The final piece...

[P2Mc28]

I've got everything picked out, bought my e8400 today and ordering everything else tonight. But now I'm trying to figure how what the heck video card I want.

Looking at a 9600gt vs 8800gt review, it's like the 9600gt is *almost* up to speed with the 8800gt, but it's ~$30 bucks cheaper. What I really wanna know is where the heck is the 9800gt? That's would be the next-gen 8800gt, right? I'm guessing it's a ways of since I'm not finding so much as a random review on it on Google.

Looking for recommendations in the 8800gt price range, +/- a few bucks. I'm not looking to spend $300+ on a card when right now* the most intensive thing I run is WoW, but I plan on picking up Supreme Commander (and Starcraft II whenever the heck that might be - I guarantee I'll still be using this machine for that) and sooner or later Crysis.

This MSI 8800gt is basically what I originally picked out so I could have a GPU filled in my "list of things to buy" so I could look at how much I was going to be spending, but I think I've actually grown to like the thing (I love heatpipes lol). It's right around the price range I was looking to spend (pre-rebate), that's just icing) but I don't mind going up a bit, if there's a *solid* reason to do so (gtx? gts? /shrug)

 

[daveybrat]

Get the 9600GT. You'll save a lot of cash and still get great performance. WoW is not a taxing game and you'll be able to run it on max detail on the 9600GT.

Supreme commander and Starcraft II are more CPU dependent then GPU dependent as they are strategy games. Your E8400 will be great for those.

 

[andrei3333]

wait for a 9800gt its just around the corner

 

[P2Mc28]

Originally posted by: andrei3333
wait for a 9800gt its just around the corner

I'd love to do this, but I need a heckuva lot more info than "just around the corner" =P

Would the wait be justified in performance increase? How much more would I expect to spend? And just how long is it until we get around that corner?

Remember, I'm ordering everything else, like, *right now.* If, say, the 9800gt's were, say, 4 weeks off and was simply a "must buy" in my eye, I could reasonably go borrow my friend's spare 6800gt until then.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

You might be better off waiting depending on what your resolution for gaming is and what games. What were those things?

 

[P2Mc28]

I couldn't tell you what my resolution would be at. I've been running games at 1280x1024 for so long that anything higher just... I dunno. Taboo? lol. I'll be running wide screen, and dual monitors.

Games: right now, pretty much just WoW

Near future: Supreme Commander, Crysis

Further future: Starcraft II

Obviously I'm not going to be aiming to play Crysis on Very High, and that is just fine with me. I understand the sheer horsepower that game needs and I don't much feel like shelling out $1200 on video cards just to make the highest settings kinda playable lol.

 

[secretanchitman]

just wait for the rest of the 9 series to come out...prices are definitely dropping on the 8 series as we speak. i just saw an 8800GTX for $289 AR!

 

[andrei3333]

so then wait, why do you have to order everything right now ? listen
do you want the latest and greatest or you want last gen ?

thinkg about it, a year from now will you be saying to your self " maan , i hsould have gotten the top of the line 9 series or yeah im really happy with my 2+ year old video card... truxt me patience pays off, just like with girls ;-)

 

[P2Mc28]

Originally posted by: andrei3333
truxt me patience pays off, just like with girls ;-)

You have no idea just how patient I've been. On both fronts...

First, I was "Oh, I'll wait until Vista comes out next year"
After that, "Oooooh new mobos! PCI-e? DDR2? Yay!"
Then it was, "Oh, well, Vista is kinda a disappointment... Oooooh Conroe!"
This is where I think I started playing WoW and got sucked into it and didn't care anymore.
Then I bought a new car, a Xbox360, Rock Band and was like "Crap, I have no money right now"
Now I'm at "omigosh, I've been waiting to build for so long... WANT."

So... I've been patient. For years. It's just freakin' time already.

I'll wait for the 9 series though, as long as I can. I'll buy the 6800gt off my friend and use that until I can pick up a 9 series I can be happy with.

But damnit I'm building this machine NEXT WEEK.

[edit] Ick, is there no such thing as a 6800gt? I can't find any PCI-e 6800's... it might be a 6600... I can't for this computer to play WoW worse than my current system... LOL [/edit]

 

[djnsmith7]

Well, you have a few excellent options to choose from, since there are some good cards on the market. As others have mentioned, some of the prices are dropping as we speak.

Since your budget is $300, you could either pick up an 8800GTX for $289 AR or you could go over your budget by $60 & pick up the new 9800GTX. I'd expect the 8800GTX to drop another $30 or so in the coming weeks & the 9800GTX will probably do the same.

The 8800GT is also a great card to consider for a lot less $$$.

 

[RussianSensation]

I would say get 9600 GT for $130 after MIR such as this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814145151. Take the difference and wait until GT200/R700/R800 or until it just becomes too slow. 9600GT overclocked more or less should match 8800GT. I don't think 8800GT will necessarily allow you to play any of the games with much more detail since GF8 architecture is pretty much maxed out on this end. Extra 15-20% isn't really material in games like Crysis since we need 2-3x the performance increase for it to actually make a difference.

If you want a stopgap card, there is also 8800GS by EVGA for $110 after MIR, http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814130332 So this way you still maintain the 90 day step-up program (although EVGA has MSRP prices for step-up). 8800GS overclocked to 700mhz is also sufficient.

 

[hans007]

the 8800gt is a big difference if you play games that use a lot of shaders at high resolution.

seems t make a huge difference in UT3 or crysis. so basically the games with teh most advanced renderers. on older games like WoW, or even command and conquer 3 etc it seems to make little difference.

the 8800GS is also a good option at $110 after rebate shipped at newegg. I think the cheapest 9600gt is the palit hdmi one for $126 shipped i believe.

probably would be worth it to get the 9600gt over the 8800gs just to get the extra memory bandwidth and memory (8800gs has 384 mb).

8800gt i think the cheapest ones with 512mb are about $180 shipped after rebate. its not really worth it to get 256mb anything anymore. if you happen to be a crysis or ut3 player at like 1920x1200 might be worth the extra $50-60 though probably not woorth it.

starcraft 2 is supposed to not really require a very fast vid card. its only dx9 and supposedly it will run fine on something like an 8600gt. supcom is pretty video card heavy but a 9600gt probably will max it out. so basically crysis is the only game no your list that would require more than a 8800gs or 9600gt, and crysis would probably still play ok with a 9600gt just not at insane resolution with hdr and such

 

[Anath]

Another vote for 9600gt. And if you want a better performer later on down the road get evga and use their 90 day step up.

 

[noxiousCaitSith]

the 8800gts can be purchased for under $250 and it will of course just keep going down.