Getting an Older Card

[glitch]

So I'm thinking about getting a 9800gt after the 5670 was incompatible with my computer. Has anyone here owned one? What can you tell me about it? I usually play older games, like M2TW mods and Company of Heroes, but I'm considering venturing out to ETW&NTW, how would my rig cope with these newer gamers? How would you compare the 9800 gt to the 5670? Is there a better alternative than the 9800gt? Thanks

my specs are:
Windows Xp 32 bit Service pack 3
Pentium 4 Processor
3 g ram
500 w PSU 12VR=18 A
220g HDD of free space
PCI-E
Mobo: ASUSteK

[Akaie]

I'm still running my 9800gt. I haven't had any frame rate problems with Napoleon Total War, but I can't say the same for Empire. The thing is, I think that is more a problem with Empire than the video card, as I am able to play games like Shogun 2, Fallout: NV, the recent CoD's (well... for the very little time I played them, at least).

Thanks to the stagnant console platform, the card will allow you to run a game at 1080p with some AA and decent-quality settings without laggy FPS for a while now (up until console developers bring in an even more powerful platform, but it is debated as to whether that will happen in the near future).

Due to the seemingly fast rate at which PC hardware is thrown into the market nowadays, I won't bother replacing mine for now. Regarding your own situation, however, why have you chosen to get at 9800gt? If it's because of a cheap second-hand deal, then fair enough, but I'd like to note you can get some decent ~$150-200 cards that will perform quite a lot better than the 9800gt.

Overall, the 9800GT should be able to handle any game you throw at it, although games like Metro 2033 may need a bit of crippling regarding graphics, but I argue it doesn't look bad at all for me.

[glitch]

My computer is quite old( 5-6 years), and I had a problem with 5670- it seemed that my mobo is too old to run the thing. When it came to age and performance, the 9800 gt came to mind. I found new ones for about $75. My budget is about $100, but I'm trying to find the lowest price as I'm only playing a few older games, thought I'm considering the 450 gt now. can you tell me more about your specs, anton93?

[Devilmaypoop]

it seemed that my mobo is too old to run the thing.

??

A 5670 will run on any MOBO with a PCI-Express slot, doesn't matter how old your MOBO is. Are you sure you installed it correctly, and what happened? Did you remember to plug in the 6-pin power cable?

[Akaie]

Anton is fine, glitch.

My current build is this:
Windows 7 HP 64-bit
Core i5 760 @ 2.93Ghz
G-Skillz 4GB DDR3-1333Mhz RAM
(Can't remember the brand) iON2+ 550w Performance PS
A bunch of hard drives
Gigabyte P55-???? MOBO

The same card (by the way, mine's an XFX 9800GT) was used with my last build too:
Windows XP 32-bit
Intel Core 2 Duo E4600
2GB ram
*Same power supply*
*Some of the same HD's*
Gigabyte P35-?????

Sorry for the lack of motherboard info. Anyway, on my last build, I played games like Oblivion, CoD4, 5, 6 (they should give you a decent understanding of what's playable). If you are only playing more older games, then I doubt you'd need anything more powerful than a 9800gt.

I'm not sure how well your P4 processor will fair, so that's something you may have to sift around on the internet for. $75 (USD?) seems like a good price.

[glitch]

@anton
Thanks, even you older computer is better than my current one. Do you know what kind of case you have? I'm not sure if the 9800 gt is going to fit in my micro atx case, I hear it's about 9 inches (not sure if this includes the port brackets), and it might bump into my motherboard plug. I also wonder how a single cpu would handle ETW and NTW.

@devil
you can read more about here. To summarize: I kept getting blue screen errors with 2 different types of 5670s. Someone mentioned that there is some backwards compatibility issues with 2.1 pci-E with 1.0. I thought the 5670 drew power from the PCI-E slot?

I'm wondering the same thing about the gts 450,even though it's a 2.0. Do you think my PSU with be able to hand the 450 or the 9800 gt. I have 18 Amps on 2 12V rails (total 36A),I'm not sure if they combine to power up one card or not.

[PoleCat]

That PSU will handle the 9800gt as long as you don't have too many other boards hooked to it - I can't say the same for the 450 without someone else corroborating - I'm not sure on the total draw of the 450.

[Akaie]

My case is an ATX.

It'd be best if I not speculate on a m-ATX case, as it could be any size that may just facilitate a 9800gt. I'm thinking if your case can house a 5670 than it may be able to fit a 9800gt, but that's pretty speculative.

Regarding the CPU usage, I believe that the Warscape Engine (used for ETW, NTW & TWS2) has a problem with only using a single core. I commonly minimize Shogun 2 to find that while one of my cores is getting a good work-out, the other three are sitting around on their lazy backsides chatting about Sulla and Caesar! Back to topic, I'll quickly reference a forum for you that seems relevant. http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/27...pentium-7200gt

To hook onto PoleCat's comment, here is power consumption data on the 5670 and the gts 450. Note that they may not be the exact cards, so it might be best to hunt down some info on the specific card you'll get.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...0,2533-17.html
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/gra...s-450-review/7

Hope that helps.

[glitch]

Does it help much if that single CPU is hyperthreading?

[Akaie]

Well CA claimed Empire's v1.3 patch introduced multi-threading, so if that is the case for the current build of the game, then you should be better off in comparison to using a single-core CPU w/o HT.