Help me pick! video card

[dragonone]

I know i've asked many times before, but i've never got a straight answer
so now friend can give me a one time discount through work:
x1900xt pci-e for 300
x1900 (the pvr one) pci-e for 239
x850xt pci-e for 175
x1600 pro pci-e for 139

honestly i'd only like to spend 200, but it's getting to my head that i should go big or go home
perhaps i should just get the x1600, but how long would that last me?

[fordo_11]

Well it all depends what you want to do with it. If you just want to write papers and browse the net than go cheap. If you want to run your computer as a media center or you are a big gamer than go big or go home. IMO

[Unknown303]

Yeah that x1600 isn't even that big of a deal. But really go big or go home, whats an extra 100 dollars.

[DeeK]

Nvidia FTW.

I've had WAY too many bad experiences with ATI.


as said before, it depends what you want to run. Just msn, e-mail, chatting, etc etc... just get something cheap. If you are gonna be watching movies, gaming, etc etc.. Go big.

I'm running a N6800GT, PCI-e, works great for me :D

[dragonone]

well i know what u guys mean
my onboard 6150 will even play halflife II fine at low res
i just want to game on my mediocre new rig, pisses the hell outta me when i can't even run deus exII smootly on the lowest res
but even fear runs fine on my friend's cheap 6600LE, and farcry runs excellent on another friends x1600xt that's why i was considering the x1600 pro
these models are all tens of dollars in increments that's why it's so hard to decide

[DeeK]

well then, if you are running half-life II, and fear, and dues on an on-borad setup, I'll assume the computer is fairly decent...

I would recommend if you are trying to keep costs down to go with N6600GT Nvidia. IMO, and as far as specs go, its the best bang for the buck.

[Unknown303]

Oh right, NVIDIA for the win.

There SLI technology is doing way better than Crossfire.

[ProjectR]

i need a new video card too but my mother board won't support the newer cards out these days :(

[EnRich]

Originally posted by ProjectR
i need a new video card too but my mother board won't support the newer cards out these days :(

just get a new mother board and CPU, then I can sell ya my 7800 GTX for $400

[Unknown303]

Originally posted by ProjectR
i need a new video card too but my mother board won't support the newer cards out these days :(

If your motherboard supports 8x agp then get to a memory express and buy a x1600 agp 512mb card for just under 200 i believe. I just got that and its great. getting on average over 100 fps in Half Life 2.

[frostyda9]

Originally posted by ProjectR
i need a new video card too but my mother board won't support the newer cards out these days :(

I'll sell you my 6800 GS (AGP) dirt cheap when I get my new computer running ;)

dragonone...7800/7900GTX FTW. If you really want to bling it, the dual GPU 7950 :bigpimp: That's just my opinion though. X1900's are really good too, but I think SLI is doing better than Crossfire, as Unknown303 pointed out. A top level single card is good for now, but personally I want to know that I can easily add a second one a year from now when it's no longer fast enough.

[interlude]

Originally posted by frostyda9


I'll sell you my 6800 GS (AGP) dirt cheap when I get my new computer running ;)

dragonone...7800/7900GTX FTW. If you really want to bling it, the dual GPU 7950 :bigpimp: That's just my opinion though. X1900's are really good too, but I think SLI is doing better than Crossfire, as Unknown303 pointed out. A top level single card is good for now, but personally I want to know that I can easily add a second one a year from now when it's no longer fast enough.

if you really want to bling it.. run quad sli with 2 7950's :hitit:

[Unknown303]

There is currently no support for Quad SLI. So the best you can get in SLI would be two 7900 GTX cards. with the 7950 coming in a close second.

HERE (http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/353/)

Thats a link to the Guru3D.com review of the 7950 and they even set it up in SLI but only found a real increase in performance in one game. But that review has great comparisons of FPS between the heavy hitting cards if you want to compare what each one will pull.

[interlude]

www.firingsquad.com had an article on quad sli.

Im getting a 7950 next week.. and when there is good support for quad.. ill be getting another :thumbsup:

[frostyda9]

Interestingly, some high end OEM computer builders sell quad SLI's, yet there is no official support for it. It seems to me that we the consumers are getting shafted somewhere here....

[scat19]

Ok, my computer is crap, cant even play Battlefront 2 when I have nothing else to do.

What motherboards do we reccommend? Been out of the seen for a while (build my own, of course)

I was looking at a Asus, with pci-e.

[frostyda9]

In my highly biased opinion, and since I just went through the same choice, Asus A8N32-SLI. True dual X16 PCI, passive copper chipset cooling, SATA/RAID, 8 phase PWM.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y38/frostyDA9/IMG_0448.jpg


edit - since you're starting new, you'll probably want to go with AM2, not S 939 :thumbsup: I think there's an equivalent AM2 board.

[dragonone]

and i have to factor in another power supply if i decide to go with the x1900xt:cry:
i have a 420w with my aspire xpack case, do i need another ps if i go with the x850xt? how long would that card last me ... 2-3 years from now?