video card advice

[Bud Light]

What do you think is the best video card you can get right now for somewhere around $150.

Also what are some of the more important features to consider?

[mjkovis]

Well most people will suggest getting a Geforce 6600 GT which will run a little more than $150.00, but it will run everything out in the market right now.

The feature depend on what kind of preferences you have with using the video card. Some have TV/Out adapters, some have TV tuning capabilities like the AIW ATI 9800 Pro. Some even support dual monitors. What do you plan on using your system for (Gaming, internet, etc)?

AK

[Bud Light]

Mainly just gaming and watching dvd's. I don't plan on using tv out or dual monitors.

By the way how does a video card help the internet?

[mjkovis]

Originally Posted by Bud Light Mainly just gaming and watching dvd's. I don't plan on using tv out or dual monitors. By the way how does a video card help the internet?

I was mainly meaning what you are using your system for. Sorry, I wrote the wrong word and I changed it above...

If you plan on getting a better video card, get the latest rave the 6600 GT. Like I said most people will recommend it to you and it is a great card.

AK

[Bud Light]

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...102-326&depa=0

How does the above card compare to the 6600GT?

[spyder003]

No comparison. The 6600GT is more on par with it's big brother, the 9800XT.

[glc]

Well, you guys just bumped him up to almost 200 bucks with the 6600GT. The comparable (PRICED) ATI is the 9800 Pro. Let's NOT start arguing which is better, I just offered that as a direct price comparison. If your $150 limit is cast in stone, my money would be on an ATI 9600XT.

[mjkovis]

Originally Posted by glc Well, you guys just bumped him up to almost 200 bucks with the 6600GT. The comparable (PRICED) ATI is the 9800 Pro. Let's NOT start arguing which is better, I just offered that as a direct price comparison. If your $150 limit is cast in stone, my money would be on an ATI 9600XT.

I would certainly hope this does not get into a debate over which card is better. No reason for that silly nonsense here.

Originally Posted by Bud Light http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...102-326&depa=0 How does the above card compare to the 6600GT?

Anyways, as I stated in my first post that the 6600 GT would cost more than $150.00 US, so if you want to spend the money that is up to you. The 9800 Pro is of course the card COMPARED price wise and performance wise (usually) to the 6600 GT and they are both extremely good cards. glc and yourself have chosen a good card WITHIN your price range though. Sapphire makes a good quality product and you should be happy with that card. It is your decision, we are here to help you with any questions.

AK

[Bud Light]

It was said that most people would recommend the 6600GT. Well why would they recommend that instead of the 9800pro. Are there any noticable differences? Also I have heard that ati has a better actual picture, any truth to this?


Edit: I noticed the GT's are 128 bit but support directx shader 3.0 and the XT's are 256bit but are only directx 9. What does this all mean?

[fedz]

Closer to your limit than the 6600GT, and very much better than the 9600XT, is the 256MB vanilla 9800
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...131-413&depa=0

If your limit is not cast in stone, the 6600GT will offer close to (even more than) twice the performance of the 9600XT, for $50-60 more.
Bear in mind that the 9600XT will run HL2 at decent resolutions, but not with all the possible eye candy, and not at the highest quality.

fedz

[Bud Light]

Im heading towards the 6600gt by msi now. Does any one know if it comes with doom 3? It looks like there is a pic of it on the box on newegg. But before I purchase it I have to rule out ati's 9800 pro. What are your thoughts on it?

[fedz]

6600GT outperforms the 9800pro in most, if not all games and overclocks significantly better.
It doesnt come with Doom3 (simply optimised for it), but the software bundle is absolutely amazing nonetheless. Make sure you get the AGP version though.

You might also want to consider eVGA's offering; no games but significantly cheaper at $198
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...130-220&depa=0

fedz

[mjkovis]

Originally Posted by fedz Make sure you get the AGP version though.

Clarifying the AGP part... The 6600 GT card comes in two versions. One for PCI-Express and the other AGP. Some motherboards take PCI-E and PCI cards only and other take just AGP and PCI. When searching for your card make sure you get the correct card that you motherboad supports.

AK

[glc]

Also I have heard that ati has a better actual picture, any truth to this?

Absolutely. Nvidia's cards have always been biased toward 3D gaming performance (FRAMERATES). ATI's cards have always had a top quality 2D display. There are tradeoffs.

This is why, for $200, I would recommend the 6600GT for a gamer and a 9800 Pro for general use. You have to decide what your priority is.

[fedz]

I tend to disagree. I find that the latest Nvidia cards produce an image quality which is just as nice. You'll find that, while Nvidia have stoped 'cheating' on framerates, ATi have now started enabling exactly the same thing (under a different name - temporal anti-aliasing), which I find disgusting, especially regarding the huge stink they made when Nvidia did that.
I've used both cards, and I believe that they are as good as each other when it comes to general image quality (gaming, 2d etc.), but the 6600GT has much nicer video playback quality.
This leads me to recommend it, along with the superior performance and overclocking potential

fedz

[Bud Light]

Thanks alot guys I appreciate the help.

And for one last question will my 350watt sparkle be able to handle the 6600gt?

[kram 2.0]

Originally Posted by Bud Light Thanks alot guys I appreciate the help. And for one last question will my 350watt sparkle be able to handle the 6600gt?

You should be fine - my Radeon 9800 Pro, which is a rought equivelant in terms of graphics card capability to the GF6600GT, runs perfectly on 360 Watts. You should be fine with either the GF6600GT or the Radeon 9800 Pro - I fully back/agree with glc on his advice.

kram

[mjkovis]

Originally Posted by Bud Light Thanks alot guys I appreciate the help. And for one last question will my 350watt sparkle be able to handle the 6600gt?

Just a quick note... If you ever have any questions on how much power you need for your system use the link below. It is a power supply wattage calculator.

Power Wattage Supply Calculator

AK

[Bud Light]

I just wanted to make sure im downloading the right drivers because there is a site with drivers on the pcchips website and on the sis one.

My mobo is pcchips m863G with a sis 741 chipset

http://download.sis.com/
SiS AGP(GART) Driver (v1.19a) 2005-01-25

Is that the driver I want to get my 6600 to work?

[spyder003]

You'll want the drivers from nVidia.

Good choice by the way, you'll be very happy with that card.

[Bud Light]

I know I need the nvidia drivers but aren't you supposed to update the actual agp slot drivers so the card is recognized. If im correct the ones im tryin to install are for the slot and not the onboard video chip.

I know i need to update the drivers but what im tryin to find out is should I get them from my chipsets web page or my motherboards webpage

[kram 2.0]

Originally Posted by Bud Light I know I need the nvidia drivers but aren't you supposed to update the actual agp slot drivers so the card is recognized. If im correct the ones im tryin to install are for the slot and not the onboard video chip. I know i need to update the drivers but what im tryin to find out is should I get them from my chipsets web page or my motherboards webpage

You shouldn't need to - go ahead and insert the graphics card into the AGP slot (don't force it in but get it in), attatch all necessary power connectors, and then then boot up. Install the graphical drivers from nVidia's website. If that fails to work, let us know.

kram

[glc]

Get the SiS drivers, thay will be newer than anything PC Chips has on their site.

[fedz]

Imo the Nvidia graphics card drivers are what you need. Use the normal forceware's, nice 'n stable, and you should have no problem

fedz

[glc]

It would not hurt to update the SiS GART driver - if you don't have it installed, the card will only run at PCI speed.

[Puffie40]

Quick question for you guys. Has anyone tried the ATI 9700 Pro with HL2? I am looking at this board as it is going fairly cheap on Ebay.

[fedz]

You'd be better off starting a new thread, but here's the answer anyway:
9700pro is in between the radeon 9800 and 9800pro performance-wise (a very good card, basically a downclocked 9800pro), and will deal with HL2 without problems. Can you tell me how much you're buying it for?

fedz

[Puffie40]

I am not buying a card yet, as i'm a bit over budget right now. The one's on ebay are going for a little bit under $100us, Which is just right for me.

[fedz]

Yeah, that's a good deal

fedz