Please help! EVGA Step Up Question.

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Nathaniel14

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#1 Nathaniel14
Member since 2003 • 55 Posts

So I built my first computer early this July, specs below, and the video card I bought was a EVGA 9800GTX KO edition off of Tigerdirect for $209 or so. However I have like 25 days on my stepup thing and I am wondering if it is really worth it. I mean I can run most games well but I do not want to pass up a good oppurtunity. Right now I would have to pay around 80-90 dollars to step up to a GTX 260 or I could pay a 100 and get a 9800GX2, but I have heard those have problems because they are just two cards stacked togehter and do not work for some games. Also am I gonna get that big an FPS boost really? I am a fan of AA and AF but my monitor is a 19 inch samsung that only supports 1440x900. Any help would be great.

I have a AMD Phenom 9850.. I got it before they messed up the overclocking , I think it is like a black or unlocked edtion, so I got it before the 9950, then I have 4 gigs of DDR2 800 ram, Vista Home Premium 64 bit, Antec p180 case with 850 watt quattro antec power supply, and a 32mb cache 7200 rpm Seagate Barracuda Hdd, and a xtreme gamer fatality card.

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lawrencexx_873

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#2 lawrencexx_873
Member since 2005 • 258 Posts

If you got the 9800GTX, you will get almost 5-10 FPS better with GTX 260, and probably 15+ FPS better with GX2. GX2 is fine, it works well, you just need alot of power to the video card, so check your power supply, and check the 9800GX2's specs to check how much power is needed, you gotta supply adequate power or you will have problems. 9800GX2 heats up fast too, so u'll need a good vent case. If you want to upgrade to GTX260 its not really worth it, its more worth it to upgrade to GTX 280 or 9800GX2.

You should stick to the one you got right now, until some new cards come out, or u can spend 100+ dollars to upgrade it to a GTX 280 or 9800GX2.

Nvidia cards aren't too good on AA and AF than ATI cards. But GTX cards work well with AA and AF.

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Nathaniel14

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#3 Nathaniel14
Member since 2003 • 55 Posts
Well I think I am okay power supply wise since I have a the 850 watt Antec Quattro one, and I know it has really good efficiency. I have a antec P180 case, and I mean it seems to cool well i have a fan in back one, one on top, on in middle, and i have a dual CPU fan, so air flow is not a problem. My case is big as hell too, so the card can be big, but how much bigger is the GX2 compared to what i have now? I mean my gcard now runs around 60 and does not go above that and my CPU runs like 40-45 degrees celsius, I am not worried about heat issues. Do you think that card I have now is fairly decent and the 260 is kinda a waste, I wish you did not have to get the stock cards, yeah the 9800GX2 seems like a good choice. The GTX 280 is a little more than I wanna shell out but, the reason I was looking at that and the 260 is the physics thing and they be more future proof. I am gonna wait at least 20 more days to see about price cuts. As many opinions as possible would be great.
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#4 Nathaniel14
Member since 2003 • 55 Posts
So my card is fairly decent now, and it may just be worth doing nothing, and just waiting a year or two and then get a whole new card without the step up? Sorry I did not include that in last message.