Video Card Recommendations

[Smoolean]

From what I've gathered from these boards, integrated graphics are frowned upon. I am not a hardcore gamer, but I am a Photoshoper and video editor, and am notorious for having way too many windows open at any given moment. I am not the type to constantly upgrade my PC, I want to have the store install a graphics card for me the day I buy it, and be done with it, so incase I want to do a little light gaming I'll have the option.

So my question is...
What would be a smart choice for me, considering that I don't want a total budget card that will be obsolete the day I get it installed, and I don't want/need anything near the top of the line. What is a good middle of the road card, that fits my aforementioned needs? I'd like to keep it under $150. Thanks for any help.

 

[Cheezeit]

6600gt is the best chip for you.

youll get more help in the video fourms, i think.

 

[UsandThem]

A 9800 Pro or a 6600Gt.

 

[Smoolean]

Is the 9800 Pro AGP only? I need PCI-E. The 6600GT starts at $199, or is there a cheaper place to buy?

 

[t3h l337 n3wb]

You can try refurbished, or maybe an X700.

 

[mwmorph]

Originally posted by: Smoolean
Is the 9800 Pro AGP only? I need PCI-E. The 6600GT starts at $199, or is there a cheaper place to buy?

http://www.buyxg.com/store/item.asp?key=VC-135-205

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a...201&CMP=OTC-pr1c3watch&ATT=Video+Cards

 

[Cheezeit]

Originally posted by: Smoolean
Is the 9800 Pro AGP only? I need PCI-E. The 6600GT starts at $199, or is there a cheaper place to buy?

how did you get 199?

i got my evga 6600gt 138 AR shipped at monarch.

 

[Smoolean]

Shame on me for trusting Bestbuy.com .

 

[Cheezeit]

lol, how could you go to worst buy?

here are some better sites:

newegg.com

zipzoomfly.com

monarchcomputer.com

just to name a few

 

[imported_rod]

If you're going PCI-E, the 6600GT is by far the best choice for you.

RoD

 

[Smoolean]

Thanks for all of your so far everyone. I'm guessing you don't judge the card on it's MB, because the 6600GT is only 128, and I've seen 256 for much cheaper. Just incase I want to compare and find cards on my own, what are the important stats/features to look for?

Also, if my existing computer already has a PVR, and input for S Video and RCA... but it's all integrated graphics, when I install my new graphics card, would I essentially by disabling all of those features? Or would I be able to still use those inputs and also use the new graphics card?

 

[Twsmit]

128MB is enough, more than that gos to waste on the 6600GT since its bandwidth choked.

As for the onboard, it should still work fine. No guarantees but its usually designed to stay active even when you add a card.

 

[imported_rod]

Originally posted by: Twsmit
128MB is enough, more than that gos to waste on the 6600GT since its bandwidth choked.

Not necessarily. The PCI-E variants of newer cards have shown much more of a performance increase due to the extra memory than the AGP cards. Remember that PCI-E has effectively 4x as much bandwidth as AGP 8x.

Still, with the 6600GT id probably stick with 128MB, unless there was only a small price difference between the 128MB and the 256MB. But I wouldn't get less than 256MB with an X800/6800 though.

RoD

 

[DanDaMan315]

Originally posted by: rod

Originally posted by: Twsmit
128MB is enough, more than that gos to waste on the 6600GT since its bandwidth choked.

Not necessarily. The PCI-E variants of newer cards have shown much more of a performance increase due to the extra memory than the AGP cards. Remember that PCI-E has effectively 4x as much bandwidth as AGP 8x.

Still, with the 6600GT id probably stick with 128MB, unless there was only a small price difference between the 128MB and the 256MB. But I wouldn't get less than 256MB with an X800/6800 though.

RoD

He's not talking about PCIE bandwidth, he's talking about the gddr2 bandwidth. And it is a bottleneck which makes 256mb useless.

 

[Crescent13]

I've got a BFG 6600GT OC. It is enough for me.

 

[Smoolean]

Crescent, how much did you pay for it, and where did you buy it?

How long until PCI-E is more common and the prices drop a little?

 

[bluedeviltron]

I got my BFG GeForce 6600 GT OC for $199 at Frys the other day. I'm wondering though if I should take it back and get an X800 XL for $100 more...

I'm thinking that the 6600 GT will do fine for HL2, BF2, CoD, and all the other current games...

 

[mwmorph]

Originally posted by: Twsmit
128MB is enough, more than that gos to waste on the 6600GT since its bandwidth choked.

As for the onboard, it should still work fine. No guarantees but its usually designed to stay active even when you add a card.

onboard never stays active when you add a card.

 

[biostud]

Originally posted by: Smoolean
Thanks for all of your so far everyone. I'm guessing you don't judge the card on it's MB, because the 6600GT is only 128, and I've seen 256 for much cheaper. Just incase I want to compare and find cards on my own, what are the important stats/features to look for?

The actual GPU is the most important thing to look at. Mhz, number of pipelines, features etc. But to understand how it all work in real life you need to read the reviews of the different video cards, or ask those who have done so for you here at AT forums.

Putting lots of memory on cheap cards is only to lure people into buying it. The actual performance benefit = 0 since the GPU is so slow on these boards so it can't handle the features that would actually use 256Mb video memory.

 

[Smoolean]

Originally posted by: mwmorph
onboard never stays active when you add a card.

Damn. So I guess Media Center PC's aren't made to have graphic cards added... then why does it have an open PCI-E?

 

[Twsmit]

Originally posted by: mwmorph

Originally posted by: Twsmit
128MB is enough, more than that gos to waste on the 6600GT since its bandwidth choked.

As for the onboard, it should still work fine. No guarantees but its usually designed to stay active even when you add a card.

onboard never stays active when you add a card.

Not true. Im not sure its 100% true in either direction, but I have run dual monitors with onboard and a discrete video, so it is possible.

Also some of the latest ATI xpress mobos, the ones being talked about in the latest Cbit articles mention multimonitor support using onboard combined with add in.

Im sure there may be some cards boards that disable onboard, but there are probably an equal ammount or more that do not.

 

[SNM]

You like light gaming? What kind of gaming is light? Is 800x600 @ medium textures and 30 fps okay? Because that's light for a lot of people. And if that's what you want, you can probably get it with a Turbocache/Hypermemory card. Which retail for less than $100.

I just mention this because you also thought the number of windows you used was important.