Video Card Help

[SkillyWilly]

Hello all,

I am obviously a newb to posting on the forum. I have read mucho, but I am still trying to decide if the money is worth the expense of one of the high end cards. Here is my computer specs:

Intel P4 2.4C
Intel DB875PBZ 8X AGP
1.5 G PC3200 RAM
Dell 2005FPW LCD display

I expect this card to be the last AGP card that I buy so it will need to last a while. I am a hard core gamer, but I don?t have a hard core budget (who does). I would love to have a freakin $500 card (6800 UE) but I just don't see this as a justifiable. Is it worth the money? Will the process just bottleneck at a lower level card (6800 U or GT)?

I have looked at all of the comparisons, but they are always on the best possible computer available. Anyways, any response would be appreciated. Thanks.

BTW - I didn?t mention any ATI cards because I am kind of turned off on the company because of the role out problems and weird product offerings. It seems that it is much easier to fall into a marketing scheme with them.

 

[qbackin]

9800pro would be ideal upgrade for you.
Excellent prices right now.
But perhaps a 6600gt or 6800nu would do the trick.

 

[Away]

I would go with a 6600GT. You can find them for around $175 now and they will play the latest and greatest.

 

[SkillyWilly]

6600 GT looks interesting, but how long will a 128 mB really last. Will tomorrows games require 256 M? Does it fully support direct X 9.0c?

 

[keeleysam]

Originally posted by: SkillyWilly
6600 GT looks interesting, but how long will a 128 mB really last. Will tomorrows games require 256 M?

Ram Isn't all that important. I like this:
http://www.newegg.com/OldVersion/app/Vi...Desc.asp?description=14-127-150&depa=0

Its a VERY nice card, and with the copper HS, you can overclock to get more FPS in tomorrows games.

 

[ddogg]

either 6600GT or 9800pro....since ur CPU is slow it would be a bottleneck for cards faster than that!!
6600GT u can get it for around $160 and the 9800pro for ~$120 but u can search for used ones under $100 which would be a great bang for the buck.

 

[MonkeyWrench4000]

I would go with a Rage 3D Pro, lightning FAST GFX!!!!

 

[SkillyWilly]

LOL thats what I have now.....


jk

As for the 6600 GT, should I get the Leadtek @ $173 or the MSI @ $197?

 

[BillyBobJoel71]

6600gt = great price for performance. the 6800nu is even better ,and very cheap.

 

[Rike]

Originally posted by: SkillyWilly
As for the 6600 GT, should I get the Leadtek @ $173 or the MSI @ $197?

Both are good. I?d look at the bundled games and see if there's anything you like better in the MSI package over the Leadtek. If nothing in the MSI set looks worth the extra bucks, go Leadtek.

The 6800nu is not worth the extra money. Link with proof.

 

[BillyBobJoel71]

thats good, but a 6800 will last longer and play games better a high resolutions. still that 128 mb memoery really limits its power at high res. if it had 256 then it would be fine.

 

[Rike]

Please re-read the page I linked to. Across several different resolutions the 6800 has no noticeable advantage over the 6600GT. Even with 4x AA the advantage is a massive 3.8%? What are you paying for? By the time 256MB of video memory will make a really big difference, it?s time to buy a new card.

 

[deeznuts]

How bout the chance to unlock the 4 extra pipes? That's what's holding me up right now. Trying to decide between the 6600gt or 6800. It's about a $40 difference right now ($160 - 200).

I would jump all over the 6800 if the success rate of the unlock was higher.

 

[Munky]

Unlocking the pipes would be nice, but then you'll feel even worse about having only 128mb, since the gpu will be bottlenecked at high resolutions by the lack of sufficient video mem.

 

[Rike]

Originally posted by: deeznuts
How bout the chance to unlock the 4 extra pipes? That's what's holding me up right now. Trying to decide between the 6600gt or 6800. It's about a $40 difference right now ($160 - 200).

I would jump all over the 6800 if the success rate of the unlock was higher.

It's a $40 bet and your choice. If you go that way, good luck.

 

[deeznuts]

Screw it. I waste more than $40 buying a round of drinks or so. Going for the 6800, I always love a gamble!

 

[keeleysam]

Originally posted by: SkillyWilly
LOL thats what I have now.....


jk

As for the 6600 GT, should I get the Leadtek @ $173 or the MSI @ $197?

MSI.

 

[mwmorph]

Originally posted by: MonkeyWrench4000
I would go with a Rage 3D Pro, lightning FAST GFX!!!!

love it. it's still the card in my internet pc(466mhz celly, 256mb ram whopping 15gigs hdd)

get a 6600gt. it is much faster than the 9800s, supports DX9c and is the recommended minimum card to run aoe3 by the microsoft engineers at 10x7 high all.

 

[ScrewFace]

Originally posted by: keeleysam

Originally posted by: SkillyWilly
LOL thats what I have now.....


jk

As for the 6600 GT, should I get the Leadtek @ $173 or the MSI @ $197?

MSI.

I agree. MSI is very good. I have a MSI DVD-ROM that I use ALOT and is still serving me well after 3 years. Also, I had a 128MB MSI GeForce4-Ti4400 that I overclocked past Ti4600 speeds to 325/325 and it ran without a hiccup. It's just my bias for MSI.

 

[akshayt]

go for 6600gt over 9800pro ,overall gt is beter ,but sometimes atleast it does loose
why not consider x800? or higher if budget

 

[Chode Messiah]

Get a 5700ultra or a 9800pro. U can play games, and you'll have more cash for a new AMD 64 or Pentium 4 rig with an nforce4 mobo

 

[Fallen Kell]

There is also the idea of waiting for the next gen cards to be released in a month... At worst even if you don't get one of the new ones, the older cards will drop $30-50.

 

[ddogg]

Originally posted by: akshayt
go for 6600gt over 9800pro ,overall gt is beter ,but sometimes atleast it does loose
why not consider x800? or higher if budget

the GT doesnt lose out to the 9800pro in any game....even in HL2 where ATI is heavily favored. the GT does lose to the 9800XT in some games mainly because of its 128bit memory bus.