Geforce 9800 GT

[lassie]

Hi
I have a Geforce 9800 GT in my PC and it has 512 MB RAM, and i have seen that some have 1024 RAM. So i want to ask if i can upgrade it to 1024 MB RAM?

[lassie]

Many thanks It is a PC i just got.
It has

3.2 GHZ Dual core
4 GB RAM
Geforce 9800 GT 512 MB RAM
Windows 7

Can it play some of the new games for PC?

[lassie]

Yes, with medium (- low) settings and reduced resolution.

Okay do you think it will help if i buy a bigger Graphic Card with 1 or 2 GB RAM?
What do you think it will take to play with high settings

[lassie]

Don't be fooled by vRAM amount, it's common for the OEM manufacturers to use slow crap cards with loads of vRAM to trick te consumer that it's a fast card, most low end cards with a lot of vRam today is not even fast enough to use 512MB vRAM.

For example, you can buy a GeForce GT 610 with 2GB vRAM but the card is slow as heck and can't use near that amount of memory for big texures in high resolutions, so it's just marketing and you wont get more speed per auto because you get more vRAM.

On the other hand if you got a fast card then more vRAM can be used but in the low/mid segment loads of vRAM is pointless.

So give me a price range you would like to spend on a new GFX card and I can show the best for the buck.

Going to high end won't do you no good because the CPU will be the bottleneck anyways.

Is it a small CPU in it or is it a good enough CPU
I was thinking around 100 Euro maybe a little more

[lassie]

Are there much different between DDR 2 RAM and DDR 3 RAM

[lassie]

Yes, DDR3 is quite a bit faster.

Is it something i will notice when surfing the net? or is it more for bigger games /programs etc?

[lassie]

What sort of games are you planning on playing? if it is high end then your gonna need a high end card to go with it, then theres the cpu which will more than likely bottle neck the the card and you will also need to look at the PSU and check wether or not it has enough amps on the +12v rail(s)? Can you give a full detailed lisst of the system ie what cpu, memory, psu etc...

Hi the system is

AMD Athlon 64x2 Dual Core 6400+ 3.20 GHZ CPU
64 Bit System
and 4 GB RAM think it is DDR2 RAM
Nvadia Geforce 9800 GT 512 MB RAM
I was thinking about playing Far Cry 2, Borderlands 1 and 2 and Mass Effect 3 and some Shooters etc

[lassie]

I have read that i can put one more Geforce 9800 in my PC, so i have 2 graphic cards. Do you know if that is right

[lassie]

If it is a SLI capable motherboard, you can put another card in it.

Bear in mind said card needs to be identical, right down to firmware, manufacturer/brand, die size, etc.  Your PSU would need to be up to snuff as well.

For a 9800, SLI would be a waste IMHO.  Could go out and buy a cheap 600 series card and have 10x the performance of 2 9800's.  Even 2 9800's would not do well at higher resolutions and settings with those games you mentioned, they are 4+ year old graphics cards.

Hi
I can see your point, it is a almost 5 years old Card i have found out, i thought it was newer, so it will just be better to buy 1 newer/better instead

[lassie]

Go for a Radeon HD 7770 or 6850 and you will be set, I would look at how much you can overclock the CPU with your cooler.

Using that and you can atleast run every game out there, and using that hardware and you will run Borderlands 2 in mixed mid/high settings

Many thanks mate There is a a very big cooler in it, the man i purchased it  from, has build it himself with the best things he could get at the time. with blue led light, and 4 Air cooler. He told me he has use around 2000 Dollars on it, but Hardware goes down fast in price.

[lassie]

Your welcome, yes new x86 hardware do go down fast ^^

I just put together a PC by old parts lying around to get as near as possible to your specs to test it out.
I used a Intel Core 2 E6300 1,87GHz, 4GB DDR2 ram and a Geforce GTX 260 GTX (about same speed as a Radeon hd 4870).

Overclocked it to 2,3GHz and teh GFX to 700MHz GPU and 1100MHz vRAM and it ran Borderlands 2 in mid/high settings @1280x1024 so a new card and some overclocking will get you far

But Amiga parts do seem to hold the price
I just had a look at Radeon HD 7770 on Ebay it is not to expensive so i think i will go with that. Are there some places you could recommend buying from?

[lassie]

Go for a Radeon HD 7770 or 6850 and you will be set, I would look at how much you can overclock the CPU with your cooler.

Using that and you can atleast run every game out there, and using that hardware and you will run Borderlands 2 in mixed mid/high settings

Do you know were i can see how much RAM the PC can takes in total? I cannot find it. Or what do you think this System can take in total RAM

[lassie]

Its all good saying you will get a new card but you need to check that your psu can handle it, make sure you have enough amps on the +12v rail(s), does the case have good airflow etc.....? The last thing you want are heat problems.

He has build it himself the man i purchased it from, with the biggest Air cooler he could get, there is 4 in it, and they are huge, he said i never had to worried about it will run hot. As for the power he said it could handle a lot. I am not a expert So how can i check amps on it?

[lassie]

Yes the PSU is important, first thing to check is if he even got 6(6+2) pin connectors for PCI-E cards.
Judging from what he is saying that he got a big CPU cooler and a chassi with LEDS ill guess it's a "gaming" chassi with decent airflow.

Tho from experience both the 6850 and 7770 can run in nearly any case if you are using ref coolers that blows out the air in the back brackets. Any midi-tower case with two fan places will be sufficient enough to keep them cool and since he have a big CPU cooler he will be fine, nothing to worry about.

Ive ran a Radeon HD 7970 in a case with one front 120mm fan and one back 120mm fan + PSU outtake without any troubles in stock while I was waiting for my Cooler Master Cosmos II case and that's AMD's fastest single GPU card, sure it ran a bit hot but well under the limit.

EDIT: Saw that Lassie posted before I was done




Check the PSU, it has a sticker showing the amps on the rails, or just simply write the PSU name and model and ill check it for you Any decent 400-450W will have enough AMPs for both cards I wrote as long as they are not cheepo PSUs.

One of my Folding@home machines are running a GTX 670 at full load 24/7 on a 450W PSU that has 38A on the 12v rail, people tend to read the total W and it seems people allways buy a lot bigger PSUs then they need.

Hi i can seen on the back the psu is called TX650W

[lassie]

Thas is a good Corsair PSU, low ripple and 52amps on the 12v rail, that PSU can run any single GPU card on the market (I would bet even most SLI/Crossfire setups).

So you got a good solid PSU so go for it

That is good to know The person i bought it from, seems like a man there will not save money on cheaper stuff. So i think it is true that he bought the best he could get at the time

Do you know how i can see how much RAM it can take maximum?