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LAN Party Forums => Hardware Discussion => Started by: Pride on March 09, 2006, 10:26:00 AM

Title: Really looking for Video Card help
Post by: Pride on March 09, 2006, 10:26:00 AM

Greetings all...

I am considering swapping in my old ATI Radeon 9500 Pro for a new card.

I don't game enough to break the bank (spend 350+) for a card, but I would like something that would allow me to play BF2 well, and be good for a year or 2 to come.

I do prefer ATI over nVidia

Anyone have suggestions and prices?

Title: Really looking for Video Card help
Post by: kona on March 09, 2006, 10:43:23 AM

I like ATI also, but I got the GeForce 7800GT because it's the best bang for the buck.

For ATI and AGP, I would go with an X800GTO

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102608

For nVidia and AGP, Geforce 6800GS

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814143045

Title: Really looking for Video Card help
Post by: Pride on March 09, 2006, 10:48:01 AM

Yeah, but isnt the price on that like 350+?

Title: Really looking for Video Card help
Post by: kona on March 09, 2006, 10:50:44 AM

Edited post.......................

Title: Really looking for Video Card help
Post by: _Cloud on March 09, 2006, 06:26:04 PM

pci-express or agp

Title: Really looking for Video Card help
Post by: Pride on March 09, 2006, 07:05:15 PM

AGP if possible... dont wanna spend money to upgrade PC at this point.

Title: Really looking for Video Card help
Post by: .:F3ar0n:. on March 09, 2006, 07:37:01 PM

Yeah,

I would go with the 6800 GS. I have this card right now and it is amazing. I know u stated that u would rather go with ati, however nvidia has made higher better mid ranged video cards over the past year than ati. So if you stick with ATI, it would only be by name only as u would be loosing perforance. FYI - The 6800 GS is around 230. (which it is agp). The GS is slightly better than the 6800 gt but you'lll save about 40 bucks if U got with the GT (around 190-210). If all else fails...go with a 6600 256mb or a 6600 gt oc (runs around 160).. In anycase...go through pricewatch, they have some amazing deals (better than newegg or tiger direct...I know some good comp dealers out there like Chief Value and Spartan Tech)

Title: Really looking for Video Card help
Post by: _Cloud on March 09, 2006, 07:37:14 PM

ahh nuts i have an x800xl and x850xt pci-express, don't use them anymore since I got my x1900xt

Title: Really looking for Video Card help
Post by: Fabio on March 09, 2006, 11:22:32 PM

if you really really dont want to build new pc... go with a 6800gt/gs(200ish)...

but i would really stress saving for a new system with pci-e... it will save you money in the long run just because in 2-3 years pci-e will still be prefered slot...

and if im not mistaken new chips are comming out quite soon so after that happens AMD and INtel chip/mobo prices will drop, and you will probley be able to get an amazing deal...

Title: Really looking for Video Card help
Post by: Dwg115 on March 13, 2006, 02:54:33 PM

At this point in the game wait till vistas out and then do your upgrade.  thats what im trying to do but it is hard for me cause i want to upgrade so badly.  Also,  Shawn Eichleberger just picked up a x1900xt 512 for 399.99 on a one day sale on newegg.  It's already gone cause i checked it but man is that a sweet deal.

Title: Really looking for Video Card help
Post by: sully! on March 13, 2006, 03:18:45 PM

I will have Vista February CTP available for preview at the LAN this weekend if anyone cares to take a look at it. It runs pretty well for me, I can't complain about any major slowdowns due to the GUI overhead.

Athlon 64 3200
1GB PC4000 Corsair Pro
GeForce 6800 GT OC

For our crowd I'd say that's a middle of the road system and there's still a lot of optimization work to be done yet. I ran UT2k4 on it and only had a slightly lower framerate.

If you don't care about the Aero Glass features (the stuff that makes you go Oooo), I also installed it on a Pentium M 1.73Ghz, 512MB RAM, no real graphics acceleration to speak of. It also ran just fine, albeit without all the visual niceties, but the underlying features were still there (instant search, monad scripting, Least User Privilege [which looks to be a big annoyance, can explain if you ask me], etc. etc.).

Bottom line, don't think you need a $5000 system to run Vista. Don't get me wrong. If I had $5000 to blow on a system I would, but it's just not a necessity to run Vista.

Title: Really looking for Video Card help
Post by: Pride on March 13, 2006, 04:00:45 PM

I loaded Vista Feb and loved it!  Until I found out that it still does not support raid devices!  I then uninstalled it and went back to XP.

Title: Really looking for Video Card help
Post by: sully! on March 13, 2006, 06:22:46 PM

Really?

Then that wasn't a RAID array on my system I was accessing?

I had to use the Server 2003 drivers so the controller was recognized (Promise FastTrak 378), but Vista didn't even bark at me once.

Title: Really looking for Video Card help
Post by: Pride on March 13, 2006, 07:20:37 PM

really? win2k3 drivers worked??

It came up and said that my raid card was not compatible, so I just assumed it wasnt supported yet

Crap! lol

Title: Really looking for Video Card help
Post by: sully! on March 13, 2006, 07:56:43 PM

Yes, I knew Vista is based on the Server 2003 SP1 codebase, so I gave it a shot and voila!

I've even used XP drivers for a couple things if there were no specific Server 2003 drivers available.

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