Choosing between 6800GT 128mb(Asus), 6800GT 256mb and 6800Ultra

SadisticOne

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Nov 23, 2004
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Its Christmas time, and my wife decided to scuttle my upgrade plans by taking a sudden and massive liking to World of Warcraft.

She complains significantly about locking up in towns... part of which is to do with the processor I know (Athlon XP 1800 with 512MB of PC3200,) but I'm also guessing that the gpu also is playing a part here...

Its a Gainward GF4 Ti4200.

I've been looking at prices on cards, and waited and waited and waited.. but my prime choice from a price performance viewpoint, a reasonable 6800, like the BFG, is like Tickle-Me-Elmo, in terms of availability... and having been disappointed by being unable to get the PNY from CompUsa, or the BFG 6800OC from Outpost.com

I'm prepared to pay a bit.. or maybe a lot.. more.. depending on what makes sense.

Cards which caught my eye (from places I'd consider buying from) are:

Asus V9999 6800FX GT 128 (DDR??) from Newegg - $319 ish
BFG 6800GT 256MB from Safe Harbor - $440 ish
BFG 6800Ultra 256MB from Outpost - $499 (with cheaper express shipping...)

I've heard rumors of bad things about the Asus. Anyone who actually bought 1 comment on the card?
 

Spike

Diamond Member
Aug 27, 2001
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If the main use is for WOW, then get a 6800NU and try your luck with unlocking the pipes and overclocking. That card seems to have enough power to play the game fine (as well as most others) and is the cheapest. If you want longevity then get a GT or Ultra as you will get the most life out of them.

If I were buying a card right now I would seriously wait till after Christmas and hit all the sales then, you are bound to find a good deal on one of these cards.

-spike
 

SadisticOne

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Nov 23, 2004
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Not the BFG 6800GT.. which isn't available many places at all..

It's among the top performers, is well regarded and has a lifetime warranty.. which is why I was thinking of that brand. Another option is the XFX 6800GT... Thoughts?
 

Spike

Diamond Member
Aug 27, 2001
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Originally posted by: SadisticOne
Not the BFG 6800GT.. which isn't available many places at all..

It's among the top performers, is well regarded and has a lifetime warranty.. which is why I was thinking of that brand. Another option is the XFX 6800GT... Thoughts?

I have heard many good things about XFX, though I do love my BFG! Anyway, like I said before, wait and you will find a good card, probably even a BFG.

Chumbo

They are the official retailer for BFG (though even they don't have it in stock at the moment). They even have this thing with the 6800 OC where you get $40 back for buying one of these and sending them ANY working graphics card... kinda cool...

-spike
 

CaiNaM

Diamond Member
Oct 26, 2000
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WoW actually runs fine on a gf4 with xp3200+ (oc'd 2600 barton); if you're having issues you may try and go a little less expensive video card so you can upgrade cpu as well. anything 6800/x800 is overkill for an athlon 1800 anyway.
 

rstove02

Senior member
Apr 19, 2004
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Originally posted by: SadisticOne
Its Christmas time, and my wife decided to scuttle my upgrade plans by taking a sudden and massive liking to World of Warcraft.
If WoW your main gaming conscern, then all 3 video cards will be more than enough. I just recently got the AGP XFX 6600GT video card to use with WoW. At 1024X768 with all eye candy turned on, I average between 40-50 frames/sec. The lowest that I have seen was 27 while the highest being round 68.

Here is a list of the other spec's of my system:
AMD64 3000+
1GB system memory
 

SadisticOne

Member
Nov 23, 2004
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She has a really nice monitor sitting on her desk, a Sony F500R (terrific Dell deal from Hotdeals a few years back.) 1024 is about the minimum res she runs. Ideally running more eye candy at a higher res would be nice... so there is a reason for a beefier card.

However... I'm sold on the idea of waiting til after Xmas, for sales.

I'm gonna pick up a mobo/proc... probably Athlon64 754 3400+ on a DFI nforce3 (because when it comes time to upgrade... both will be upgraded anyway.. so no worry about upgrade path.) A couple of shiny new HD's and a gig of Ram, and she's set.

Thanks for the assistance.