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gaming at 1680x1050

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i've sorta come into a bit of money and im thinking of treating myself to a new 20 inch widescreen tft and im wondering about what to do on the graphics side of things.

for playing:(@1680x1050)
BF2 as high as possible
CSS as smooth and with a bit of AA n AF
DoD:S ditto ditto ditto
FEAR as well as possible, if not high at something like 1440x900 scaled
CoD2 as high as possible
Lock on modern air combat at native res with high textures and at least 2xAA

which of these 3 choices would be best?
1. keep my current setup
in sig, AMD64 3000+ @ 2.25-2.4ghz(i need a new case and some AS5), 2GB crucial DDR570 (capable), 7800GT @ 460-1200 for 100% artifact free-ness. or a little more for certain apps.

2. sell the 7800GT on Ebay or MM if i get access for somewhere in the region of £150-180 (they're still going strong)
a) buy a 7900GT (£200ish) get and Artic cooling Accelero or zalman VF-900 and live with something like 580/1300 and be capable of doing a 20inch 1680x1050 proud, will this be enough
or
b) i) buy a X1800XT 256(£190ish) will this be enough
ii) buy a X1800XT 512(£240ish) will this be worth it?

3. other? 512 worth it? an upgrade worth it>?
 
Soldato
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not a Great graphics expert, but

for the resolution you stated a x1800xt or 7900gt should do you just fine, i would personally go for a ATI. If you plan on keeping the gfx card for a while then it would be advisable to go with 512mb as future games would require it for the extra eye candy, or if you plan to hold onto it for over a year then maybe a x1900xt would be a wiser choice.

having said that it really depends on what degree of detail you set in games. i would imagine that even a x1900xt would even find it hard to run at very high frame rates with max detail in a game like FEAR.
 
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Most of thos games will be fine at 1600 on a x1800xt 512, however you wont stand a chance of running fear at that res, my fps aint great at 1280 and my PC aint exactly slow (spec below). Also COD2 will struggle at 1600 @ max setting altho I have tested it at 1600 and 1280 there aint much difference. fps were about the 40 mark on the first map either way which is playable off line.
 
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one point that i really should've put down.

i like quiet pcs, how bad are the relatively notorious X1800s?

atm my case is maybe 5db above being silent and can only occasionally hear the cpu fan whir a little and in games some of the gpu fan. and thats with it under my desk no side on and 2 hds
 
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foxxx said:
one point that i really should've put down.

i like quiet pcs, how bad are the relatively notorious X1800s?

atm my case is maybe 5db above being silent and can only occasionally hear the cpu fan whir a little and in games some of the gpu fan. and thats with it under my desk no side on and 2 hds

Then the x1800xt would totally ruin the silence :p
 
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the x1800s are fine as long as your case has a desent air flow and you house aint 30C :) They are only load when the temp on the core gets too high, and then it gives short 3 secs bursts at 100%. I could not hear mine over my case fans tbh
 
Soldato
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Run a 512 meg 7900GT, and overclock it . I`d still recommend a VF900 to go on it for cooler operation, and you can run these with fan speed at minimum. ATi is yer bag, the x1800xt 512 meg card, and for sure lob a VF900 on this, but this card draws more power , and will run a fair bit hotter than the 7900GT. The 256 meg versions of these cards are a fair bit cheaper, and as yet not many games need 512, but soon they will.
 
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Jack Bauer said:
the x1800s are fine as long as your case has a desent air flow and you house aint 30C :) They are only load when the temp on the core gets too high, and then it gives short 3 secs bursts at 100%. I could not hear mine over my case fans tbh

You're funny :)
 
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sablabra said:
You're funny :)

Whats so funny about that?

I could only hear my old X1800xt 512mb for about 3 seconds on start up. Same goes for my x1900xtx, infact my raptors are the noisiest parts in my PC(and thats with three 80mm case fans and one 120mm).
 
Caporegime
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The 512 mb is a good help and worth having at WS resolutions.
My old 7900 GT was changed to a 7900 GTX for this very reason.

The 7900 GT 512mb is a good choice as it can be pushed to GTX speeds without any problem.
 
Soldato
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I think some of you guys must be deaf if you cant hear the x1800xt fan, I can hear it when its running at its lowest (33%), get some proper case fans and quiet components and get used to it - then tell me if its silent.
 
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If I set mine to the lowest setting it is silent, and thats with all other fans unplugged. Must have a good one, I will sell you it for £20 Vegeta :D
 
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Soldato
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Im sorry but your equivalent of silent isnt mine, nothing is SILENT I hate that word lol, if you put your ear next to it - its definetly not silent.
But the zalman vf900 will be the closest thing to silent you will get.
 
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