Deciding on a video card

[ThePerson98]

Lately I've been looking for a new video card, a 7600 GT hasn't really kept up with the latest stuff too well I'm sure you can imagine.

Obviously my eyes flew to the 8800GT, which is so low in price right now it's ridiculous. I'm wanting to nab the 8800GT due to my liking of EVGA, but I've heard of some new cards coming around the corner.

I'm also on summer break right now, and I made the marching band here, the marching band is pretty serious, I'm going to be losing my summer after July 28th, and the whole first semester of school will also be eaten by it, so it'd be January before I could use anything gotten in July.
I also want a card that will last me for quite awhile, 2-3 years or so, and be done with just upgrading and upgrading, the rest of my computer is fine, I just need this 7600GT to be replaced.
I know that when the newer cards come out that they will not be cheap in any way whatsoever (For the longest time the 8800GT was 300 bucks), and being like any other human, I want to spend the least amount of money possible.
So is the 8800GT a good candidate for what I'm looking for?

[Midknyte]

the 8800GT is a good choice for the money.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...ards,1805.html

[Leoslocks]

The 8800GT is one sick folding machine. Would love to see you back folding on it.

[ThePerson98]

The 8800GT is one sick folding machine. Would love to see you back folding on it.

I didnt know the video card could folding, is that something recently added? I know Nvidia has been changing stuff with the cards (CUDA for PhysX processing and stuff) and that it could be more flexible.

A quick google answered my question, I dont see the harm in starting up the folding program again.

Also, the 8800GT is amazing for the price, Crysis runs very well, I'm running it 1440x900 and it's amazing. For any of you trying to decide to upgrade, especially from a 7600GT or worse, the 8800GT is an amazing deal.

[Leoslocks]

Beta Folding on GPUs arrived recently. Most newer Ati and nVidia cards will run F@H.

The 9800GTX can be had for under $200 as well as Ati's 4850.

[ThePerson98]

This thing is a folding monster, in about 5 hours I will have completed a workunit. Also the program itself is much more interesting to watch.

[Leoslocks]

Running the Visualization is a bit buggy at present and it uses a lot of the folding resources. It is cool though.

8800GTS | 479 Points in 3 hours

[09:12:50] Project: 5004 (Run 3, Clone 103, Gen 4)
[09:12:50] 
[09:12:50] Assembly optimizations on if available.
[09:12:50] Entering M.D.
[09:12:56] Working on p5002_supervillin_e1
[09:12:57] Client config found, loading data.
[09:12:57] Starting GUI Server
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[12:13:29] 
[12:13:29] Finished Work Unit:
[12:13:29] - Reading up to 3550680 from "work/wudata_04.trr": Read 3550680
[12:13:29] trr file hash check passed.
[12:13:29] - Reading up to 1130700 from "work/wudata_04.xtc": Read 1130700
[12:13:29] xtc file hash check passed.
[12:13:29] edr file hash check passed.
[12:13:29] logfile size: 110660
[12:13:29] Leaving Run
[12:13:30] - Writing 4793112 bytes of core data to disk...
[12:13:31] Done: 4792600 -> 4137557 (compressed to 86.3 percent)
[12:13:31]   ... Done.
[12:13:31] - Shutting down core
[12:13:31] 
[12:13:31] Folding@home Core Shutdown: FINISHED_UNIT
[12:13:34] CoreStatus = 64 (100)
[12:13:34] Sending work to server


[12:13:34] + Attempting to send results
[12:13:58] + Results successfully sent
[12:13:58] Thank you for your contribution to Folding@Home.
[12:13:58] + Number of Units Completed: 194

[ThePerson98]

My only problem is, is that whenever the Folding@home is running it seems to get my computer lagging pretty badly. I've turned the processor usage down a bunch but it still does a good job at eating up my computer.

[Leoslocks]

Right clicking the systray icon will allow you to Pause or even Quit the program. It is designed to use what is not being used but still quite the resource hog. On top of that, the GPU software is still beta. There will be a lot of optimizing going on with the software as well as the client.

[ThePerson98]

Right clicking the systray icon will allow you to Pause or even Quit the program. It is designed to use what is not being used but still quite the resource hog. On top of that, the GPU software is still beta. There will be a lot of optimizing going on with the software as well as the client.

After fiddling in the settings a bit I got it to where it barely even makes a noticeable speed difference It's not too fast but it's working.