[deep_eyes]

Im thinking about gettin an NVIDIA card cause i miss the old "crisp" look it onced had with the TNT2 series, however im at a empass on what to get. sometimes knowing about viddy cards leaves one to not decide on which would be best, economical and long lasting.

IM on a price range between 100-170$+S+H.
Prob a geforce 6600 series or a radeon x300 or better series.

someone know any good ones that got good bandwith for GPU processing, looks UBER HOT, and isnt so expensive...

oh and it has to be AGP.

[deep_eyes]

one suggestion i got was:

http://www.allstarshop.com/shop/product.asp?pid=10647&dept_id=436

[ChronoReverse]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814122212

Not the first time I've posted this but it's still a very good price for a good card (one that could become Excellent if you're lucky).

[deep_eyes]

a lil bit of help in terms of why its better besides price?

[WMCoolmon]

I can vouch for Gigabyte's GF6600GT, at least. I'd guess it doesn't vary too much from other 6600GTs too, so I'd recommend those at least.

[CP5670]

This looks like your best option for a new one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814140045

Good stock speed for the price and a fairly good chance of unlocking the disabled quad. The heatsink on this particular card looks better than the stock one.


If you can go $10 over your limit though and are willing to buy a refurb (it has a normal warranty though), then this card is an extremely good deal, dramatically faster than anything else in this price range:

http://shop.ati.com/product.asp?sku=2700726

[Fury]

If you want a video card that will last for a while as gaming card; GeForce 6800, 6800GT, 7800GT, 7800GTX, Radeon X850, X850 Pro, X850XT.

Cheaper cards with still quite a lot of punch; GeForce 6600, 6600GT, Radeon X800, X800XL, X800XT.

Cards below 6600 and X800 are cheaper budget cards that won't hold gaming performance much longer. Personally I'm planning to replace my 1,5 years old Radeon 9800XT with GeForce 7800GT in the near future.

[CP5670]

I don't quite agree with your lists. I would put 6800GT, X800XL, X800XT, X800XTPE, X850XT, X850XTPE, 7800GT, 7800GTX in the first category and 6600GT, 6800, X800, X800 pro in the second list. There is no X850 and X850 Pros are extremely rare (and bad cards for the price anyway). The 6800 ultra is not worth considering; it always was a ripoff given how close the GT was to it and is even more so now since its price has not fallen much after a year.

I'm not sure if even the high end cards from last generation are going to cut it at decent resolutions though, say a year from now. My overclocked 6800 GT struggles on games like FEAR even at 1024x768. Don't know if it's just this game or a sign of things to come. UT2007 will be a good indicator of future performance. Also, most modern games are limited to 1280x960, or if 4XAA or HDR is used, then 1024x768. Older games work great though; FSO is liquid smooth at 2048x1536.

I would have gotten a 7800GTX but it would mean a new motherboard purchase just for PCIE support, which seems to be a waste at this point given that the M2 socket is coming early next year. I will just wait it out, maybe skip this generation or see what the R520 (which will be in AGP) has to offer if it ever comes out.

[ChronoReverse]

Originally posted by deep_eyes
a lil bit of help in terms of why its better besides price?

CP5670's link is also a good card.


Basically the overclocked 6800LE is as fast as an overclocked 6600GT (because of greater overclocking potential) which is a slower than an overclocked 6800 (non-ultra).

At stock the 6800LE is slower than the 6600GT which is about equal to the 6800.


The caveat is this though.  For both the 6800 and the 6800LE, you can unlock pipes using driver level software (Rivatuner).  If you're lucky you can unlock all the pipes and basically have a 6800GT.



In any case, if you want to take it safe, buy the 6800.  Considering it's only about $35 more than the 6800LE, that's what I'd recommend at this point.

[phatosealpha]

Be careful about the 6800 non-ultras.  My understanding is that while you used to be able to unlock pipelines on AGP 6800 NU's, they've switched over from nv40 cores with locked pipelines to nv43 cores which don't have the extra pipes to unlock.

The ATi 'refurb' card listed above is an awfully nice card for what they're charging for it.  If I was price conscious and buying now...well, I still probably wouldn't buy it, but that's just cause I still play sacrifice.  


Oh, and don't think too much about bad performance in F.E.A.R.  Apparently everyone gets that, even people with rigs that eat Battlefield 2 alive.  People are pretty much hoping it's gonna get optimized before release.  I really hope so, the demo was awfully cool, but the performance was not justified by the graphics.

[CP5670]

Be careful about the 6800 non-ultras. My understanding is that while you used to be able to unlock pipelines on AGP 6800 NU's, they've switched over from nv40 cores with locked pipelines to nv43 cores which don't have the extra pipes to unlock.

I think only the PCIE 6800s use the NV43. The AGP ones still all use NV40s. The PCIE ones also have a lower stock memory clock for some reason.

Oh, and don't think too much about bad performance in F.E.A.R. Apparently everyone gets that, even people with rigs that eat Battlefield 2 alive. People are pretty much hoping it's gonna get optimized before release. I really hope so, the demo was awfully cool, but the performance was not justified by the graphics.

That's what I have been hearing too. Do you know when this game is coming out? If it's still some months away then I might have a better card by then anyway.

[Liberator]

I have to interject, I like my Sapphire 9600.  Snicker all you want, this is the best video card I've ever had.

[MicroPsycho]

no one has suggested the X700? The X700 is about as fast as the 6800 but it's less expensive AFAIK. The 6600 is about equivalent to a Radeon  9800, if that puts anything into perspective (the 6600 is just a tad faster overall but the 9800 has a better geometry rate).

[phatosealpha]

No one suggested it because if you're gonna go ATi in the price range given, the refurb X800 pro at the top is a no brainer.

[CP5670]

The X700 series never really got anywhere in any case. The basic X700 is fairly cheap but essentially a crippled 9800 pro, much slower than a 6800. The X700 pro is worthless, both slower and pricier than a 9800 pro, and the X700XT was discontinued just a month after it came out.

[WMCoolmon]

Originally posted by MicroPsycho
no one has suggested the X700? The X700 is about as fast as the 6800 but it's less expensive AFAIK. The 6600 is about equivalent to a Radeon  9800, if that puts anything into perspective (the 6600 is just a tad faster overall but the 9800 has a better geometry rate).

The 6600 and the X700 are neck-and-neck on HL2, according to Anandtech.