Looking for a new Video Card

[ottothecow]

I am trying to pick a video card for my new build but I am not quite satisfied with my options.

The card will be going into an Asus P5N with an e6550 and I am looking to spend at or less than $200.

There seems to be nothing at the $200 price point and while I would love to buy cheaper and upgrade (I'd rather buy a $150 card now and a new $150 card in a year or two), it just seems like those 8600GTS cards are garbage. I'd rather stick with nvidia as I have been much happier with them in the past (I dislike my x800gto though if ATI was the key to getting what I want now, I would be all for it). I'd be willing to go a bit above $200 if I could find a good deal on an 8800GTS but idealy it will be below 200 (rebates included).

Thanks

 

[ottothecow]

Actually, I took a look at some of the ATI cards and it seem slike the x1950XT would be a good choice (coupled with a quiet cooler, sounds like some of those things are LOUD)

Sound like a good idea?

 

[MarcVenice]

Jup sounds like a good idea, x1950xt 256mb from saphire should be 150$ or so AR. It's not THAT loud btw, when it's idle at least. When gaming who cares if your pc makes a little more noise, as long as it doesn't become worse then the sounds blasting out of your speakers.

 

[ottothecow]

I threw it into my list https://secure.newegg.com/NewV...itle=2007+system+ideas
and I like where the price/preformance of that card seem to lie (either way it kicks the shit out of my x800gto which is way underclocked to prevent its artifact problems...)

The noise'll bother me when watching movies and stuff but I can always plunk down $30 for some peace and quiet later (It's already going to go into a p180 and its summer now so I always have a fan on in my room to cover the noise...)

 

[Sinn707]

8800 GTS 320MB would give the most performance for the price, but unfortunately there isn't any deals on it right now that I'm aware of, and the cheapest still costs $280 pre-rebate, $260 after.
The bad news is you are 100% correct about 8600 series, they are... underperforming to say the very least. Now the good news: There is a card which wipes the floor with 8600 GTS for $150 - X1950XT. It performs really well for the money, you can read the review here.

8600GTS even looses to X1950Pro most of the time, and X1950XT is ahead by miles.

So as much as I'm not used to recommending ATI cards, X1950XT seems to deliver the most in the $150 range.

Link

 

[ottothecow]

It seems so old but it looks like the x1950xt is the way to go

 

[JustaGeek]

I would recommend at least 512Mb of VRAM. Some games require that for the Ultra Quality settings (e.g. Quake 4).

 

[MarcVenice]

Stop posting that crap dude. Some games are like SOME SOME VERY VERY FEW GAMES, which have CRAPPY ultra qaulity settings no-one gives a dime about * really watching my language here * because they HOG vram yet offer almost no visual improvement. So far my 320mb on my 8800gts has yet to run into any trouble.

Also, you don't even know what resolution he is gonna use. My guess would be 1024*768 or 1280*1024 since that's what 80% or so of the gamers game on. For those resolutions you don't need 512mb of vram.

In short, OP, ignore JustaGeek.

 

[JustaGeek]

Not knowing the resolution is not crap.

Unless it comes from the owner of a crappy card, not able to make the Ultra Quality playable.

 

[ottothecow]

I will be playing at 1280x1024 as it is my panel's native resolution (I also have a secondary monitor but as it never goes into 3d mode, it could be run on a 10 year old 16meg card)

Benchmarks point to the memory being fine without hitting 512.

 

[JustaGeek]

That's why you have to make an educated decision based on your needs, resolution requirements, game settings and... obviously your budget.

I do not think that the price difference between 256 and 512MB versions of X1950XT is that great, but I might be wrong.

I am all for the flexibility and possible future upgrades, e.g. your monitor.

But it is definitely up to you.

 

[dealmaster00]

Originally posted by: JustaGeek
That's why you have to make an educated decision based on your needs, resolution requirements, game settings and... obviously your budget.

I do not think that the price difference between 256 and 512MB versions of X1950XT is that great, but I might be wrong.

I am all for the flexibility and possible future upgrades, e.g. your monitor.

But it is definitely up to you.

Meh, with a $200 budget, 512MB vs 256MB is probably the least of his issues. Also, you can get a BFG 7950GT for $166 AR on newegg. The x1950xt is a bit faster, but the 7950GT isn't as power hungry and I think it doesn't run as loud either.

 

[lyssword]

1950pro, price is around $ 110-150, would be at least 2x faster than your 800gto and doesn't require power supply as good as for 1900xt and possibly quieter. 7900gs is also competing with 1950pro but pro is a little better. For $160-180+ go for 7950gt/1900xt.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...1&name=PCI+Express+x16

 

[ottothecow]

I think I am going to go with this card: http://www.newegg.com/product/...p?item=N82E16814102061
It looks like the best card for the combo of price/reviews/cooler (I like the idea of the Asus card's cooler but it sounds like it is so poorly connected that I would have to take it off and redo it...at that point If I have taken the effort of removing the heat skink I would just replace it with a zalman or something).

Then the total system would look like this:
https://secure.newegg.com/NewV...hDetail.asp?ID=7027728