Memory and Video card!!!

Hey guys,

I have a couple of questions on memory and video cards.

The goal: to play Far Cry!

Since upgrading my computer is going to be too much money (basically buying everthing, look below) I decided to update my girlfriends computer so that I can play some games. Her machine is...

ASUS A7S333
Athlon XP 1600+
Kingston ValueRAM PC2100 256MB
geFORCE2 GTS 32MB
300W Allied PSU
Windows XP Pro

I think I am going to wait to upgrade the processor (XP 2400+) later this year. So for this upgrade I am up-ing the memory and a new video card. I am going to put a stick of PC2100 512MB for 768MB of total memory. Should I stick with another Kingston ValueRAM module like the one currently in hers or can I buy a different brand?

The level of video card that I am going to buy is in the $150-200 range. I guess I am looking at the GFX 5700 Ultra, Radeon 9600XT, or 9800 non-pro. Out of the three, it looks like the 9800 and the GFX 5700 Ultra is are power houses. I am only been looking on anandtech and tomshardware for reviews, do you know of other sites that use these graphic cards on Far Cry?

I know for the 9800 you need power from the power supply unit. Her computer has your basic one HD, one cdrw, one floppy, NIC, and the graphic card that are using power. The 300W should be enough right? I know it will be pushing it near it's full load but I should work right?

Do you all have any other thoughts on this?

Thanks!!!

Kingston RAM is fairly cheap now especially at www.newegg.com. So, without causing problems (and some do) I'd say stick with the kingston. Power supply should be efficient since girlfriend's computer doesn't have two hdd and two cdrom drives. I would go with the GeForce FX5700. But I know others are going to say the ATI is better for games. Tom's hardware guides for benchmarks are pretty reliable when you're trying to decide. I use them also.

Hope this helps!!

I agree with you on the memory and PSU but I just wanted to check before I did anything. What do you other people think, GFX 5700 Ultra or Radeon 9800 non-pro (remember $150-200)?

I have a 5700 U and its a great card, But its takes a fair amount of power to run it (150 watts) it is also 1.5 volts (update, yes your board does) . You may be lacking in the psu dept. also.

http://www.asus.com.tw/mb/socketa/a7s333/overview.htm#

Expansion Slots Total (Free) 3 ( 3 ) x memory - DIMM 184-PIN
1 ( 1 ) x processor - Socket A
1 ( 1 ) x AGP 4x ( 1.5 V )
5 ( 5 ) x PCI

http://www.ciao.co.uk/product.php/pN...627/subTabId/1

rbc1100

Since you are running a GFX 5700 Ultra, what are your system specs? What games do you play and how much detail do you run them at?

I was looking at pricewatch, and you can buy a 9800 pro bulk for $199 from gameve.com. When I buy a card finally if it is between the 5700 U and the 9800 Pro, I would say the money is on the 9800 Pro.

Thermaltake Xaser lll tower, 550 watt Antec True control PSU, Epox 8rda3+ Ultra 400, AMD 3200+ Barton, Thermaltake Volcano 12 HS&fan, 1 gig Corsair XMS pc 3200 (dual channel), XFX 5700 U, 60 gig and a 40 gig 7200 Maxtor HD'S, Lite-on optical drive's.

Im not a hard core gammer but I do play Tiger Woods PGA Tour, War Craft lll, Call of Duty, Halo, Comanche 4. I usually do not mess to much with the settings, screen resolution is 1024x768, quality settings are left on high. Antialiasing and the rest are application controlled. With the new 56.72 drivers for this card there are different driver settings for different games ( application profiles). I have not bothered to mess with it yet but will get to it sometime to see if it makes any difference. It plays all the game I have just fine with out playing with the settings. The only time I turn up the juice is when I play golf, then I use the Nforce utlity and turn up the clock speed of the video card to 75mhz, it gets rid of the slight jitter I get with that game.

Has anyone played Far Cry on there machine yet? If so, what are your system specs? If anyone else is using a GFX 5700 Ultra, Radeon 9600XT, Radeon 9800 non-pro and pro, please tell me your machine specs? What games do you play, what settings do you use, and how does it look?

OK,
Unless you are planing on building a new computer around the 9800 pro, your for the most part wasting your money. If your trying to compare a 9800 pro to a 5700U or 9600 XT, forget about it because the pro blows them both away!!!

Well I know that, I am just trying to get a feel on what cards are being used and how those work with different titles. Yeah I would hope that 9800 Pro crushes the others :D

http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/...charts-03.html

Scroll down and check out the bench marks. But take your slower cpu into account also. Best part is your is over 1GHZ.

It's ok if I buy another module of memory and it is not the same name brand? Like I said I have Kingston ValueRAM in there now but if I buy Viking, Crucial, or Samsung it should work fine, correct?

Thanks on the video card question. I found on newegg today a 9800 Pro bulk oem card for about $200 :cool:

Different manufactors of ram have different specifications.
It may work faultlessly, to the other extreme where it will not boot up. But those hair pulling errors inbetween are something else to deal with.

Match the ram ! If nothing else, do like I do. Buy what I want for a total and when I install it, I remove what is in there and store it for emergencies.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Casper1676
It's ok if I buy another module of memory and it is not the same name brand? Like I said I have Kingston ValueRAM in there now but if I buy Viking, Crucial, or Samsung it should work fine, correct?

Thanks on the video card question. I found on newegg today a 9800 Pro bulk oem card for about $200 :cool:

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on the box with the 9800 pro i run all of my games at full resolution with aa and as turned all the way up ... i went from an ati aiw radeon 32meg ... night and day!!!!

it should but like train stated ... its not worth the headache if it dosent

ive got a gig of that value ram in my gaming box and it makes a huge difference (only running a gf4 mx 440 64megs).
as far as your power question ... i have an antec case w/ an antec ps rated at 300w and i have a ton of stuff in my box:
piv 1.4
ati aiw 9800 pro
dvd burner
cd burner
cd rom
dvd rom
15 gig ibm deskstar
80 wd 8meg
pci ata card
60g diamond max
80g wd 2meg
and more ....

I am currently playing Far Cry on a 1.4 Ghz machine with 512Mb ram and an FX5700 Ultra video card. The game runs smoothly when set to "medium" detail level (I let the game pick the detail, and that's what it decided.) So my advice would be more ram and a fast video card.

Oh, I am running 1024 x 768 resolution with no AA or AF. Far Cry is the most demanding game I have come across. I just picked up Painkiller but haven't loaded it yet; that game has high requirements also. I have also recently played through Max Payne 2, Prince of Persia, and KOTOR and all ran great.

Like I stated before, the motherboard is a A7S333 which has a 4x AGP slot. Does the 9800 Pro work with that slot? This is from ATi's website...

Intel® Pentium® 4, AMD® Athlon® or higher with AGP 8X (0.8v), 4X (1.5V) or Universal AGP 3.0 bus configuration (8X/4X)

If it does work, then will a powercolor and sapphire 9800 pro card follow those same guide lines since they are just partners with ATi? The reason I ask is because on newegg's website they have the sapphire (bulk) card (the first one) stating that it uses a "BUS: AGP 8X". Is this just a typeo and it should say "BUS: AGP 4x/8x"? but then when you look at the next one it states that it supports 1x/2x/4x/8x. Do the different partners deside what speed to run them at?