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Buying a Graphics card for Leopard/Vista Dual boot


Video Cards  

18 members have voted

  1. 1. Which should I get?

    • Powercolor or Diamond or Sapphire RADEON HD2600XT 512MB DDR3
      3
    • Sapphire RADEON HD2900GT 256mb DDR3
      0
    • Asus or Sapphire RADEON HD3850 256MB GDDR3
      1
    • Gigabyte or Sapphire RADEON HD3850 512MB GDDR3
      5
    • Sapphire RADEON HD2900 Pro 512MB GDDR3/4
      1
    • Sapphire RADEON X1950PRO 512M GDDR3
      3
    • ASUS 8600GT 512M DDR3 128BIT
      3
    • PALIT 8600GT 1024MB DDR2 128BIT
      0
    • XFX GeForce 8600GTS 256MB GDDR3
      3
    • XFX GeForce 7900GS XT 256MB 256BIT DDR3
      1


14 posts in this topic

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Hello All! I've got a PC with a Gigabyte Ga-P35-DS3R Mobo and a Q6600 cpu, 2GB Ram and an ide dvdrw that is now supported in kalyway(via Jmicron controller) and my ati X800xl just crapped out... so I need a new card and I want maximum leopard compatiblity (1680x1050 nessasary, 1900x1200 prefered) and i'd also like to play crysis in vista with decient rates and i'd like to spend around $250cad. HDMI and the ati Brand would be nice but i'm up for anything. thanks in advance.. don't feel resticted to the poll choices, suggest anything! (didn't include 8800gt or HD3870 cause they are more like $300 but if they are worth it let it be known!

 

.sith.

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8600 /2600 cards are slower than the X1950 pro, same goes for the 7900GS. So if you want to play crysis dont even bother. The HD3850 is an amazing card for the money - can be had for a bit over 160$ - but there is still no framebuffer for it as far as I am aware and thus no support for it in Leopard. If Apple introduces the card in some of its future products then that would be a great card to have. But until then it is a no go in Leopard.

 

Which leaves the X1950Pro . It is by no means an excellent card but it is very good I bought mine on eBay for less than 75$ for my hackintosh and it worked with Bronyas drivers perfectly under Leo. I think it is also HDMI capable but I dont care about it so I havent looked into it.

 

Don't get the 512MB if the price difference is more than 15$ from the 256MB version. It just is not worth it on this card.

 

I am not sure how the compatibility of the 2900 cards is with Leopard but if someone confirms that it is supported I would go for the Pro assuming you can still find it as it has disappeared from the market lately. I read somewhere that there is full support for the original 2900 but that does not mean that all the other varieties will be equally supported.

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The solution apparently works for the 3870, you need to modify the card bios for the 3850 to work which then messes up the windows side of things. So if it is within your budget the 3870 is a really great card and yes of course I would recommend it over the X1950Pro .

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That is what the comments on the thread you sent me seem to imply. The 3870 works flawlessly using their solution but the 3850 seems to have some problems. Keep in mind though that this is a really new solution so you might encounter problems.

 

If you prefer the near certainty of full compatibility go for the X1950Pro. Not at the same league as the HD3870 but it is much cheaper and I play Oblivion on mine with Mid/High settings at 1680x1050 resolution without trouble at all. It runs flawlessly. (Rig comprised by OCed E2140 at 2.4GHz, 2GB XMS Corsair memory and 250GB Seagate).

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In that price range, I'd 100% go for HD2900pro. Just make sure its the model with a 512bit bus (the 256 is a much crappier card). Basically it's a 2900XT that's been downclocked a tad -mainly for product differentiation; however ATI's drivers will automatically overclock it past the 2900XT levels (for ~ 1/2 the price). It's about 2/3 the cost of a GT and performs between 8800(320)gts and a GT. An absolute steal, and the only card actually fast enough to do useful dx10 at that price point. There is one major downside; good luck finding any - they have almost all sold out, only were a limited run by ATI to clear the last of the r600 cores.

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considering HD3870 gigabyte,...$230

 

really wanted the hd3850 sapphire with fanless heatsink,

but hd3850 needs bios change, and found, some run at full speed, ...

thought in windows, it can turn off the shaders, to preserve power/heat,

would be nice , for leopard too,...

 

the http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814125086

could possible take fan off, easy and maybe put a hsr-03 on it , down the road,...

 

it's going into iatkos box, to replace the 7300gs, -> UT3

 

what you think ?

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