What should i do?

[ademar]

Hi

I am building a new system and I have a problem. The fact is, i'm upgrading my motherboard to socket 939, and i'll need a new graphics card because my current one is AGP.

I thought i'd buy a top of the line card, but directx 10 is almost there and it'd be a waste of money, so i thought again and thought i'd pick a low-end one, like the ATI RADEON X300SE 128MB, while directx10 card don't hit the market - and keep the older system for gaming.

I work with large Flash and Freehand files and i think maybe this card will harm my computer's perforce - or won't it? Do these applications (or others like 3dstudio max) take advantage of the gpu's processing power?

My current specs:
Athlon 64 3200+
1GB low latency ram
radeon x800pro
wd120gb

My intended future specs:
Opteron 170 dual core
2GB low latency ram
low-end graphics card (if performance is not degraded)
2*wd250gb(raid 0)

Any help would be appreciated.

[mousiness]

i say wait your system now is good enough, and why an opteron? its meant for servers and youll have to buy a server motherboard which features very few good features, i say wait till DX10 and BTW opteron is socket 940,

[ademar]

Yeah, you're right, 940, my bad.

Anyway, my system kind of sucks when i am working simultaneously on a large photoshop file, have opera and msn open, plus freehand... i need something faster. And you haven't answered my question ;)

Thanks anyway

[mousiness]

oh right your question, and thats H3LL NO, for advanced photoshop files x300 wont cut it, heck an x300 can hardly run windows XP lol, if youre looking for a cheap video card yet has good performance go for an XFX 7600GT, theyre only 150$ CDN and have good performance

[ademar]

Thanks, but are you sure? I'm only asking because i got this answer somewhere else:
"
An X300SE should be able to run 2D applications just as well as the highest end Radeons and Geforces.
"

[mousiness]

an x300 can hardly run 2d, for 3d rendering youre definietly gotta go minimum 7600gt and 6800gt minimum and they dont sell very expensive wither, go to new egg and look for an XFX 7600gt, not only do they perform well but theyre a great bang for the buck, x300's have the performance of a gma900 (integrated) with a bit more performance, but i advise you to go for the xfx 7600gt simply because if youre looking to run 3d apps and rendering apps it can actually run the program unlike x300's and it can do the job well :) \

EDIT: yes it can run 2d apps perfectly but you said you want to run 3d apps

[ademar]

Great:D So, let me see if i got it. Radeon x300:

good: photoshop, flash, freehand...
bad: 3dstudio max, lightwave, maya...

Amirite?;)

[mousiness]

yep you got it, BTW which website did you get that answer that x300s perform just as well as higher end cards?

[ademar]

Thanks. I got the answer from Anandtech's forums...

[mousiness]

oh really? from anadtech you got that answer? anandtech is a good website but why would they give you such a lie of an answer? Just in case im wrong, ill let some other members of this website pass you some answers for reassurance :) assuming youre from the US and assuming youre going fior the 7600gt heres the linksto the card...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150145

[ademar]

lol thks:D

[mousiness]

no problem i help as much as i possibly can and im sure all the other members would me more than happy to help too :)

[Kougar]

As far as I can tell, the choice of your GPU won't really affect any of those programs you have mentioned, including 3dstudio max.

What WILL affect them is having a dual core processor. And naturally the faster the dual-core CPU the quicker they will render.

My recommendation would be to just use whatever is the cheapest graphics card you can find and grab a faster good dual-core CPU with the saved money. You would be hard pressed to find anything below a x300SE card out there, but if you can grab that 128mb x300SE you mentioned for a nice price then it should do you fine.

The Opteron 170 is indeed a Socket939 part, and is the "missing" AMD X2 4000+ processor... If you render very large images or work with very large files then you should probably keep the 2x1mb cache. If not, then you would see better performance with half the cache but an extra 200mhz in speed, as the mhz bump has more of a performance impact on AMD's K8 chips than the cache size. The AMD X2 4200+ is 200mhz faster, half the cache, and is $50 less than the Opteron 170, I'd say nab that one but that's just my opinion. ;)

[Kougar]

Okay, assuming you're within the US, after looking over NewEgg I'd suggest this card. XFX Geforce 6500 128mb (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150147) for $35 shipped after $10 MIR. I should have said above to at least stick with 128mb of VGA Ram, otherwise you'll be sure to lose some of your system RAM to your graphics card.

[mousiness]

yeah go with kougars advice, dual-cores render faster, and, silly me the opteron 170 is a 939 model, the 6500 should do well just the x300 is a bit weak IMHO, if i were you id get either 6500,6600, or maybe just maybe if willing to squeeze some money in a 7600 if you go for a dual-core CPU

[Scott]

I would wait for AM2 which would be here soon and then get a motherboard based on that. What you are looking at getting is going to a very short life span for future upgrades.

[Miles]

Just to set the record straight many of the Opterons like the 160, 165, 170, 175, and 185 are 939 pin and will work on the same 939 pin motherboard as any X2 Athlon 64 will. They are superior overclocking chips and in most case superior to the X2 Athlon 64. Each of the mentioned Opterons are also dual core and with the new socket AM2 coming their price will probably drop somewhat.

Now as far as the X300 is concerned, I wouldn't say it's garbage and would probably suffice your needs until a better card that supports DX10 which by the way should be any day now with the 7950 GS.

No back to your discussion:D

[ademar]

Thank you all very much. And btw, I'm choosiing the Op170 because of its humongous OCing capabilities...

[z3r0C00L]

The x300 is perfect for 3D apps. It's just not mean't for high resolution gaming.

3D apps are not in full motion all the time. It's a common misconception that you need some uber high performance 3D card for simple 3D acceleration.

It really depends on how heavy your usage is.

An x300 should be plenty good for your needs. Just make sure it's not an SE version.