Video Card Help

[_k0m0d0_]

Well, in a short while I'll have my new pc so I was wondering what video card to buy, I tought on these ones:

 

 

 

- eVGA e-GeForce 6800 GS - 256Mb

 

- eVGA e-GeForce 6800 XT - 256Mb

 

- ATI Radeon X1300 - 256Mb

 

- Asus GeForce 7600 - 256Mb

 

- Asus GeForce 7900 GT - 256Mb

 

- XFX GeForce 7900 GT - 256Mb

 

- Sapphire Radeon X1600 Pro - 512Mb

 

 

 

If anyone has better suggestiong I take them all :D

 

I won't set any price limit because I dunno how much I'll have for the video card, but if any one that will give any suggestions of any card that is one of my chosens please dont get thos that cost a thousand dollars :P

 

 

 

All them in my list are 256, with exeption of the last one that is 512 which the price was very near. Suggestion for rather 256 or 512 are wellcome ^^

 

 

 

Is there any good other cards which are 256Mb - 256Bits?

 

I'm not searching for those 64Bits ones

 

 

 

I know there are two 7900GT on the list, but I'm not sure if whats the bests manufacturer....

 

 

 

Well, summing up: Say if any of the list if good or sugeest any good one ^^

 

 

 

Thanks a lot!

[Hitman247m]

Well, i suggest the 'ATI Radeon X1300 - 256Mb' because I'm running the exact sma eone and it works perfectly 8-)

[zzxxccvv]

- Sapphire Radeon X1600 Pro - 512Mb

[Militaris]

Out of the above cards the 6800GS, 7600GT or the 7900GT are excellent cards for their price. Depending on the amount you have to spend I would choose one of these. Their is not much difference between the brands, same offer better bundles, warranties and different cooling systems. Out od ASUS or XFX, I would personally choose XFX but without knowing the exact product details the ASUS could be a better buy.

 

 

 

There is also a nice recent review on mid-range cards on AnandTech.

 

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2812

 

 

 

A few quotes from the above

 

 

 

"Not only is the X1900 GT a better performer in most cases than the stock 7900 GT, but with this week's price cuts the ATI part offers an incredible value advantage."

 

 

 

"On the low end, we've got the stock 7600 GT for just over $160, which offers playable midrange performance at a low price. While the X1600 XT is about $15 cheaper, performance is abysmal. There is no reason anyone should purchase an X1600 XT at this point. With a really tight budget, the 7600 GT offers adequate gaming performance"

 

 

 

and to steal their summary.

 

 

 

$150 - $220: GeForce 7600 GT (stock)

 

 

 

$230 - $280: Radeon X1900 GT

 

 

 

$290 - $320: GeForce 7900 GT (overclocked 550/775 +)

 

 

 

$320 - $370: Radeon X1900 XT

 

 

 

..............................

 

 

 

Just to add a few more comments regarding the budget end cards. To quote from another Anandtech article.

 

http://www.anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.aspx?i=2765&p=5

 

 

 

"Honestly, the vast majority of users are better off purchasing a midrange card, which in many instances are two or three times as fast as the budget offerings (sometimes more)."

 

 

 

update After a bit of reading and comparing prices using newegg for the price, for a $80 card the Radeon X800GTO is the best buy. It is better then the 6600GT which is priced at a simalar amount.

 

 

 

The 7600GS offers good prefrormance, but costs around $30 more then the previous cards. It is very simalar to the Radeon X1600XT. Prefromance wise they do not seem to have much on the X800GTO. So the X800GTO is the best buy if you do not want to spend $150-ish for a 7600GT (Can be gotten for $130-ish after rebates).

[Vullf]

Ive got the Asus 7900GT,

 

Its running well with an extra zalman VF900 cooler..

 

Ive got an score in 3D Mark 05 at about 10.000. (With amd X2 4200+ and 2Gb Ram)

 

Ive would recommand u to buy this one.

[Stuart_G]

Question, what are the specs like on the rest of your rig?

 

 

 

But out of the ones you listed, the 7600GT or 7900GT would be fine. Personally, i would go with XFX brand because I've got an XFX 7600GT at the moment, and i absolutely love it and generally, they dont really differ between the manufacturers because there all using the reference design cooling that nVidia first used and the only notable difference between them would be clock speeds so at the moment, brands dont really make alot of difference. If your ordering from Newegg though, look into the EVGA brand of cards, they seem to be making some very nice cards that have gotten nice reviews and the prices are usually a bit cheaper than the more well known brands.

 

 

 

But if you can stretch your funds, perhaps its worth considering a X1900XT/X, they generally have out performed the 7900GT's but one thing i consider to be a down side is its big two slot cooler which has been reported to be quite noisy.

 

 

 

But yes, out of that list i would pick the 7600GT or anything above that. Anything below a 7600GT and you would probably end up a tad dissapointed with the performance of it.

[_k0m0d0_]

Thanks Militaris and Stuart_G for the great comments! I'm currently re-reading, searching and making my opinions ^^

 

 

 

Well, I discarded the:

 

- eVGA e-GeForce 6800 GS - 256Mb

 

- eVGA e-GeForce 6800 XT - 256Mb

 

 

 

but I'm still researching a bit more about the others.

 

I'm currently thinking on getting:

 

DDR PC3200 CORSAIR 2GB VALUE DUAL

 

ASUS A8N-SLI PREMIUM

 

AMD ATHLON 64 X2 3800 939 BOX

 

 

 

Basically. Well, I'll make a topic later, when I solve this Video Card problem, to ask for some help on the whole computer xD

 

 

 

Thanks all for the help!

[Militaris]

Was a bit bored, here are a few good deals I found on newegg.

 

 

 

7900GT

 

eVGA 7900GT KO

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814130033

 

Good factory overclocked, free game, good warranty and only $245 after rebate.

 

 

 

XFX 7900GT

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814150150

 

A few dollars less after rebate, slightly overclocked, good warranty.

 

 

 

 

 

7600gt

 

eVGA 7600GT KO

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814130017

 

$140, Good factory overclocked, good warranty.

 

 

 

Budget Cards

 

 

 

SAPPHIRE Radeon X800GTO2

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814102675

 

$115.99, A excellent overclocker can unlock all 16 pipelines with a simple bios flash. Preformance simalar to a X850XT.

 

 

 

GECUBE GC RX800GTO2-D3

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814241021

 

$70 after rebate, a great deal. From the looks of the specs, this card is slightly factory overclocked. Bundle would be nothing flash and Warranty would be nothing flash.

 

 

 

Edit:

 

I just been searching a bit more and have found the following.

 

 

 

SAPPHIRE Radeon X850XT

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814102688

 

$90 after rebate. Would preform better then the 7600GT. A excellent buy.

[Stuart_G]

About the 939 processors... AMD are trying to phase them out real fast with price drops and what not, so it may be worth looking at an AM2 chip. There arent any major differences between AM2 and 939 performance wise from what ive gathered, but they support DDR2 RAM and it would provide an upgrade path. Currently, most AM2 chips are only a tad more expensive than their 939 counter parts.

 

 

 

And that eVGA 7900GT KO is a brilliant deal and is something worth seriously considering.

[Militaris]

About the 939 processors... AMD are trying to phase them out real fast with price drops and what not, so it may be worth looking at an AM2 chip. There arent any major differences between AM2 and 939 performance wise from what ive gathered, but they support DDR2 RAM and it would provide an upgrade path. Currently, most AM2 chips are only a tad more expensive than their 939 counter parts.

 

 

 

And that eVGA 7900GT KO is a brilliant deal and is something worth seriously considering.

 

 

 

One thing I would add, atleast locally the AM2 motherboards are significantly more expensive then the 939 alternatives. But I agree that it is differently worth looking at.

 

 

 

The eVGA 7900GT KO is simply dripping with excellent value for money. I often wonder how eVGA can offer such amazing cards, and at the same time manage to undercut most other manufactuers. (I suspect due to their large OEM market that they filter out the best cores for their branded products something the smaller players can not do).

 

 

 

The other excellent deal is the SAPPHIRE Radeon X850XT for only $90 you get a card which can compete with the 7600GT which costs $50 more (Although the OC 7600GT would easily win). The 7600GT does offer newer technology such as SM3 and HDR.

[Doomster]

I'd put the 6800's above the X1600Pro, since ATI's midrange card make a very poor showing in many tests - sure it has some PS3.0 and AVIVO goodness, but it lacks raw power.

 

 

 

 

 

Personally, I prefer Nvidia, my current card (with the system) is ATI, and I just do not like the drivers, with clumsy background junk of CCC, as compared to Nvidia's Forceware.

[Bmw]

I think it's obvious that the 7900 is a much more powerful card, with better benchmarks than all of the other cards that you've listed. If anything, the new Radeon X1900 is the main card I'd consider over the 7900, but then it also comes down to an ATI vs Nvidia, and simply your preference. That can be a deciding factor sometimes.

 

 

 

I did a lot of research on it before I bought my card a week ago, and I went with the 6800XT. I figured I didn't need the power of a 7900...there's always something bigger and better out there, you'll never win in that war, unless you're filthy rich.

 

 

 

In addition, the 6800XT is obviously top in it's class, and priced amazingly. For under $150 CAD I got an XFX version, which I'm extremely happy with. Unless you're an incredibly serious gamer, the 6800XT is a great value at the price. But of course, if money is just taking up space in your pockets, the 7900 or ATI's X1900 is the better buy.

 

 

 

Edit: As for the 939 Processors which someone was mentioning, AMD isn't phasing them out...they're a totally different option than the AM2's. I looked at the AM2's for a brief second when looking to upgrade my computer, but I went against it. Their boards only support DDR2 Ram...so for an upgrade it's pointless. If someone is buying a new system w/ DDR2, then they have no choice but to go with AM2 for an AMD processor. So it's kind of an extremely obvious choice when it comes to AM2 vs 939. The AM2 is essentially the same in all other areas, it simply has support for DDR2.

[Stuart_G]

AM2 is AMD's new socket. It is the successor to the 939 and any new chips that AMD release will be using the AM2 socket, not 939.

 

 

 

They are moving production over to AM2 processors and less and less 939 processors will be produced, let alone the new top of the line CPUs, thus giving you less choice to upgrade your CPU in the future if you buy a 939 socket motherboard over AM2.

 

 

 

I can guarantee you that the next top of the line processor from AMD wont be using the 939 socket.

[Azgolar]

You should consider the 6800GS; don't just dismiss it because the numbers aren't as high as the 7900. I am a pretty heavy computer user, and I find that the 6800 is much more bulkier than it sounds. It runs some of the most system devouring games on maximum settings with little or no lag.

[Cruiser]

I have a PNY 6800 GS, 256mb AGP. It eats Half Life 2 alive on all high settings. Episode One I have to turn down a little (the graphics got a beautifull tweaking :mrgreen: ) but it still looks insanely good. I have only recently gottten back into gaming but my experience with the card has been nothing but amazing.

 

 

 

One thing to watch out for though is the length of the card. I have a rather large case as it is and I still have to unplug the power cable to the card to get my harddrive cages out of the case. :?

[Stuart_G]

The 6800GS is a good card, but the 7600GT can perform as good, if not better, than the 6800GS. Both cards are around the $180USD mark but the 7600GT would come out on top over the 6800GS because it has better features and due to the different cores, the 7600GT doesnt need an external power connector like the 6800GS does meaning less power consumption which then results in less heat being output.

 

 

 

Im not saying that the 6800GS is a bad card, its just that the 7600GT can do what it the 6800GS can, but better.

[runedrune900]

I use:

 

 

 

ATI Radeon RX9250 - 128mb

 

 

 

Works fine but it depends on what you want the video card for otherwise from yuo list I prefer

 

 

 

ATI Radeon X1300 - 256Mb

[Mr_Putter]

As much as I like ATI, you picked like the worst ones. I know that 1300 is not a good card at all. The 1600 is alright, but from that list, if you have the money, I'm pretty sure that a 7900GT is the best bet.

 

 

 

BTW-do you mean this is going to go in your new computer, or to tide you over until you get your new computer.

[username388]

What kind of games are you going to be playing. That makes a huge difference. If you're going to be playing Runescape then Geforce 5 series or a Radeon 9xxx series is perfectly fine (not that I recomend those. Don't buy one). If you're gonna be playing games like Oblivion and FEAR definitely the 7900.