Picking a Graphics Card

[grimreaper84]

Alright i am trying to pick a new graphics card. ATM i am running:

[specs]
AMD Athlon XP 2600+
512 PC2700 RAM
digiColor GeForce FX 5700LE
ASUS Motherboard
[/specs]

What i want to do is buy a new graphics card for this system but it will eventually end up in my next machine i am building in parts.

[specs]
MSI Neo-FIR Mother Board
AMD Athlon 64 (939) 3400+
1Gig OCZ PC4000 Dual Channel ram
[/specs]

The graphics cards i am debating over are the:
nVidia GeForce6 6600GT, 6800 and 6800GT

I don't know wheather i should only consider MSI cards or not.

Right now I am considering the:

Gigabyte 6600GT or MSI 6600GT
($242) ($270) $17 difference

the

Leadtek 6800 or MSI 6800
($348) ($370) $22 difference

the

XFX 6800GT or MSI 6800GT
($499) ($510) $11 difference


MSI
The difference between the 6600GT->6800 = $111
The difference between the 6800GT->6800GT = $140
The difference between the 6600GT->6800GT = $251


Non-MSI
The difference between the 6600GT->6800 = $106
The difference between the 6800GT->6800GT = $151
The difference between the 6600GT->6800GT = $257


What do you guys think?

 

[Matthias99]

I think those are the worst video card prices I've seen in a long time. I'm also not familiar with that exact motherboard model. Links?

And is that an AGP or PCIe motherboard? I'm not sure I'd want to upgrade to a new system that was still based on AGP at this point (although if you don't think you'll want anything much faster than a 6800GT/X800XT before you build another new system, then it doesn't really matter).

 

[BobDaMenkey]

I personally have a GeForce 6800GT, and I'm very very happy with it. Granted the system I have is a bit different than the one you're building, it's not a bad performer at all.

GeForce Tony is also very happy with the performance of his 6800GT on his 3200+ s939 with 1gb of PC3200.

We're both using the AGP versions of the cards. He's got an XFX(after a ton of bad ones), and I have a Leadtek(after a couple bad ones).

BFG, MSI, Leadtek, and eVGA are my recommended brands in that order. Please note, XFX isn't on the list. They seem to have lots of problems with their products, but they try and take care of it, in a not so timly manner.

 

[BobDaMenkey]

Originally posted by: Matthias99
I think those are the worst video card prices I've seen in a long time. I'm also not familiar with that exact motherboard model. Links?

And is that an AGP or PCIe motherboard? I'm not sure I'd want to upgrade to a new system that was still based on AGP at this point (although if you don't think you'll want anything much faster than a 6800GT/X800XT before you build another new system, then it doesn't really matter).

Yeah, really. Where are you getting these prices from? Are they PCIe or AGP?

I'd also recommend the move to PCIe for the system at this point. It's starting to get pointless to keep on with AGP. The PCIe bus is starting to show some slight performance increases on newer generation games from some of the benches I've seen.

 

[grimreaper84]

These are also in Canadian Dollars, wasn't sure if this was an american or canadian site. eitherway.

Its AGP 8x, and the link to the board is:
MSI Neo FiR

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: grimreaper84
These are also in Canadian Dollars, wasn't sure if this was an american or canadian site. eitherway.

Its AGP 8x, and the link to the board is:
http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=K8T_Neo2-FIR&class=mb

You suck at teh linking, and this is a US board. Not like three seconds of looking around might have confirmed that before you posted.

I have no idea what the current exchange rate is like, or how other Canadian retailers might compare, so I can't really tell you if those prices are good or bad without doing a lot of extra research. In the US, the prices are about (all in USD) $180-200/$250-300/$350-400 for a 6600GT/6800NU/6800GT, respectively.

Opinions on XFX and their support are mixed, to put it nicely, but performance of the cards should be identical.

 

[imverygifted]

BFG 6800GT all the way

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Do you have a decent powersupply to support all this btw?

 

[grimreaper84]

I would definatly shell out the money to makes sure whatever goes into the system supports it, yes

However, i have thought it over and i am going to rethink the parts that will go into the system, so if a mod could close and/or archive this thread that would be great

 

[Fern]

I see that you want the thread to die, but I dropped in to say that, like you, I'm on an XP system and really really like my 6800GT (eVGA)

Just for the heck of it I set back my OC, I'm running almost exactly your set up and the card performs wonderfully in games even at 333mhz (I usually run higher than 400mhz with my chip clocked above an XP 3200).

Another thing, I've recently done a number of benchies on game/save loading times. I used Doom 3, Far Cry, Painkiller etc. The increase in ram from 512MB to 1 gig makes a HUGE difference in all but D3. D3 appears to very efficient and you get decent load/reload times even with only 512MB. 'Corse, its better with 1gig too.

Fern