Purchasing a new video card

Originally posted by MaFia JaK:

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what is THE BEST card out on the market right now

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Ahh, the eternal question. Right now it's really a toss-up between the ATI Radeon 9800 256Mb XT card and the Nvidia Geforce FX 5950 Ultra 256Mb (as far as games go).

Both are just a step above their previous models (i.e. the FX 5900 Ultra 256Mb and the Radeon 9800 Pro 256Mb), about 10% to be exact. Really I would wait right now until those next-gen games come out that will actually use the 256Mb cards (and DX9) and then the companies will start dropping prices on the next-gen cards. The games I'm talking about are Doom 3, Half-life 2, and Far Cry. Wait till they're on the shelves before you start card shopping and you should be in good shape.

Here's another site with lots of video card benchmarking on

http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/over2003/index.html

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Really I would wait right now until those next-gen games come out that will actually use the 256Mb cards (and DX9) and then the companies will start dropping prices on the next-gen cards.

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yes i am going to wait i really dont want to spend over 500 bucks kinda ridiculous to me so i am going to upgrade my ram and probably hdd as well maybe get a dvd writer too 3 things for the prive of 1 seems like a much better deal

Yep, I've just added a DVD burner to my system and a 160Gb HDD and 512Mb of RAM. The video card is the next thing to upgrade.

before i add a vid card i am going to add a hdd and i was wondering if anyone knew of a motherboard for the pentium 4 845G chipset that has 8x AGP and at least 2 slots for DDR at least 3200

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i was wondering if anyone knew of a motherboard for the pentium 4 845G chipset that has 8x AGP and at least 2 slots for DDR at least 3200

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Try looking here for the motherboard you're looking for.

Right now, I've got a GeForce2 MX with the 64 MB, and I'm lookin' for a substantially powerful upgrade without goin' completely overboard on price. Any suggestions?

the GeForce4 Ti4800 is a superb card for its price (around $150) go HERE for other GeForce 4 products they are very nice and very smooth

Hmm... so is the one you mentioned a pretty big jump from what I have now? (I know next to nuthin about video cards)

yes its quite a big jump, i posted in the Ram thread you asked about ram in and gave you the 2 top of the line vid cards

HERE is a site that has 80 vid cards the price is in parenthesis next to the name and it has test benchmarks as you go down the page for diff games

I have been Nvida only for a while now just because they are cheaper..., right now I have a gainward 64MB DDR

I really need to upgrade this thing cause I am stating to notice the newer games going slower then my liking...

well at first I was going to go with a gainward 128MB card but then I have so much about the new Nvida cards being complete crap that I really dont know...

what I want to do is hear what you guys have to say and go completely on that for the most part...

I want the card that I am going to get the best value for and I would say my price range is from about $80 to $120, and maybe all the way up to $150 if you guys think it is worth...

I have been planning to get a new card for about 6 months now...
I should add that my mobo is a 4x but I have been told that it doesn't make much difference... (between 4x and 8x)

thanx in advanced,
Byan

Nice luck for me, finding this thread stickied! :) I've got to replace my video card (it looks like its fan died and it keeps giving out on me), and I'd like to upgrade it while I'm at it. I've been doing some research online, and am a little confused about the whole 4X/8X thing. I know this is voltage-related, and supposedly one won't work in a slot set for the other. Most of the cards I've found that make the most sense for what I need--I game but don't need the very top-end stuff--seem to be listed as 8X. But I just found one listed as 4X/8X. Does this mean that they are interchangeable after all? I really feel like I'm missing one simple but crucial piece of information.....

Thanks!

if you have a 4x agp motherboard, and you buy a 8xagp vid card, it will still work it will juts run at 4x instead of 8x and if you have a 8x Motherboard and you buy a 4x agp vid card it will still run

Thanks--that simplifies the decision a lot!

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Originally posted by Webshark2000
Originally posted by MaFia JaK:

Both are just a step above their previous models (i.e. the FX 5900 Ultra 256Mb and the Radeon 9800 Pro 256Mb), about 10% to be exact. Really I would wait right now until those next-gen games come out that will actually use the 256Mb cards (and DX9) and then the companies will start dropping prices on the next-gen cards. The games I'm talking about are Doom 3, Half-life 2, and Far Cry. Wait till they're on the shelves before you start card shopping and you should be in good shape.

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AUGH...do you mean to tell me doom 3 WILL NOT PLAY AT ALL ON MY CURRENT VIDEO CARD???? You can see what I am running below....