Replacement for 7800GT?

Hi. I mostly use a laptop these days but have a desktop that's running a
C2Q9550 that now serves mainly as a server I guess, having 3TB of storage I
back the laptops up to it. It was running a 7800GT / 256MB GDDR3 but it
seems that the card is now dead. I need a replacement.

Also, sometimes I play (fairly basic) games. The main game I play is Diablo2
/ Lord of Destruction and my laptop's ATI X1400 handles that easilly.
However I'll probably buy Diablo3 when and if it finally comes out. Blizzard
are being coy about the specs but when I posted in a thread there and
mentioned that I had a 7800GT I was told that I'd be fine.

I need a replacement card. I'm poor. I'm *really* not up with the play w/r/t
graphics cards. I'd rather it didn't use ****loads of power in 2D as that's
mostly what I'll use it for. However I'd like it to be as good as, or
preferably better than the old card was (I'd hate to 'downgrade').

So, especially with budget constraints in mind (and if the fact that
Gigabyte is my manufacturer of choice makes a difference) can anyone suggest
what card/s I should be looking at? Oh, I'm in New Zealand so no links to
awesome deals at US suppliers please. :-/

TIA,
--
Shaun.

"Let food be thy medicine" Hippocrates.

On 16/08/2010 2:37 PM, ~misfit~ wrote:
Hi. I mostly use a laptop these days but have a desktop that's running a
C2Q9550 that now serves mainly as a server I guess, having 3TB of storage I
back the laptops up to it. It was running a 7800GT / 256MB GDDR3 but it
seems that the card is now dead. I need a replacement.

Also, sometimes I play (fairly basic) games. The main game I play is Diablo2
/ Lord of Destruction and my laptop's ATI X1400 handles that easilly.
However I'll probably buy Diablo3 when and if it finally comes out. Blizzard
are being coy about the specs but when I posted in a thread there and
mentioned that I had a 7800GT I was told that I'd be fine.

I need a replacement card. I'm poor. I'm *really* not up with the play w/r/t
graphics cards. I'd rather it didn't use ****loads of power in 2D as that's
mostly what I'll use it for. However I'd like it to be as good as, or
preferably better than the old card was (I'd hate to 'downgrade').

So, especially with budget constraints in mind (and if the fact that
Gigabyte is my manufacturer of choice makes a difference) can anyone suggest
what card/s I should be looking at? Oh, I'm in New Zealand so no links to
awesome deals at US suppliers please. :-/

TIA,
Hi Shaun,
I hope I don't get flamed too much here!
I'm going to recommend a non nVidia card.

I believe most video cards, from all manufacturers (well maybe not
Intel), are well above the task of playing games. What is the most
common resolution of monitors nowadays? Very few people go above 1920 x
1080, which is the resolution of HD TV.

Now I have tried a whole lot of first person shooters (FEAR, Crysis,
Assassins Creed, etc) and other games (Yes, I love Diablo, and am
waiting for Diablo 3). These games give great frame rates at 1920 X 1080
resolution with all other graphics settings turned on high.

My latest card is a Gigabyte HD5670. This is an ati based card. My old
card used to run at around 70 degrees C on idle. The new ati card runs
at mid 20's. The old card had extra power connectors, the new one runs
on power only from the PCIe slot. They use way less power, but do heaps
more.

These cards are midrange, even for ati cards, BUT they do the job.
Even the new low range cards, like HD 5450's would be better than your
7800GT.

I also think we are being conned a bit by the industry. Most games
nowadays are being created for gaming consoles (Playstation, Xbox, etc),
then ported over to PCs. Current PCs, with even mid range Core 2 duos
and mid range videocards, are way more powerful than the gaming
consoles. So we have all this power, not being used fully, and not
likely to be, either.

There are some counter arguments; with nVidia having the Aegis physics
engine built in to their cards. I believe a couple of game developers
have said they might try to take advantage of it, in their new games.
I'm going to wait and see.

I used to buy the second to top video cards, as they were hugely fast,
without the huge cost. However, now, I never go above mid-range, as I
simply don't need it. Once you get above 25-30 frames per second on your
games, that's all you need. Anything more is simply for bragging rights.

I'm not going to leave any links as I live in Australia, and the prices
would be wrong for you. My HD5670 cost AU$125, and the HD5450's are
around AU$60.

Cheers
Gordon

Somewhere on teh intarwebs Gorby wrote:
On 16/08/2010 2:37 PM, ~misfit~ wrote:
Hi. I mostly use a laptop these days but have a desktop that's
running a C2Q9550 that now serves mainly as a server I guess, having
3TB of storage I back the laptops up to it. It was running a 7800GT
/ 256MB GDDR3 but it seems that the card is now dead. I need a
replacement. Also, sometimes I play (fairly basic) games. The main game I
play is
Diablo2 / Lord of Destruction and my laptop's ATI X1400 handles that
easilly. However I'll probably buy Diablo3 when and if it finally
comes out. Blizzard are being coy about the specs but when I posted
in a thread there and mentioned that I had a 7800GT I was told that
I'd be fine. I need a replacement card. I'm poor. I'm *really* not up
with the
play w/r/t graphics cards. I'd rather it didn't use ****loads of
power in 2D as that's mostly what I'll use it for. However I'd like
it to be as good as, or preferably better than the old card was (I'd
hate to 'downgrade'). So, especially with budget constraints in mind (and
if the fact that
Gigabyte is my manufacturer of choice makes a difference) can anyone
suggest what card/s I should be looking at? Oh, I'm in New Zealand
so no links to awesome deals at US suppliers please. :-/

TIA,
Hi Shaun,
I hope I don't get flamed too much here!
I'm going to recommend a non nVidia card.

I believe most video cards, from all manufacturers (well maybe not
Intel), are well above the task of playing games. What is the most
common resolution of monitors nowadays? Very few people go above 1920
x 1080, which is the resolution of HD TV.

Now I have tried a whole lot of first person shooters (FEAR, Crysis,
Assassins Creed, etc) and other games (Yes, I love Diablo, and am
waiting for Diablo 3). These games give great frame rates at 1920 X
1080 resolution with all other graphics settings turned on high.

My latest card is a Gigabyte HD5670. This is an ati based card. My old
card used to run at around 70 degrees C on idle. The new ati card runs
at mid 20's. The old card had extra power connectors, the new one runs
on power only from the PCIe slot. They use way less power, but do
heaps more.

These cards are midrange, even for ati cards, BUT they do the job.
Even the new low range cards, like HD 5450's would be better than your
7800GT.

I also think we are being conned a bit by the industry. Most games
nowadays are being created for gaming consoles (Playstation, Xbox,
etc), then ported over to PCs. Current PCs, with even mid range Core
2 duos and mid range videocards, are way more powerful than the gaming
consoles. So we have all this power, not being used fully, and not
likely to be, either.

There are some counter arguments; with nVidia having the Aegis physics
engine built in to their cards. I believe a couple of game developers
have said they might try to take advantage of it, in their new games.
I'm going to wait and see.

I used to buy the second to top video cards, as they were hugely fast,
without the huge cost. However, now, I never go above mid-range, as I
simply don't need it. Once you get above 25-30 frames per second on
your games, that's all you need. Anything more is simply for bragging
rights.
I'm not going to leave any links as I live in Australia, and the
prices would be wrong for you. My HD5670 cost AU$125, and the
HD5450's are around AU$60.

Hi Gordon.

Thanks for your input mate. I'm not an nVidia fan boy (after all my T60
thinkpads run ATI) but I've always bought nVidia cards other than one most
excellent Gigabyte Radeon 9000 Pro many years ago (which is incidently still
going strong, it'd been 're-boxed' a few years back and put on the shelf as
I decided that it was worth more than what I'd get for it if I sold it [if
you get my drift]. Earlier this month I fitted it to a late era XP Athlon
Compaq budget machine that did have integrated graphics the other day [along
with a faster HDD, a new XP install and more RAM] that I was 'speeding up'
and extending the life of for my brother).

That's the reason I asked in this group. Well, that and the fact that the
machine doesn't see a lot of use and it already has nVidia drivers on it.
;-) Also, I've never gone for the 'bleeding edge' cards myself either. I'm
not a high-end gamer and as an amateur computer builder I used to build
high-end systems for a couple of friends who would update every 18 months or
so and usually I'd end up with one of their cast-offs. That's how I got the
7800GT in the first place, when a mate upgraded (got me to do the work, PSU,
graphics card etc.) to one of those leaf-blower 8800GTX (?) cards when they
came out. My payment was the 7800GT.

Unfortunately it was a Leadtek, a card that I've never sold second-hand of
passed on to anyone else. Every single Leadtek I've had [excepting a ~10 y/o
RIVA TNT2 Ultra that I have that is still running, albeit with a different
fan grafted to it] has died on me within a few years. Methinks they buy the
very cheapest electrolytic capacitors. :-(

As for monitors and resolution, I got what I think was the score of the
decade; A Dell UltraSharp 20 2007FP, S-IPS version that runs at 1600 x 1200.
(I'm not a fan of 'widescreen' for computers.) It's a freaking awesome
monitor and, even though my ThinkPads are likewise 4:3 hi-res IPS screens,
whenever I turn it on I'm still stunned by the picture quality.

As Diablo 2's max resolution is 800 x 600 (being a decade-old game now) it
looks better than I've ever seen it in all that time on the Dell panel as it
maps four pixels to one (1600 x 1200 - 800 x 600) so there's no dithering
and frankly it's a better picture than any CRT I've had in that time.

Thanks again for your time, I'll take your recommendations into account when
I buy a replacement. I still haven't opened the machine, other things have a
habit of eating into my time and the laptop's the workhorse these days.
However it's due to be backed up.....
--
Cheers,
Shaun.

"Let food be thy medicine" Hippocrates.