Which video card should I get

[RadioHead84]

My friend just built a new PC...

Amd64 3200+
1g ram

dunno the motherboard..but it has PCI express

I have been out of the loop on video cards for a while so I really cant help him much. The max he wants to spend is 250 but he would rather not even go that high.

Any suggestions?

Thx

 

[secretanchitman]

X800GTO2
6800GT
6800GS
X850XT from micro center
X800GTO

7800GT is the best bang for your buck for 289 something IMO. that is, if your friend is willing to spend 50 bucks more.

 

[RadioHead84]

Originally posted by: secretanchitman
X800GTO2
6800GT
6800GS
X850XT from micro center
X800GTO

7800GT is the best bang for your buck for 289 something IMO. that is, if your friend is willing to spend 50 bucks more.

heh thats the problem. I am out of the loop of video cards since I built mine....6800GT(dont even know how good that is anymore). They all sound the same and are pretty close in price.

 

[Wentelteefje]

I'd advice him a 6800GS... It features SM3.0 (you can't really go without it anymore), and it's faster than a 6800 Ultra when overclocked... You can get these for about $ 190, but I'd take the XFX XXX one for $ 199... It comes factory overclocked and has a Double Lifetime Warranty... They're just great gaming cards for their price...

Make him overclock his AMD as well...

 

[RadioHead84]

double lifetime warranty lol...how does that work.

how is the 6800GS faster then then 6800Ultra..which would be faster then my 6800GT at only 190.

 

[Wentelteefje]

Originally posted by: RadioHead84
double lifetime warranty lol...how does that work.

how is the 6800GS faster then then 6800Ultra..which would be faster then my 6800GT at only 190.

Why do you think people all around the web are calling this the new GeForce 4 Ti4200...? It's actually a very impressive video card... Look up reviews of it...

Yeah the Double Lifetime Warranty looks strange, but maybe they mean that the person who you sell your card to (eventually), will still have a Lifetime Warranty... More of a marketing trick, but you have Lifetime Warranty at least...

 

[Eureka]

The 6800GS is on par with the 6800GT on conservative video settings, will start losing its advantage once you turn up things real high (then again, I don't think either will last too far). It is not faster than an Ultra.

Right now the best deal is the 7800GT, whcih is $300 on average, and should get as low as $250 AR and on sales.

Norm

 

[Wentelteefje]

Originally posted by: cevilgenius
The 6800GS is on par with the 6800GT on conservative video settings, will start losing its advantage once you turn up things real high (then again, I don't think either will last too far). It is not faster than an Ultra.

Right now the best deal is the 7800GT, whcih is $300 on average, and should get as low as $250 AR and on sales.

Norm

The 6800GS we're talking about here is pre-overclocked, and really IS faster than any GT... It even comes near a 6800 Ultra, surpassing that one as well sometimes...

However, I'm not sure about finding a 7800GT for $ 250 (the cehapest one I know is $ 275), but once they start dipping into this price category, they are of course THE obvious choice...

 

[RussianSensation]

6800GS for $190 PCIe.
If you buy EVGA, there is a 90-day step up program. So when G71 comes out for Nvidia in March (between 9th - 11th rumoured), you might score a 7800GT/X for cheaper than today's prices.
OR
X850XT - $218

 

[Blastman]

That X850XT is a good deal for $218, a lot faster than a 6800GS in games like BF2 (xbit)?


10x7- 4AA/16AF ? 6800GS ? ? X850XT

BF2 ........................ 64.2 ............... 90.9

 

[hans030390]

Originally posted by: Blastman
That X850XT is a good deal for $218, a lot faster than a 6800GS in games like BF2 (xbit)?


10x7- 4AA/16AF ? 6800GS ? ? X850XT

BF2 ........................ 64.2 ............... 90.9

I have reason to believe that it really isn't a 26fps difference....does that seem odd to anyone else?

 

[Munky]

Originally posted by: hans030390

Originally posted by: Blastman
That X850XT is a good deal for $218, a lot faster than a 6800GS in games like BF2 (xbit)?


10x7- 4AA/16AF ? 6800GS ? ? X850XT

BF2 ........................ 64.2 ............... 90.9

I have reason to believe that it really isn't a 26fps difference....does that seem odd to anyone else?

No, it's not hard to believe. The 6800gs is a 12 pipe card clocked at what - 425mhz? The x850xt pe is a 16 pipe card clocked at 540 mhz. I dont get it why everyone and their grandma is so crazy about the 6800gs, it's just a cheaper replacement for a 6800gt, which was almost never as fast as an x850xt, not even when OC'd to ultra speeds. And if you're gonna mention SM3 (I know you will...) and the OC potential, this card is still no match for a modded gto2, with or without SM3. You might be tempted to buy a slower SM3 card because it will let you play with HDR in some games, but if games like FEAR are any indication of future games then you will not be playing any future game at max settings with a 6800 series card, and besides watching a HDR slideshow, SM3 wont do you much good. But this issue has been debated a million times already, and the benefits of SM3 on the 6-series are pretty obvious by now (or the lack thereof), so I'm not gonna try to convince anyone otherwise. You want a 6800gs, then buy it; there'll be more gto2's left for those who do aren't afraid of modding it to x850xt pe.

But if the OP is not interested in modding a gto2, and cant go for the 7800gt then the 6800gs is the next best thing, so it depends on how adventurous you are... (I believe the $219 x850 is for agp only, but if it's for pci-e then it's the next fastest card after the 7800gt)

And about the whole double lifetime warranty BS, last I checked only BFG actually offered a true lifetime warranty. To all the other poser brands "lifetime" means only how long the card is in production, and you can bet it will not be in production much longer once the rest of the 7 series models are released. So what you really get is about a few months warranty.

(edited for spelling...)

 

[Blastman]

The 6800GS will probably be about as fast as the X850 in OGL games, but in DX games (90% + of games) the X850XT will be substantially faster than a 6800GS in a lot of cases ?

xbit ? 12x10-4AA/16AF

? ? ? ? 6800GS ? ? X850XT

BF2 ? ? ? .. 56.3 ? ? ? ? 70.3
FEAR ? ? ? 23 ? ? ? ? ?38 ? ? ? 65% faster
Quake4 ? ? 62.8 ? ? ? ? 87.3 ? ? ? 39%
SC:CT ? ? 33.8 ? ? ? ? 48.6 ? ? ? 44%
AOE ? ? ? 14 ? ? ? ? 34.2 ? ? (GS running SM3.0 vs X850 SM2.0)
COD2 ? ? .. 32.1 ? ? ? ?44.4 ? ? (no AA/AF ? bug in ATI drivers for 256 cards with AA/AF)
SS2 ? ? ? 27.1 ? ? ? . 15.6

 

[zCypher]

Video cards are so expensive up in Canada
NCIX.com is asking $627.15 for a Sapphire Radeon X850 XT 256MB PCI-E vga/dvi/tvout oem

arghhhhh...

 

[mwmorph]

Originally posted by: Blastman
The 6800GS will probably be about as fast as the X850 in OGL games, but in DX games (90% + of games) the X850XT will be substantially faster than a 6800GS in a lot of cases ?

xbit ? 12x10-4AA/16AF

? ? ? ? 6800GS ? ? X850XT

BF2 ? ? ? .. 56.3 ? ? ? ? 70.3
FEAR ? ? ? 23 ? ? ? ? ?38 ? ? ? 65% faster
Quake4 ? ? 62.8 ? ? ? ? 87.3 ? ? ? 39%
SC:CT ? ? 33.8 ? ? ? ? 48.6 ? ? ? 44%
AOE ? ? ? 14 ? ? ? ? 34.2 ? ? (GS running SM3.0 vs X850 SM2.0)
COD2 ? ? .. 32.1 ? ? ? ?44.4 ? ? (no AA/AF ? bug in ATI drivers for 256 cards with AA/AF)
SS2 ? ? ? 27.1 ? ? ? . 15.6

I'm quoting for truth on this one.

everyone seems to have a orgasam whenever a 6800gs is involved, but realtl it's jsut a mob mentality. Someone says it's good and so someone else is impressed and tells someoen else.. blah blah blah..(justl ike the 6600gt, people are fanatic about the "awesome 6600gt, where there arep lenty of faster x800gtos in the price range)

the x800xt is a much better value and sopeed is much faster. the 6800gs is a nice card back when ati wouldnt drop the priceo f it's x800xt below $300 but now that it's around $200-20,l the 6800gs is essentially worthless.

 

[dclapps]

I dont think the 6800GS is the new ti4200 because graphics cards are moving a lot faster than they were a few years ago. I know because I'm still running that baby that I bought three years ago. Nvidia was on hiatus for a while after the 4 series came out, and when the 5 series hit the shelves, the 4 series was still better. With the 7800gt's smashing the 6800's, I don't think Nvidia will put out a crap line anymore [aka 5 series].