Best Bang for the Buck video card upgrade?

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J

jdport

Senior member
Oct 20, 2004
710
0
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I'm not restricting myself to nvidia cards , but do have an SLI ready motherboard so I'd lean that way. Hoping to spend not more than $150 ... but price is not firm either... what card is the best bang for the buck right now to upgrade from my 6800GT??

Tried searching for similar questions but didn't see any :)
Thanks!
 
zerocool84

zerocool84

Lifer
Nov 11, 2004
36,041
472
126
Here are some important questions:

What games do you plan on playing?
What rez do you play at?
What are your system specs as to not limit the videocard with your system?
Is your videocard up to snuff?
 
Denithor

Denithor

Diamond Member
Apr 11, 2004
6,300
23
81
Originally posted by: jdport

I'm not restricting myself to nvidia cards , but do have an SLI ready motherboard so I'd lean that way. Hoping to spend not more than $150 ... but price is not firm either... what card is the best bang for the buck right now to upgrade from my 6800GT??

Tried searching for similar questions but didn't see any :)
Thanks!
Click to expand...

Asus 8800GS

Buy two = $72.35x2 + $17.30 shipping - $70MIR = $92

Overclock to around 650-700 core & 900 memory & you've got an incredible level of performance for <$100 after the rebate.

Credit for finding deal.

EDIT: If you want to stick with a single card here's the lineup (decreasing performance).
4870X2 > GTX 295 > GTX 285 > GTX 280 > 1GB 4870 = GTX 260 216 > 512MB 4870 = GTX 260 192 > 4850 = 9800GTX+ > 9800GTX > 8800GTS 512MB = 4830 > 8800GT/9800GT > 9600GT > 4670 > 8800GS/9600GSO

Cards not appearing on this list aren't considered gaming cards by today's standards. In your price range you're going to be limited to the 4850/9800GTX+ and below, which are both going to lose to a pair of 8800GS cards in SLI (and cost more doing it).
 
J

jdport

Senior member
Oct 20, 2004
710
0
71
That's a pretty good idea with the dual 8800GS cards... but I think i'm leaning towards the 9800GT right now. Looking for a deal on one of those... it will be a lot faster than what I have now, and as they keep getting cheaper and cheaper I could add a second one of those at a later date if I needed it. Also, keeping in mind that the 8800GS solution would only be faster for those games and applications that are actually coded to scale well with SLI. Since I got an xbox360 last year I don't play all that many games on my PC. I do some graphics programming and tooling around in second life and play with some 3d modeling programs and i'm getting by ok with what I have now so any significant increase that doesn't cost a fortune will probably make me pretty happy.

Thanks for the input everybody.
 
Denithor

Denithor

Diamond Member
Apr 11, 2004
6,300
23
81
O

OCGuy

Lifer
Jul 12, 2000
27,227
36
91
Originally posted by: Denithor
Originally posted by: zerocool84
Originally posted by: Wreckage
Stole this from slickdeals.net
http://www.slickdeals.net/perm...-Card-115-After-30-MIR

Newegg has Asus Radeon HD4850 512MB PCI Express Video Card for $165 - $20 coupon EMCABBDCA - $30 rebate = $115 with free shipping.
Click to expand...

That's hot
Click to expand...

No kidding - go for this one. Even though SLI isn't an option in the future that's an awesome deal on a strong card.
Click to expand...

Hmmm.....2 8800GTs would smoke that card. You leave yourself with no cheap upgrade path with the 4850.
 
T

Tempered81

Diamond Member
Jan 29, 2007
6,374
1
81
Originally posted by: Denithor


Asus 8800GS

Buy two = $72.35x2 + $17.30 shipping - $70MIR = $92

Overclock to around 650-700 core & 900 memory
Click to expand...

This is what i was going to say

Edit:
Just ordered this, shipping was $23 for me for two cards... ~$167 total - 70MIR = $97 A/R. Looks like I'll be using this for the meantime since my buy.com GTX280 sli deal has gone to 'backordered' status
 
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