Need help deciding

[chops2121]

First off, say I want to spend less than $200
Is there a difference between these two cards and what are your thoughts?

ATI 100-435105 Radeon 9800PRO 256MB 256-bit DDR AGP 4X/8X Video Card - Retail

SAPPHIRE 100557L-RD Radeon 9800PRO 256MB 256-bit DDR AGP 4X/8X Video Card - Retail


Secondly, what do you think of this card if I do find I can spend more than $200?

eVGA 256-A8-N344-AX Geforce 6800GT 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 AGP 4X/8X Video Card - Retail

Finally, I have an American Megatrends mobo and it seems pretty stable, but runs really hot. According to Sandra it is running at 72 C with the CPU at 43 C. Any suggestions on how I can cool this off?

 

[slash196]

If you want to spend less than 200 I'd suggest the 6600GT. You might want to check your power supply to make sure it will be able to hand a 6800GT (it sounds like you are using a prebuilt system).

 

[agent2099]

There is a $200 price difference between these two cards. Did you think of trying to find some middleground? If your budget is $100 to ~$320 you have allot more options than just these 2 cards.

 

[qbackin]

:Q the 6800Gt DESTROYS the pro

 

[chops2121]

Any suggestions for the middlegroud?
I played BF 1942 all the time and played the BF2 demo and got hooked.
I really just want a setup that will let me play BF2 without too much trouble.

 

[obeseotron]

Read a video card review, then if you have a question ask it. I'm not ripping you for not knowing what to get, but for not exerting the zero effort it would take to click video on anand's frontpage.

 

[chops2121]

I had been going through posts at the EA games technical support site and came up with this list of supported video cards for BF2:

ATI Radeon

X700 (PCIe), X600 (PCIe), X800 XT Platinum Edition, X800 PRO, X300 series.
9800 series, 9700 series, 9600 series, 9559 (RV350LX), 9500 series, 8500 seies.

NVIDIA GeForce

6600 (PCIe), PCX 5900 (PCIe).
5800 series (AGP).
6800 Ultra, 6800 GT, 6800.
FX 5950 series, FX 5900 series, FX 5700 series.

I just wanted to know from personal experiences what kind of card works best. I had been reading other posts about how people had Geforce 6800GT with 2GB RAM and were set that BF2 would require such a video card and amount of RAM.

 

[chops2121]

I have found a happy medium between price and performance for me.

eVGA 128-A8-N343-AX Geforce 6800 128MB 256-bit DDR AGP 4X/8X Video Card - Retail

Found it at newegg of course.