Ok, I've got a 2 1/2 yr old gaming rig that I want to keep for at least another 2 more years.

I'm thinking that an upgrade on my display adapter will help me keep it up to date at least a little bit.

My current setup:

Dell Dimension XPS Gen 4 Extreme Gaming PC.
Pentium 4 660 (3.6GHz, Hyper-Threading with 2MB cache) this was before the core duo's came out
2 GB DDR2 SDRAM
19" Digital Flat Panel Monitor
256MB ATI Radeon X850XT video Card
160 GB Serial ATA Hard Drive
MS Windows XP Pro
Dual Drives - 48X CD-RW and 16X DVD+/- RW
Sound Blaster Audigy with 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers

The adapter I'm looking at is this:

EVGA 640-P2-N821-AR GeForce 8800GTS 640MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card

Any suggestions? Recommendations?

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?...N82E16814130071

Wow, Yoss. It's been 2 1/2 years since you got that computer? I remember when you posted about buying it.

Sorry, nothing constructive to add except video card upgrade prices were the proverbial straw breaking the camel's back for me switching to console gaming. The last nVidia card I bought was more than my Xbox 360 and it was obsolete (slight exageration) within months.

Yeah hard to believe it's been that long!

Damn display adaptor tech reinvents every 6 months or so. I'm kinda worried that when Bioshock gets delivered I'm not going to be able to run it.

The price is a little salty on that card but it beats buying a new rig.

If it ain't dual core it ain't worth the effort. Dual core does help alot.

That was helpful.

I know a duo core would help a lot, but right now I can't spring for another pc, nor do I want to update the mobo and cpu.

Are you saying adding an upgraded display adaptor will do nothing for my system?

That 8800 is a sweet card. I am sure you'll see quite a bit of improvement over your current one. I doubt you're going to get 2 years out of that rig with just that though. A lot of changes in PC hardware right now (though when isn't there?). BTW I am dying for Bioshock, but, am holding off till I try the demo. Am hearing there may be some DX10/Vista sound problems. Good luck.

Thanks Metzger. I was pricing a new dell the other day just for the heck of it, their extreme gaming pc is around $5K... wayyyyy beyond my range. I priced another one and still can't get it below $3K in order for it to be even halfway game capable.

I've heard the same about Vista and DX10 with Bioshock. Plus there are a lot of complaints with the DRM software on Bioshock. Something similar to Sony's rootkit fiasco.

But, Amazon shipped Bioshock today and newegg should be shipping the video card today. Hopefully the video card will arrive before the game. I've already got my sound drivers updated.

Nope not saying that at all. "I" just consider computers disposable anymore. At one time you could upgrade as you got money but now they keep changing sockets and slots just so you need to buy new every few years or even months sometime. Especially if your a gamer, video editor or other cpu/graphic intense user. I usually just build a computer every new windows release and pass the previous computers on to someone else. The whole computer thing makes me alittle bitter sometimes.

I know the feeling of not springing for a dual processor system. My desktop is a dual core AMD and my lappy is a single core AMD 64. I wish I would have waitied a few more months to save and buy my laptop but they were selling the single cores at a good price so I bought one. I am sure my next system will be a quad core AMD system

Thanks wrangler for your input, I really do appreciate it.

I too consider pc's disposable. One of the most expensive disposable appliances out there.

When I got my current machine it was pretty much state of the art. I didn't even have to read the game boxes to see if my pc was compatible. After a year it was still pretty much a high end machine. Then came the core duo's. But not much had been written then to take advantage of the architecture. So I was still in good shape.

Now writers are coming out with the latest and greatest to take advantage of the high end pc's. And after 2 1/2 yrs (which is actually pretty long in the pc timeframe) I'm beginning to suffer the pangs of a mediocre machine. I sometimes think it's a conspiracy to get people to buy new pc's to take advantage of the strides in software. Is it software that drives the research in hardware of vice versa? Gamers have always been a demanding sort and will probably be the nexus in creating the state of the art in both soft/and hardware.

That being said, as much as I paid for my current rig, I've got to make it last as long as I possibly can. And if a $400 card will let me eke out a few more playable years then perhaps the investment is worth it.

Hey Yoss,
If you need a duo core processor let me know..I may be able to help. I dont have a motherboard though. btw..my brother beat Bioshock the other day and he loved the game all but 1 part of it. Graphics were great but he played it on my Geoforce 8800 ultra 768mb card

Forgot to mention, I bought a 8600 GT, 256mb ddr3 GT and love it. Cheap to, only 100.00 after rebate and the reviews on newegg say its great in SLI mode. ITs also blu-ray, hdcp ready as well. So 2 cards in SLI mode only 200.00 not bad.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814130085

I wish I could get into PC gaming but I'd rather look at a 36" screen for playing games. I loved NASCAR Racing 2003 but hated being stuck at the pc to play it. Of course the graphics are nothing compared to the games ya'll play lol.

Check out this video showing a side by side comparison between the PC and 360 versions of Bioshock. Some look a little better on the PC, some a little better on the 360. Depends on what you like for lighting conditions, but I call it an even draw.

Now you're gonna need an HDTV to make a 360 look like that, but they start around $500 at Wal Mart.........

Why not get a vid card with output to tv or even just an adapter? A friend of mine plays his pc games on their toshiba 65". Looks great but we have to sit at the other end of the room.

Thanks dirk, the only reason I'm getting the new card (at least right now, but I'm sure it'll come in handy for other new games) is to play bioshock (sheesh for the money I could have gone out and bought an xbox360). How long did he take to beat it and what difficulty level? And I have a question about SLI mode with two cards, do you need 2 side by side PCIExpress16 slots or do you just jumper the two cards together and the 2nd card fits in an adjacent PCI slot to hold it in place?

Wrangler I play on a 20inch (i think) digital flat panel, so the graphics are pretty good. Plus I have the 5.1 speaker system with the rear speakers truly behind me. Some of the FPS's I've played I've actually found my self looking over my shoulder to see where the large crash came from.

Cool video SMan, they both look pretty similar. Thanks for posting that link.

It took about 5 days to beat it on normal level. He plays it on Vista but said if you play it on XP you'll get better performance. For SLI you definitely need 2 PCIX slots next to each other. To enable SLI some MBs have a switch between the 2 slots you just switch to either enable/disable SLI mode. Not much to it.

Graphics are ok but reading words is usually awful unless they are big in my opinion. I basically only have my pc hooked to my theater system to watch movies I download and to listen to 20GB's of music.

Yeah I have mine hooked into my theater system. It definitely adds to the games.

I got the new video card yesterday. It took me about 15 minutes to install it, 10 of which was figuring out how to get all the retaining clips off the old card.

It runs schweet. I've got all the Bioshock settings set on max and there's no degradation of frame rate whatsoever. I did have to uninstall AVG anti-virus though, it thinks bioshock.exe is a virus (maybe it is with the DRM protection). Plus it also tagged F.E.A.R executable as a virus. A couple of the gaming forums have complained about this.

I'll go back to my paid ZoneLabs Security Suite I guess.

So, all in all, a pretty good investment.

Cool...let me know how you liked it when you beat it. So far everyone I know and I all have the same gripe about the game.

It's not about the ending is it? Apparently there are 2 different endings depending on whether or not you decide to kill the little sisters along the way.

Yoss, make sure you look into EVGA's Step-Up program.

Yeah I saw something about that when I was on EVGA's site downloading the latest drivers for the card and registering the warranty. Gonna check it out further.

I did not know that but now that you say that it does make sense to have a different ending depening if your good or bad. Well I know what ill be doing this weekend.

NEED A MICROATX SOCKET 775 MOTHERBOARD WITH PCIe-16 SLOT THAT SUPPORTS 533 FRONT SIDE BUS AND AT LEAST 2 GB'S OF RAM

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A MICROATX CASE, AND A PCIe-16 256MB OR HIGHER VIDEO CARD


anyone wanna tell me the best place to look?? i was thinking ebay?

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update:

found everything i need at TigerDirect for under $150. not bad?

Did you price it out also at newegg.com? They were the cheapest on my vid card.

geeks.com outdid them both, but thx.

The ending (played saving all the little sisters) sucked big time. The final boss fight was pretty good but the ending video sequence was less than memorable. Other than that I did enjoy the game.

It took me about 30 minutes to beat the ending. They could have had a longer ending, it was like 30 seconds
I did love the game but after awhile the repititious shooting started to bore me. I remember playing System Shock and was hoping it was more along those lines. I like solving the puzzles, hacking etc..but there wasnt enough of that in this 1.

You should give S.T.A.L.K.E.R. a try. Great game and great graphics as well.

Yeah, the hacking was pretty cool, I never played System Shock, but hear it compares to Bioshock.

I played Bio on the easy mode, so the final battle probably took me about 5 minutes, all that for a lousey ending.

I got S.T.A.L.K.E.R when it first came out. That was a lot tougher game and perhaps a tad better. I had to get the trainer off cheathappens to get through some parts of it.

But I think the all time most frightening game was F.E.A.R. There were parts in the game that literally had the hair on the back of my neck standing up.

Btw...was on Quicktime watching new movies trailers and saw 1 for "Hitman". I sure hope its good, I really liked playing the game.