Is this a good card for mid-range gaming?

[TimPoet]

Well, it looks like I am going to bite the bullet and start gaming since I'm building a new system. Check this out:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/CustratingReview.asp?Item=N82E16814121007

What do you guys think about this card- it goes on newegg for $135.99. Is there a better performer for a better price out there?

These are the build specs it is going into:

DYNAPOWER USA Titan C07.M3.15A1 Black SGCC Steel MicroATX Mini Tower Computer Case - Retail $44.99***

CyberPower 750 6 feet 7 Outlets 1250 Joules Power Surge Protector - Retail $10.99

ASUS P5L-MX Socket T (LGA 775) Intel 945G Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail $75.99

Hauppauge 1033 PCI Interface WinTV-Go-Plus Tuner Card - Retail $43.99

FSP Group (Fortron Source) ATX400-PA, 400W Power Supply - OEM $36.99

Intel Pentium D 805 Smithfield 2.66GHz LGA 775 Dual Core,EM64T $94.49

CORSAIR XMS2 512MB DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)l CM2X512A-6400 - Retail $79.00



I prolly have to add another 512 MB of RAM, don't you think?

[flanzig1]

That looks to be a good midrange card. Go for the 1 gig of ram, alot of games need that much.

[12twelve12]

For just a little more (after rebate) you could pick up a 7900 GS. I have one and it's a fantastic card in my opinion and it will be a good card for sometime into the future.

BFG 7900 GS (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814143070)

EVGA 7900 GS (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130056)

I agree with flanzig1...1GB of ram at least and then upgrade to 2GB down the road.

[TimPoet]

Hmmm... another $50 and according to this chart by Tom's Hardware the 7900 GS gets about twice the fps on HL2 than the 7600 GS.

http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics.html

Am I reading the chart right? I'm seeing the 7600 gs with an fps of 68 and the 7900 with 125.3.

[12twelve12]

I was messing around with the game F.E.A.R the other night and had everything set to max in game and running 4x AA & 8x AF. Ran flawlessly with no problems at my displays 1280x1024 native resoution.

Twice the fps for just $9 more after rebate....hmmmm ;)

[Tin]

Ill vouch for the 7900GS as well. I paid $150 for mine and its the best mid-range card out there right now for the money. Its said to be a mid-range card, but in reality the performance is somewhere between a 7800GT and a 7800GTX.

[12twelve12]

Now I know that OC'ing is not for everyone but in case it's your cup of tea this card can be overclocked quite a bit and easily using the cool bits utility for the nvidia drivers. With that said your warranty will be void if you decide to do that unless, someone correct me if I'm wrong, you get the EVGA card. I hear that they will honor a waranty even if a card was damaged due to OC'ing.

Some video cards don't take to overclocking well...this one is excellent at it.

[TimPoet]

Now I know that OC'ing is not for everyone but in case it's your cup of tea this card can be overclocked quite a bit and easily using the cool bits utility for the nvidia drivers. With that said your warranty will be void if you decide to do that unless, someone correct me if I'm wrong, you get the EVGA card. I hear that they will honor a waranty even if a card was damaged due to OC'ing.

Some video cards don't take to overclocking well...this one is excellent at it.
Yeah, that is appealing. To take a high performer and increase it even more. How could I go wrong.?
Ok, I think I'm sold on it. As soon as the bank clears my freakin' check they are sitting on (I actually ended my relationship with my bank over that one), then it's over to newegg.com! By then I should have my build mostly done.

[newbuilder14]

That video card is fine but overpriced. For cheaper get the more powerful 7600gt, or if you can wait, since your motherboard has onboard video get 1gb of memory.

[TimPoet]

Well, the chart referenced above shows that the 7600 gt gets a fps of 94 when the 7900 gs gets 125.3.
I don't see howthe 7600 is more powerful, can you explain?

[Tin]

Yeah, that is appealing. To take a high performer and increase it even more. How could I go wrong.?
Ok, I think I'm sold on it. As soon as the bank clears my freakin' check they are sitting on (I actually ended my relationship with my bank over that one), then it's over to newegg.com! By then I should have my build mostly done.
you will also need a more powerful power supply to go along with that video card. The recommended wattage for that video card is 450W with a 24a +12V rail. This ePower 500W (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817101011) should be plenty good. ePower makes quality power supplies, they are a subcompany of Tagan. Ive used them in a few builds thus far without any problems. I used to run an ePower 450W in my setup with my X800XL and a bunch of hard drives on an overclocked CPU, the volts were right on.

[newbuilder14]

Well, the chart referenced above shows that the 7600 gt gets a fps of 94 when the 7900 gs gets 125.3.
I don't see howthe 7600 is more powerful, can you explain?

Nope, you're right. The 7900gs is better - I was referring to the 7600gs.

[TimPoet]

you will also need a more powerful power supply to go along with that video card. The recommended wattage for that video card is 450W with a 24a +12V rail. This ePower 500W (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817101011) should be plenty good. ePower makes quality power supplies, they are a subcompany of Tagan. Ive used them in a few builds thus far without any problems. I used to run an ePower 450W in my setup with my X800XL and a bunch of hard drives on an overclocked CPU, the volts were right on.
Ugh- my order with Newegg just got cleared by my credit card and it can't be modified now. Rats- now I'll have to return it and get another one. I wonder if Newegg will take it back for reasons other than defective quality?

[newbuilder14]

Woah, hold up there. The 400w power supply should be fine. 450w assumes a fully loaded system, and the FSP 400w has 36amps on the 12v rail.

If it didn't work, although I'm 95% sure it will work just fine, Newegg will take the RMA - they are very good about that stuff.

[Tin]

Yeah didnt see that, I thought it was a single rail unit, my bad.

[TimPoet]

Well, that's a relief.

[12twelve12]

Tim you should be fine running that 7900GS with the FSP 400w unit. If it was a cheaper made PSU then I would say there might be some concern but that FSP is a great unit. I think your good to go.

But to be sure you might want to run your specs through a power supply calculator (http://www.journeysystems.com/power_supply_calculator.php).

[newbuilder14]

I use this: http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp

I gave you 100% CPU utilization, 4 disk drives, and a high end desktop board and the requirement is still only 280w - you are fine.

[The_YongGrand]

The 7600GS will be quite fine for budget gaming. But a 7600GT will be preferred instead if you have the extra money. :D