Help me choose my video card for my first build, I have four choices, pleaes read

[kman79]

Hey guys, need some help here. I'm two weeks away from getting all my parts together and I haven't figured out which video card to get. I know I want a 6800GT, but which one I can't decide. Narrowed it down to four cards.

eVGA
Leadtek
BFG TECH OC
BFG TECH

I can't figure out why BFG OC is cheaper than the regular one. Out of these four wich would you guys reccomend. Which do you guys know will overclock better on Air Cooling? If there is another card you guys think would be better please let me know. Any help on this is greatly appreciated

 

[RussianSensation]

Out of these cards, I'd take the Leadtek because it has 2 decent games bundled in and has the quietest cooler. It costs just a bit more than the EVGA card but has the benefits listed above.

I would bet eVGA and BFG cards would overclock more than the leadtek card since the fan runs at higher RPM speed. BFG has the best warranty in the business and a proven customer support/service. I am not sure if it's worth it over the Leadtek card though. Also even the Leadtek card will get 400/1100 overclock, so whether or not extra 30-40mhz overclock is worth it given a louder card is up to you.

With all that in mind, for now, I'd get X800XL $269
I can hardly justify paying $100 extra for 6800GT given X800XL performs almost as well in most of the games out.

You can also check out Benches Here, Here and Here

Sure 6800 has PS3.0 support, but I dont think that is enough either to justify $350+ or more on it now, given that Geforce 7 will be announced June 22nd or so and the prices of these cards will fall (as well as their relative speed and value) within months.

 

[kman79]

Thanks for the reply. It was very helpful. I play mostly CS:Source and Unreal Tournament, and my brother play Lieneage alot. The ATi card seems to perform slightly better on games running Source engine.

The only thing holding me back on ATI is that none of the card work on SLI mode. I could be wrong though. I was thinking of Nvidia for upgradeability, when the need comes I can just get another card and bump up my video performance. Is that possible with ATI cards now?

Anyone else have any opinions? Thanks for the help

 

[BillyBobJoel71]

if you realy want to spend money on two cards, get a nvidia one. ati should be coming out with amr, which is like sli. i wouldn't get another card (only because i can hardly afford one) but its up to you.

 

[ddogg]

i would take the EVGA!! pretty amazing company....However since ur going PCI-e its worthless paying $100 for the 6800GT when the X800XL can be had for around $270....if u were goin AGP then the 6800GT would be the card to get.
I would advise to wait for the next gen to come out since ur budget is quite a hefty one.

 

[hooflung]

PCs are going to be playing catchup to consoles in the next few years to come so I wouldn't invest too much in any card. SLI is a fly by night technology that will not bring gaming and upgradability to the masses, only to the elite gamer today. Games are still single threaded and there is no SLI benefit unless you are at a high resolution with AA/AF cranked up. What does this mean to you today? Nothing. What does it mean for you tomorrow? Nothing. Why? Because sockets will change, AMD and Intel will change their CPU's again. PCI-E will be around but will SLI? Who knows. Its a gamers gamble that many have already lost once before. GPU's are not and will not be the gaming bottlenecks of the future... CPU thread processing will. PCI-E is a pretty safe bet for your new card but don't worry about SLI because at some point you and your bro will be looking into an Xbox 360 and/or PS3 for your awesome gaming in the future... a future PCs will be playing catchup to. Moreover, not to beat a dead horse... but when PCs play catchup technology toy's are killed for the next best thing. I would look into a Physics Processing card more than a second GPU. I would also look into Dual Core Processing and lower latency memory as well.

I would go for an ATI for price/performance alone and leaves you room in your wallet for other things that could keep you future bright.

 

[kman79]

I'm actually hard pressed to spend this much on a computer. I recently started working at a hospital and I had promised my brother for almost two years that I would get him a new computer, and budgeted 1500.00 for the computer build just for the computer. We're gonna recycle the Monitor for now. Lookin at some setups here, some people spend way more than that.

I don't rebuild or upgrde too often, my last one is over five years old. I don't plan to do an upgrade again for a while.

Thinkin more into it it now after everyone's input, I think I'll save another hundred and get the X800XL.

How does the product line of ATI go again, I thought it was SE, then just plain old X800, XT then Pro. Where does the XL fall in?

 

[James3shin]

the XL is actually in between the pro and xt, respectively. I also recommend the XL since you are on a slight budget.