6600GT or Upgrade

[vwsung18t]

My motherboard passed away. I'm building a new system and I was wondering if I should upgrade from my current video card which is a 6600GT. i haven't kept up with the latest video cards in over a year, so i don't know how fast newer video cards are now. is it time to upgrade?

if you thinks so, which one should i get? i don't do a whole lot of gaming. i will play FEAR and Half Life 2 occasionally. so i wan get a middle of the pack kind of card.

 

[LW07]

I would look at this video card:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130056
EVGA Geforce 7900GS KO for $175.99 plus shipping.

 

[vwsung18t]

is this card DirectX 10? the specs say it's DirectX 9 but it also says Vista ready. I'm not sure what the requirements are fora card to be Vista-ready.

 

[LW07]

The 7900GS isn't DX10 ready. The only cards available right now that are DX10 ready are the Geforce 8800s.

So, if you're looking for that, then I would keep the 6600GT(is it PCI-Express?) and when the 8600Ultra comes out, get it. The 8600Ultra is probably going to be like $180 when it comes out, so if you wait, it'll be a good choice.

But, the 7900GS is Vista-ready, though.

 

[Sniper82]

You don't need DX10 for Vista. But thats not a DX10 card. DX10 cards I think just enable extra features in Vista where DX9 cards won't.

 

[vwsung18t]

When is 8600Ultra going to come out?

 

[StopSign]

I bought a BFG 7900GS for $140 CAD ($180 - $40 rebate) and to replace my 6600GT.

I played both FEAR and HL2 on my 6600GT and they were both very playable at reasonable settings. I mostly played CS:S and it was perfectly smooth at high settings with the 6600GT. If you're looking to upgrade right now, the 7900GS is a very good value. Otherwise, wait for the 8600 series.

 

[akshayt]

To play FEAR I would recommend:

7600GT/6800GT for 10x7 MAX no SS no AA
7900GT for 12x9 MAX no SS no AA
1900XT for 12x9 MAX no SS 0-4x AA,
All these will probably let you play FEAR with an average of 60-80FPS in the Performance Test with the minimum around 30-40FPS which will also depend on the rest of your rig.

A 7900GS may also let you play at 12x9 MAX no SS no AA but definitely not as good as the 7900GT.
There are people who play FEAR on a 7600GT or so with near max settings but I am talking of exact max settings other than SS and also not of a minimum of 20-25 but around 35 or little below and with not too much time under 40FPS, so a better card is needed for that.

A good tweak in FEAR is to disable shadows(not recommended from eye candy point of view though). For me in the performance test it changes my avg FPS from 60s to nearly 100, minimum from around 30 to around 45, so it is a huge difference that I am talking about(12x9 MAX 4x AA).