9800gtx good upgrade choice?

[Floyd]

Originally Posted by Vintage

Make sure your current power supply can handle a new card. Dells don't usually come with powerful power supplies, just the bare minimum to run the card the computer came with usually. You may have to upgrade the PSU as well, so if you do make sure you get one that can fit in your case.

Good call! Dell power supplies are notorious for being underpowered, odd sized and for general all around suckiness! You'll need to look into that.

[KrazyKraut]

Dude, I have a HD4870, which iirc is a tad faster than the 9800GTX and I am thinking about upgrading for Cliffs of Dover.

I can manage Rise of Flight, but barely, which I guess is comparable.

I don't think you will gain much from that upgrade. Rather save the money and buy something more recent once the game's are really out.

[Tomcat_ha]

Originally Posted by KrazyKraut

Dude, I have a HD4870, which iirc is a tad faster than the 9800GTX and I am thinking about upgrading for Cliffs of Dover.

I can manage Rise of Flight, but barely, which I guess is comparable.

I don't think you will gain much from that upgrade. Rather save the money and buy something more recent once the game's are really out.

the 4870 is significantly faster than a 9800gtx. If you want to upgrade for cliffs of dover you have to wait till its released benchmarks get released. It will have a different engine so we cant predict what will run better or provide more bang for the buck.

[User Name]

Like others above, I'll vouch for the ATI 5770. It's a DX11 card. It's comparable to a 4870, but uses only about 110W under load. Idle is around 18W IIRC. Temps never get really high either.

If you buy that 9800GTX for $65. Your most likely going to have to upgrade your PSU. That will at least double the price. Which is about what a 5770 is running for now. The 5770 uses a lot less energy. You probably wouldn't need to upgrade the PSU. You would also get a superior, and new, card.

[Flogger23m]

Originally Posted by fiftyone

That is most unusual and unlikely.
Did you do a driver sweep/cleaning thingamagig...

http://downloads.guru3d.com/download...d377655ad3ce34
More details would be useful, you never know, you might just find the solution here on these forums !

Yeah, posted this multiple times on the Nvidia/EVGA forums. Ran Driver Cleaner (or Sweeper) and Crap Cleaner + its Registry cleaner, manually deleted all folders and files, and it is still a no go.


For what it is worth, I've heard that ATI has crappy unstable drivers to. I'm just giving my experience.


And what is your exact PSU OP? If it is something good like an Earthwatts 500 it will handle a 9800** series fine. That is assuming you only have 2 hard drives and 1-2 DVD/CD drives.

[Floyd]

Kind of derailing the thread, but Flogger23m, I had what sounds like the same problem as you. I had an install that apparently went fubar. No matter what I did, it seemed I could not change my driver.

What you may have to do is:

• Uninstall your current drivers as best you can
• Then set your graphics to VGA.
• Close Windows.
• Restart the computer
• boot Windows in "Safe Mode".

Try uninstalling again, then run DriverSweeper found over at guru3d. While your at it re-run crap cleaner, clean the registry and delete any and all folders/files of nVidia.

The key for me was switching to VGA and then booting in Safe Mode to tidy up.

[RainbowCakez]

I recently acquired an 9800 GT(X) and ... It's, decent. I mean it's not super but it'll sure as heck get the job done.
Just remember to update the drivers, friggin' sssssseriously. The 9800 demands it be updated or it will skitz out so bad. I didn't do it at first and pretty much every Steam game crashed except Killing Floor; Which, would graphically bug out on me after a few hours of play.

(Nvidia's update driver installation is also corrupt when I tried to install it; Just keep doing it over and over again, it'll work eventually.)

[Tomcat_ha]

Ati drivers are not worse than nvidia drivers, infact i prefer ati drivers because there are just monthly updates for everything while nvidia has loads of beta drivers and you need to roll back and forth to find the best driver for your system.

Also it is usually not better to get an old card that has dropped in price compared to a new card launched at that price point.

[Fedorov]

Originally Posted by RainbowCakez

The 9800 demands it be updated or it will skitz out so bad. I didn't do it at first and pretty much every Steam game crashed except Killing Floor; Which, would graphically bug out on me after a few hours of play.

(Nvidia's update driver installation is also corrupt when I tried to install it; Just keep doing it over and over again, it'll work eventually.)

that happened to me too with my 9800, the freeze and graphic corruptions slowly becomes more frequent, until it happens in almost every round and you finally say: ok, lets get this **** out of my computer.

And no, driver updates didn't help there.

[RainbowCakez]

Originally Posted by Fedorov

that happened to me too with my 9800, the freeze and graphic corruptions slowly becomes more frequent, until it happens in almost every round and you finally say: ok, lets get this **** out of my computer.

And no, driver updates didn't help there.

Oh, great. Now I'm concerned the card my friend gave me out of generosity is going to be a pile of dung in the future. :s

[Flogger23m]

Originally Posted by Floyd

Kind of derailing the thread, but Flogger23m, I had what sounds like the same problem as you. I had an install that apparently went fubar. No matter what I did, it seemed I could not change my driver.

What you may have to do is:

• Uninstall your current drivers as best you can
• Then set your graphics to VGA.
• Close Windows.
• Restart the computer
• boot Windows in "Safe Mode".

Try uninstalling again, then run DriverSweeper found over at guru3d. While your at it re-run crap cleaner, clean the registry and delete any and all folders/files of nVidia.

The key for me was switching to VGA and then booting in Safe Mode to tidy up.

I'll have to try this. Do I do this in the BIOS?

I've done everything else a lot of times with no luck, so I am guessing the VGA part is the issue.

Originally Posted by Fedorov

that happened to me too with my 9800, the freeze and graphic corruptions slowly becomes more frequent, until it happens in almost every round and you finally say: ok, lets get this **** out of my computer.

And no, driver updates didn't help there.

Try sending it in for a replacement. That is why I would only buy from EVGA, XFX, Saphire ect. or any other company that has a good warranty.

[Fedorov]

Originally Posted by Flogger23m

Try sending it in for a replacement. That is why I would only buy from EVGA, XFX, Saphire ect. or any other company that has a good warranty.

Nah, I lost the ticket, and I really don't miss it, the performance increase is tiny compared to the old 1950xtx that I still have now.... the most pointless upgrade ever.

[Floyd]

Originally Posted by Flogger23m

I'll have to try this. Do I do this in the BIOS?

I've done everything else a lot of times with no luck, so I am guessing the VGA part is the issue.

Here's the topic at guru3d that got me going....
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=306922

If you can't restart in Safe Mode using F8 (it happens) you can force it to start in Safe Mode through msconfig.
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windo...ng-the-f8-key/

[Nicholas]

I was thinking about getting a 9800, but its kind of old, should I get a 480 instead?

[Tomcat_ha]

Originally Posted by Nicholas

I was thinking about getting a 9800, but its kind of old, should I get a 480 instead?

well a 9800 is really old now i wouldnt get it. What is your budget and what games do you play?

[Nicholas]

Originally Posted by Tomcat_ha

well a 9800 is really old now i wouldnt get it. What is your budget and what games do you play?

I plan on getting alot of new games, my budget is around $500.

[Tomcat_ha]

the thing is nvidia is better at some engines and ati is better at some engines.

Just look at hardocp and anandtech.com which one fits you best.
500 bucks also is a lot for a new video card. It will enable you to buy the absolute top end.