What graphics card is best for me?

[MrWhite]

I have a barton 3000 chipset and a AX7NE Deluxe or something like that (Asus, and its Nforce 2 chip)

I have a 480 w PSU andalright cooling (1 120 mm fan, 4 80 mm fans)

So what would be the best choice for me? x800? 9800 pro or XT?

 

[blahblahblah]

How much money are you willing to spend?

And how much RAM do you have?

 

[MrWhite]

oh right, forgot that, 512 but i miiight maybe get a gig stick

and im willing to spend alot... anywhere from 200-500

but i dont want to spend a whole lot if its going to be bottlenecked

 

[Warbie]

9800 pro 128 if you haven't got silly money to spend on a gfx card, yet still want to play current games.

6800 gt is the best value for money card at the moment, imo.

X800 xt if money is no object and you've got the pc to back it up

 

[MrWhite]

Well see, if i was going with 9800 pro, it would either be a 256 or a XT, because, well.. i do have a good chunk of money to spend

but im worried that an x800 would be bottlenecked and not worth it

 

[Warbie]

It'd make more sense to get the 9800 pro 128 over the 256 or XT and save some money for other components. (they really aren't worth the extra price - we're talking a few fps, at most)

Personally i'd get the 6800 gt.

 

[MrWhite]

is everyone trying to avoid my question?

thats fine and all but... would it (6800) or the x800 be bottlenecked on my system?

 

[blahblahblah]

Getting the extra 512 of RAM is important otherwise you system can handle any of the new graphics cards.

The X800 XT PE and the 6800 Ultra are going to be impossible to find. Even though they have a MSRP of $500, it will cost you around $600 if you manage to track one down.

Next up is the X800 Pro and 6800 GT. Both are awesome, it is looking like the X800 Pro will be slightly faster in HL2, and the 6800 GT is faster in Doom 3. The X800 Pro is going to be slightly cheaper than the 6800 GT right now. People will bash the X800 Pro because that is the cool thing to do right now. Overall, if you do a bunch of gaming, the 6800 GT will be faster, but don't count the X800 Pro out.

Next up is the 6800 which is 20% faster than the 9800 Pro. This card is $299. If you are going to spend this much money on a card, bite the bullet and spend the extra money to get a 6800 GT or X800 Pro.

Lastly is the 9800 Pro. Great deal for $200 though it is left in the dust with the 6800 and X800 series of graphics cards.

Take a look at some recent benchmarks.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/graphics-cards-2004.html

 

[SiNNeR]

anyone have any thoughts on athe GF 5900xt?

 

[MrWhite]

Okay, still not exactly clear on my followup question but, since I care less about doom 3 than hl2, so your saying i should chock up to a gig of ram (another 512) and get an x800 pro?

 

[MrWhite]

well thanks for the help

i think what i just posted above is what i'm going to do

 

[blahblahblah]

well thanks for the help

i think what i just posted above is what i'm going to do

Don't be afraid of the 6800 GT either. Both will manhandle HL2. Unless some new benchmarks/info comes out, buy whatever is cheaper.

The GB of RAM is key for the video upgrade though.

Good choice though. :thumbs:

 

[blahblahblah]

anyone have any thoughts on athe GF 5900xt?

I'm too lazy to edit my post. ;(

The 5900 XT is a great overclocker, but will still lag behind the 9800 Pro. This will become really obvious as more and more games start to use shaders in them. The 9800 Pro will still hang in there (in terms of performance) while the 5900XT will be bogged down.

 

[SidewinderX]

the 5900XT is a great budget card, but for around the same price, you cna get a 9800 pro.

no, and x800 won't be bottlenecked.

 

[DJ_Cheeba]

Getting the extra 512 of RAM is important otherwise you system can handle any of the new graphics cards.

The X800 XT PE and the 6800 Ultra are going to be impossible to find. Even though they have a MSRP of $500, it will cost you around $600 if you manage to track one down.

Next up is the X800 Pro and 6800 GT. Both are awesome, it is looking like the X800 Pro will be slightly faster in HL2, and the 6800 GT is faster in Doom 3. The X800 Pro is going to be slightly cheaper than the 6800 GT right now. People will bash the X800 Pro because that is the cool thing to do right now. Overall, if you do a bunch of gaming, the 6800 GT will be faster, but don't count the X800 Pro out.

Next up is the 6800 which is 20% faster than the 9800 Pro. This card is $299. If you are going to spend this much money on a card, bite the bullet and spend the extra money to get a 6800 GT or X800 Pro.

Lastly is the 9800 Pro. Great deal for $200 though it is left in the dust with the 6800 and X800 series of graphics cards.

Take a look at some recent benchmarks.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/graphics-cards-2004.html

Great advice Blahblahblah! ! ! Unbiased and well rounded! ! !

 

[wayne white]

now i dont know if this belong here ,but i really need to upgrade my mobo and cpu for hl2,the problem is im on a really really tight budget so:which are the cheapest i can find?also i need to run at 2.4 giga at least?

 

[bosox188]

By the way, if you're gonna get an X800 pro get in from dell.com. It's somewhere under software and peripherals, they have X800 pros for $333 and X800XT PE's for only $417!

*Edit* I just looked at Dell's site and now the X800 pro is $359. But I think it will stay that way, because now it says that everybody else is selling it for $400. Before it said everybody else was selling it for like $350 or something. So I'm sure the X800XT is a little more there, but still that's a very nice price.

*Edit again* They aren't showing the X800XT there right now so they must be out of stock. So their probably raising the prices for now because now they're in short supply like everyone else. I hope it goes back down cause I want one of those.