[Data]

Also it seems to me that some DDR3 is now cheaper than DDR2: that can mean only one thing, DDR2 is on its way out and its price might start going up and up as they want us all to buy DDR3.  I hope I’m wrong.

[Freddy]

For once I hope you are wrong too lol  And Art, yes you are probably right !

[Carl2]

  Been doing research on SSD's, I signed for a newsletter from tomshardware.com and just recieved something from them with info on graphic cards.
  Radeon HD 5750 Video Card (1GB, PCI-Express 2.1 x16, Dual DVI/HDMI)TigerDirect $149.99See More Deals.
Radeon HD 5770 Video Card (1GB, PCI-Express 2.0 x16, Dual DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort)TigerDirect $164.99See More Deals.
Radeon HD 4890 Video Card (1GB, PCI-Express 2.0 x16, Dual DVI)TigerDirect $199.99See More Deals.
Radeon HD 5850 Video Card (1GB, PCI-Express 2.0 x16, Dual DVI, HDMI)Newegg.com $309.99See More Deals.
Radeon HD 5870 Video Card (1GB, PCI-Express 2.0 x16, Dual DVI/HDMI/DisplayPort)Amazon.com $413.47

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-gaming-graphics-card,2544.html

The above site will give you reviews.  It also gives you info on other computer related items.  I also began using techpowerup to do research, it has a forum with some helpful people.  I downloaded some software to check out my system, one of them checks out the graphic card.  Unblievable amount of difference in the graphics from the Gateway and the one I'm using now. 
Carl2
   

[Data]

Indeed tomshardware.com is a place that I use for research too, very informative.

Just keep a look out for the spam 

Im not saying that they are not impartial, heaven forbid, but they do sell products so keep that in mind.

I use “SiSoftware Sandra Lite” to benchmark my PC, it can test just about every part of your rig, including graphics cards. (The free version is very good)

And 3Dmark (the gamers benchmark) for more in-depth graphics card testing, and benchmarking.  (again the free version is good)

[Freddy]

Yeah not a bad site - I had trouble finding things there though - the layout isn't very intuitive.  I've found NewEgg quite useful too for end user reports.

I'm still thinking the 8580 is the way to go on the graphics front..

Check this out... now in the vapor range :

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sapphire-HD5850-VAPOR-X-Graphics-Card/dp/B0036Z3Y5O/ref=pd_sim_sbs_ce_1
 

[Data]

I don’t think you should get that card Freddy, it’s better than mine, cant have that 

Seriously it is a nice card, but I wouldn’t want to spend over £200 on one.

[Freddy]

Well there's actually a Toxic version which is really the bees knees and the cheapest I found it is £230.  I don't know, the past few years I have upgraded my GPU every year.  Maybe getting the expensive one wouldn't be too bad really if it lasted a couple of years - I wouldn't really be spending more than I would otherwise.  But yeah I feel like going mad on a smoking graphics card lol

But first I will see if upgrading the CPU and memory will let me play GTA4 - if that happened then I would be more than happy for a few months playing that, then maybe the price would have come down a bit.

And yeah I know I spend a lot of my time thinking...wait till the price comes down a bit 

[lrh9]

I've heard that GTA4 is the new Crysis.

Someone has alleged that they needed a quad core cpu to run GTA4.

I don't know if that is actually true or not. It may be performance intensive or it may just be software glitches. Sometimes games when they are released have poor performance that can be fixed.

I'd wait for a patch before going all the way to a quad core cpu.

Edit: Apparently the official system requirements admit that a quad core cpu is recommended.

[Data]

Have visited other forums, it would seem that GTA 4 does not run at all well on a dual-core for many people, for me the game takes up to and sometimes over 80% of my quad-core, (Q9400 clocked to 3.4GHz) I think we are up to patch 4 already for the game.

GTA 4 also needs 4 gig of RAM and a 1 gig graphics card to run right. On a 512mb card the draw distance has to be set very low and you can end up hitting things on the road that haven’t had time to be drawn in.

The age of the quad-core and a 64 bit OS has arrived.

I think I have posted this before  


Edit:

Watch this video on a 512 mb card; note the police car hits something that wasn’t there until the driver was on top of it.

[Freddy]

well it's still miles better than mine - I drive for 2 seconds and the whole game freezes.  I thought it was neat how he managed to crash but still go between two cars backwards without hitting them  

I'm probably going to put my order in for the CPU and Memory pretty soon.  I'm looking forward to seeing how my graphics software runs on the quad - it's not all about GTA4...

Can't decide on memory - it's one of these two though :

OCZ 4Gb
HyperX 4Gb

Manuals says the HyperX should work, but I am concerned as Datahopa you said it might not get recognised - but that was a simple fix in the bios yes ?

OCZ has come down at least £20 this week at Amazon and Dabs memory selector tool says this can also be used with my board.  It's a long wait from Amazon....Dabs are £5 more on that one.

So £15-20 the difference...

[Data]

Its not all about GTA4? I thought it was, lol, done 80% of it now. Best GTA yet 

Have a look at these reviews on the HyperX, the last one on the page says the RAM will not run at 1066MHz, if you go digging on google you will see the guy is not alone and I am in the same boat as them with this RAM.

http://www.dabs.com/ProductReviews.aspx?Quicklinx=5GZQ

Spend the extra and get the OCZ to be sure.

Also, if I was you I would up-date the bios on your mobo, im pretty sure that the Q9 series of CPU’s were not on the market when your board was released. So you really should up-date it before you fit the new quady.

Take time over up-dating the bios, and check on the Asus site for info on how to do it for your mobo.

[Freddy]

  Well I am gagging to play GTA4, that video has given me some hope. lol  You did 80% fast !

OK I'll go for the OCZ then to be safe.  Never updated the bios before, I think I have some tool to do it easily - will have to look into that.  Thanks.