GeForce 7900GT -- When should i ditch it?

[Solostaran]

And what should I replace it with? It's probably the oldest part in my computer, as it started the upgrade wave that ended last year. As I look towards the next wave, timing will be crucial. . . . I know that I can only benefit from waiting, but when is the time to strike?

My 7950 is an XFX passive-cooled model, with 512Mb onboard DDR3 memory and a single core factory-overclocked to 550Mhz. It's a PCI Express card, and it still kicks some serious ass.

Here's a picture of one:
http://www.nvnews.net/previews/geforce_7950_gt/images/xfx_7950_gt_front_s.jpg

I love my video card, as you can probably tell, but I know that it will soon be time to find a new one. This card would probably find a new home in my secondary PC.

Should I start looking for deals? Should I wait until I've switched operating systems? Should I hold on another year or two? These are all questions that I have problems with. My gut instinct is to wait, wait, wait. Here's a rundown of my graphics performance in different games:

Oblivion with Qarl's TP3: 15-30 FPS
Fallout 3: 17-25 at max DX9 settings
Far Cry 2: 15-20 FPS at medium, 5 on high (which is still 2 steps from max)
GTA 4: ~20FPS at low-mid, 10fps at mid
LoTRO: Something very high at max DX9 settings
Freelancer: Also very high, with DX8 graphics artificially enhanced with DX9 hooks.
Bioshock: Yum.

Benchmarks
AquaMark 3: ~103,500


Do you guys think that this year's games will be an issue with this card? For those of you that run DX10, how mch of an improvement does it make?

[Freejack]

You wait as long as you're willing to accept the performance limitations and until you can afford to upgrade. There's really not much else to it. Personally, that performance looks pretty bad to me and I don't think I'd put up with it for long, but maybe if you're used to it you'd be willing to wait...?

[ThaMan]

I know that I can only benefit from waiting, but when is the time to strike?

It's a PCI Express card, and it still kicks some serious ass.

I love my video card, as you can probably tell . . . The answer is, when you no longer think these things.


Should I start looking for deals? Should I wait until I've switched operating systems? Should I hold on another year or two? These are all questions that I have problems with. My gut instinct is to wait, wait, wait.Go with your gut. The sooner you buy something new, the sooner you will have to upgrade the next time. It's a never ending cycle. Never even think about what to replace it with until you need to replace it. If you wait another year or two, the whole market will change, and everything said here (hardware wise) will be obsolete.

[Solostaran]

Updated benchmark results:

AquaMark 3: ~101,000
3DMark06: 5471
-SM2.0: 2229
-SM3.0: 2174
-CPU: 2116

I want DX10. I'm pining for the hyper-realistic look in games like Far Cry 2 at max settings. Even so, I love my video card.

It'll probably be gone by the end of the year, as much as I dread ditching it and dread paying for a new one right now. It'll probably come down to one of two events occuring:
1) I get really into a game that I can't run well with my current card.
2) I get a bonus or something, and see a card out that I really want.

For the first option, DA:O might do it. As for the second, I'm always keeping an eye out for new cards. If anyone here has one that they're really enthusiastic about, then by all means share the loveliness. I'm also still looking for reports about DX10 and recent games.

[Walterus]

Where do I find a good benchmark program?

[Solostaran]

Where do I find a good benchmark program?

For new stuff: www.futuremark.com
For old stuff and comparison to old cards: http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=673

[Solostaran]

Raedon 4770: WANT. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-4770,2281.html

Running 2 in Crossfire can result only in insanity. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-4770-crossfire,2288.html

[Landro]

Once you are tired of the card then upgrade, as everyone else said.

First. Cheap amazing upgrade is 2 8800GTS (make sure it's GTS) I run two of these on one system and get over 30-50 fps, no lag, on AoC in the big cities with DX10 and Maxed settings.

For around the same price you can get the 285 OC'd one 1 gig. This thing packs a punch. I saw on AoC the other night that there are some big issues with the ATI's and DX10??? Not sure though, but everyone was complaingin about it.

[Savistik]

I've got two 8800 GTS in SLI and I have to say that while the performance is good, the SLI experience on the whole has been underwhelming. Since you're not adding to an existing card, I think a single replacement is a wiser decision, especially (obviously) if your motherboard doesn't support SLI. Also if you run at higher resolutions such 1920x1200 and up, you'll see better performance in many of the newer texture-heavy games which can benefit from the around 1GB of memory found on newer cards.

As for when to buy, there are some phenomenal deals around right now. You'll always get more for the money later, so playing the waiting game for the sake of bang-for-the-buck isn't going to pay off. As mentioned, you have to decide when you're sick of your old card.

[Solostaran]

G-G-GRAVEDIGGER!



Go with your gut.

It's been a while and, well, my gut's watching Fermi very closely.

I won't be a first adopter by any means; if Fermi's good, then I'll wait until there are some manufacturer-specific 400 series cards with innovative boards and coolers. That may put me after the 6000 series release from ATI, which would help with prices.

Here's a link to where I posted my dilemma on the AnandTech forums:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2052120

By mentioning the current ATI flagship as an option in my post (to appease the ATI trolls), I apparently invited the "yOU DONT BUY EXPENSIVE CARD FOR LONGEVITY! NOOB!" trolls to have a party.

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After fighting it for a while, I'm now just sitting and watching the fireworks. If anyone's looking for a laugh or two, and likes their humor buried in walls of techie-speak, this is recommended reading.
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PS. FYI, I'm really upgrading in order to get a larger screen and be able to run 3-d vision at some point.

PPS. Bolded key words that people overlook when they rageflame, out of habit. A habit forged in the fires of AnandTech's forums.

PPPS. This is also contingent on me actually having something good to play this Fall/Winter.

[Cheech]

If your contemplating a vid card upgrade, there's got to be something that spured it with your old vid card underperforming.

That being said, my sister fubar'ed her computer software wise to the point I had to reformat the HD and reinstall windows. She was using one of my old 7900's at the time. I had an extra blue-ray internal dvd drive sitting. Tossed that in prior to the reinstall and installed everything including powerdvd & anydvd. HD playback sucked big time. Bought a $100 on sale PNY 220 1 gig ram that had the 1xvga, 1xdvi & 1xHDMI. Thing sails now for HD playback and allows for her and her fiancee to directly hook up to their 40 inch LCD for watching movies.

Any new 'lower end' current generation card will probably be better than the 7900 card. All things considering, I know ASUS is entering into the latest 2XX series NVIDIA based cards several places have that PNY 220 (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/PNY+-+NVIDIA+GT+220+1024MB+DDR2+PCI+Express+Graphics+Ca rd/9543363.p?id=1218121949861&skuId=9543363&st=gt%20220&cp=1&lp=1) at $120ish and ASUS (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus+-+NVIDIA+GeForce+GT+220+1GB+DDR2+PCI+Express+Graphi cs+Card/9749002.p?id=1218166511361&skuId=9749002&st=gt%20220&cp=1&lp=2)' offering at an intraductory sale price around $80ish bucks. A cheap lower end upgrade and keep saving for a higher end card when absolutely necessary may be in order

[Solostaran]

If your contemplating a vid card upgrade, there's got to be something that spured it with your old vid card underperforming.

That being said, my sister fubar'ed her computer software wise to the point I had to reformat the HD and reinstall windows. She was using one of my old 7900's at the time. I had an extra blue-ray internal dvd drive sitting. Tossed that in prior to the reinstall and installed everything including powerdvd & anydvd. HD playback sucked big time. Bought a $100 on sale PNY 220 1 gig ram that had the 1xvga, 1xdvi & 1xHDMI. Thing sails now for HD playback and allows for her and her fiancee to directly hook up to their 40 inch LCD for watching movies.

Any new 'lower end' current generation card will probably be better than the 7900 card. A cheap lower end upgrade and keep saving for a higher end card when absolutely necessary may be in order

Yup. As I said in that thread, I have black artifacts closing in from the edges of the screen in some circumstances, and I've had to crank a couple games down to low settings in order to enjoy them. That being said, I still wouldn't upgrade if I weren't interested in 3-d... And with shutter glasses, 60hz is the new 30hz.

If my current card gives out before I'm ready to buy then yes, I will replace it with a low-end modern or older mid-grade part.


I've seen this advice before, though. I really just posted the link for a laugh; I've had enough advice to last a lifetime, from Anand readers.

[Shinzou]

You must also think about other things. That maybe your card isn't causing the low fps. Could be memory, cpu, ect. Even if it is your card, don't put one in your system that your system would bottleneck. Even if you went out and bought a big badass of a card, if the rest of the computer can't keep up it will be a waste. A computer is only as fast as it's slowest component. At least for gaming.

I learned this the hard way when I put an 8800 gts in a system that had a single core AMD athlon 64 3000 with 1gb of DDR memory.

Now my system is pretty well balanced in all areas. It cost me less than $1000 a year ago and it still roasts the latest games on maxed graphics.

[Solostaran]

You must also think about other things. That maybe your card isn't causing the low fps. Could be memory, cpu, ect. Even if it is your card, don't put one in your system that your system would bottleneck. Even if you went out and bought a big badass of a card, if the rest of the computer can't keep up it will be a waste. A computer is only as fast as it's slowest component. At least for gaming.

I learned this the hard way when I put an 8800 gts in a system that had a single core AMD athlon 64 3000 with 1gb of DDR memory.

Now my system is pretty well balanced in all areas. It cost me less than $1000 a year ago and it still roasts the latest games on maxed graphics.

Please, no. Not here, not again...


I've seen this advice before, though. I really just posted the link for a laugh; I've had enough advice to last a lifetime, from Anand readers.

[Freejack]

I read about 2/3 through the first page of responses on that Anand thread and what I read seemed like pretty good advice. Maybe the trolling happened after the point where I stopped reading? Anyway, the reasoning is sound. Don't go for the highest end card in the hope that it'll last three years. In order to keep up, you pretty much have to replace a video card every two years or so and you should probably replace the base platform every three years or so. Therefore, it's best to target the high-mid-range cards. If you go too low-range, you'll have to replace the card after 10 months or so. But even at the highest range, you'll still have to replace it after two years to keep up, so it's really just wasted money when a mid-range card can get you really good performance.

[Solostaran]

I read about 2/3 through the first page of responses on that Anand thread and what I read seemed like pretty good advice. Maybe the trolling happened after the point where I stopped reading? Anyway, the reasoning is sound. Don't go for the highest end card in the hope that it'll last three years. In order to keep up, you pretty much have to replace a video card every two years or so and you should probably replace the base platform every three years or so. Therefore, it's best to target the high-mid-range cards. If you go too low-range, you'll have to replace the card after 10 months or so. But even at the highest range, you'll still have to replace it after two years to keep up, so it's really just wasted money when a mid-range card can get you really good performance.

I completely agree, assuming that we're talking about the same price range. The most that I'd consider spending is $300, my definition of high-end. Remember, I'll be buying relatively high-end cards from the previous generation. Most of the numbers that I threw up on the thread were to prove a point about various things, and/or spark arguments and discussion.

I may not go high-end ($300) this generation (next year) if Fermi doesn't turn out to be that good. Instead, I'll simply buy a 9800gt for a hundred bucks or so if this card kicks the bucket, and wait until something yummier comes along. At that point, I'd be able to call whether or not it'll be necessary to replace the cpu ASAP. If I decide to invest in a 3-d setup, then the 9800 would probably run most games in 3-d just fine.



Trolling becomes more apparent with toyota as the page count goes up, with page 3 being the point at which trolling is actually the topic being discussed. Page 4 consists of rational debate, and page 5 focuses largely on numerical analysis by people who didn't read page 4. Page 6 is still up in the air.

[Shinzou]

What I was meaning to say was basically what freejack said for a different reason. Not only would it be a waste of money, but it could actually hurt performance. Something that creates a bottleneck from other components in the computer will yield less performance than something lower-priced that creates no bottleneck. Just find the happy medium.

I know you don't want to go out and buy a new card and have it perform the same as your current one. If you get one that is "too" fast the information will flow through it faster than the other components can handle and cause it to back up.

A good way to do it is look at your other hardware and, if it is on toms hardware charts, see where it lands in performance to others. Try to find a video card of the same tier of performance, maybe just one higher. See which are the biggest bang for your buck.

I know I can get into things a bit too deep. If I seem over-picky I am sorry. That is just how I do my own shopping for new stuff. I find the best bang for the buck while making sure I don't create a bottleneck. I didn't mean to imply you should build an entire new computer.