I am looking to update my current video card, which is a GF6200. It must be an AGP card and I prefer nVidia.
Have looked at game system requirements for several of the newer games; ie. Splinter Cell Double Agent, Bioshock, Crysis. Seems that a GF 7 series card is the direction to head (short of a completely new computer). Thinking of either a 7800 or a 7900 card. Is there a card to definitely avoid or definitely purchase along these lines? Should I look for a GS, GT, or whatever model?
I saw various mentions of DDR, GDDR2, GDDR3. Should I worry about what this means?
My current card plus into the motherboard only, no additional plug into the power supply. Pictures of newer cards show another plugin from the card to the power supply. Where this plugs into the card is obvious. I have changed cards before, but have never used a plugin to the power supply. Is it obvious where to plug into the power supply from the card?
I was just looking at the reviews, and alot of people are talking about how fast the card dies. I guess you could RMA it if it did, but then other people say it works perfectly!
Quote:I saw various mentions of DDR, GDDR2, GDDR3. Should I worry about what this means?
You should get a card with at least GDDR3, it is the fastest and newest kind of memory.
Quote:My current card plus into the motherboard only, no additional plug into the power supply. Pictures of newer cards show another plugin from the card to the power supply. Where this plugs into the card is obvious. I have changed cards before, but have never used a plugin to the power supply. Is it obvious where to plug into the power supply from the card?
The card that I recommended has a 4 pin molex connector, which is the most common connector in the computer case. I'm pretty sure you have a few just sitting in there not plugged into anything. All you have to do is just plug it in, and thats it! Not that complicated.
I was hoping that the plugin stuff would be fairly obvious/easy as you indicate it to be.
The card is a little more pricey than I was hoping for. Another draw back (bigger issue) is that it not on the "supported" list for the SCDA game. Any close runners up I should consider? Willing to hear from others as well; no offense to Waymon3X6.
Oh yea, I forgot to mention that there are also a different kind of power connectors. The one on the link uses one. But, all you gota do is connect that to 2 other 4 pin molex connectors, and thats it.
Go with the 7800GS Waymon posted, it's supposed to be reliable and fast, and to be quite honest, nVidia's forays into high-speed AGP have been a little more successful. The power connectors are the same as for any other device, it should be obvious to you how to plug them in once you get the cards.
Is there any reason to choose or not choose the 7800GS vs. the 7900GS? Both are much less expensive vs. the 7950GT. And both are on the "supported" list for the games I mentioned (well above the minimum and into the recommended range).
Buy what you want. i just suggested the 7800GS because it was very reliable, and didnt have alot of people that said it died within the first month or whatever.
As for the XFX one you picked out, it looks fine, but it has one person that was unsatisfied and said it died.
I appreciate the for all the input. I really wanted to be sure about the plugin procedures and whether the kind of memory had to match my computer in some manner.
Guess either the 7800GS or the 7900GS should be a workable choice. The reliability issue, as you pointed out, may cause me to choose the 7800 model. The price difference between these two is not a big deal. The price on the 7950GT caused a small issue, but it not being on the supported list for one of the games stopped me for sure.
Having to get an AGP card really limits the available choices.
The 7950GT probably wasn't on the game's supported list because it was newer than the game, according to the box, my card's not compatible with loads of games made before 2006. I'm sure they're all fine.
