video Card Recommendation for Asus A8n-SLI Board

[guygrim]

Hiya fellas;

I am going to get a new Video Card for my Birthday. I have an Asus A8N-SLI Board and I am running an EVGA GeForce 6800 GS Video Card Now.

I play Warhammer Online and currently experiencing alot of lag, some of which can be attributed to my video card. (Not all the lag) Can you give me a video card recommendation which will fit my MotherBoard. My budget is around $100 to $150.

http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1...39&modelmenu=1

Thanks.

[Masaki 7-11]

What kind of power supply do you have?

[Rev_pizzaguy]

If you want a single card, the HD4850 is pretty much the best at that price range:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102770

If you wanted to do SLI, however you would need an Nvidia card. You could (depending on your power supply) do an SLI setup with 2 9600GSO's for your price range that would be awesome:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121251

P.S. That motherboard being a socket 939 means your processor is going to be a pretty big bottleneck.

[liambl]

Providing they have an Athlon 64 X2 in there, bottlenecking won't be a huge problem.

[guygrim]

Sorry for the late response.. I have an Antec truePower 2.0 550 Watt Power Supply.

Also, do you mean that I should have an Athlon 64 X 2 to get the best performance out of the board? I believe I have an Athlon 64 3200+ processor. I don't believe that is exactly what you referred.

thanks for your insights..

[guygrim]

Hey Again...

I was out looking at the Video Cards lastnight and I am leaning toward the PNY Geforce 9400 GT, which sells for $99.00. My main concern is that in order to run this to a new lcd monitor I would need a dvi to dvi cable which run $70-$100.

Else, I can go from vga at the monitor and use a vga/dvi adapter at the video card and that would work. Would going straight DVI to DVI give me a better picture or faster refresh rate than using the alternative method? I am looking at an LG 22" monitor to pair with my video card.

Thanks again!

[Rev_pizzaguy]

Uh, if you're planning on gaming any with that, the 9400GT is going to suck.

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/g...dx876,742.html

Look at where the 6800. The 8500GT is going to be a little better performance than the 9400GT, and the 8500GT is about on par with the 6800. Going to a 9400GT probably won't give you much performance. If you don't want to spend a lot of money and want to go with a single card, go with one of those 9600GSO's. A single 9600GSO or 9600GT will be about the performance of two 8600GT's in SLI. The 9400GT is NOT EVEN WORTH CRAP.

Most cards these days come with a DVI -> VGA adapter, mine came with two.

[not important]

Originally Posted by guygrim Hey Again... My main concern is that in order to run this to a new lcd monitor I would need a dvi to dvi cable which run $70-$100.

I would think that the new LCD monitor would come with a DVI cable...if not they are available for a lot less than $70 to $100. I had to purchase one from a local PC shop about a year ago and it was about $20.

[Masaki 7-11]

Originally Posted by guygrim Sorry for the late response.. I have an Antec truePower 2.0 550 Watt Power Supply. Also, do you mean that I should have an Athlon 64 X 2 to get the best performance out of the board? I believe I have an Athlon 64 3200+ processor. I don't believe that is exactly what you referred. thanks for your insights..

That power supply is enough for most of the new video cards. Your processor should be fine for gaming still as most games, especially MMORPG use up one or two cores at most. Here is a high performance video card for your budget: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130384

[andper10]

Originally Posted by guygrim Hey Again... I was out looking at the Video Cards lastnight and I am leaning toward the PNY Geforce 9400 GT, which sells for $99.00. My main concern is that in order to run this to a new lcd monitor I would need a dvi to dvi cable which run $70-$100.

Originally Posted by not important I would think that the new LCD monitor would come with a DVI cable...if not they are available for a lot less than $70 to $100. I had to purchase one from a local PC shop about a year ago and it was about $20.

Monoprice has good prices on cables and so far all the cables I have ordered from them have worked great.

6ft DVI Cable $5.46 (+ Shipping (should be $4.80 or less)) - http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...seq=1&format=2

I have heard good things about the 4850. I have an 8800GT and I would recommend it (the 9800GT is a little better than the 8800GT). If you watch, you might be able to get a good price on a 9600GSO. I got one to upgrade another computer a little over a month ago from newegg for $36 after a mail in rebate (the rebate check came recently). It is basically a scaled down version of a 8800GT/9800GT. I think a 9600GSO would be a good fit for you, but I wouldn't get anything that is much less powerful than that. Here is a handy general reference chart that will give you an idea of how different video card models stack up against each other: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...rd,2011-6.html

[guygrim]

Thank you fellas;

I think I will settle on yoour recommendation Masaki!!

I knew I could count on you folks..

[guygrim]

UPDATE:::

I purchased a PNY GeForce9800 GT and there was very little performance improvement to my Gaming. Specifically - WarhammerOnline.

Earlier someone mentioned that my issues could be a bottleneck between my CPU and Motherboard (Asus A8N-SLI / Athlon 64 Venice 3200+). I am thinking that this could be a very big possibility. Also, I notice that when I boot up I receive an error message - Something about a Fan not working - and I press F1 to ignore the issue. I thought it couold just be a quirk in the Mobo, as nothing Bad actually happens.

So, I have decided to install a new Mobo and CPU. There is a shop down the road from here - that will install these for me. Their choices are limited
1. Asus M2N - E ; M2N-SLI; or M2N-MXSE and a Athlon 64 5200 AM2or
2. Asus P5N-ESLI or P5S-MXSE and one of these CPUs Intel E2160 1.80 Core 2 Duo / Intel Q6600 Core 2 Quad 8M

Which of these would you recommend for what I want to do, which is Online Gaming?

Thank you for your continued support.

[Doom]

I'm a fan of Intel processors and use them in my builds...so I'm partial to those choices. Between the two Intel chips...I noticed the Q6600 on newegg.com for about $190. If you can afford that one...it is seriously better than a 1.80GHz anything. However...for gaming stuff, I'd take a look at the E8400. Many gamers recommend going with a faster dual core than a slower quad core and then pair it with a kick-butt card (like your 9800GT).

[guygrim]

Just an Update:

I purchased the Asus P5N-ESLI Board and the Intel Q6600 CPU and Picked up new PC5300 Memory and the Computer runs Warhammer Silky Smooth. I am wicked excited!

Thanks for all the help!

[Rev_pizzaguy]

No prob! Glad that worked out for ya!