Help chosing video card

[bulan880]

I'm very soon ordering my new rig, this is what it looks like so far.

Case: NZXT HUSH
PSU: Antec Phanom 500W
Motherboard: Gigabyte P35-DS4 iP35
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 2,67GHz Box
Memory: Corsair XMS2-6400 TWIN2X2048-6400C4 4-4-4-12 Xtreme 2x1024MB
HDD: Western Digital Caviar XL WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200rpm 16MB SATA2
CPU fan: Scythe MINE 1100 rev.B
Graphics card: I'm still a bit unsure here. What i'm currently most seriously considering is Sapphire Radeon X1950Pro 512MB. Do you have any other suggestions? I have a 22" widescreen monitor and would prefer to play in widescreen resolutions.

Other cards I've thought about are 8600GT and 1900XT.

Anyhting else you would recommend changing in the setup so far?

Any tip what so ever is very welcome!

Edit: I can also mention that I use a 6800GT with my current rig, would it be a big improvement if I would go for any of the cards mentioned above instead?

 

[Engraver]

8600GT is a decent card for the money. I have a couple here at work and we play HL2 on them occasionally with high details and good FPS at 1680x1050.

 

[MarcVenice]

Meh 8600gt sucks imo, it underperforms compared to it's dx9 counterparts at the same price, and you shouldn't expect good dx10 performance from it, so don't buy it because it's dx10. You're far better of getting a x1950pro, which will be a bigger improvement. At those resolutions you need some serious videoprocessing power, I wouldn't do with less then a x1950pro.

Considered getting a gigabyte ds3-r for example ? Why the ds4 ? And welcome to AT.

 

[bulan880]

Thank you

So 1950 pro 512mb > 8600GT 512 and 1900XT ? And also, would it actually be worth upgrading from a 6800GT, what do you reckon?

 

[MarcVenice]

Yes, most definately an upgrade. If I had to take a wild guess, the x1950pro is twice as fast as your 6800gt, wether it is a 128 or 256mb version.

 

[bulan880]

Hmm, from what i can see the 1900XT is better than the 1950PRO, is this true? http://www.tomshardware.com/20...ney/page7.html#summary http://www23.tomshardware.com/...8&model2=725&chart=278

 

[MarcVenice]

Jup, it seems to outperform the 1950pro in all games tested. Both are a pretty good option though. How much can you get a x1900xt for, and how much would a x1950pro cost ?

 

[bulan880]

I get a used 1900xt (no warranty or anything) for the same price as the 1950PRO. I guess I'll take the latter and try OC it.

 

[bigsnyder]

The X1900XT is superior to the X1950Pro regardless of vram. The XTs are full R580 cores, not just faster clocks.
Here is a quick comparison:

---------------------Pro--------XT
Core Clock -------575--------625
Pixel Pipes---------12---------16
Pixel Shaders -----36---------48
TMUs ---------------12---------16
ROPs----------------12---------16
Mem Clock--------1380------1450
--------------------DDR3-----DDR3

Bump the XT clock speeds to 650/1800 and you have a X1950XT. I am sure there is a better chart somewhere, but hopefully this gives you an idea.

 

[Munky]

I'd take a 256mb 1900xt over a 512mb 1950pro any day. The extra shaders will provide a bigger boost in performance than the extra mem. And if you can get a used 512mb 1900xt for the same price, then it's the best card for under $200.

 

[bulan880]

bleh, already ordered the 1950PRO, ah well...
Figured warranty and such would be good to have.