Help choosing a video card

[sammyunltd]

Hi! I'm building a new computer right now and I'm planning to buy a GeForce 8800GTS since they probably offer the best performance/price ratio. However, I'm really hesitating on which version.... the 640 MB or the 320 MB?

I was a big gamer back then, but now, with college, it's more casual. Probably some Battlefield 2, Counter Strike (1.6 and Source), some sports game, some strategy (AoE...) and some racing (GTR). Also, I'd like to get my hands on Crysis when it'll be out.

Since I've always had a slow and sucky computer (here riding with a TNT 2 for 6 years), I'm not really used to eye-candy modes, so I'm not really that picky on this, although I'd like smooth framerates on my 22'' Widescreen LCD.

I know the 640 MB is currently around $75 more expensive than the 320 MB, so my question is:

Is the extra memory worth it, considering my light-to-moderate use of the GPU?

Thank you a lot!

 

[soonerproud]

If you have a monitor with a resolution higher than 1280 X 1024, then yes it is worth it. You should also look at the 2900XT since it will outperform the 8800 GTS 640 in most games at around the same cost. If your monitor does not do the higher resolutions, then get the 8800 GTS 320 and save yourself some money.

 

[sammyunltd]

In fact, it does go up to 1650*1080. So, you are saying that I should go ATI?

 

[soonerproud]

Originally posted by: sammyunltd
In fact, it does go up to 1650*1080. So, you are saying that I should go ATI?

If the price of the two cards are close, ATI's 2900XT is the best choice overall. It outperforms the 8800GTS 640 in most games. Toms Hardware has listed both cards as a tie, but that was because the 2900XT was a little more expensive at the time of the review. Prices for the card have come down enough to close that gap making the 2900XT the smarter choice overall.

 

[KarmaKiller]

I myself would go with the 8800 640Mb edition. I've never really been a fan of ATI. Mainly because of the drivers. I seem to have trouble with them. In one instance I actually took a performance hit when updating drivers. I'm not saying that they haven't improved, but IMO Nvidia is the better way to go....

 

[soonerproud]

Originally posted by: KarmaKiller
I myself would go with the 8800 640Mb edition. I've never really been a fan of ATI. Mainly because of the drivers. I seem to have trouble with them. In one instance I actually took a performance hit when updating drivers. I'm not saying that they haven't improved, but IMO Nvidia is the better way to go....

Actually, ATI has been better with Vista drivers than Nvidia has up to this point. Nvidia just released a Vista driver that finally brought performance of games on par to XP. ATI has had those drivers out for months now. It has been Nvidia being on the back end of driver development for the last year and not ATI. (I owned Nvidia products for the last 3 years. It is the benchmarks being published that proves your point wrong. In recent benchmarks, ATI has been ahead of Nvidia in driver development for quite some time.)