What card for 1680 x 1050 widescreen

[AaronW]

I still can't decide what card I should go for.

Would any of these cards below struggle to run at 1680 x 1050 on my new NEC widescreen?

x800, x1800, x1900, 7600GT, 7800GT or a 7900GT.

I am running a 6600GT PCI-E at the moment with a 3700+ AMD, 1.5 GB mem with 350psu.

Will I notice a big change from a 6600GT to a 7600GT? Some games I run at the moment stick a bit running 1680 x 1050. I mainly play HL2, CS Source.

Wonder if I should get a lower end card and keep the rest for a better PSU or a dual core CPU. Or should I just go a higher end GPU.........

What would you do? Thanks for your help.

 

[pinkacidbootson]

Well with a 7900gt you will see a big increase in performance in most games, and you probably wont need a new PSU.
An x1800xt 512mb might be slightly better at that resolution, but then you will need a better PSU.

 

[vanandjuanunited]

Depending on make of psu you may be fine. I have a hyper 350 which runs an opty 165 @ 2.45 2 gig memory. 200 gig HDD 2 optical drives and a x1800xt

 

[AaronW]

Well with a 7900gt you will see a big increase in performance in most games, and you probably wont need a new PSU.
An x1800xt 512mb might be slightly better at that resolution, but then you will need a better PSU.

Thanks for the info. I take it you say that the x1800 512mb will be better than the 7900gt because the x1800 has more memory or is it better at that res?

 

[squiffy]

Apperently ATI's don't suffer so much at higher resolutions, especially if you enable AA & AF. I try to run at 1680x1050 if the game supports it.

 

[Mercutio]

Aye for the moment the way the cards line up seems to be:

1) 7900GTx
1) 1900XT
3) 1800XT
4) 7900GT
5) 7800GTx
6) 7800GT

Give or take a few benchies that favour one or the other card.

Obviously the amount of ram makes a fairly big difference at high resolutions. Not sure where the X1800XT 256 sits on that list and the 512MB versions of the Nvidia cards will likely re-order things somewhat but are dis-proportionally expensive (over £100 difference for nvidia around £30 for ATI).

If your playing oblivion, HL2:source based games or COD2 the ATI cards come out quite a bit on top. For Doom/quake engine games the nvidia cards seem stronger.

Note: The above are my views from reading around and my own experience, not is meant as fanboy statements

 

[man_from_uncle]

I think you're ordering is about right. There's not enough in the top two for me to order them either way, and I think the X1800XT256 is probably still a nat ahead of the 7900gt and 7800gtx, though the 7900gt overclocks like a man possessed and is probably the best 256mb card in terms of untapped potential.

The card of choice for the non-extreme overclocker who wants value for money, is probably the X1800XT512.