Can i install 8800 to this system

[yesh1683]

My friend is Having PC with Specs listed below

P4 3.0 HT
ASUS P5GDC-V Deluxe motherboard [intel 915 based]
512 MB DDR2 533 x 2
Antec 500 Wats Powersupply
Nvidia 6600 PCI e GX card

He wants to sell his 6600 card and wants new 8800 GTS 320

I just want to confirm whether the P4 3.0 can handle the 8 series card well??

[Ethan_Hunt]

Not unless he plans to choke his games.

It would be a serious bottleneck on his CPU front.Pairing an 8800 with a PIV is like pulling a Ferrari with a bullockcart.Most of the recent games are heavily dependent on CPU as they are on GPU.The most common example would be my friend using an X1900XT initially on his PIV 3.0Ghz to play Tomb Raider Legends & was getting 12-25fps @1280x1024 maxed out settings whereas he ought to get more than that considering he had a high end ATI card.The frame rates increased massively when he upgraded to a Core 2 Duo.Now you'll get a fair idea of how drastic it would be to pair this card with a PIV.If he is planning to do gaming with the same CPU & wants to take on Bioshock,Crysis & the rest then forget it.He is better off without that card if he doesn't get a competitive processor.

[yesh1683]

@allwyndlima oops not good really it is impossible for him to upgrade CPU bcoz he should also change his MB for that?

How abt upgrading to atleast 8600 GT ?

[Ethan_Hunt]

One question is it really urgent for this friend of your for a graphic card upgrade?

Also at what resolution does he wants to play his games? If it's anything near 1280x1024 then anything post Q1 2007 wont even remotely make it close to getting playable fps on a 8600GT.If only he had a AMD Ahtlon 300+ or higher processor than it could have sustained some load but this processor is extremly weak when it comes to gaming.If he has a budget set for 8800 series card then ask him to hold up for some time & perhaps go for a CPU overhaul instead of just making a cut on the mid range DX10 cards.BTW is he a hardcore gamer?

[yesh1683]

Originally Posted by allwyndlima

One question is it really urgent for this friend of your for a graphic card upgrade?

Also at what resolution does he wants to play his games? If it's anything near 1280x1024 then anything post Q1 2007 wont even remotely make it close to getting playable fps on a 8600GT.If only he had a AMD Ahtlon 300+ or higher processor than it could have sustained some load but this processor is extremly weak when it comes to gaming.If he has a budget set for 8800 series card then ask him to hold up for some time & perhaps go for a CPU overhaul instead of just making a cut on the mid range DX10 cards.BTW is he a hardcore gamer?

He is hardcore gamer
he has 19inch LCD widescreen he wants to play at 1440x990 or ay widescreen resolution at high settings atleast
he needs it urgent becoz his 6600 card power pin is loose [i cant explain how] but the sytem power offs itself and if he has to press the powersupply pin hard to make it tight then only it will start but after few hours again it powers off the pin becomes loose so he is fed off and buying new card

Any suggestions required asap

[Harvik780]

Also i would like to inform u that many of the 320 mb 8800gts are plagued by a bug which is related to handling textures in memory.Many a times the 320mb 8800gts just runs out of memory on high resolutions due to this VGA memory bug.U can get around this by pressing alt+tab.This bugs slows down the performance significantly in texture heavy games like Battlefield 2/2142.Nvidia have said they will come up with a driver fix somewhere around the end of September.

[Ethan_Hunt]

It won't be able to handle those high widescreen resolutions.If it's that urgent then I suppose he would be better off with the 8600GT but advice him that it would not hold on for too long.That is if he is looking up for this card in a long run.Eventually he would have to upgrade his processor so better to go in for a mid range card for now.