Is GeForce FX 5950 Ultra the best for SL?

At $470.00, is the GeForce FX 5950 Ultra the ultimate video card for SL? (I just purchased a new high end computer, but it came with an ATI card that has SL "issues".)

I am using the NVIDIA 6800 GT (which is around $300). I have heard good things about the NVIDIA 6600 GT which is well under $200.

I believe the ultimate Nvidia card is the NVIDIA 7800 GTX, which is $600.

*shrug*

I have a 5950 ultra. It was fine up til SL version 1.6. Now various things in SL bluescreen my pc. Going back to my old Geforce 3, everything is fine (well, not everything, but those particular graphic related symptoms vanish).

I also know someone else with a 5950 ultra who crashes constantly, and has just invested in a new video card to try and stop it. Which when, as you say, it oughta be about the best you can get for the job, is kinda nuts.

I have the 5950 Ultra by PNY tech and have not experienced any of said issues. Driver versions are huge for any video card, and I am always careful in upgrading and seeing different behaviors between driver releases. http://www.guru3d.com has a great driver reference section with reviews. The manufacturer of the card can vary as well - as not all "5950 Ultra's" are the same. Different cooling, clocking, etc. between vendors does not make all of the cards the same. I prefer PNY or BFG. Also, the 7xxx series is now top dog as mentioned earlier - the 5950 is a bit old to be demanding the $450-500 price these days. Shop the price online as I am sure you can find that card for much less and whoever is charging the premium they first demanded is definately not competitive price wise.

If interested I can post my driver version Kris - possibly resolve your constant crashing. Let me know if your interested.

Just my shiney 2 pennies and a wad of lint

p.s. - I still kind of miss my GeForce4 Ti4600 - For whatever reason - the Ripple water effect in SL is not a viable selection on GPUs in the 5xxx and 6xxx range from nVidia from my experience (with many different driver releases).

Sure - interested to know what you're using. I've tried MANY drivers from many sites tho since in an effort to solve the issue. I've even reformatted the PC. Between SL versions 1.5 and 1.6 I didnt change anything at all, and certainly not drivers. Before the update, no problem. After - crashes all the way. And completely reproduceable ones, too.

I'd say no, especially for that price. a 6600gt for around $200 will out perform it and is rock solid using it with SL. The 5950 was a rocking, top of the line card in 2003! Most reviews from that time tended to recommed the ATI 9800 over it since it was roughly equivelent for significantly cheaper.

You can, infact, get a GF 6800 Ultra with 512m memory which is significantly better (but overkill for SL) for $460. (you have to shop around though, it can go for as much as $700).

For SL, an Nvidia 5500 coupled with a fast CPU like a 3400+ and 1gig of memory would give you a heck of a lot more bang for the buck compared to a 5950 Ultra stuck on an older machine like a 2800+ for about the same money.

Edit: whoops.. I missread were you said you already had a new computer. In that case a 6600gt with 256 meg ram would be ideal for your setup for lots less cash. Need to make sure you know which card to get, the PCI-e or the AGP version.

I use a 5900 ULTRA-256, which is basicly very similar to the 5950... Not exact, but similar. I've had very good luck with it for over a year now with SL, no issues, never really had reason to complain about it being underpowered.

umm.. fwiw

Leadtek GeForce 6800 GT VGA 256MB DDR3 256-bit DVI/TV-Out 8X AGP Model: A400 GT TDH - Price watch $289

GeForce 6600 AGP8X DDR 256MB DVI+VGA+TV Dual Port Output Retail Box. VGA GIGABYTE GV-N66256DP 6600 256RT GV-N66256DP. Price watch $137

The best video card is the one where you can use the least amount of coolant fans in your box! .

Nah really. You really don't need a GeForce 6800 GT or higher to play this (maybe when 2.0 comes out).

I downgraded from a Geforce 6800 to a 6200 it works just fine with SL. It only has 128mb of memory. The 5950fx should do ya just fine.

I have a 6800GT too, getting the odd bluescreen on the last two sl releases, would have to disagree that downgrading a card is good, depends what options you have on, particles are big fps hitters, if you set them down to 0 your speed will shoot up, anistropic filtering is also a graphics only feature, as well as shadows, the other options are cpu based too, although the one other major slow down that sl doesnt use to improve graphics greatly is anti-aliasing, 4x anti-aliasing looks amazing in sl, but you have to set it up manually in windows as its normally application controlled, and well sl aint upto doing that yet.

As far as new cards go well best value is a GT model, most if not all will overclock to the ultra+ speeds, and with the 7 series out there should be some cheaper 6800's out to grab

I'm using a 5950 at home. Being a high-end card, I had to do two things:

* set up good cooling through my case
* Upgrade my Antec 400 to and Antec 450 (both high-quality supplies)

My laptop's on a 6800. I don't see much difference between the two (in SL at least) though shopping around for a 6800 would be my suggestion for that price range.

I have a PNY 5950 and an EVGA 6800 Ultra in two otherwise near-identical platforms. I have no problems with either, using the NVidia drivers downloaded from their site. Assuming there are no lag problems (a big assumption), the 6800 Ultra significantly outperforms the 5950. (I have read that the advantages of the 7800 over the 6800 Ultra are not so great, so I will wait for the next iteration before considering upgrading.) Cooling's an issue, and I've removed both side panels on my computers.

In reality, however, lag and other issues in SL cut down the aesthetic differences between the two cards considerably.

I would guess that the laptop is running the 6800LE, so i would guess they perform around the same, have you or anybody else tried setting anti aliasing in the nvidia controls? If so what do people think, personally i think they should have the setting in with the graphics options, as it makes things looks so much better by smoothing off the edges of prims, no more jaggies etc.

From what i've heard of the 7 series, they use 30% less power but produce a load more processing power, and using less power means less heat, and therefore all cards will be single slot including the ultra which used to be a two slot with a chunky fan

It's a regular 6800 Go, actually, not an LE. I'm quite happy with it. ;^)

You're largely right on the 7800 GTX, here's a link:
http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=Nzg0

Personally, I'd recommend the 6600GT ($159 according to Price Watch) over the 6600. The performance jump is definitely worth it.

Tom's Hardware has a good set of benchmarks out. It effectively demonstrates the relative performance of most AGP chips mentioned so far in this thread.

Just to rehash, in case you didn't notice:
$470 is way too much money (like 3x too much!) for a 5950. As stated above, you can get better cards. (I couldn't even locate a vendor (online) that still sells the 5950, although I did find a 5900 for around $125.)

Perhaps a good thing you posted, you'd have blown a lot of cash on a soon to be obsolete video card (already is by some (personal, really) standards). My hunch is you're shopping locally vs online (as most online retailers, at least the ones I use, don't list older items -- and if they do they're cheap, dirt cheap).