Video Card debate

tuteja1986

Diamond Member
Jun 1, 2005
3,676
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taltamir

Lifer
Mar 21, 2004
13,576
6
76
now they are price gouging the 3870 too... its now at 270$... same as a stock GT, which is out of stock ;p

Basically buy none of them. Wait alittle for the insane prices to drop.

There are only 3 video cards you should even consider buying right now:
8800GT - supposed to cost 200. Sells for 270+
-3rd fastest card on the market (a few percent slower then 700$ cards)
HD3870 - supposed to cost 220. Sells for 260 in some places, beware.
-15% slower then 8800GT
HD3850 - supposed to cost 170. Sells for 170, but might be out of stock.
-Same speed as 3870 on low resolutions. ~15% slower on 1680x1050 or 1920x1200

The ONLY cards on the market the are not annihilated by those three cards in terms of performance are:

x2900xt - performs between the HD3850 and the 3870. Costs 450+$ and is a bad purchase.
8800GTS - all its version get their ass handed to them by the 8800GT. And all cost way more. The slower GTS costs 350+$ and is outperformed by the 3870.
8800GTX - 5% more power then the GT, costs 500$
8800Ultra - 10% more power then the GT, costs 700$
 

Mucker

Platinum Member
Apr 28, 2001
2,833
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Originally posted by: taltamir
now they are price gouging the 3870 too... its now at 270$... same as a stock GT, which is out of stock ;p

Basically buy none of them. Wait alittle for the insane prices to drop.

There are only 3 video cards you should even consider buying right now:
8800GT - supposed to cost 200. Sells for 270+
-3rd fastest card on the market (a few percent slower then 700$ cards)
HD3870 - supposed to cost 220. Sells for 260 in some places, beware.
-15% slower then 8800GT
HD3850 - supposed to cost 170. Sells for 170, but might be out of stock.
-Same speed as 3870 on low resolutions. ~15% slower on 1680x1050 or 1920x1200

The ONLY cards on the market the are not annihilated by those three cards in terms of performance are:

x2900xt - performs between the HD3850 and the 3870. Costs 450+$ and is a bad purchase.
8800GTS - all its version get their ass handed to them by the 8800GT. And all cost way more. The slower GTS costs 350+$ and is outperformed by the 3870.
8800GTX - 5% more power then the GT, costs 500$
8800Ultra - 10% more power then the GT, costs 700$

pretty much sums it up...........

The GT OC's that have a core of 650-670 will meet or exceed a GTX. For $300 + a free game, it's still a pretty good deal IMO.....
 

bryanW1995

Lifer
May 22, 2007
11,144
32
91
newegg is not responding right now. they went up b/c of the black friday shopping frenzy. that's crazy, they must have sold even more than they anticipated on 3870 for them to crank the price up that high. glad I got on when I did.
 

Mucker

Platinum Member
Apr 28, 2001
2,833
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Originally posted by: bryanW1995
glad I got on when I did.

me too. One low priced one will do me fine until the frenzy ends and the prices reduce. Then it's Crossfire time ;)

Get your problems worked out Bryan?

 

bryanW1995

Lifer
May 22, 2007
11,144
32
91
no, my favorite family members are in town to meet the new baby and work is very busy, so I'm going to have to wait until sunday to reinstall everything and stab test to isolate the problem(s). right now memory appears to be the culprit but these things are very fluid... if it is mem then I'm ok b/c i have a 1gb spare lying around taking up space right now.

good news is that gpu is working great. in spite of all the problems I've run fur at 860/2402 so far...I'll try for 2600 here in a minute.

ok, just spent 2 minutes on CCC, passed the built-in stability test at 860/2602. got 3290 o3marks, 1280x1024 (all defaults), min 46, max 71, avg 55. cpu is currently back down at 2.66 until I figure out what's wrong with the computer.
 

cputeq

Member
Sep 2, 2007
154
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Remember, cards in SLI do not count as a unified frame buffer. 2x 512MB GTs doesn't equal 1GB of video RAM....it equals 2x 512MB segregated chunks of video RAM. Big difference!
 

bryanW1995

Lifer
May 22, 2007
11,144
32
91
Originally posted by: Mucker
Originally posted by: bryanW1995
glad I got on when I did.

me too. One low priced one will do me fine until the frenzy ends and the prices reduce. Then it's Crossfire time ;)

Get your problems worked out Bryan?

they're worked out. I swapped out the ram for my spare 1 gb stick, reinstalled windows, and swapped out the hx 520 for the 620. I'm going to throw the ram back in now...keeping fingers crossed...of course, if it's not the ram then that means that my hx520 couldn't handle an e6750 at 3.4, 2 hard drives, a cd drive, and a 3870 at stock. scary.