**Official** Video Card Information Thread

[Pr0d1gy]

I figured I would start this thread to help out the new guys who just want information on what video cards are good at what & what they should look for when buying their video cards. FACTS are welcome & will be used to fill out this opening post, which will in turn help the new guy with their knowledge base & decisions. If you have an opinion please back it up with factual evidence such as benchmarks or screenies. Thank you.

 

[Pr0d1gy]

OK I will start it off. I have owned a Gigabyte 6600gt, ATi X800XL, and an Asus Extreme X850XT PE. I use them mostly to play BF2, AoE3 demo, Madden 2006, AoM (without Titans expansion), UT2004, Planetside, City of Heroes, and assorted old games.

Gig 6600gt- This card surprisingly handled everything I threw at it at lower resolutions and without AA or AF turned on. You will have to do a balancing act with the settings for whichever game you play, but it definitely can get the job done. This came with a couple good games, but not much in other software to speak of. You can find these 6600gt's nowadays for around $130ish shipped brand new if you wait for a deal.

X800XL- I saw an immediate difference when using this card on BF2 in frames per second, settings I could use, and image quality. This card was the best bang for the buck card when I got it and served me very well, but if you're looking to work on building a Crossfire setup I would get an X850 seried card or overclock the new bang for the buck champ, the X800GTO which can be overclocked to an X850XT PE.

Asus EX850XT PE- my favorite card so far. I have been able to run every game with my settings jacked up super high and get no visual lag at all in any game. This thing also came with a nice software package as do most of the Asus cards. You can find these for around $300 in the trading forums, but I think most people are just unlocking & overclocking X800GTO's instead, because they have a high success rate of becoming X850XT PE's.

Just so everyone knows, I run low resolutions due to my crappy CRT monitor. 1024x768 is the norm for me but I can use the same settings when I run my PC on my HDTV with 720p settings (ATi Control Panel has a setting for this), and BF2 runs well at my HDTV's native resolution of 1280x720 (don't quote me on that resolution). If you are running at higher resolutions YMMV, and I would suggest going for one of the higher end cards.

 

[rbV5]

How do you connect your PC to your HDTV?

I use HD-15(VGA) and YPbPr for the connection and s-video on occasion for testing, both my AIW9700pro and X800XL feature native YPbPr output, so the connection is easy. I do prefer the PQ of VGA, but YPbPr has better driver support, and is pretty close in PQ, so its my default connection. My cable runs are close to 25' from the PC to the display.

I've had to tinker some to get VGA sync'd, but haven't had to use powerstrip to configure custom resolutions in a couple years now since ATI put some almost passable adjustments in the drivers (they still don't offer comprehensive custom timing support IMO) but it gets the job done.

Most of the time my large display is for Media Center's GUI, but I do occasionally game on it, which is a kick. Most of my gaming is on my aging, but solid 22" Mitsu CRT. I am awaiting HDCP enabled desktop displays before I pony up to a new main monitor, and I'm considering a projector for the Theater this year.

 

[Pr0d1gy]

I use VGA like you do. I really want to use DVI but I can't afford to shell out the $100+ for a DVI cable with enough length. I just use my headphones for audio so I don't have to worry about getting sound moving out, but it causes me to need long cables because I have to have the tower closeby.

Ideally I would like to run a short DVI cable to the HDTV and an optical out from an X-Fi sound card to a massive surround sound system, but alas I only bought this HDTV for watching the football games in HD and this has turned out to be a nice added benefit.

***Oh and I haven't had to use Powerstrip yet, but I have had to manually set resolutions in games for my 55" Philips Cineos LCoS HDTV.

 

[rbV5]

Me looks at me 55" Philips CRT RPTV and drools over ye 55" Philips Cineos LCoS HDTV LOL..nice.