Dual Graphics Cards?

[Tom Harriman]

I need to upgrade my computer. I understand most of how computers work, but it's been five years since I last did anything with my machine (I spent all my money at uni on my girlfriend instead of my computer, which turned out to be a really rubbish plan), and I'm still a bit iffy on what the deal is with two graphics cards.

I get that two graphics cards are better than one... but how much better? Would I be better off with two cards, or spending the same amount to buy a single, better one? Do I need each individual card to be above the minimum system requirements for a game, or do they (for lack of a better term) "stack" somehow?

I'd appreciate some suggestions on the best graphics card/s I can buy for around the £100 mark. Any more than that, and I'm straying into "Why didn't you just buy an Xbox?" territory. I'd like to be SW:TOR capable when it comes out, but I can't justify dropping a few hundred just to be able to play one game, no matter how awesome it is. :\

Thanks!

[Morgan Evanar]

No reason to buy dual graphics cards, nothing at the 100 mark will be worth a crap. You can get a decent single for that much money though.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-258-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=

Whats the rest of your system?

[Peter McCoy]

The card Morgan linked is a good choice...

BUT...

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-xfx-hd-5830-pci-e-21-%28x16%29-4500mhz-gddr5-gpu-840mhz-1120-cores-dp-2xdl-dvi-i-hdmi

Same card, different manufacturer, better price. In all honesty XFX is still one of the main brands alongside Sapphire and Asus. The architecture is the same, there's usually just a difference in clocks speeds and the cooler. Performance should be pretty similar.

That would leave some cash out of the £100, allowing you to maybe buy a bit more RAM - can't remember what you said you had when we last spoke about this.

The good thing about www.scan.co.uk (http://www.scan.co.uk) is that if you register on the www.bit-tech.net (http://www.bit-tech.net) forums and make at least 20 posts, you can link your forum account to your Scan account and get free delivery.

[Hurucan]

Whats the rest of your system?

Processor is an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ (dual core - runs at ~2.5 GHz). I've only got 1GB of RAM in there, and the board will support up to 8, so upgrading that is a no-brainer. Current graphics card is an NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS.

Added advantage of the second card - it's got dual DVI ports, and I have two monitors, so that'll be useful!

Thanks for the help, guys. :)

[Peter McCoy]

Check to see if your operating system is 32-bit or 64-bit because 32-bit won't make use of more than 3.25GB (I think) of installed RAM.

[Hurucan]

As far as I can find, my OS (XP Pro SP2, 32-bit) should handle up to 4 GB of RAM, which is what I'm planning to go for. I'll keep digging though to try and confirm that before I part with any money - thanks for the tip!

[Morgan Evanar]

It sort of can handle 4gb of RAM. It can really only use 2. It's very complicated.

[Darth Turbogeek]

As far as I can find, my OS (XP Pro SP2, 32-bit) should handle up to 4 GB of RAM, which is what I'm planning to go for. I'll keep digging though to try and confirm that before I part with any money - thanks for the tip!

3.5Gb and that's all 32bit without PAE will do. XP does not do PAE. You want more memory (ALWAYS recommended) go W7 64bit, which again is highly recommended.

[Peter McCoy]

Signed. Win7 64-bit with 4GB of RAM. For what you'll likely use it for, any more would have diminishing returns unless you multitask A LOT.