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Vid Card Upgrade

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DKlein

Senior member
I'm sorta out of the loop as far as new video cards go. I've had my current one for a while now, but have decided it's time to move on to bigger and better things, especially with the possible release of D3 this summer. So I have two questions: where can I go to find out more about the current video cards, and what should I get. As for the second question, I'd like to stick with nVidia and I'd like the best card money can buy for under $500 (I can wait a littlle while too).

My current system:

Abit NF7-S (nForce2)
AMD Athlon XP 2500+ @2.2GHz
GeForce3 Ti 200 (64MB)
1GB Kingston PC2700 @352MHz
Maxtor 80GB HDD 7200RPM
 
Well it's also because I just want a new video card. The 64MB isn't working for other new games I've got and I'm tired of <20FPS all the time or poor graphics. It's been a while since I bought the current one and I was planning on retiring it anyway this summer, and since this one definately needs to go I'm going to follow through with that plan.
 
Yes I am willing to go up to $500, but is it worth it? Isn't there anywhere to go to find a good comparison between all the current nVidia cards?
 
id would wait a bit until nvidia get their drivers up to scratch because ATI have the crown at the moment. as painful as it may be waiting itll be worth it in the long run, if you havent already overclock you GF3 to squeeze some more life out of it 🙂
 
6800 ultra is your best bet, ATIs AF performance should go down if they remove the Trillinear/Billinear optimization
 
Schadenfroh:

I'm sure you know this but ATi will not be removing the Trilinear optomizations as they increase performance greatly with little to no impact on image quality. It would be like disabling AA entirely; it makes no sense.

Also, nVidia has been performing similar trilinear optomizations for months now, so if ATi does it as well it's fair game IMO. Remember that ATi has been doing these optomizations for over a year with the 9600 series and nobody has complained or noticed until now. Honestly, this whole ordeal was created by nVidia fanboys to make ATi look bad if you want my opinion.

Why do you say the 6800U is the "best bet"? I suppose that in his case it has to be since he will only buy nVidia (makes no sense to me when there are two solid brands). Seeing as the X800PRO is the only card currently available in retail stores I would have to reccomend it despite his personal bias ATM.

For the OP: Your best bet is going to be to wait until DoomIII is actually released. By that time, prices will come down quite a bit on the newest cards, and you will be able to make an informed decision as to which card performs best in the games you want to play. It's foolhearted to buy hardware now for software that hasn't even been released.
 
Wait until the game you want to play is out on the shelves then make your video card purchase as Doom III has been bumped back yet another month and HL2 when its done.
 
Originally posted by: 1ManArmY
Wait until the game you want to play is out on the shelves then make your video card purchase as Doom III has been bumped back yet another month and HL2 when its done.
Click to expand...

Makes the most sense. What do you think the guys that bought 9800XT cards a couple of months back are doing now??? I've read numerous posts of those trying to get rid of it on ebay to buy the latest offerings. And yet, we still have no games that truly tax these cards (well except for Far Cry).

DKlein, if you can wait like you said, then do it. Don't rush into things like the others are doing at the moment. I'm personally holding off on a major upgrade till I see real word performance tests with games like Half Life 2. Till then, my GF 4400 is playing every game I throw at it at high detail with barely any affect on performance, including Far Cry.
 
Originally posted by: dejacky
especially with the possible release of D3 this summer.
Click to expand...

HAA HAA HAA HAAAAAHH!! Don't buy any video card just for a game that will "POSSIBLY" be released on time. HAAHAHAH! 🙂
Click to expand...

Well that was helpful...
Anyway...if you plan on mostly playing Doom 3, then wait a while until the 6800GT hits shelves and gets situated. You can probably nab it for significantly under $400 after a while. Doom 3 will run beautifully on that card (OpenGL), and I'm fully expecting it to be released this year. If not, you've still got a great card that will make any game out there cry like a little sissy.
 
IMO: 6800GT @ ~$350, X800XT @ ~$450 are your best bets, as far as I can tell from the early benchmarks. CDW is accepting orders for the X800XT for $460, 10% off its $500MSRP. I suspect the X800XT will be available a few weeks ahead of the 6800GT.

Your system is nice, but as FiringSquad's Athlon scaling article showed, it will still hold any of these new $300+ cards back.
 
I'd like to stick with nVidia and I'd like the best card money can buy for under $500
Click to expand...
There's only one choice then - 6800U. Of course it's not necessarily the best choice in the grand scheme of things.
 
Well I'd prefer an nVidia card, just always liked them, as you say it would work better for D3 and my system has a lot of other nVidia stuff in it and I'd like to keep it all in the family if you will, but I'd be willing to go with an ATI maybe, I mean if it'd be the best card out there by far, alright, but if we're talking only a tad better...

The problem is that the game I want to play is out right now, it is called BFV and it gets about 10FPS on average, even with low settings. Fortunately they've got a patch out finally, but I'm doubting it will do much. This card hasn't been the greatest - I blame the small memory size. Any game I've played that was made after 2002 hasn't had great FPS. The reason I've waited until now is I haven't had enough money, I would've bought a new card a while ago if I could have. I still don't want to rush into this, but I don't want to have to stick it out another three or four months with this card - I'm sick of it. Most of the games are making my card cry like a sissy it seems 🙁
 
I recommend you find the cheapest card that will make a noticeable difference... like a Geforce4 Ti4200. This will provide with significantly better performance than the Geforce 3 series &amp; you won't have spent your entire budget on one card that won't yield optimal performance/price ratio when these new games are released. Then, you can sell this card and you won't lose much money so you can spend the rest on your main powerful video card after these games are released.
 
I'd get the 6800 GT. I don't believe that the 500 dollar version, 6800 Ultra is worth it - Although you may not be able to OC the GT by much, the Ultra will need watercooling for it's OC.
 
If you think about it, even $400 for a video card is usually too much. If your going to spend high dollar on a pc component, do it on something that will last, like a nice Display Monitor. These don't depreciate as fast as video cards and are a much better investment. If you spend 4-$500 on a video card, I think you'll regret it because in just a few months you'll see you could have bought it for significantly cheaper. IMO, don't pay more than about $300.
 
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