Best PCI-E Graphics Card???

Claymore

Rear Admiral
Well Murphy's Law has been fairly prevalent lately. I've been having computer problems lately. I may need to build a new system altogether. My cpu completely burnt out. And I built the computer back in 04. So I have a socket 754 board and an agp card. It looks like socket 754 cpus are only sold on ebay these days. So I'm thinking I'm going to get some kind of Amd Athlon dual core, a new motherboard, some ram, and a pci e card.

So what's the best pci e card I can get for $100- $200. I'm really outdated. I dont know what to get at all.
 
Check this link out:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/10/01/the_best_gaming_graphics_cards_for_the_money/

And some more extensive benchmarks here:
http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_2007.html?modelx=33&model1=854&model2=724&chart=318

Well, I'm not sure how much prices may fluctuate around your area, but here's an educated guess. :p

I think the most powerful cards you can get for up to 200 bucks are the Radeon X1950PRO or X1950XT, or maybe one of the higher end GeForce 79xx cards (not sure on their price, and some models are weaker than the X1950XT)... but that's in terms of sheer performance.

What I mean is that those are one generation older than the new GeForce 8600GTS, which has a bit less performance... but some extra features (that you can check at nVidia's site) and full DX10 support, in theory. So if you care more about DirectX10 and extra features than performance, this may be the best choice for you instead. ATI seems to have no DX10 cards around this price range, this falls in between their HD2600XT and HD2900 cards.

Also, the X1950XT (and possibly the GeForce 79xx series, not sure on these) require a higher end power supply than the 8600GTS... something like 450W with 35A on the +12V rails compared to (according to nVidia's website) 350W / 25A for the 8600GTS. So if you don't have a good power supply and don't want to spend too much to get one, again, the 8600GTS might be your best choice even though it can't outperform the other (older) cards.

Finally, be sure that whichever card you decide on has DDR3 or DDR4 memory - because most of these models I've mentioned can also be found in versions that have the same names but use DDR2 memory, which is supposed to be significantly slower.

I've been trying to upgrade my system as well, but it's harder to find these things for a decent price around here... I might have to settle for the slower 8600GT or HD2600XT... the 8600GTS and even the X1950PRO seem to cost twice as much no matter how hard I look for them. But oh well, at least the research I've been doing has come in handy already. :p
 
Great post, Eder.

I'd personally recommend the 8600GTS, because of DX10... Which means Crysys, a prettier Company of Heroes, prettier Conan, and compatibility with lots of future games.


BTW, Eder, can't you order your parts online and have it delivered to someone you know who lives in the US? I bought my last two videocards like that, my sister lives in the US, and whenever my relatives visit her, they bring lots of stuff back for me.
 
Nope, unfortunately I don't think I know anyone who could do that for me. I was considering the wildly overclocked XFX 8600GT Fatal1ty or a HD2600XT for about 450-500 Reais... I'm still looking into more HD2600XT reviews, because I've seen some big disparities so far.

I would bite the bullet and pay the outrageous ~700 Reais price for a 8600GTS, but I'm not convinced about how much DX10 lifetime these things have got in practice. Judging from current benchmarks, I suspect that by the time we start regularly seeing fully DX10 games even the overclocked GT might have trouble with them (currently, these things don't exactly have framerate to spare), so their practical advantage over DX9 cards may be questionable. Of course, there's still no telling how much improvements updated drivers will bring in due time, which may counter that initial effect.
 
Nope, unfortunately I don't think I know anyone who could do that for me. I was considering the wildly overclocked XFX 8600GT Fatal1ty or a HD2600XT for about 450-500 Reais... I'm still looking into more HD2600XT reviews, because I've seen some big disparities so far.

I would bite the bullet and pay the outrageous ~700 Reais price for a 8600GTS, but I'm not convinced about how much DX10 lifetime these things have got in practice. Judging from current benchmarks, I suspect that by the time we start regularly seeing fully DX10 games even the overclocked GT might have trouble with them (currently, these things don't exactly have framerate to spare), so their practical advantage over DX9 cards may be questionable. Of course, there's still no telling how much improvements updated drivers will bring in due time, which may counter that initial effect.

Yeah, I agree with the second part. Didn't microsoft release DX10.1+ already?
700 bucks is a hell lot, but it's not THAT bad, I've seen cards priced R$1000+ before. But 700 is definitely too much for a 8600GTS, if it's too "weak" to take the hit from real DX10.
 
As I said earlier Murphy's Law has been very prevalent. Last night I tried to buy a card similar to this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102706

All of the Sapphire 2900 Pros had sold out so I went to a different web site and somehow I must have put something in wrong and it froze my credit card account. This afternoon I had tried to buy a motherboard, some ram, and that 2900 Pro from newegg. And my card got declined.

The system would have looked this
Amd 4000+ 2.6 Ghz single core
Sapphire Radeon X2900 Pro
2 gigs of 800 mhz ram
120 gig hard drive

Thanks Eder and Edhilfo.

I think the cards with the best bang for the buck are these two. They're about 100 or 150 US Dollars less then comparable Asus and HIS cards.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102706
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102707

I guess I'll just wait to get a new machine until Starcraft 2 comes out.
 
700 bucks is a hell lot, but it's not THAT bad, I've seen cards priced R$1000+ before.
Hehe, yeah, well, the 8800s and the 2900s are going for 1000-2500 on most places I've looked - those are definitely out of the question, I'm not even sure why I looked. I need a change of hemisphere. :p
 
I need a change of hemisphere.
Biggest load of nonsense I've ever heard. :p

(Incidentally, I was looking for a cheap AGP upgrade - since I don't intend on building a completely new PC anytime soon - and I also found the Tom's Hardware Best Value for Money guide pretty handy, even if the price ranges aren't reflected where I am either.)
 
Biggest load of nonsense I've ever heard. :p

(Incidentally, I was looking for a cheap AGP upgrade - since I don't intend on building a completely new PC anytime soon - and I also found the Tom's Hardware Best Value for Money guide pretty handy, even if the price ranges aren't reflected where I am either.)

The 7800GS is a truly awesome AGP card.
The x1950 is the most powerful AGP video card, but it requires an awfully strong power source. So the 7800GS is, IMO the best choice. And it has SM3 (meaning better graphics in a lot of games, and that Bioshock will actually work).
 
Wow, Drizzt, you never had a 4mx or a Fx5200, if you're saying that. I like nVidia, but they had their fair share of horrendous cards.

BTW, the best PC-Ex card today is probably the 8800GT, in the "bang-for-your-buck" department. Ah, kids grow so fast these days.
 
Wow, Drizzt, you never had a 4mx or a Fx5200, if you're saying that. I like nVidia, but they had their fair share of horrendous cards.

The Geforce 4MX series was a budget line of cards that were worse then the Geforce 3 series. Everyone knew that except your average PC buyer ;-)
This was deliberate. They weren't supposed to be top of the line.

But you are right regarding the 5the generation, the FX series. NVIDIA screwed up good for that generation.
 
The Geforce 4MX series was a budget line of cards that were worse then the Geforce 3 series. Everyone knew that except your average PC buyer ;-)
This was deliberate. They weren't supposed to be top of the line.

I know that... and the fact that it was deliberate only makes it worse. No matter the reason, the 4MX was still a complete piece of crap with NVIDIA on it :)

But you are right regarding the 5the generation, the FX series. NVIDIA screwed up good for that generation.
Yeah, that was an entirely bad series of cards. Good thing that generation 6 fixed that.
 
Hey, Ghost, I was in Buenos Aires until today.

Very nice city, liked it a lot. and plenty of gorgeous ladies.
 
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