Looking for a video card ~$150

[nolovenohope]

I generally get a video card every 3-4 years, as I tend to stick with a game for a long time. Last card I got was a GeForce3 Ti450 during my HL1 (TFC, CS, DoD) days, and that is what I am using still. WoW runs fine around 12xx x 9xx widescreen, but the FPS is definately suffering, and bringing up to the full resolution I want is definately not happening.

Can anyone recommend a card or two to look at? Thanks in advance.

 

[JonnyBlaze]

i dont play WoW but i dont think your gonna get a card for that price to push it at that res.

 

[Powermoloch]

Nvidia 6600 / Nvidia 6600GT or a Nvidia 6800LE

 

[Munky]

If you plan on keeping the new card for another 3-4 years as well, then you need something much better than a 6600gt. A 7800gt would do the job nicely, and if you OC it, it runs games as fast as a 7800gtx, but for $100 less.

 

[peleejosh]

you can probably find a 6800 NU for around that price in the for sale forums

 

[Malladine]

A 6600gt or above will get that rez in WoW. Best bet is the 6800nu like some say. Not much future proofing though.

 

[nitromullet]

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2381&p=4

Anandtech did a really good article on WoW a while back. The 1600x1200 benchmarks should roughly equate to 1680x1050.

 

[Josh7289]

Originally posted by: munky
If you plan on keeping the new card for another 3-4 years as well, then you need something much better than a 6600gt. A 7800gt would do the job nicely, and if you OC it, it runs games as fast as a 7800gtx, but for $100 less.

No, he's been using the same old card for a long time, so any one today will work at least half as much as that, like a 6600 GT.

Anyway, for the amount you want to spend, I suggest looking at the 6600 GT, or just follow this link for an excellent deal on one from a great brand: http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDe...?ProductCode=322698&affiliate=shopping

 

[Malladine]

Originally posted by: nitromullet
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2381&p=4

Anandtech did a really good article on WoW a while back. The 1600x1200 benchmarks should roughly equate to 1680x1050.

There are additional graphics options in WoW now - aa/af options in game, to be exact. But yeah, this article is good otherwise.

 

[Sonikku]

I play WoW in 1920x1200 with full effects on, save for 50% Draw distance and 1xAA with a overclocked Radeon 9600XT, 2400+ Sempron cpu and gig of corsair ram. I get about 30fps, which is far more playable in a game like WoW then most fps's out there. A 6600GT should more then do the job. Just keep the draw distance at 50% or less. It's a cheap way to get far more per formance. (Especialy considering how slim the gains are with 100%)

 

[Th3Great]

the 6600GT would be your best bet rightnow

 

[2Xtreme21]

You can get a 6800nu for a few dollars more.

 

[Fallengod]

I dont know if youre agp or pcie but, monarchcomputer and zipzoomfly have the evga AGP 6600gt for like $124 shipped after a rebate. The pcie is like $140AR @ monarch.

 

[formulav8]

I just got a - XFX 6800NU - for a customer from Monarch Computers for $163 shipped. PLUS, there is a $20 MIR making the final cost $143 shipped. So, I think this would be your best bet for price/performance.

Also, I WAS able to unlock the other masked Pixel Unit and now the card has 16x pipes just like the 6800GT and 6800 Ultra. Of course, the clock speeds are lower than the higher end 6800's. I was NOT able to get the extra Vertex Shader to unlock without artifacts. But that doesn't make hardly a performance difference anyways. Only 1-2% on average. On the other hand, the extra 4x pipelines give a average of 8% increase in performance in itself. At least, that is based on my experience with the PNY 6800 NU I have. Overclocking the memory helps even more since for the most part, the memory is the bottleneck, especially when the other 4x pipes are in use.

I also want to mention that the XFX came factory overclocked on the memory. 750mhz instead of 700mhz.

Sorry for the babbling. Hopefully you were able to get something of value from what I said.

Link to the card at Monarch Computers.

Jason

 

[nolovenohope]

Thanks all for the great info! I am going for the 6800NU from Monarch.