Which video card is the best deal?

[mcseguy9]

Out of these 3 cards, which one would you say is the best deal/best buy for the $$$?

SAPPHIRE 100151L-RD Radeon X1300 256MB 128-bit GDDR2 AGP 4X/8X Video Card - Retail

3D Fuzion 3DFR66256 Geforce 6600 256MB 128-bit DDR AGP 4X/8X Video Card - Retail

POWERCOLOR R98-PC3H Radeon 9800PRO 128MB 256-bit DDR AGP 4X/8X Video Card - Retail

[mcseguy9]

Let me add another question to this topic. Two of the cards have 256 MB RAM and 128 bit interfaces, while one card has 128 MB RAM and a 256 bit interface. Which is better - more memory and smaller interface or less memory and bigger interface?

[Steve R Jones]

Is this a general use pc or a gamming pc?

[mcseguy9]

It's about 50/50 general use and gaming. However, I usually play games that are a year old or more simply because I don't like paying a lot for a new game. The newest game I play is America's Army, which is free to download. I play it almost exclusively and have been for almost a year. So I'm looking for the card out of those three above that would play games the best.

[rbc1100]

I think you would be better off if you could find a 6600GT as clock speeds are almost 2x as much as what your looking at. And the prices are not that bad. If you can find one.

[mcseguy9]

Thanks for the additional information. I am on a very tight budget, however, and can't afford the 6600GT. I've been told the X1300 is a budget card that doesn't have an edge up on the plain 6600. And that the 6600 is superior to the 9800Pro in most ways. Do you agree?

[mcseguy9]

Hey all, I'm looking at the different "stuff" concerning these two cards and just from the data available it appears the 9800Pro should run faster. Am I reading this wrong or does it all just depend on other factors? Here's the data:

the 9800Pro has faster core and memory clocks and a 256Bit interface. The 6600 has much slower clocks and a 128Bit interface.
9800Pro:
Core: 380MHz Mem: 674MHz 256Bit Memory interface
6600:
Core: 300MHz Mem:500MHz 128Bit Memory interface

[rbc1100]

I think you will find, and i might be wrong that the 6600"GT" is a tad faster. This is the XFX 6600gt in my system. I just ordered a 7800 GS OC and 2 gigs of Corsair XMS, this will be my last AGP card. Going to try and make this system go another year before jumping to X2 and DDR2 SLI GFX. Some one here has the url for Toms hardware and the chart for bench marked GFX cards and I thought the last time I looked the 6600gt was just ahead of the 9800 pro which BTW is a good card.

Field Value
Graphics Processor Properties
Video Adapter nVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT AGP
GPU Code Name NV43GTAGP
PCI Device 10DE / 00F1
Transistors 143 million
Process Technology 0.11u
Die Size 150 mm2
Bus Type AGP 8x
Memory Size 128 MB
GPU Clock 299 MHz
RAMDAC Clock 400 MHz
Pixel Pipelines 8
TMU Per Pipeline 1
Vertex Shaders 3 (v3.0)
Pixel Shaders 1 (v3.0)
DirectX Hardware Support DirectX v9.0c
Pixel Fillrate 2392 MPixel/s
Texel Fillrate 2392 MTexel/s

Memory Bus Properties
Bus Type GDDR3
Bus Width 128-bit
Real Clock 501 MHz (DDR)
Effective Clock 1002 MHz
Bandwidth 15.7 GB/s

Graphics Processor Manufacturer
Company Name NVIDIA Corporation
Product Information http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?PAGE=products
Driver Download http://www.nvidia.com/drivers

[Train]

VGA Charts VII: AGP Update Summer 2005 - tomshardware

http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/07/...vii/page4.html

Tom's VGA Charts Archive
http://www.tomshardware.com/site/vgacharts/index.html

[mcseguy9]

Thanks for the info everyone. I've pretty much decided to get the 9800Pro.

[rbc1100]

Good Choice, it will perform well.