[Al Tarket]

So what is the best graphics card of all time, i am either thinking of buying a evga or xfx 9800 gx2 or gecube radeon HD 3870. i hear they are the best of the best.

whats your views on what the best card is?

[Topgun]

iisn't the 230 better?

[Fury]

9800 gx2 or radeon HD 3870

Both are last generation cards and slow compared to the latest.

The latest generation are GeForce GTX260 and GTX280 series as well as Radeon 4850 and 4870 series. All four are good so go with whatever you can afford. My personal recommendation would be Radeon 4850.

[colecampbell666]

The 4850 and 4870 are more bang-for-the-buck, but the GTX series are the most powerful, albeit for much more.

I'd go for the 4 series.

[BloodEagle]

I'm curious, how many generations of video cards are there at the moment?

[CP5670]

The 4870 and GTX 260 are very competitive right now, and both have different advantages. I would recommend those to most people. The GTX 280 is the single fastest card, but even at $400 it's a little too expensive to recommend given that the others are down to $250, except at very high resolutions where its memory allows it to really pull ahead.

The 4870 X2 will be out in a week or two and should easily take the crown, but it's a multi GPU card that is not directly comparable to the others.

I'm curious, how many generations of video cards are there at the moment?

You mean all time? I can think of 11 if you only count 3D capable cards. (and consider the Nvidia 8/9 and AMD 2000/3000 series to be of the same generation)

[colecampbell666]

Many.

[Dark RevenantX]

Yeah, that's actually a very accurate list.  Not terribly precise, but very accurate.

The 9800 GX2 as you didn't state before is actually an extremely good card, better than the GTX 260 by far and competes with the GTX 280.  However, since it has some stability issues it's more in the ballpark of the HD 4870.  If you have only one PCI-E slot and can't afford the $415-$475 GTX 280, get a newegg'ed 9800 GX2 for $340-$400.

[CP5670]

The 9800 GX2 is known to have misleading benchmark scores due to its poor minimum framerates in several games, often not much better than a single GPU. I think any of the current gen cards I mentioned earlier will give much more consistent performance across the board.

[Al Tarket]

i am very interested in the x2 version of the 4870 version.

so far the asus version of the 4870 looks blindingly quick on paper however many seem to complain of the cards operational temperature window, reported 70'c to 105'c, i am also leaning towards removing that plastic case and fan and shoving an arctic cooler twin turbo on it for maximum usage. some expert reviews say their is much more within this graphics card if significantly cool enough.

[[DW]-Hunter]

If your going to overclock your video card(s) Asus' video cards is by far your best choice. My Asus GeForce EN8600GT is being overclocked at 150%. The highest  the temperature has ever gotten was 98 F / 36 C but the average temperature of my card is around 75 F / 23 C. I never changed the cooling on the card, and it doesnt even have a fan. But it doesn't really need one because I have this case.

[Al Tarket]

if i combined that twin turbo for the graphics with this case as you pointed out and my real silent cooler for the cpu, the operational window will be so low, i look forward to it!. i need to get some money together to get it all, thats including a tft lcd 19" gaming monitor, a x-fi gaming sound card and also a 1200w psu, i have a computer that i wont need to upgrade for at least 4 to 6 years. thanks for you help guys.

[MP-Ryan]

If your going to overclock your video card(s) Asus' video cards is by far your best choice. My Asus GeForce EN8600GT is being overclocked at 150%. The highest  the temperature has ever gotten was 98 F / 36 C but the average temperature of my card is around 75 F / 23 C. I never changed the cooling on the card, and it doesnt even have a fan. But it doesn't really need one because I have this case.

Or BFG, which comes overcloked and has a lifetime warranty, even with the overclocking.

[colecampbell666]

i need to get some money together to get it all, thats including a tft lcd 19" gaming monitor, a x-fi gaming sound card and also a 1200w psu, i have a computer that i wont need to upgrade for at least 4 to 6 years. thanks for you help guys.

Don't do that, if you sell your old parts within a year, you'll generally get 70% of what you payed for them. Then you can spend about 300-500$ a year and still stay top-of-the-line. (I believe CP said that)

[Al Tarket]

i wouldn't do that, i am thinking my graphics card is either faulty or just doesn't work right for some games like for freespace for example.

even so i wouldn't know what to do to sell to an international buyer anyhow. no, i traditionally buy the pc parts i have had and made sure it works and after i want an upgrade i will give it to someone who can not afford such a machine. just selling it off to somebody who has money for such an item only means they can take further from the poor and more greed to the rich.

[colecampbell666]

[Al Tarket]

i was looking on a few sites that do comparisions on what card is the best for your money. it seems to me that the 9800 gx2 is consistently in the top range of cards, in some games beating this new radeon card and the 280 to the mark. its peaked my interest, i might check it out. i hope i can add a cooling solution to it if i can.

on another note 260 is nowhere to be seen.

[KewlToyZ]

I'm still pretty happy with my inexpensive 8800 GT 512 MB

[Fury]

9800GX2 is two G92 chips on same PCB. It has internal SLI, for good performance it requires that both drivers and game supports SLI properly. SLI doesn't work as well as advertised.

IMHO you'd be better off with single chip solution any day.

[CP5670]

I agree. See my earlier comment on that card.

As far as I know, current gen multi GPU setups like the 4870 X2 have more consistent minimums, although they still carry several other issues.