Building athlon 64 computer on the cheap, wondering about geforce 8800gts-is it worth

I'm poor okay! I have a family with 3 kids (daughters) and just paid for 2 weddings over the last 2 years. Oh, and then there are the college costs! Kids are expensive!! So, I've been making do with what computer I built afew years ago.
My system (gaming computer) is an athlon xp2600 with a geforce 6800 agp card (I used riva tuner to unlock the pipelines to 16). Plus I'm still using windows 2000 - aaagggghhhhh!! So I just purchased a jetway sli motherboard (new) and won an athlon 64 3200 cpu on ebay. The motherboard uses regular ddr400 memory (cuz I already have a 1gig stick - remember cheap). I already have the case, power supply, and hard drive, so the only thing that's left is the video card. Now here's my question - because I'm just using regular ddr memory and not ddr2, how much do games rely on the onboard memory as opposed to the video card memory? Would my gaming experience be better if I purchased the geforce 8800gts w/640mb or is that overkill for my system. I know the card is expensive, but it's the one purchase that I would be willing to get if it would help.

 

Re: Building athlon 64 computer on the cheap, wondering about geforce 8800gts-is it w

you could go with the 8800gts 320mb edition. It has pretty much the same power. The thing is you don't really need an 8800series card unless you plan on installing vista. Reason being you can get a DX9 card for a lot cheaper then buy some more ram and you've got yourself a nice gaming rig. DDR 400 is what I use. It isn't that old and it works great.

 

Re: Building athlon 64 computer on the cheap, wondering about geforce 8800gts-is it w

Gaming performance will be impacted by a whole host of things.. including system memory, amount, type and speed. Information needs to get from point A to B to C as fast as possible.

Your system memory supplies your CPU with information while in use.. for example playing a game. The bigger and faster the memory the more information your CPU can access and process. Although that big fast memory has to be supplied with information from a source, the hard disk. If the hard disk is slow then could bottle neck the system. Buying a big bad graphics card is all well and good but it could very well end up waiting on your CPU to feed it with information if it's too slow or if the CPU isn't being fed quickly enough from RAM.

I personally wouldn't fork out close to $300 on a video card unless I'm going to make full use of it. If you are into games and playing em with everything to the max, go for it!

I would recommend for gaming.. getting more RAM another 1024MB wouldn't hurt your games (bigger is better!) you could still pick up something like the Radeon X1950 512MB GDDR3 for $209 or a GeForce 7800GS 256BIT 256MB GDDR3 for about $199. You could then put $75.99 into some Crucial RAM 1024MB (1GB) of it. All in all around the same price as just the 8800GTS!

Good Luck!

 

Re: Building athlon 64 computer on the cheap, wondering about geforce 8800gts-is it w

I think aidan80 hit the nail on the head. Just for reference the X1950 is supposed to be insanely fast. Let us know what you end up deciding to do.

 

Re: Building athlon 64 computer on the cheap, wondering about geforce 8800gts-is it w

Well, since the motherboard I purchased is for sli cards that pretty much rules out ati cards. After all, someday maybe I could afford another like card. Plus, I was considering getting vista os which was one of the reasons I was thinking about the geforce 8800gst. The insane performance of the card with 96 pipelines was another. The geforce 8800 I was looking at had 640mb onboard. I have no idea of how the games utilize the memory on the video card as opposed to the memory on the motherboard. I thought that if I got a video card with alot of memory on the card itself that it wouldn't have to rely on the MB memory much which would enhance performance. I am a gamer and into the eye candy so I definitely would like to max the graphics settings on any game.

 

Re: Building athlon 64 computer on the cheap, wondering about geforce 8800gts-is it w

I say go with two 320mb 8800gts's. It's like the same price as a gtx for two and it has the same performance as the 640mb version. Plus you have sli. So take advantage of it!!!!!!
Would you like a link to some on Newegg?

 

Re: Building athlon 64 computer on the cheap, wondering about geforce 8800gts-is it w

Go for the big daddy graphics card but I’d advise you to consider adding extra memory.

When you load up a game one of the first things that happens is the CPU requests the information… the game files are copied from the hard disk to RAM then that information is sent to the CPU where it is stored in L1 & L2 cache before being executed. Information can also be processed by the GPU in a similar manner. That 1GB can get filled quite quickly by current games leaving your system to fall back to the Hard Disk for additional memory. In terms of speed the hard disk is the turtle while the RAM is the rabbit.

If you’re system cant get information from the Disk (Point A) to RAM (Point B) to the CPU (Point C) to your Graphics Card (Point D) and finally to your monitor (Point E) then that 640MB of VRAM isn’t much good. 1GB could, depending on the titles you play bottle neck the system.

 

Re: Building athlon 64 computer on the cheap, wondering about geforce 8800gts-is it w

I guess my next purchase will be another 1gig ram then. As far as getting 2 geforce 8800gts cards, I'll be hard pressed to just get one since they are expensive, but I figure they'll come down in price eventually so I wanted to get a motherboard that would support sli for future possibilities. I have the link to newegg, thanks. So, what does get stored on the video card memory then? It sounds like MB memory is actually more important the what's on the video card.

 

Re: Building athlon 64 computer on the cheap, wondering about geforce 8800gts-is it w

Don't read what I said wrong, go for that card then get the memory later if you want. I did just that when I got my (great at the time) GeForce 5900, I had 512MB with the 5900, once I added another 512MB it made all the difference.

Consider the advice given by padams, get the 320MB version and SLi two of them. Put the cash saved in additional RAM. Checkout NewEgg (I'm sure you been there) for a deal on memory!

 

Re: Building athlon 64 computer on the cheap, wondering about geforce 8800gts-is it w

If I buy 2 geforce 8800gts with 320mb memory each that'll be around $600.00 and I wouldn't be able to afford that, while if I get 1 geforce 8800gts with 640mb memory is $400.00 but, just how important is the amount of memory on the video card? I was thinking that when the 8800 with 640mb comes down in price I would get a second one then. Basically I'm thinking in the future when I could afford to buy a second card that has more memory, after all I would think having 2 8800s w/640mb each is better then having 2 geforce 8800s w/320mb each. Or are you saying that the difference in the performance isn't worth it?? Am I just over thinking this??

 

Re: Building athlon 64 computer on the cheap, wondering about geforce 8800gts-is it w

How much memory you need would depend on what you want to play now, 6 months from now and after that. 320MB is a very decent amount, 640MB is more than enough and 1280 is an insane amount. The more memory on your graphics card the more textures and other game related information can be stored. The graphics subsystem is however dependant on the BUS to which it’s connected.. which is in turn connected to the system memory, CPU and everything else.

One of the benefits of SLI which was true back with the old Voodoo 2 is that they split the load. Like a Dual Core CPU, they split the 1’s and 0’s between them, work together to move the information as quickly as possible. The end results are that performance jumps by a large amount. Keep in mind that two GPU’s with a total of 640MB between them will do more damage to games than a single GPU with 640MB.

My personal opinion is I’d go for 2 8800GTS 320MB cards with a total of 640MB which will knock the $hit out of a single 640MB 8800GTS in games. Yes it may cost $600 now for 2 top of the line graphics card but.. It’ll cost $800 for two 640MB cards where some games may not ever get to use all that texture memory. By the time games do need an insane amount of texture memory how well do you think your graphics card will perform?

What ever you decide, good luck I hope it all works out as expected.

 

Re: Building athlon 64 computer on the cheap, wondering about geforce 8800gts-is it w

It seems that my best bet is to just get a geforce 8800gts w/320mb then in the future get another one (which would be more affordable to me).

 

Re: Building athlon 64 computer on the cheap, wondering about geforce 8800gts-is it w

Well, after much thought and research I ended up buying the BGF 8800GTS OC w/640mb. It has a $30 rebate and I figured the extra ram on the card would help performance (especailly since I'm using ddr 400 memory on the MB). I'll be getting it sometime next week. Then sometime in the future, when the prices come down and I save my pennies (ok, dollars), I'll get another one for my sli connection. I have the Jetway motherboard with 3 pci-e slots. The middle slot is for using just one video card while the 2 other slots are for using 2 cards in sli mode (I don't even need any bridge for the connection cuz the card is set up to automatically use the 2 outer slots for sli).
P.S. I purchased the card from Tiger Direct at a price of $370.00 after rebate.

 

Re: Building athlon 64 computer on the cheap, wondering about geforce 8800gts-is it w

Good job buying a BFG video card; LIFETIME warranty! And, I'm partial to NVidia cards.... This was an interesting thread, I learned alot about RAM, VRAM and so forth.... anyway- good purchase and HAPPY GAMING!

 

Re: Building athlon 64 computer on the cheap, wondering about geforce 8800gts-is it w

Congratulations on your purchase, I’m sure you won’t be disappointed with that card!

I’ve been an nVidia fan as well, have been since the death of 3DFX and I’m now moving to Radeon. At $139.99 (at Newegg... $109.99 including $30 rebate) for a X1950GT 256MB I couldn’t resist the price and I’ve got a crossfire board. I’m also moving from AMD to Intel, again I couldn’t resist the performance at low prices !

Good luck with the card, I’m sure it’ll be quite sometime before you’ll need to use anything other than high settings with that card! Stick another in there and that animal will just maul everything in its path!

 

Re: Building athlon 64 computer on the cheap, wondering about geforce 8800gts-is it w

Just pick up a 7800 or 7900. or X1900 or X1950. anything higher is just wasteing your money.


also what kind of powersuply do you have and how meny amps are on the +12 rails. The money for a 8800 can be better spend on outher things that will help make you system better since that 8800 would be like buying a race horse and choping 2 of its legs off.


If you want a 8 series wait for the 8600's to come out this month. you wont be bottlenecking as bad as you would on a 8800 you wouldent be wasteing as much money.

 

Re: Building athlon 64 computer on the cheap, wondering about geforce 8800gts-is it w

Well, since I already made the purchase talking about looking at any other card is mute. Plus the 8800gts is directx 10 compatible (another decision making point for me). I purchased a power supply specifically for this system and is sli capable.
What do you mean by bottlenecking? Everything I've read about the 8800 series is that it's an awesome card and nothing out there beats it in the eye candy department. Plus the card I purchased from BFG comes overclocked and still comes with a lifetime warranty. I sold my old gaming system to cover the cost of the geforce 8800gts.
A brief comparrison of the system I use to have to the system I just built:

OLD GAMING SYSTEM:
Matsonic motherboard 333fsb max, with athlon xp2600 cpu
1 gig pc2700 memory
Geforce 6800 w/128 ram (used rivatuner to max pipeline to 16)
Used onboard sound and onboard network connection.
OS was windows 2000 (yeah, I know, alittle behind the times)
WD 80gig HD (ide connection)

NEW GAMING SYSTEM:
Jetway MB (new) with athlon 64 3400(ebay)
2 gig ddr400 memory (had one stick already, got second like stick off ebay)
BFG geforce 8800gts w/640mb ram (new)
HD is WD 160gig sata (new at a sale price of $50.00 from office max)
Ultra x-Finity sli power supply (new, but from ebay store)
Used onboard sound and network connection.
Windows xp (finally upgraded, will eventually get vista, but I'll wait untill they get all the bugs out).
Some of the components I had Already (like 1gig ddr400 memory stick, bought other stick of same type memory off of ebay). I already had a case to use.

Total cost of my new system Including the 8800gts card (subtracting my sale of the old gaming system and not adding components I already had)
about $370.00
So the question is. Did I do okay, or do I deserve to be slammed upside my head?

 

Re: Building athlon 64 computer on the cheap, wondering about geforce 8800gts-is it w

Yeah its good but that cpu is a hjuge bottleneck. Run 3dmark 2006 and compare it to a C2D system. I know its DX10 but DX10 is not even out yet so we dont know how the card proforms on it. It could be just as fast as it is on DX9 or it could be a slide show in games. Personaly for the DX10 card im going to wait untill theres some good games before i buy the card or atleast DX10 comes out and theres some DX10 benches.


personaly for the price i would of went dual core and got a X1950 since the x1950 will play games good and dual core will help out alot and some games will start requireing dual and quad cores in a year or two.


its a good system just dont expect to see the same proformnce as outher 8800GTS's

 

Re: Building athlon 64 computer on the cheap, wondering about geforce 8800gts-is it w

The CPU maybe a bottleneck but I think mcduke has done the very same thing I’ve done quite a few times in the past. He built on a budget he tried to get the best he could with the budget that’s available. I think he did a very decent job of it over all. I’d been very happy with it.

Of course that card would run better on a Core 2 Duo but that would in itself defeat the purpose of building on a budget. I doubt that card will be running anything like a slide show and if anything its future proofed part of his system for some time to come. Anyway if he came across a cheap Core 2 on eBay 6 or 12 months from now..rolleyes

I do agree on the X1950 though, I’ve purchased one which should be here soon! I have to admit I’m excited about the performance I should get from that card.

Good luck and happy gaming duke! I had a IBM Cyrix, 32MB RAM and a 16MB Voodoo Banshee as my first gaming machine.. I didn’t care that the CPU was a bottleneck. It was all about the games and the brand!:yum

 

Re: Building athlon 64 computer on the cheap, wondering about geforce 8800gts-is it w

Well, I got the BFG 8800 gts w/64mb ram yesterday and installed it. OMG, what a difference. I played cod2 half the night with settings maxed and the card didn't even hicup. Is it overkill? Maybe, but I deserve to be spoiled alittle bit and this thing rocks. Now everything looks so cool while I'm being shot (having a fantastic card doesn't make me a better shot, lol).