[achtung]

I was sorta looking at this  but you guys may know of somethign better within the $100-$125 price range.

So, any suggestions?

[CP5670]

That one is a decent choice but this would be considerably better and is still in your price range. (I'm guessing you mean $100-125)

[n00by]

By "considerably" he means "about ten times". Listen to the guy, get the 9800.

Go ATI, go!

[DaBrain]

Don't look for 256 MB cards in this price segment.

Those cards are too slow to put their memory into good use.

You'll need 256 MB on a card that is fast enough for high res + Antialiasing (4x and more).


The 9800 Pro is way faster than the 6200.

Try to find cheap 6600 GT or 6800LE cards. They should be even a bit faster. And they have SM 3.0. (Which doesn't really matter much nowadays, but it will, later.)

[CP5670]

By "considerably" he means "about ten times". Listen to the guy, get the 9800.

yeah, at stock settings the 9800 pro will kill the 6200. It's an okay choice for $35 less though, since the success rate of unlocking the disabled quad on 6200s is quite high. The 256MB is completely worthless, however.

[Kosh]

And they have SM 3.0. (Which doesn't really matter much nowadays, but it will, later.)

By the time it does matter, the cards that have it now will probably be too slow to really matter. Just my opinion.

[ChronoReverse]

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

Right now it's $139 but the price changes often.  It was $129 last week (and I just ordered one).

[Descenter]

Go to www.pricewatch.com, they have a bunch of different models and prices from lots of companies.  Easy to compare prices with.

[Scuddie]

Going to pricewatch is a mistake that most newbs know not to do.  A good 70% of companies listed under pricewatch are not trustworthy.  It's worth the extra five bucks you spend for Newegg/TD vs A-1 Supar Pewt0r.  Pricewatch is a scamming breeding ground.

[DaBrain]

Originally posted by ChronoReverse
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814122212

Right now it's $139 but the price changes often.  It was $129 last week (and I just ordered one).

That's the card I have. Well, it's not super high end, but pretty damn fast already. Especially because I was able to unlock all pipes without visual problems.


It's a good card. The cooler isn't noisy, and the temp is pretty low.

[MatthewPapa]

man in the last week neweggs prices have gone to hell. pretty much everything i was fixing to buy went up $5-$50. I would go zzf. zipzoomfly.com

[Scuddie]

Yeah, it does look like Newegg is going thru financial problems.  I've been noticing of their stuff is out of stock recently, and sometimes I notice their stuff is gone the same day it arrives, which seems to mean they were only able to order a small amount.  It's quite sad, really.

[CP5670]

Newegg's prices are generally not quite as good as they used to be a few years ago. I think Monarch and ZZF have surpassed them on low prices and Monarch at least has equally good service and shipping speed.

Going to pricewatch is a mistake that most newbs know not to do. A good 70% of companies listed under pricewatch are not trustworthy. It's worth the extra five bucks you spend for Newegg/TD vs A-1 Supar Pewt0r. Pricewatch is a scamming breeding ground.

I use Pricewatch all the time. You should still check the reliabilities of the companies at Reseller Ratings before you actually buy anything, but it's a good place to find the lesser known vendors.

For example, I got an XP-90 heatsink from Coolerguys in February for $36. They are rated higher than even Newegg at Reseller Ratings and if I had bought from Newegg instead, the same thing would have costed $58.

[Scuddie]

That is a valid point.  However there was one company that did a few shipments of RAM, CPU, M/B, case combos that were like a very stripped down version of IBuyPower.  Their first couple waves of shipments went down nicely, and the prices were significantly lower than most online retailers, plus there was no charge for labor.  However, after the second week of being active, they had a nice reputation already, and that week of orders were fake.  Turns out, They just bought enough supplies from other wholesalers, sold them off, and falsified the next set of shipments.  You won't know of this if reseller ratings are good enough.  That's why I only go with companies who are tried and true.

[CP5670]

Well, I guess you can always check the dates of the first few reviews to avoid that sort of situation. Anyway, the chances of running into a company that is just two weeks old is pretty small.

[achtung]

Ive got the funds now so which one?  (actually I decided to go a bit higher)

suggestions are welcome as well.

Choice 1

Choice 2

Choice 3

[ChronoReverse]

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

This one.

Mine unlocked 16x6 and overclocked to 400/900 without breaking a sweat.  Basically, it's very close to a 6800GT in performance =)

[achtung]

Now I just need to understand what you mean by 16x6

[ChronoReverse]

The 6800GT has 16 pipes and 6 vertex shaders.

The 6800NU has 12 and 5.

The 6800LE has 8 and 4.


All three use the same chip (if they're AGP).

Therefore, you can unlock (in software even) the extra pipes and shaders to get much better performance.  Now, the locked pipes don't always word so it's a bit of a luck of the draw thing, but the 6800LE's performance at stock isn't bad.

[CP5670]

well the chances of unlocking both disabled quads and both vertex shaders aren't that great, about 20% or so from what I hear, and it's slower than the cheaper 9800 pro at stock speed. The chances of getting one quad and one VS (making it into a 6800nu) are much better though.

If you are ready to spend $175 now, you can probably find a vanilla X800 that will definitely be your fastest stock option. I don't much about unlocking the pipes on those, although it should be possible.