PC video card

[Sheep]

Go GST. The added clock speed will give you a bigger gain than videoram will for now.


If you are the "I upgrade my videocard every 2-3 years" person, get the GS-512mb.

I'm the person who upgrades his gamerig constantly. I'm waiting for reverse SMP before I do my next motherboard/CPU/RAm swap. Go right now a second 7800GT is on my agenda...I want some SLI lovin.

Current setup, which rocks hard on HL2:

Athlon 64 3500+
2 GB DDR (2 x 1GB)
1TB disk space (1 x 200GB, 2 x 400GB)
NForce4 SLI motherboard
geforce 7800GT 256mb
480w antec psu.

It's a pretty solid machine, but I'm loking for more.

The new Pentiums are wicked.

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=19144&vpn=BX80557E6600&manufacture=Intel

Who knew that Pentium would have the best gaming processor.


SheepStar

 

[brian32672]

Who knew that Pentium would have the best gaming processor.


SheepStar

You do know - this is just temp....
AMD is the king of gaming rigs, and since they bought ATI - They will certainly make super strides in the gaming/video card market.

 

[mike c]

The PC casing I want is out of stock at the moment so I'm waiting for that ... Im tired of cheap and ugly looking casings ...
Im waiting for an ASUS VENTO case.

But I bought me a new monitor for the moment

I have trashed my brand loyalty with samsung ...
I bought me a widescreen Viewsonic 20.1"

audioholics can add a left side AD bar for all I care

 

[Sheep]

You do know - this is just temp....
AMD is the king of gaming rigs, and since they bought ATI - They will certainly make super strides in the gaming/video card market.

Yeah, but not till mid 07. Besides, theres no point in buying now until Direct X10 is out.

SheepStar

 

[mike c]

the ASUS vento didn't look that nice in person ... so I got me a thermaltake case instead

Thermaltake Armor Super Tower
Core 2 Duo 2.14
1gb ram
7600GS 512mb vid card
1 terrabyte cumulative hard drive (1 terrabyte = 1,000gb right?)

 

[Sheep]

Sweet rig mike! I think its time for some wire management though...

SheepStar

 

[mike c]

are those wires or a liquid cooling system?

 

[Sheep]

are those wires or a liquid cooling system?

They're wires. Its the OCZ Modstream520 modular powersupply. I bought it simply because it cleans up so nice. When you've got a window thats bigger then most cases, you need to be neat.

SheepStar

 

[mike c]

nice.

 

[f0am]

Some day I will get the Lian Li case I want, I already have one for my server.. its freaking huge.. then again I have 8 Hard drives running in it.
No windows just solid aluminum.

 

[mike c]

and i've met a game that renders my vid card obsolete.
just 2 years.

prices on this list is PHP. 49PHP to 1USD atm

help me pick:

im leaning towards the 9600GT (not OC) because the OC doesn't seem to be worth it in terms of $:mhz ratio

 

[mike c]

ok, so i dont understand the specs above ...
how fast are the new ones over what i have? 50%, twice? thrice? lightyears?
what spec should i be looking at?

also, one IMPORTANT question: can these new vid cards support outputting to BOTH the DVI outs at the same time?

i need to feed my TV and monitor with a signal at the same time.

 

[yettitheman]

^The ATI Radeon 4850 are pretty good...
Nvidia 8800 GT is good as well.

If you can plink some more change, I'd almost get a Nvidia GTX 260.
Eh...

I'd answer more but my brain is kinda shutting off.

 

[yettitheman]

PC TIME for me

OH yeah. It's like that.

 

[gus6464]

and i've met a game that renders my vid card obsolete.
just 2 years.

prices on this list is PHP. 49PHP to 1USD atm

help me pick:

im leaning towards the 9600GT (not OC) because the OC doesn't seem to be worth it in terms of $:mhz ratio

I currently have a 9600GT. It is a decent card and I paid $175 for it in march but right now the Radeon 4850 is the best card under $200.

Under $200: Radeon 4850
Under $100: Nvidia 9600GSO

 

[mike c]

thanks guys

gus,

i think i'd like to keep the cost to around 100 bucks or so ...

how do i know which radeon matches what with geforce specs?

yetti,

i just want to play red alert 3, not map the earth in HD resolution

 

[gus6464]

thanks guys

gus,

i think i'd like to keep the cost to around 100 bucks or so ...

how do i know which radeon matches what with geforce specs?

yetti,

i just want to play red alert 3, not map the earth in HD resolution

Well with Radeon you really only have 3 choices with 2 memory configs on each. Here are the cards I would go with within each specific price range.

$100
Nvidia 9600GSO or 9800GT if you can find a good deal

$200
Radeon 4850 (most likely with 512MB GDDR3 but sometimes deals on the 1GB pop up)

$300
Radeon 4870 (same with 4850 above)
Dual Radeon 4850 in crossfire (sometimes you can get 2 of these cheaper than one 4870)

Now here are some good newegg deals

EVGA 9800GT $110 after rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130384

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130380

With nvidia I always buy EVGA as their service and support is unmatched IMO. You get lifetime warranty on their cards and they don't BS you around. I had a 3 year old 7900GT go bad on me so I sent it to them and they replaced it with a 9600GSO no questions asked.

 

[gus6464]

As far as comparing what you have look at this way.

You have a 7600GS so for example a 9600GT or GSO will be around 2x as fast than you current card and you can get away with pushing a little more AA. Now if you want to push almost max AA then the 9800GT will be even better than either of those cards. A 9800GT will be around 4x as fast as your current card.

Now let's add Radeon 4850 into the mix. That one will allow you go push max AA just like the 9800GT but the framerates will be even faster. BTW I forgot to ask what size is your monitor and what res will you be running the game at? That is really the most important question you have to ask yourself when buying a new video card.

 

[mike c]

22" monitor
1440x900

i'll actually have to order a 10' DVI cable from monoprice if i do this ... ill get it in 30 days - perhaps in 30 days the prices would go down on the higher models to 100 bucks.

i'm currently using the DVi out to my LCD tv and the VGA out to my monitor. but since current cards are dual DVI's - im gonna need a longer cable.

 

[yettitheman]

thanks guys


yetti,

i just want to play red alert 3, not map the earth in HD resolution

gotcha