Quote:
Originally posted by Dragonlich
Should you sell your videocard... hmm. Performance-wise, it should be comparable (slightly slower) to an Ati 9800 pro.
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A GeForce FX 5900XT is nowhere nearly as powerful as a Radeon 9800 Pro. In the NVIDIA market, "XT" means "Crap Version." There's the GeForce FX 5900 XT, then 5900, then 5900 Ultra. The XT is the worst version. The Radeon 9800 Pro is two steps above the XT, possibly more (in generation terms). The FX 5900 XT is about as powerful as a GeForce FX 5600 Ultra...maybe a 5700 Ultra, but that's pushing it.
You're probably disappointed with it because it has the power of a GeForce FX 5600/GeForce 4 TI 4200. Those cards are definitely not bad, but they're not top of the line and never were. If you want a new videocard, I'd save up $200 USD and get a Radeon 9800 Pro 128 MB 256-bit. It'll run circles around your current videocard for a lower price.
As for your Athlon XP being too hot: mine used to run around 60 celsius until I got a good CPU Heatsink Fan. Even the AMD stock fan will run it as high (and higher) than 60 celsius. 60 isn't that bad, though...AMD actually says that Athlon XP's can be taken to around 80-90 celsius without taking damage. I do like to keep mine below 60 though! I suggest buying a Thermaltake Silent Boost or Thermaltake Volcano 7+ or 9+. None of those are over $30 and they'll cool your PC down at least 10 degrees. Remember that the temperature of the room that the PC is in is the biggest factor in how hot the processor is, though! At college, my processor was 30-55 celsius depending on the time of year.
-Lasereth