Graphics card reccomendations

Howdy fellas, so I went down to Fry's with the intention of simply swapping out my motherboard, and walked away with a new mobo, processor, powersupply, and ram. Like a kid in a candy store, such is the effect that Fry's electroinics has on me...

Anyway, I get all this crap home to find there's no agp slot on the mobo, so my old discontinued radeon 9800 128 is of no use to me. Well, I suppose one should upgrade one's video card every decade or so anyway.

So any video card reccomendations? I don't need anything too crazy, and would like to keep it under $200 if possible. Actually any mid range card will probably be an improvement on what I had before.

 

This is what I'm getting for my PC

8800GT 512 mb (EVGA)

Evga also allows you to swap your old card and pay the difference for an upgrade, or something around those lines.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130318

 

eVGA's Step-Up program is only if you've purchased the card you're trading in within the last 90 days.

I can't stand either graphics hardware company (nVidia or ATI) because of their shitty drivers. With that said, I think nVidia is the greater evil with the better hardware. I'd buy an ATI card but I've heard so many bad things about their drivers and temperature problems.

If you want to have slightly less horsepower than the 8800GT but at a lesser price, go with the 9600GT. You don't strike me as someone who wants to play Crysis at breakneck speeds (which you'd be close to with this card, anyway).

If you really want to go budget, get an 8600GTS. They're not bad cards by any means, but don't expect to play newer games at higher settings. It still runs circles around your old 9800, though.

 

I've heard that 8800 GT are one of the best cards out there and they are not too expensive (compared to the 8800 GTX and Ultra). At the moment i have a 8800GTS 640 and i can play every game @ 1440x900 fully maxed

 

Yeah I use this computer mostly for work purposes, although I get time for the occasional game now and then.

Something like this is more of what I'm looking for (and in my price range)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130290

thanks for the help fellas

 

9600GT, 8800GT, or 7900GT/GS would be cool.

 

I have a 256MB GDDR 3 8600GTS. It cost $105, with $30 rebate (which knocks it down to $75). Still awaiting that check...

 

I have a 7900 GT KO (factory OC) and it works great for most games out and you should be able to find one really cheap now that the 9 series is starting out.

 

I have an ATI 3870 HD and it works like a charm, every game at 1280*1024 run on full details smooth.

Crysis playable @25 fps on high.

 

I agree! My nVidia MX 420 still kicks ass. For me to upgrade my card, I'd need to upgrade my RAM. To upgrade my RAM, I'd need to upgrade my motherboard. Too much of a hassle.

I'll give it 7 years max before I change my PC (next year).

 

If you are running Xp nVidia drivers are great, I am not sure how the Vista ones are but I have heard they got much better. I remember the old days of ATi drivers and the absolute horror they were. I will never own another ATi product because of that.

I am running a 8800GTX and it is an awesome card, although I would go with the newer 8800GT if you are going to be doing a lot of gaming, however if it is going to be mostly work stuff the 8600 would be perfect.

 

Actually, you're right. I don't really have any problems with nVidia's XP drivers other than the fact that they won't fix their aspect-ratio scaling. I have a widescreen monitor and am forced to play with a stretched screen if the game doesn't support a widescreen resolution. This is my #1 reason for hating nVidia, and it isn't a huge deal.

DOSBox supports scaling through the software, and since most of the games I play are DOS-based I guess I don't have much to complain about.

 

I didn't know that. I will have to try it out. I have just been playing them windowed.

 

Get the 9600GT, is more than enough for every game these days, except for Crysis which needs the equivalent of a billion suns powered by a trillion virgins (yeah, expensive, I know).

Dont get the 9800, is the same core the 8800 has, with little more stuff for the price.

If you want high end wait for the next core (10800? dunno what name they are going to give it)

 

Is the 9800 GT even out yet? I think I'm just going to get an 8800 GT for this new PC.

 

9800GTX to be exact, uses the same G92 core from the 8800GTS, so its basically 2 8800GTS in the same board.

Thats why I said that its better to wait for the next gen of nVidia cores.

 

Depending on how much a 9800GT costs, yeah probably. I remember reading they don't support DX10.1 or some shit either, wheras ATI's does. The 9800 GTX whatever now is super expensive too.

 

At $300 the 9800GTX isnt expensive nor a bad option, althought you can get similar results with a 8800GTS and for less money.

 

just out of curiosity:

is the bandwidth of PCIe being effectively used with these cards? If yes, what is (%) the benefit of having a card running in PCIe over AGP? (not in theory or futureproofness, just real-world results)

 

At the beginning 4 years ago? nah, but now is being used, specially with Quad SLI arrays.

The more RAM these cards get, the more bandwidth they need, and back when AGP was still around a highend card had 128MB, while today the standard is about 512 per core.