Gimme some input on my computer choice

[Drasca]

What really gets my goat is that I've finally found a Canadian online retailer that has a 7600GS in-stock and available for $165.99, and has a $15 rebate which expires on April 30.

All I want is a few decent hard numbers and comparisons of the 7600GS versus other PCI-E cards in roughly the same price-range, but there is almost zero information on the internet about this.
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http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2717&p=2

That's because the 7600GS should be essentially a different variant of the 7600GT... Go look up figures and stats for the GS vs the GT, and then look for power comparisons between the 7600GT and other cards.

[DeeBye]

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2717&p=2

That's because the 7600GS should be essentially a different variant of the 7600GT... Go look up figures and stats for the GS vs the GT, and then look for power comparisons between the 7600GT and other cards.
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After looking at that, I'm pretty confident that a 7600GS is the next video card I will buy.

[Drasca]

After looking at that, I'm pretty confident that a 7600GS is the next video card I will buy.
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Aha! I found a 7600GS performance review. It isn't as powerful as the 7600GT, or the 6800GS but it is still competitive. Given its low price, it is probably the card for you. Keep an eye out for 6800GS prices though!

http://www.motherboards.org/reviews/hard...597_3.html

[DeeBye]

Aha! I found a 7600GS performance review. It isn't as powerful as the 7600GT, or the 6800GS but it is still competitive. Given its low price, it is probably the card for you. Keep an eye out for 6800GS prices though!

http://www.motherboards.org/reviews/hard...597_3.html
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Hey thanks!

Given the price, I'm encouraged by the benchmarks. It seems to consistently out-perform ATI's X1600XT by a pretty good margin most of the time. That was the other card I was considering. The 7600GS is also quite a bit cheaper.

I'm getting really confused by nVidia's naming conventions now. How does the the 6xxx line compare to the 7xxx line? I would have thought that a 6xxxGS would be be whomped by a 7xxxGS, but obviously this isn't so.

[Drasca]

The 7600GS is also quite a bit cheaper.[right][snapback]107821[/snapback][/right]

Miniaturization for Nvidia GPU wafers means shrinking the cost too ;) Unlike what your misses may tell you, this is one time's honest: smaller is better!

I'm getting really confused by nVidia's naming conventions now.  How does the the 6xxx line compare to the 7xxx line?  I would have thought that a 6xxxGS would be be whomped by a 7xxxGS, but obviously this isn't so.

I consider all naming conventions fairly arbitary, but here's how the Nvidia ones generally work (for the recent cards):

NX00

The first digit (N) indicates which generation of tech they're using.

The second digit (X) is indicative of the low to high end bell curve within every N000 series. There are low end cards like 6200, 7300. There's mid range, which is usually 6600 or 7600. Then there's high end, with the N800 designation. So, if you understand that the less-to-more powerful cards ranges in the hundreds 0X00 digit, rather than the first, then it makes sense. The best of the old tech will still beat the pants out of the weakest of the new. Or in this case, the best of the old 6800GS, beat the left of middle of the pack new 7600GS. However, the 7x00 series is also using a smaller die, meaning more chips per wafer, less cost to you, less power drawn (from PSU), thus less heat, noise in general. As always though, YMMV.

When you see GT, that's generally become the new 'standard' version (older cards don't come with any G_ suffix at all). GS is a less powerful than GT, but usually comes at a bargain price, so there's little complaining when on a budget. GTX is more powerful, and usually pricier. No letters at all means an older version, and usually less powerful than the GT.

There's more to overall computer power than just the chip technology, and this system of identifying generation, then overall power ratio makes sense after seeing the specs and reviewed performance. Tech generation followed by a rating amongst the others in its generation.

Sidenote: The 6600GT is one of the best selling vid cards because it gave a lot of steady power for its time, more than enough for the casual gamer, and gave a way out for the aging AGP market for a very reasonable price. It is a bit of a war horse. Cheap, powerful, and reasily available to everyone (additionally ATI had no comparable offerings for AGP users for quite some time, price or performance wise), and honestly, it still is. It isn't the most powerful out there, but it saved a lot of from having to spend for an entire new system while enjoying a good experience overall. The value per dollar ratio without sacrificing new features and play quality just couldn't get beaten--until Nvidia outdid themselves with the 7600GS.

Everytime ATI ups the ante, Nvidia follows with its own response. ATI responds similarly when Nvidia takes king of the hill (sometimes). Don't you love competition? Good time to be a consumer! Fanboys of both sides, let the mud fly, and let the end-user reap the rewards!

[Tal]

Bumping this thread to show off my upgrades. Hope that DeeBye doesn't mind.

We've figured out that my current system from Dell while being a beast when it was new is not so hot now four years later. So we're taking a few components from it to add to what I've just ordered.

Case - Transformers! More than meets the eye! What can I say? I like shiny. :D

Powersupply - what a surprise. Hello shiny!

Processor - A dual core Intel (sorry I just can't do AMD yet) processor running at 3.2ghz with a 800mhz FSB. Going from a 2.4ghz to this.

Motherboard

Videocard - A 256mb Geforce 7600GT - a step up from my current vidya card.

Memory - 2 gigs of DDR2 memory and the MoBo supports up to 4 gigs.

Should run WoW pretty well imho. :D

Edit: Forgot to add that I purchased a 250gig Western Digital SATA with a 16mb cache to be the main hard drive.

[Occhidiangela]

Bumping this thread to show off my upgrades. Hope that DeeBye doesn't mind.

We've figured out that my current system from Dell while being a beast when it was new is not so hot now four years later. So we're taking a few components from it to add to what I've just ordered.

Case - Transformers! More than meets the eye! What can I say? I like shiny. :D

Powersupply - what a surprise. Hello shiny!

Processor - A dual core Intel (sorry I just can't do AMD yet) processor running at 3.2ghz with a 800mhz FSB. Going from a 2.4ghz to this.

Motherboard

Videocard - A 256mb Geforce 7600GT - a step up from my current vidya card.

Memory - 2 gigs of DDR2 memory and the MoBo supports up to 4 gigs.

Should run WoW pretty well imho.  :D

Edit: Forgot to add that I purchased a 250gig Western Digital SATA with a 16mb cache to be the main hard drive.
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Budget?

Occhi

[Tal]

Budget?

Occhi
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I set the soft budget of less than a comparably equipped Dell XPS and came up with $2400. The system as I bought it with a copy of windows and a printer for the wife came in at 1200 with shipping.

[Drasca]

Videocard - A 256mb Geforce 7600GT - a step up from my current vidya card

Should run WoW pretty well imho.  :D
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More than enough to run WoW ;) Will probably run Oblivion pretty darn well too. Personally, I'd upgrade to a 7900GT for 100$ US more, but that's me. You've got an awesome system perfect for running the game you want to. Oh, for any future buyers, May 23 AMD will release their new line of CPUs, and Intel has pushed up their initial launch date too, so reap the upcoming price drops!

Oh to be on topic since Oblivion is the testbed for stressing all systems right now. Anandtech has released a lot of CPU and GPU system test results:

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2746

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/sho...spx?i=2747

[Munkay]

[snip] Oh to be on topic since Oblivion is the testbed for stressing all systems right now.

Wow, I knew Oblivion had high standards, but after reading that benchmark article I'm a bit blown away. Less than 30 FPS with everything turned up on an absolute top of the line rig, at only 1200x800? Ouch.

Thanks for the tech read, I enjoyed it Drasca.

Cheers,

Munk

[Drasca]

Less than 30 FPS with everything turned up on an absolute top of the line rig, at only 1200x800?  Ouch.
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Not even 'everything' was even turned up. Oblivion further hides its Hardware stress by generally keeping battles small, and certain image quality but performance chugging options turned off or kept low (water reflections grass size, shadows, decals..). If you tried to up the combat AI ante with dozens of creatures, or further customized the user directory ini settings you'd be creeping to a crawl without extreme CPU threading power alone.

I saw articles on Quad SLI / Crossfire. It took 4 top of the line GPUs to run at 60 fps for 1280x1024 most of the time, and it still wasn't enough for the ultra wide screen resolutions that 30" displays have.

Boys and girls, we have a new standard.

[Munkay]

Boys and girls, we have a new standard.
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Agreed.

The funny thing is, in a couple of years we'll probably be looking back at this post and laughing a bit at our shock and awe. :wacko:

Cheers,

Munk

[DeeBye]

Case - Transformers! More than meets the eye! What can I say? I like shiny. :D
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I just couldn't own a case like that. It's abominably ugly. I want to smash it.

[--Pete]

Hi,

The funny thing is, in a couple of years we'll probably be looking back at this post and laughing a bit at our shock and awe.  :wacko:
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Maybe, maybe not. Much like audio a few years back, graphics may be approaching the point of diminishing returns. On paper, the newest may sport superior specs, but when translated to the screen, there may be little if any additional visual impact above that of the previous generation. Then it becomes a matter of specmanship and marketing. And talent. Crappy music reproduced perfectly is still crappy music. Lousy graphics ditto.

The silver lining may be that when all the f/x have hit the limit, maybe someone will resurrect the concept of game play.

--Pete

[gekko]

Hi,
Maybe, maybe not.  Much like audio a few years back, graphics may be approaching the point of diminishing returns.  On paper, the newest may sport superior specs, but when translated to the screen, there may be little if any additional visual impact above that of the previous generation.  Then it becomes a matter of specmanship and marketing.  And talent.  Crappy music reproduced perfectly is still crappy music.  Lousy graphics ditto.

The silver lining may be that when all the f/x have hit the limit, maybe someone will resurrect the concept of game play.

--Pete
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I wouldn't count on it. While diminishing returns may kick in, the market will continue to produce better and better "performance." Think of resolution and TV screens. Can anyone really tell the difference between ED TV and HD TV (approximately 200 lines of resolution, approximately $1000 price difference)? Most people cannot, and yet many people still buy HD TV's. Heck, plenty of people own HD TV's and don't have them hooked up to any HD source. You can see this with cameras and memory cards, too. No average consumer needs or has any real use for a 5+ megapixel camera. But if Fuji sells primarily 3 or 4 megapixel cameras, there's virtually no market for memory cards larger than 512 mb or so. Who needs more than 200 pictures at a time?

The video card manufacturers will continue to make "better" cards, even if all that better means in that case is more physical memory. Vista, if it ever actually ships, will help them in this regard, boosting the specs new computers need just to run the OS comfortably, let alone the OS as well as a top of the line game.

Personally I see supported resolutions climbing sharply in the near future, as more people integrate their computers and their TVs. My current computer system runs my monitor at 1280x1024, but if wanted to hook it up to a true high def plasma or LCD TV, I just wouldn't have the ooomph I would need.

gekko

[DeeBye]

Much like audio a few years back, graphics may be approaching the point of diminishing returns.  On paper, the newest may sport superior specs, but when translated to the screen, there may be little if any additional visual impact above that of the previous generation.  Then it becomes a matter of specmanship and marketing.  And talent.  Crappy music reproduced perfectly is still crappy music.  Lousy graphics ditto.

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I dunno. With audio, you can record a real source and play it back. The quality (depending on things like speakers/heaphones/soundcard) can be close enough to the original that it sounds real, which I guess is the whole point.

Graphics haven't even begun to approach the level of realism that audio has. Even with the fancy graphical effects like bloom and HDR, you can always tell that the game you are playing looks like a computer game. You'll never mistake it for anything real.

I do, however, have a real soft spot for games that have simple graphics and fun gameplay. Pseudo-realistic 3D is nice to look at, but I don't want to just look at a game. I want to play it and enjoy it.

[Tal]

I just couldn't own a case like that.  It's abominably ugly.  I want to smash it.
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Autobot sympathizer.