Ok so I'm in the market for a better video card. I have an 8600GT at the moment and it's "ok" but just ok. I know if I intend to play WAR or even AoC I might want to invest in something better. After much looking and reading I think I have determined that my Dell is a 2.0 slot. The ASUS TOP and MSI are really my 2 favorites so far based on what little research I've done on the web.... also can anyone give a really good argument for why 1GB is so much better than 512MB? I see allot of people say it's just not necessary and the performance isn't significant enough to justify the cost so opinions please :)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121220&Tpk=Asus%2bEN8800GT%2bTOP (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121220&Tpk=Asus%2bEN8800GT%2bTOP)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127329 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127329)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814134035 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814134035)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130359 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130359)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133205 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133205)

If you're buying a new card you may as well buy the one that will last you the longest, so why not go 1G?

I have an 8800 GTX with 320 from last year and have no appreciable issues with it, although I don't play many games anymore, it runs Call of Duty 4 just fine at 1600x950 except on maps with lots of water (had to turn off a few features .. couldn't tell the difference afterwards other than it went from 8 to 45 fps), that's the only comparision point I can think of. I generally look for the "knee" in the price curve and buy whatever is newest there.

That's my usual line of thinking but if just having it to have it is the only reason I see no reason to get it. I guess I'm looking for a technical compelling reason :D

This is the card I've been thinking of: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102733 It's right on the bend for ATI cards.

I'm still researching and trying to decide if I want to spend what it would cost to build a new gaming system, but part of my thinking is that any increase in performance is going to be worthwhile, and I'm seeing more and more games come up with a minimum video recommendation of 512.

Any reason you stuck with Geforce cards? I'll freely admit I haven't done a recent comparison between the two companies.

I've tried two ATI cards over the years and they never worked quite right. Totally anecdotal evidence on a subject I don't care enough about to perform rigorous thought.

I just have a preference to nVidia and not ATI, it's one of those things I established about 10 years ago. I've always had good luck with nVidia cards, not so much with ATI.

My experience with nvidia and Vista has been relatively abysmal, for what it's worth.

I think they hired a fifth grader to write their x64 drivers.

You leave Timmy alone, doing crayon to RGB mapping is hard.

I've tried two ATI cards over the years and they never worked quite right. Totally anecdotal evidence on a subject I don't care enough about to perform rigorous thought.I think everyone is the same way. I used to swear by nvidia, until I bought an ATI card on sale. It's worked so well that now I have a weird aversion to nvidia.

Just don't forget to cut it to size: http://www.photobasement.com/nvidia-7800-wont-work/

While I am admittedly ignorant of most details regarding computers, I have for some reason always stuck with nVidia cards, and have never had a problem or failure. My son, on the other hand, wanted to outdo my machine once some years back and bought the top of the line radeon card; it was toast after three years, or a little less. The folks at the Best Buy tech section told him they were surprised it lasted as long as it did, as they were designed to die after a certain time. /shrug

Anyway, I have an nVidia Geforce 8500 in one machine which runs great, and an 8800GT (1 gig) in the other machine, which runs greater. I like them.

New 4850's look verra nice!

Personally, I haven't had a lot of issues with my 8800GTS 512 and 64 bit Vista. My previous card, a 7900GT had some major problems with it though.

Anyway, here's an article on Tom's about the best graphics card for your money (and why). They update it every month:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/graphics-cards,1942-3.html

Typically the price they list there is retail. You can usually find it cheaper at deal sites or with mail-in-rebates.

What card to get really depends on your budget. If you don't want to spend more than $175, then yeah... get a 8800GT 512. The 8800GT 1GB will outperform a 512 (especially when you throw a texture heavy game at it and more AA) but the performance gains aren't all that great:

http://metku.net/index.html?path=reviews/8800-gt-gts/index_eng7

As you see, the 8800GT 1GB is still out-performed by the GTS 512. From what I can tell, the 8800GT 1GB is ~$30-$50 more than the GTS 512. IMO, not worth it. If you're willing to pay a little more than a GT 512 for a performance increase, go with the GTS 512, not the GT 1G.

As Sanchek pointed out, though... you might want to look into whether the card will actually fit in your PCI-E slot first.

the 8800s and under wont support the PhysX engine coming from Nvidia.

Dont know if that makes a difference to you or not.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814103060

How's this look? I'm looking to run warhammer online with it.

the 8800s and under wont support the PhysX engine coming from Nvidia.

Dont know if that makes a difference to you or not.


"Nvidia promised that it will deliver PhysX API compatible with all GeForce 8 and 9 cards in July. For now, PhysX only works on the GeForce models GTX 260, 280, 9800GT, 9800GTX, 9800GTX+ and 9800GX2"

From: http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Nvidia-PhysX-GTX2800,5725.html

And Fandros:

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_4850/6.html

The benchmarks are looking good on the 4850. Unless the PhysX API adds a nice performance gain to the 8800GT(S) series cards (or if the 4850 causes a price drop in the nVidia cards), the 4850 is probably the bang-for-the-buck card to get. Personally, I am not a fan of ATI cards, and you need to keep in mind that it is a relatively new card and could experience some driver issues, but you'd probably well served by this card. I haven't installed the WHO beta yet. I'll let you know how it runs on my 8800GTS when I do.

Install that beta man!!!

Thanks for the info on the card Akom!

I can't even think of a game or reason to have 3 cards in SLI.

Mutli-purpose space heater?

I got a really good price on this locally:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130318

The card is fantastic, runs everything on high settings. Big doesn't describe the dumb thing, it's so long the power cable on the end sticks out and pokes into the hard drive bays.

Akom's card looks tempting too :)

feh, I'm skipping new vid cards and iPhones in favor of the new pool I just bought and the new deck I hope to build. :) I guess I'm officially a boring grown-up, spending thousands of dollars on home improvments vs. a few hundred on gadgets.

feh, I'm skipping new vid cards and iPhones in favor of the new pool I just bought and the new deck I hope to build. :) I guess I'm officially a boring grown-up, spending thousands of dollars on home improvments vs. a few hundred on gadgets.

Woo-Hoo!!!

Grats on improving your faction with 'Elders'. Seriously, the pool and deck will need far fewer upgrades than the electronics, and provide their own form of leisure activity. You can always look at the vid cards and such next winter. :D

Of course there's always the combination approach: a laptop for use on the deck by the pool :)

feh, I'm skipping new vid cards and iPhones in favor of the new pool I just bought and the new deck I hope to build. :) I guess I'm officially a boring grown-up, spending thousands of dollars on home improvments vs. a few hundred on gadgets.

Sucks doesn't it? I traded a week of scuba diving for all new double pane windows :(

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814129113

4870's out the door and out of stock almost everywhere lol.

4870x2's (GX2's?) are coming out sometime this month i hear also. Supposed to be alot more powerful than the 4870's out atm. They'll be about 500$ though. The NVidia 280 cards are supposed to be pretty nice also.