gigs physically installed). What OS do you have? Vista with SP1 should show 4 gigs fully, despite those limitations.

 

[invisik]

Noob to all knowing expert in two posts, not bad.

lol i do some research here and there (credit to google and u guys @ tomhardware) =D

But ya my problem i dont no y my computer only uses 2gigs out of my 4. now im worried if i get 2 gtx 260 ill really be limited to only 1.3gigs?!
yes im using vista with sp1.
=[

 

[mathiasschnell]

I still say that, no matter what, your video card(s) WILL NOT use up your RAM. They have their own dedicated RAM, there's no need to worry about that.

 

[invisik]

thanks i really appreciate the help.
=]