Which card should I buy ?

[Nishua]

I'm building a new gaming rig sometime next month. In a extremely confused at which card I should buy. I know both Nvidia and ATI are on the verge of releasing new cards with brand new GPUs. I'm no fanboy I'm all for whats the best bang for my buck. I use to support ATI and AMD back in the day when they were better then Nvidia and Intel but now its the other way around. Problem is I don't feel like holding out for another 3 to 4 months for their release.

My initial intention was to pick up the new Nvidia 9800GT GX2. I will be using the card for gaming (looking forward to play Age of Conan), starting to teach myself 3D modeling (and everything associated with ), and general computer use. I will have two 22 inch' widescreens monitors one is an apple cinema display I picked up over a year ago and the other is a going to be a brand new Samsung or something.

I don't plan on running them at real high resolutions. When I had my old PC I never put my rez above 1280x1024 (CRT). So i have no plans of doing that with my new computer anyway. I am aware that widescreen run at higher rezs and I know having a end high card is important if you plan on running things at high rezs. I don't want to spend more then 600 for my graphic card. I thoguth about buying to 8800 GTX but they would exceed 600 bucks by 80 dollars and only offer a minmum performance of the 9800GT GX2 taknig up more space in my rig.

I really don't know to mucha bout building computers or whats good and what isn't. I'm trying to learn new things though. Makeing it a habit of reading tech forums religiously. So I'm asking you guys/and gals with more experience what route do you thinkI should take. I don't mind holding out but it would suck not to purchase my new computer with the hopes that the new cards coming out rock, but when they release they suck.

I could also use some advice on other components but I will ask in the appropriate forums.
Thank you.

 

[Denithor]

We really need to know what resolution you intend to play before recommending a GPU for your system.

In general,
1280x1024 (and lower): 8800GS or 9600GT
1680x1050 or 1600x1200: 8800GT or HD3870
1920x1200: 8800GTX, 8800GTS or 9800GTX
2560x1600: HD3870X2, 9800GX2; 8800/9800 series cards in SLI or HD3870 cards in crossfire

But it also depends heavily on the particular games you will be playing. Crysis, for example, will bring even the fastest cards to their knees with high enough detail and resolution.

 

[sgrinavi]

If you want to stick with mainstream (gamer) cards then I have found that the ATI cards are about 2.5 times better for 3d modeling AND the 3870x2 solution works with 2 monitors (the 9800x2 does not, or so I am told)

For gaming the 8800 GTS will give you great performance at your panels native resolution and not hurt the pocket-book too badly.

 

[Nishua]

Originally posted by: Denithor
We really need to know what resolution you intend to play before recommending a GPU for your system.

In general,
1280x1024 (and lower): 8800GS or 9600GT
1680x1050 or 1600x1200: 8800GT or HD3870
1920x1200: 8800GTX, 8800GTS or 9800GTX
2560x1600: HD3870X2, 9800GX2; 8800/9800 series cards in SLI or HD3870 cards in crossfire

But it also depends heavily on the particular games you will be playing. Crysis, for example, will bring even the fastest cards to their knees with high enough detail and resolution.

If I dont have to I'm not exceeding 1600x1200.

Originally posted by: sgrinavi
If you want to stick with mainstream (gamer) cards then I have found that the ATI cards are about 2.5 times better for 3d modeling AND the 3870x2 solution works with 2 monitors (the 9800x2 does not, or so I am told)

For gaming the 8800 GTS will give you great performance at your panels native resolution and not hurt the pocket-book too badly.

The 9800GT doesn't work with dual monitors I wasn't aware of that. Price is a concern but I dont mind going up to 600 bucks for any card which can basically get me anything on the market right now (gaming wise).

 

[techfuzz]

Originally posted by: Nishua
The 9800GT doesn't work with dual monitors I wasn't aware of that. Price is a concern but I dont mind going up to 600 bucks for any card which can basically get me anything on the market right now (gaming wise).

For $600, you can almost buy 2 9800 GTX's and get better performance than a single GX2.

techfuzz

 

[Lithan]

Originally posted by: Denithor
We really need to know what resolution you intend to play before recommending a GPU for your system.

In general,
1280x1024 (and lower): 8800GS or 9600GT
1680x1050 or 1600x1200: 8800GT or HD3870
1920x1200: 8800GTX, 8800GTS or 9800GTX
2560x1600: HD3870X2, 9800GX2; 8800/9800 series cards in SLI or HD3870 cards in crossfire

But it also depends heavily on the particular games you will be playing. Crysis, for example, will bring even the fastest cards to their knees with high enough detail and resolution.

Yeah I'd reverse that. Know what games you're playing THEN pick your reso. Everything I play runs max @ 1680x1024 on 9600gt. But I don't play Crysis... No card except maybe a gx2 can run crysis max @ 1680x1024 at decent fps. Generally, if you want to run 1680 or 1600 with Most gravy turned on, 9600gt is the way to go. Higher res or max gravy, probably should spring for 8800gt or 8800gts 512meg. And if you want to play Crysis or one of the other 3-4 "benchmark" games with high settings and/or resos (IE Modern Farcry's... games that are built wholly around showcasing graphics and crippling videocards), then you should probably go SLI.

I haven't looked at the 9800gtx sli performance, but if it's better than the 8800ultra sli performance I'd go that route, if not I'd go with 2x 8800gts... since your pricerange is so high.

 

[techfuzz]

Lithan,

The way I approached it recently was like this. I bought a new 24" monitor a couple weeks ago that ran native at 1920x1200. I was using an old 7900 GT, but the games I play pushed it to the limits and running some games at 1920x1200 brought the frame rates way down. So then I had to decide if I should go with either the 9800 GTX, 9600 GT, 8800 GTX, or 8800 GTS. I decided that 65 nm would be the better for power consumption and heat, so that eliminated the 8800 GTX. Then 128 shaders vs. 64 was another factor. 128 is obviously better so eliminated the 9600 GT. And finally the higher clock and memory lead me to the 9800 GTX. It was a close when it came down to the 8800 GTS vs. the 9800 GTX, but I decided to stick with my upgrade every other GPU generation personal "mantra".

techfuzz