GPU ugrade recomendations for ultimate 3D Game experiences

[ST Dragon]

GPU upgrade recommendations for ultimate 3D experience...

My current Rig:

ASUS P5B-E M/B (intel965 chipset) PCI-E 16x
Intel Quad Core 9550 @2.83GHZ 1333MHZ FSB
2GB Cellshock DDR-2 RAM 800MHZ 4-4-4-12 @833MHZ
Asus nvidia 7950 GT 512MB
Creative Sound Blaster Titanium Fatal1ty Pro
2x 1TB Seagate 32MB Cache HDs (Sata II)
2x 512GB Seagate 16MB Cache HDs (Sata II)
Corsair 1000W PSU SLI Certified
19" EIZO TFT 4:3 monitor
WinXP PRO En SP-3

With the exception to the graphics card, what else do I need to upgrade in order to play Crysis, CrysisWarhead, FarCry 2 and pretty much all current 3D games at 60fps with all graphics settings set to full @ 1280x1024 Resolution?

Also, what GPU do you guys recommend that I get? Nvidia or Ati?
I'm looking forward in using this new GPU (and Rig) for at least another 2-3 years for future 3D games like Doom4, if possible
I could spend around 400-450euros...

Thanks in advance.

[FatCobra]

The nVidia 8800GT is probably your best bet. That card can handle any modern game you throw at it. Or so the reviews say. I plan on putting this card or the ATi equavilant into the machine I plan on building. And it's priced pretty reasonably too.

[ST Dragon]

I'm really not interested in upgrading the M/B, as I'll change it when the next generation of CPUs arrive that use a different socket to the aging s775.
I'm also not going to change the EIZO TFT 19" 4:3 as I'm used to the 4:3 aspect ratio and it's an excellent monitor as it is imo.
Also I've heard that WinXP PRO SP-3 doesn't recognise any more than 2GB RAM, is that true?
If I was to upgrade the RAM I think I should get another 2GB Cellshock 4-4-4-12 1000MHZ rather than Corsair as they seem to have faster timings and better chips.

This is what I have at the moment, maybe I should get another one of these 2GB kits...
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/464/1/
http://www.memoryc.co.uk/products/descr ... index.html

Isn't it better than this:
http://scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProdu ... S+5-5-5-18


Also it's funny how most GPU reviews contradict with each other in various sites:
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/gami ... 1,753.html
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3415&p=4
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341&p=13

Well, based on these reviews I don't think that any of the current GPUs will fully cover my needs!
Maybe I should just wait for the next nvidia chipset which should be released soon...

Thanks in advance.

[Ceph]

ultimate 3D experience

Blasphemy!

[ST Dragon]

OK, I might be exaggerating there a bit...
I'm still waiting for my copy of Thunder Force VI to arrive by the end of the month!
That should kill any chances of upgrading my rig after that...

[ST Dragon]

By the way, do Ati 4870 1GB & nvidia 280 GTX 1GB only work in a PCI-E 2.0 port cause my M/B only has PCI-E 16x!
I also noticed that nvidia 260 & 280GTX don't support DX10.1, so is that a major draw-back as far as performance & picture quality in games like Crysis or future upcoming games?

Also, does anyone by any chance know when and what will be the next GPUs released by nvidia & Ati? Will they be PCI-E 3.0 only cards or will they also be backwards compatible to PCI-E 16x also?

Thanks in advance.

[Vexorg]

I'm putting a BFG Tech GTX 260 into the new system I'm building right now. I paid $265 for it on Newegg (minus a $30 rebate to bring the final price down to $235) but I haven't even got it installed yet, so I won't be able to tell you how well it works for 3D gaming. When I was planning out my build I was going to go with a 9800GTX card, but I was told that the 9800 wasn't enough of a step up from the 8800 cards to justify the extra cost, and if I was going to spend that much I'd be better off just going for the GTX 260. Here's what my new build will look like once I finish it up:

Asus P5Q Pro motherboard
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (G0 stepping)
Xigmatek S1284 heatpipe cooler (the thing is freakin' huge)
8GB (4x2GB) Corsair XMS2 DDR2 800 RAM
BFG Tech GeForce GTX 260 (plain vanilla version)
OCZ 700w power supply
WD Velociraptor 150GB 10K drive (system drive)
Seagate 500GB 7200RPM drive (storage drive)

I've got to figure that the thing ought to be able to handle Crysis reasonably well with those specs.

As for your question about RAM, XP can recognize up to about 3.12GB of RAM, so about another 1GB would be usable, but you might not have use for much more than that. 64-bit systems will use all of it with no problem (Vista Home Premium X64 can use up to 16GB, and Ultimate can use up to 128GB.)

[ST Dragon]

Well I also do play a lot 2D old-school games on my PC (2D Shoot Em Ups, and emulated DOSBox, SNES, SEGA, NEOGEO & MAME, etc...), so how well will these 4:3 games look on a wide 16:10 / 16:9 TFT monitor?
I take it that they will look distorted, ugly & stretched out!

By the way, will the 32bit Windows Vista Ultimate recognize 4GB Ram like the 64bit Vista & WinXP 64bit, or is it only 64-bit O/S that have this privilege?
How well do current 3D games, Emulators & programs work on 64bit Windows Vista Ultimate? I've heard that there are hell of a lot of incompatibilities and that it sucks overall as an O/S...

[Ed Oscuro]

The nVidia 8800GT is probably your best bet. That card can handle any modern game you throw at it.

Not for long.

Unless you have a small screen and/or don't like high frame rates, I suppose.

It's been getting choppy at times for me with 1600x1200, and I have the 640MB 8800GTS (which is said to be just on par with the GT, which is an improvement overall).

On the other hand, it is affordable, although the Radeon 4850 is very affordable at roughly $200, while the 4870 is $100 more (not worth the money from a strict price:performance perspective; you'd do better to get a 4870x2 I think, which is $130 more than that 4870, heh).

There's also the GeForce 280, which maybe has the added benefit of PhysX emulation - oh wait Radeon will probably support that in the upcoming era too

Well I also do play a lot 2D old-school games on my PC (2D Shoot Em Ups, and emulated DOSBox, SNES, SEGA, NEOGEO & MAME, etc...), so how well will these 4:3 games look on a wide 16:10 / 16:9 TFT monitor?
I take it that they will look distorted, ugly & stretched out!

Not at all. Configure the application to run as 4:3 in your GPU's application settings program. Some applications do this automatically (i.e. Project64).