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Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: deep_eyes on October 20, 2005, 03:52:57 pm

Title: Which Videocard is worth the money?
Post by: deep_eyes on October 20, 2005, 03:52:57 pm: 1. http://www.allstarshop.com/shop/product.asp?dept%5Fid=436&pid=10646&sid=8TVM70Q8U3L38H4TA36N58QRBPD51L58

2. http://www.allstarshop.com/shop/product.asp?dept%5Fid=436&pid=10647&sid=8TVM70Q8U3L38H4TA36N58QRBPD51L58

3. http://www.allstarshop.com/shop/product.asp?dept%5Fid=436&pid=10500&sid=8TVM70Q8U3L38H4TA36N58QRBPD51L58

4. http://www.allstarshop.com/shop/product.asp?dept%5Fid=436&pid=10965&sid=8TVM70Q8U3L38H4TA36N58QRBPD51L58

5. http://www.allstarshop.com/shop/product.asp?dept%5Fid=436&pid=10189&sid=8TVM70Q8U3L38H4TA36N58QRBPD51L58

6. http://www.allstarshop.com/shop/product.asp?dept%5Fid=436&pid=10503&sid=8TVM70Q8U3L38H4TA36N58QRBPD51L58

7. http://www.allstarshop.com/shop/product.asp?dept%5Fid=436&pid=11025&sid=8TVM70Q8U3L38H4TA36N58QRBPD51L58
Title: Which Videocard is worth the money?
Post by: aldo_14 on October 20, 2005, 03:59:35 pm: I don't know about brands, but IIRC 256mb cards are only really worthwhile if you're running at huge resolutions.
Title: Which Videocard is worth the money?
Post by: ChronoReverse on October 20, 2005, 04:05:06 pm: Well, with modern games, 256MB is starting to become handy because everyone seems to like huge textures now. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it does mean more VRAM is needed.

However, it's usually not a problem once you bump texture detail to medium or something like that. It's not too bad normally.

As for those cards.

Get the XFX 6600GT 128MB if those are the ONLY cards you intend to look at
http://www.allstarshop.com/shop/product.asp?dept%5Fid=436&pid=11025&sid=8TVM70Q8U3L38H4TA36N58QRBPD51L58
Title: Which Videocard is worth the money?
Post by: CP5670 on October 20, 2005, 04:41:22 pm: eh, those are all bad for the prices. What's your price limit?
Title: Which Videocard is worth the money?
Post by: deep_eyes on October 20, 2005, 10:19:34 pm: 150 actually, well from what i read in this magazine called ghz.... it suggested the 6600 as the better choice for mid end for best bang for ur buck.... gave almost same stats as a 6800 but without the heavy price. so if i want one under 150, and is REALLY good, and is about 128megs or 256, any other recomendations?
Title: Which Videocard is worth the money?
Post by: MatthewPapa on October 20, 2005, 11:11:18 pm: That whole thing about the 'same stats' is bull. The 6600s use only 128 bit memory, they are fast as far as core clock goes but not nearly as good at playing in high resolutions or with large textures. Get a 6800 because IIRC the price is falling on those due to the 7800, I am almost positive you could find one for about 150.
Title: Which Videocard is worth the money?
Post by: ChronoReverse on October 20, 2005, 11:17:09 pm: Well, the 6600GT is almost as good a vanilla 6800 as long as you're not running AA/AF so it's quite true.

BTW, newegg has the same XFX card for less
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150089
Title: Which Videocard is worth the money?
Post by: CP5670 on October 20, 2005, 11:43:33 pm: Quote
150 actually, well from what i read in this magazine called ghz.... it suggested the 6600 as the better choice for mid end for best bang for ur buck.... gave almost same stats as a 6800 but without the heavy price. so if i want one under 150, and is REALLY good, and is about 128megs or 256, any other recomendations?

That used to be true but isn't anymore. The 6800's price has fallen quite a bit to the point that they are only about $15 more than 6600 GTs and they pull ahead in newer games or with AA enabled. They also have much better overclocking potential and the AGP ones have a 50% or so unlock rate too. Also, the 6600 is much slower than the 6600 GT and is not really comparable.

The Apollo 6800 used to go for $155 at some places and had a nice heatsink. You can probably still find it for that price if you look around a bit.

The memory size makes no difference on these cards.

The X800 GT 256MB is actually a better choice than either of these and costs the same, but it's only for PCI express.
Title: Which Videocard is worth the money?
Post by: Mefustae on October 21, 2005, 12:50:08 am: Is there an AGP version of the 6800GT? And if so, how much would that set me back?
Title: Which Videocard is worth the money?
Post by: CP5670 on October 21, 2005, 01:01:11 am: Of course, it originally came out in AGP. They go for about $250 these days, although they aren't really a good buy anymore with the much faster 7800 GTs available for as low as $280.
Title: Which Videocard is worth the money?
Post by: phatosealpha on October 21, 2005, 04:51:11 am: AGP 7800GT's are out?
Title: Which Videocard is worth the money?
Post by: ChronoReverse on October 21, 2005, 10:36:13 am: Nope, fastest AGP card you can get is the x850XT.
Title: Which Videocard is worth the money?
Post by: ZmaN on October 21, 2005, 02:23:29 pm: only buy from newegg or zipzoomfly, they're the best.... they have very good service, usually theyre cheaper than everyone else (a few exceptions are there, and for a GTO2?), and zipzoomfly is CNET certified....

i might add they got quite a selection....

as for your card, well... I would say get a 256MB card, 128 is definitly not enough, and 512 is overkill.... as for which model, well...

6600 GT is a great deal, but you can only get about 128 MB on the card if thats what ur gunna get. you may be able to go with an X700 Vanilla, its pretty quick, its pretty close to the 6600 GT, and its only 130 for the AGP version, but its all up to you dude...
Title: Which Videocard is worth the money?
Post by: Flipside on October 21, 2005, 02:29:33 pm: Be careful on the Asus 6600, I have one and I have to point a desk fan into my case to stop it from overheating and locking up solid. You wouldn't believe how much grief that gave me before I found the problem :(
Title: Which Videocard is worth the money?
Post by: Ashrak on October 21, 2005, 02:44:08 pm: id go for the gigabyte 6600GT from that selection BUT i would wait for at X1000 series to come out ... its gonna whoop the 6600GT in same price range :)
Title: Which Videocard is worth the money?
Post by: ZmaN on October 21, 2005, 03:25:13 pm: Quote
Originally posted by Flipside
Be careful on the Asus 6600, I have one and I have to point a desk fan into my case to stop it from overheating and locking up solid. You wouldn't believe how much grief that gave me before I found the problem :(

I used to have the SAME exqact problem with my PCX 5750 Geforece card.... It would start to artifact and jarble the screen, and it wasnt even overclocked! what a piece of crap card that thing was...
Title: Which Videocard is worth the money?
Post by: ZmaN on October 21, 2005, 03:26:35 pm: quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
150 actually, well from what i read in this magazine called ghz.... it suggested the 6600 as the better choice for mid end for best bang for ur buck.... gave almost same stats as a 6800 but without the heavy price. so if i want one under 150, and is REALLY good, and is about 128megs or 256, any other recomendations?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

oh and before i forget, if youre gonna get a 6600 vanilla, get an X700 Vanilla, its probably better, and it renders the graphics better, and its cheaper for an AGP version than the 6600 Vanilla
Title: Which Videocard is worth the money?
Post by: aldo_14 on October 21, 2005, 03:33:49 pm: NB: How can you tell the voltage of a card?
Title: Which Videocard is worth the money?
Post by: deep_eyes on October 21, 2005, 04:51:11 pm: Well thanks guys, its just that i really want to go back to Nvidia for some reason. i like the ati cards, no lie but for some aesthetic reason i want an Nvidia (i think it has to do with the fact that the ati card software is really wierd, and FSo runs everything on nvidia drivers, unlike newer catalyst).

i dunno my old radeon 7500 started showing windows in pink as if it was on an old 8bit NES...... but only when its in windows. im guessing from what everyone is saying, either a 6600GT or a 6800 standard will suffice for my price range, but if i can go for a higher card, for only a few dollars more, do it. funny how i forgot to mention im only looking for agp cards, not pcixpress. but aot of recomendations have been for those types lol.... my asus igp board dont got a pciexpress slot....

i think the 6600gt will do for now ima wait a lil bit to see what suits me better.
Title: Which Videocard is worth the money?
Post by: CP5670 on October 21, 2005, 05:06:30 pm: Quote
AGP 7800GT's are out?
[/size]

uh...never mind, I meant to write X850XT there. :p Although the 7800GT is also available at that price and is an excellent buy if you want a PCIE card.

note to self: don't write posts at 2AM while simultaneously studying for a test the next day.
Title: Which Videocard is worth the money?
Post by: ZmaN on October 21, 2005, 05:07:58 pm: Quote
Originally posted by deep_eyes
i think the 6600gt will do for now ima wait a lil bit to see what suits me better.

yea, thats probably fine for your needs... as for Ati vs. Nvidia, ATI has more stable and faster drivers, Nvidia drivers seem to have some sort of stability problem. everyone in my family has used an nvidia card, and ati always runs smoother. I like ATI better, but its ur choice...
Title: Which Videocard is worth the money?
Post by: CP5670 on October 21, 2005, 05:16:09 pm: I like nvidia drivers better mainly because I'm used to them and haven't used ATI ones for years. There aren't any stability issues with either companies' drivers, but they both have their own quirks that can be annoying. (for example, Nvidia has issues with shadows in Far Cry and possibly other games too while ATI drivers generally have mediocre compatibility with old games)
Title: Which Videocard is worth the money?
Post by: WMCoolmon on October 21, 2005, 05:54:10 pm: I vote the Gigabyte one. It's the one I have, which has been pretty hardy/reliable (as you know :p)
Title: Which Videocard is worth the money?
Post by: ChronoReverse on October 21, 2005, 08:30:13 pm: Well, if this were a couple of months earlier, I'd point you at the card I have right now. It was $129 at Newegg, that is, the Leadtek 6800LE.

Runs almost almost as well as 6600GT stock and overclocks really well.

If you're lucky, you'll unlock it to 6800NU status and it'll be fast.

If you're really lucky (about 30% chance) you'll unlock all extra pipes and get a 6800GT class card like me =)

Frankly, I'd wait a bit and see if the prices will drop when ATI finally releases more of their x1000 cards.
Title: Which Videocard is worth the money?
Post by: Kazan on October 21, 2005, 09:14:51 pm: they all suck
Title: Which Videocard is worth the money?
Post by: ZylonBane on October 21, 2005, 10:19:18 pm: Quote
Originally posted by Kazan
they all suck

No, YOU suck.
Title: Which Videocard is worth the money?
Post by: Kazan on October 21, 2005, 10:21:07 pm: no i GET sucked
Title: Which Videocard is worth the money?
Post by: Spicious on October 21, 2005, 10:47:47 pm: Quote
Originally posted by Kazan
they all suck
Quote
Originally posted by Kazan
no i GET sucked
Oh, so you get sucked by all these videocards? :ick: :p
Title: Which Videocard is worth the money?
Post by: Kazan on October 21, 2005, 10:51:39 pm: ROTFL

that would be somewhat.... painful
Title: Which Videocard is worth the money?
Post by: DeepSpace9er on October 22, 2005, 09:07:17 am: Quote
Be careful on the Asus 6600, I have one and I have to point a desk fan into my case to stop it from overheating and locking up solid. You wouldn't believe how much grief that gave me before I found the problem

I have a BFG 6600 GT OC, this thing heats up like nothing ive ever seen. Ive tried taking the cover off, using a desk fan.. doesnt help. Especially when i play Battlefield 2 does it really get bad. Dont buy the thing unless you can replace its cooling system before you use it.
Title: Which Videocard is worth the money?
Post by: Grey Wolf on October 23, 2005, 02:45:34 am: Quote
Originally posted by ZmaN

yea, thats probably fine for your needs... as for Ati vs. Nvidia, ATI has more stable and faster drivers, Nvidia drivers seem to have some sort of stability problem. everyone in my family has used an nvidia card, and ati always runs smoother. I like ATI better, but its ur choice...
I honestly have had no stability problems with any drivers other than the 80 series from nVidia, but I had no real reason to use them, as the Omega versions of the 66.93s had better image quality anyway.

I do like the nVidia interface a bit better. Less bloated than the ATi's driver interface.