need help picking the best geforce video card for my pc.

[ziggurat8]

AGP: 8X
wattage:250w or 305w

[Ffuzzy-Logik]

Why does it have to be a geforce card? I'm using an ATI Radeon 1600X Pro 512 MB AGP 8x card that I got off newegg for under $150, and I'm sure it'll run PSU well.

But if you want a geforce, I'm not too sure, I'm more of an ATI guy.

[patient]

Grabbed a 6800 GT last month and I love it.

Try newegg.com.

[VioletSkye]

You wouldn't want to run a 6800GT on a 250W PSU lol, nor would you want to try and run a x1600 Pro on a 250W PSU (considering the minimum requirement is a 350W PSU.)

What you need to do is list your PC specs so we can see:
1.Who the manufacturer is (Dells are a pain to upgrade and you need to be careful what upgrades you choose)
2. What is the chipset you are using
3. What the type and speed of your CPU (remember that getting the latest and greatest GPU with an outdated CPU is a waste.)
4. How much RAM you have and what type it is
5. The maximum RAM supporterd by your motherboard

What that info helps us with is:
1. Determining what type of PSU upgrade will work best for you
2. What GPU will be best suited for your CPU and current PSU if you choose not to upgrade
3. Whether you need to add/upgrade your RAM


To do this, I suggest you download CPU-Z and run it. Then go to the ABOUT tab and select REGISTERS DUMP (.txt) and save that info to a text file. Then copy and paste that info here so we can take a look at it. All you really need to copy and paste are the following areas:

CPUID OUTPUT
CHIPSET
MEMORY SPD

[Ffuzzy-Logik]

On 2006-05-03 11:11, VioletSkye wrote:
nor would you want to try and run a x1600 Pro on a 250W PSU (considering the minimum requirement is a 350W PSU.)

I think mine's running on a 300W (or maybe 350W, I forget and don't feel like opening up my case right now) and I haven't had any problems at all yet.

EDIT: Nevermind, it's 350W.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Ffuzzy-Logik on 2006-05-03 11:43 ]</font>

[patient]

On 2006-05-03 11:22, Ffuzzy-Logik wrote:

On 2006-05-03 11:11, VioletSkye wrote:
nor would you want to try and run a x1600 Pro on a 250W PSU (considering the minimum requirement is a 350W PSU.)

I think mine's running on a 300W (or maybe 350W, I forget and don't feel like opening up my case right now) and I haven't had any problems at all yet.

Ditto.

He has more technical foresight than I do though. I didn't even think of that. However, I am a firm believer of upgrades not bound by current hardware. I'd rather put $175 twoards a card that I can't run full wattage through and upgrade my PSU later than spend $150 now having to upgrade both later.

I'm stupid like that though. Hehe. =)

[ziggurat8]

i have a dell dimension 8300

Technical Specifications:
http://support.dell.com/support/edoc...0/sm/specs.htm

1024mb DDR SDRAM at 400MHZ

120GB Serial ATA hard drive (7200 RPM)
128MB DDR Nvidia GeForce FX 5200

CPUID Output
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Number of CPUs 2 (1 Physical)

CPU #1
APIC ID 0
Name Intel Pentium 4
Code name Northwood
Specification Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz
Family/Model/Stepping F29
Extended Family/Model 0/0
Brand ID 9
Package mPGA-478 (2h)
Core Stepping D1
Technology 0.13um
Instructions Sets MMX, SSE, SSE2
Features
Clock Speed 2992.4 MHz
Clock multiplier x15.0
Front Side Bus Frequency 199.5 MHz
Bus Speed 798.0 MHz
Stock frequency 3000 MHz
L1 Data Cache 8 KBytes, 4-way set associative, 64 Bytes line size
L1 Trace Cache 12 Kuops, 8-way set associative
L2 Cache 512 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64 Bytes line size
L2 Speed 2992.4 MHz (Full)
L2 Location On Chip
L2 Data Prefetch Logic yes
L2 Bus Width 256 bits

eax ebx ecx edx
Function 00000000 00000002 756e6547 6c65746e 49656e69
Function 00000001 00000f29 00020809 00004400 bfebfbff
Function 00000002 665b5001 00000000 00000000 007b7040
Function 80000000 80000004 00000000 00000000 00000000
Function 80000001 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
Function 80000002 20202020 20202020 20202020 6e492020
Function 80000003 286c6574 50202952 69746e65 52286d75
Function 80000004 20342029 20555043 30302e33 007a4847

edx eax
MSR 0000002C 00000000 0F12000F
MSR 0000002A 00000000 00000080
MSR 00000017 000A0000 00000000
MSR 000001A0 00000000 000000C9
MSR 0000008B 00000017 00000000

CPU #2 (logical unit)
APIC ID 1
Name Intel Pentium 4
Code name Northwood
Specification Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz
Family/Model/Stepping F29
Extended Family/Model 0/0
Brand ID 9
Package mPGA-478 (2h)
Core Stepping D1
Technology 0.13um
Instructions Sets MMX, SSE, SSE2
Features
Clock Speed 2992.4 MHz
Clock multiplier x15.0
Front Side Bus Frequency 199.5 MHz
Bus Speed 798.0 MHz
Stock frequency 3000 MHz
L1 Data Cache 8 KBytes, 4-way set associative, 64 Bytes line size
L1 Trace Cache 12 Kuops, 8-way set associative
L2 Cache 512 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64 Bytes line size
L2 Speed 2992.4 MHz (Full)
L2 Location On Chip
L2 Data Prefetch Logic yes
L2 Bus Width 256 bits

eax ebx ecx edx
Function 00000000 00000002 756e6547 6c65746e 49656e69
Function 00000001 00000f29 01020809 00004400 bfebfbff
Function 00000002 665b5001 00000000 00000000 007b7040
Function 80000000 80000004 00000000 00000000 00000000
Function 80000001 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
Function 80000002 20202020 20202020 20202020 6e492020
Function 80000003 286c6574 50202952 69746e65 52286d75
Function 80000004 20342029 20555043 30302e33 007a4847

edx eax
MSR 0000002C 00000000 0F12000F
MSR 0000002A 00000000 00000080
MSR 00000017 000A0000 00000000
MSR 000001A0 00000000 000000C9
MSR 0000008B 00000017 00000000


Chipset
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Northbridge Intel i875P rev. A2
Southbridge Intel 82801EB (ICH5) rev. 02
Graphic Interface AGP
AGP Revision 3.0
AGP Transfer Rate 8x
AGP SBA supported, enabled
Memory Type DDR
Memory Size 1024 MBytes
Memory Frequency 199.5 MHz (1:1)
CAS# 3.0
RAS# to CAS# 3
RAS# Precharge 3
Cycle Time (tRAS) 8
Performance Mode enabled

Memory SPD
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DIMM #1

General
Memory type DDR
Manufacturer (ID) Hyundai Electronics (AD00000000000000)
Size 512 MBytes
Max bandwidth PC3200 (200 MHz)
Part number HYMD264 646B8J-D43
Serial number FFFF0807
Manufacturing date Week 07/Year 04

Attributes
Number of banks 2
Data width 64 bits
Correction None
Registered no
Buffered no

Timings table
Frequency (MHz) 133 166 200
CAS# 2.0 2.5 3.0
RAS# to CAS# delay 2 3 3
RAS# Precharge 2 3 3
TRAS# 6 7 8


DIMM #3

General
Memory type DDR
Manufacturer (ID) Hyundai Electronics (AD00000000000000)
Size 512 MBytes
Max bandwidth PC3200 (200 MHz)
Part number HYMD264 646B8J-D43
Serial number FFFF0504
Manufacturing date Week 07/Year 04

Attributes
Number of banks 2
Data width 64 bits
Correction None
Registered no
Buffered no

Timings table
Frequency (MHz) 133 166 200
CAS# 2.0 2.5 3.0
RAS# to CAS# delay 2 3 3
RAS# Precharge 2 3 3
TRAS# 6 7 8


Dump Module #1
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
00 80 08 07 0D 0A 02 40 00 04 50 70 00 82 08 00 01
10 0E 04 1C 01 02 20 C0 60 70 75 75 3C 28 3C 28 40
20 60 60 40 40 00 00 00 00 00 37 46 28 28 50 00 00
30 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 67
40 AD 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 48 59 4D 44 32 36 34
50 20 36 34 36 42 38 4A 2D 44 34 33 41 41 04 07 FF
60 FF 08 07 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 41
70 49 34 32 4E 30 31 30 36 32 2D 30 31 20 00 00 00


Dump Module #2
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
00 80 08 07 0D 0A 02 40 00 04 50 70 00 82 08 00 01
10 0E 04 1C 01 02 20 C0 60 70 75 75 3C 28 3C 28 40
20 60 60 40 40 00 00 00 00 00 37 46 28 28 50 00 00
30 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 67
40 AD 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 48 59 4D 44 32 36 34
50 20 36 34 36 42 38 4A 2D 44 34 33 41 41 04 07 FF
60 FF 05 04 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 41
70 49 34 32 4E 30 31 30 36 32 2D 30 31 20 00 00 00


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: ziggurat8 on 2006-05-03 12:05 ]</font>

[VioletSkye]

On 2006-05-03 11:22, Ffuzzy-Logik wrote:

On 2006-05-03 11:11, VioletSkye wrote:
nor would you want to try and run a x1600 Pro on a 250W PSU (considering the minimum requirement is a 350W PSU.)

I think mine's running on a 300W (or maybe 350W, I forget and don't feel like opening up my case right now) and I haven't had any problems at all yet.

EDIT: Nevermind, it's 350W.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Ffuzzy-Logik on 2006-05-03 11:43 ]</font>

An important aspect that many people don't consider is the components running in a particular machine. For an example, let's take two machines with 300W PSU's. One PC may only have 1 optical drive and 1 harddrive to run which won't eat up that much power. However if the other PC is running 2 optical drives, 1 floppy drive and 2 harddrives, that changes things considerably. So whereas the same videocard may run in the first PC, it may not run in the second PC because other components are using up too much juice.

On 2006-05-03 11:28, patient wrote:

On 2006-05-03 11:22, Ffuzzy-Logik wrote:

On 2006-05-03 11:11, VioletSkye wrote:
nor would you want to try and run a x1600 Pro on a 250W PSU (considering the minimum requirement is a 350W PSU.)

I think mine's running on a 300W (or maybe 350W, I forget and don't feel like opening up my case right now) and I haven't had any problems at all yet.

Ditto.

He has more technical foresight than I do though. I didn't even think of that. However, I am a firm believer of upgrades not bound by current hardware. I'd rather put $175 twoards a card that I can't run full wattage through and upgrade my PSU later than spend $150 now having to upgrade both later.

I'm stupid like that though. Hehe. =)

The flaw to that line of thought is that prices come down alot after every major release of a company's new hardware. There is no sense buying a card you can't use and waiting to upgrade the PSU, when that same card or even a better suited card may be less money when you are ready to upgrade the PSU. Also, if you use that card without proper wattage to support it, you can do serious damage to your system by having the videocard continually and suddenly shutting off, not to mention the instability, errors and crashes that always accompany that scenario. Besides, you can get a descent PSU for under $50 that will run everything you need so why not get both at the same time.

I editted my post before I submitted it and I originally made a bigger point of upgrading the PSU, then realized after re-reading my post that I had forgotten to put that back in lol.

You have to be very careful with Dells though (especially when it comes to PSU upgrades.) See this thread for more on that:
http://www.pso-world.com/viewtopic.p...1511&forum=9&4

On 2006-05-03 11:43, ziggurat8 wrote:
i have a dell dimension 8300

Technical Specifications:
http://support.dell.com/support/edoc...0/sm/specs.htm

1024mb DDR SDRAM at 400MHZ

120GB Serial ATA hard drive (7200 RPM)
128MB DDR Nvidia GeForce FX 5200

Cool, I'll do a little research later this afternoon and post what info I have. Judging by the info on this SITE you should be able to upgrade the PSU with a standard ATX PSU, but make sure you read through this thread for advice before doing that:
http://www.pso-world.com/viewtopic.p...1511&forum=9&4

If you upgrade the PSU, definitely go with a 6800GS AGP. It will mop the floor with any ATI AGP cards

DiabloTek GeForce 6800 GS / 512MB GDDR3 / AGP 8x / DVI / VGA / TV Out / Video Card - $239.99

There is a 256MB version for $214.99 which can be found HERE but I would spend the extra $25 and go with the 512MB version.

If you don't want to upgrade your PSU then open up the case and let me know if your PSU is the 250W or the 305W.


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: VioletSkye on 2006-05-03 12:17 ]</font>

[ziggurat8]

Thank you

[VioletSkye]

Check my editted reply above and also give me an idea of what you are able to spend $$$