Topic: computer questions

[Don Karnage]

my first question is: i want to put a very good video card on my com and i want to know from user what is the best video card with the highest meg available on the market?

my second qustion is: how does a spliter work, i heard about it and all i know is you can have access to the internet from another computer with it, beside that what doest a rooter does?

[Pestalence_XC]

my first question is: i want to put a very good video card on my com and i want to know from user what is the best video card with the highest meg available on the market?

NVidia GeForce 6800 Ultra with 512 MB DDR (hard to find... most are 256 memory) vid memory (Not the GeForce 6800 GT, GeForce 6800 GTO*, GeForce 6800, and GeForce 6800 LE.. these are the lower end cards of the 6800 series).

http://www.nvidia.com/page/geforce_6800.html

Card features

http://www.nvidia.com/page/pg_20040406350192.html

Card specs along with comparrison chart for the GPU's of the 6800 series

http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce6_techspecs.html

Cost $499

where to buy.. easiest place.. Comp USA

my second qustion is: how does a spliter work, i heard about it and all i know is you can have access to the internet from another computer with it, beside that what doest a rooter does?

This I am unsure of.. in my home, I only have 1 PC.. however, if I had 2 PC's and I wanted them both online with 1 connection (1 IP address), then I would use a router and let the router synchronize the 2 connections across the 1 IP address.. however this causes some problems with multi-player games...

For a splitter, I would use Cable and split the cable connection in my home and lead each cable line to 2 different cable modems.. also I would have to pay for 2 IP addresses for this to work.. this would allow both systems independant connection to the internet without need for a router and it would eliminate problems that occur with routers in multi-player games...

Guess it depends on what you are willing to pay to have access to the net..

now maybe someone else has a better definition or has access to newer tech than I have and I could be wrong on what you are referring to as a splitter..

Hope that this helps.

[Javora]

Pestalence did a very good job describing the different Nvidia cards out there.  But if you are looking more towards the ATI side of things then I would suggest either the X850 or the X800 respectively.  Any major tech outlet like Comp USA, Best Buy, or even Circuit City should have these items in stock for Nvidia or ATI.  If you want to buy on-line then I would suggest Newegg.

As for your second question I would suggest getting a good router that has a hardware firewall built in.  My friends and I use a Netgear FVS318, it has a very good hardware firewall and handles up to eight devices or systems.  I take my system over to a friend’s house and connect to his Netgear router, we really don't notice any problems gaming on-line.  Maybe there would be problems if there were five or more systems connected to the router and all trying to access the Internet through the same IP at the same time.  But with two or three systems connected we really haven't noticed a problem.  In fact a few months ago two of my friends and I were playing Battlefield Vietnam through a router on the same IP connecting to a server on the Internet with no lag or other noticeable problems.   But then it would really depend how fast your Internet connection is.  We all use local Comcast cable (3000mb down and 256up).  If you have an upload speed of 512mb or 768mb then I really wouldn't worry about it too much.

It gets real tricky is when you have Lan parties like my friend used to have where there would be anywhere from 15 to 20 systems all connected on the same Lan network.  I always told him that I was glad I wasn't paying his electric bill that month.     But then I usually always ended up paying for pizza.      

Anyway I hope this helps.

[Pestalence_XC]

Pestalence did a very good job describing the different Nvidia cards out there.  But if you are looking more towards the ATI side of things then I would suggest either the X850 or the X800 respectively.  Any major tech outlet like Comp USA, Best Buy, or even Circuit City should have these items in stock for Nvidia or ATI.  If you want to buy on-line then I would suggest Newegg.

He asked for the best card on the market.. as such the Geforce 6800 Ultra is the best on the market with a 10% performance lead across the board vs the x850 Radeon.. 20% better than the x800 Radeon...

As for myself, I am currently using a Radeon x300 until I can save up the money for a Geforce 6800 ultra.

[Javora]

Nvidia leaped froged ATI again??!?  *Sigh*  I just can't keep up with this video card race anymore.  The last I heard ATI's X850 just barely won out over Nvidia's (at the time) latest greatest.  Things are moving too fast again.  Since some people prefer ATI or Nvidia over the other rival and since DonKarnage didn't say which he preferred.  I thought I would pick up where you left off and explain the other side of the video war.  Personally I don't really have a preference, as I've owned (and liked) video cards from both sides.  No offence was intended.

[Pestalence_XC]

Actually, ATI hasn't caught up to NVidia's 6800 Ultra as of yet.. maybe the x900 will match the 6800 Ultra when it becomes available, maqybe even surpass it.. but the 6800 Ultra has held the #1 spot for the last 3 to 4 months now in performance and graphical quality...

I like both cards myself.. NVidia is my favorite, but I do use Radeon from time to time such as currently...

Anyhow both companies keep each other in check and push each other for creating the best of the best when it comes to graphics and gaming.

Also, just for the casual user.. there is basically no visual difference that the human eye can see between the x850 and the 6800 Ultra.. both cards take advantage of all the advancements and shaders in DirectX 9 and all the latest in Open GL.. However NVidia's card has a few things that it can out render and enhance that Radeon can't, but you would be very hard pressed to point it out under any application.. whether your professionsl or casual in the card usage..

To a gamer, the difference is about 1/1000 of a sec difference in framerate rendering.. which in todays standards in gaming is about 10% in performance.. like I stated.. not noticable to the human eye.. maybe NVidia has a bit better color depth for DVD's, but running 2 identical systems side by side one with each of the best cards by either company, the movie looks identical to the human eye..

basically I'm just stating that both cards are good and as such, it boils down to user preference.. Both cards are about the same price so it is really a personal call.. however performance wize, the 6800 wins by 10% currently across the board, however the x850, ATI's newest has the new refignments that the 6800 Ultra brought out, only it is just a tad bit slower in the GPU speed in rendering, but not enough to see a difference even in your most graphical intensive game...

Anyhow, like I stated.. they cost about the same.. go with what you are comfortable with..

[Monty]

NVidia GeForce 6800 Ultra with 512 MB DDR (hard to find... most are 256 memory) vid memory (Not the GeForce 6800 GT, GeForce 6800 GTO*, GeForce 6800, and GeForce 6800 LE.. these are the lower end cards of the 6800 series).

Hey pestalence,

Isn't the 6800 GT clocked jsut marginally slower than the ultra? Its just that as i understand it I would not classify the GT as being lower end. Technically it is but i wouldn't group it with the vanilla 6800 or the 6800 LE personally.

What might be of interest to some is the gainward 6800 GT which clock at ultra speeds (and i think i read that this is actually covered under waranty, though at this time i can't find where it says this):

Specs:
http://www.gainward.de/new/products/agp/ultra_2000/comparison.html

Review:
http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/gainward6800gtg/

[wulf111]

Pestalence did a very good job describing the different Nvidia cards out there.  But if you are looking more towards the ATI side of things then I would suggest either the X850 or the X800 respectively.  Any major tech outlet like Comp USA, Best Buy, or even Circuit City should have these items in stock for Nvidia or ATI.  If you want to buy on-line then I would suggest Newegg.

He asked for the best card on the market.. as such the Geforce 6800 Ultra is the best on the market with a 10% performance lead across the board vs the x850 Radeon.. 20% better than the x800 Radeon...

As for myself, I am currently using a Radeon x300 until I can save up the money for a Geforce 6800 ultra.

the problem with the 6800 ultra is that there are none on the open market i have it strait from nividia that they are having problems at the plant in ti-wan and the cards have been delayed a friend of mine has been trying to get one for months but no luck yet

[Bonk]

Matrox, Matrox, Matrox!        ... Still my favorite and still the best in my opinion - they're not racing anyone... they build quality products to satisfy their own high standards which match my own.

Linksys and SMC are good for home routers...

[E_Look]

Oh, but Netgear is soooo painless to set up; it even is sort of tolerant of my setup mistakes!

[Pestalence_XC]

Pestalence did a very good job describing the different Nvidia cards out there.  But if you are looking more towards the ATI side of things then I would suggest either the X850 or the X800 respectively.  Any major tech outlet like Comp USA, Best Buy, or even Circuit City should have these items in stock for Nvidia or ATI.  If you want to buy on-line then I would suggest Newegg.

He asked for the best card on the market.. as such the Geforce 6800 Ultra is the best on the market with a 10% performance lead across the board vs the x850 Radeon.. 20% better than the x800 Radeon...

As for myself, I am currently using a Radeon x300 until I can save up the money for a Geforce 6800 ultra.

the problem with the 6800 ultra is that there are none on the open market i have it strait from nividia that they are having problems at the plant in ti-wan and the cards have been delayed a friend of mine has been trying to get one for months but no luck yet

Comp USA has the Geforce 6800 Ultra with 256 MB available by the manufacturer called Verto going for $499. It shows In Stock on their web site... no delivery available, but it is available for pickup in store.

http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=313398&pfp=BROWSE

[Pestalence_XC]

NVidia GeForce 6800 Ultra with 512 MB DDR (hard to find... most are 256 memory) vid memory (Not the GeForce 6800 GT, GeForce 6800 GTO*, GeForce 6800, and GeForce 6800 LE.. these are the lower end cards of the 6800 series).

Hey pestalence,

Isn't the 6800 GT clocked jsut marginally slower than the ultra? Its just that as i understand it I would not classify the GT as being lower end. Technically it is but i wouldn't group it with the vanilla 6800 or the 6800 LE personally.

What might be of interest to some is the gainward 6800 GT which clock at ultra speeds (and i think i read that this is actually covered under waranty, though at this time i can't find where it says this):

Specs:
http://www.gainward.de/new/products/agp/ultra_2000/comparison.html

Review:
http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/gainward6800gtg/

The Geforce 6800 GT is matched by the Radeon x800-x850 (what's 50 MHZ GPU speed) in performance.. basicallly the performance specs on these 2 cards is almost identical.

[likkerpig]

Just build a rig for a buddy using the SLI architecture. Installed 2 128mb 6600 series(can't remember exactly). The advantage to this is a much wider pipeline for dataflow from the vid cards (double). Half life 2 runs without a hitch, very very pretty. Downside is with those two monsters in there, there isn't much room to use the other expansion slots.

[Redshift the Kook]

All good advice.

When Nvidia and STI switched from their 9800 and 5950 cards to the X800's and 6800 there was a massive jump in performance, something like 50%. But the difference between an X800/6800 to X850/latest 6800 ultra is not that great. So even a standard X800/6800 is a good buy, no need to bust the bank for the bleeding edge.

As for the router, you'll need one of those because both computers need seperate IP addresses so they both only get the data they asked for. The router will asign these addresses and then route the data to the right address/computer.

I've got a Netgear router too. Pretty solid and user friendly. 

[Dash Jones]

Just build a rig for a buddy using the SLI architecture. Installed 2 128mb 6600 series(can't remember exactly). The advantage to this is a much wider pipeline for dataflow from the vid cards (double). Half life 2 runs without a hitch, very very pretty. Downside is with those two monsters in there, there isn't much room to use the other expansion slots.

How do you link them both together to be used jointly?

For my information

[Don Karnage]

Nvidia leaped froged ATI again??!?  *Sigh*  I just can't keep up with this video card race anymore.  The last I heard ATI's X850 just barely won out over Nvidia's (at the time) latest greatest.  Things are moving too fast again.  Since some people prefer ATI or Nvidia over the other rival and since DonKarnage didn't say which he preferred.  I thought I would pick up where you left off and explain the other side of the video war.  Personally I don't really have a preference, as I've owned (and liked) video cards from both sides.  No offence was intended.

well i don't care the brand since i just want performence, and for the instalation well it should not be hard, just plug and start, anyway i will see that later this year for that and more, but does the rooter have another fonction but sharing a internet connection?

[Pestalence_XC]

Nvidia leaped froged ATI again??!? *Sigh* I just can't keep up with this video card race anymore. The last I heard ATI's X850 just barely won out over Nvidia's (at the time) latest greatest. Things are moving too fast again. Since some people prefer ATI or Nvidia over the other rival and since DonKarnage didn't say which he preferred. I thought I would pick up where you left off and explain the other side of the video war. Personally I don't really have a preference, as I've owned (and liked) video cards from both sides. No offence was intended.

well i don't care the brand since i just want performence, and for the instalation well it should not be hard, just plug and start, anyway i will see that later this year for that and more, but does the rooter have another fonction but sharing a internet connection?

A router works as a hardware firewall with configurable ports and all.. basically, if using it with only 1 machine, you can use a hardware firewall and free cpu cycles and system memory since you no longer need to use a software firewall...

[E_Look]

Pesty, you mean it is effective as a firewall ONLY if you connect only one computer to it?

[Don Karnage]

but with it can you have access to the hd on the main computer?

[Pestalence_XC]

What I mean is that the router is a hardware firewall for all PC's connected, whether it be 1 or 5...

Using a hardware firewall frees the system from CPU cycles that are normally used by a software firewall.. as such the router is better..

You can configure each system individually on ports for each program on each computer.. or if you need a system without a firewall, you can designate 1 system as the master and you can set it as DMZ with port forwarding on it's internal IP turned off..

Or you can just configure each program individually for each system according to the specific system's internal IP address...

either way, your systems will be better secured under a router than with a software firewall and a hardware firewall is easier on your system than a software firewall...

No one outside the router, if you have the firewall engaged, should be able to access your data.

Anyhow, that is about it.