A little advice needed....

Joined
Apr 2, 2007
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625
I am always so clueless about video cards, so I figured I'd come here for advice.

I just picked up a second monitor for my wife so she can have a dual monitor (horizontal span) setup for work.

I was just going to pick up a budget card for her since she doesn't play games at all.

However, my machine has a BFG 7800 GT OC in it. The question is, is there a lower end 8xxx card (read as lower price as well please :) )that will give me better performance than the 7800 I have now, so I could pass that card down to her?

I could get a budget card for her for $50 or so, so I don't want to spend more than $150 on a new card, but if I could get better performance, why not?
 
Holy cow... Two responses that quickly!

Thanks guys. I still have one other option I just thought of. The 6600gt sitting in my Ubuntu box should be sufficient for my wife's dual monitors.

I can most definitely utilize a lower priced 7xxx or 8xxx card in the Ubuntu box and improve it's performance pretty much no matter what I use.
 
Holy cow... Two responses that quickly!

Thanks guys. I still have one other option I just thought of. The 6600gt sitting in my Ubuntu box should be sufficient for my wife's dual monitors.

I can most definitely utilize a lower priced 7xxx or 8xxx card in the Ubuntu box and improve it's performance pretty much no matter what I use.

np, yep, 6600 should be fine for dual monitors
 
*UPDATE*
6600 did the trick for the wife's setup. Now I can run out tomorrow and get an upgrade for my Linux box.

I am going to stick in the $100 price range. I am wondering if going into a lower grade 8xxx is less intelligent than a higer level 7xxx since Linux does not use directx 10.
 
Something to remember with the 8-series (I think only the 8500/8600/8800 GT? Might be wrong) is that they have more support for hardware video decoding. It's worth looking into.
 
Yeah, I did some research today and only confused myself more.

I have resigned myself to admitting that I won't get better than the 7800GT-OC for my price point.

What's confusing to me is that I look at benchmarks like the one below, and the 6600gt I just tossed in the wife's PC seems to score better than some of the newer lower end 7xxx and 8xxx cards.

I am going to head over and pick up a card tomorrow. Still not sure what to get (def. Nvidia because of Linux support). I'll probably just pick up an 8500gt and test it in my Linux box. If it works better than the 6600, I'll keep it in there. If not, I'll swap back. The missus' PC doesn't need anything special, just dual screens.
 
Yeah, I did some research today and only confused myself more.

I have resigned myself to admitting that I won't get better than the 7800GT-OC for my price point.

What's confusing to me is that I look at benchmarks like the one below, and the 6600gt I just tossed in the wife's PC seems to score better than some of the newer lower end 7xxx and 8xxx cards.

I am going to head over and pick up a card tomorrow. Still not sure what to get (def. Nvidia because of Linux support). I'll probably just pick up an 8500gt and test it in my Linux box. If it works better than the 6600, I'll keep it in there. If not, I'll swap back. The missus' PC doesn't need anything special, just dual screens.

Although it's not up to date with the latest 8800gt's and amd 38xx's, Toms VGA Charts is still a decent approach to figuring out basic performance between cards. According to that chart, your 6600 is a about the same as a 8500gt (in openGL at least, which is what I'd pay attention to for Linux). Opening Toms up in one tab, with newegg.com in another, is a decent way to compare $'s to general performance. Wish the [H] would do something like this too, I'd love more comparisons like this.

(edit: Ha! Darn, I swear the last time I looked at that chart they didn't have the new 8800gt and 38xx cards, but it looks like they do now. Woot!)
 
Yeah. I was using those charts as a loose guide and that was what was telling me how limited my options were.

I am headed over to Micro Center in a few. After further review, the 8600gt seems to be ALMOST comparable to the 7800gt. I think I am going to pick that up, throw it in my Windows box, run 3dMark and see how they compare. If it scores higher, I'll throw the 7800 in the Linux box.

The prices between 8500gt ($95-$30 rebate) and 8600gt ($125-$25 rebate) is too close to not try it out. Both are EVGA, so when I do get that wild hair to go 8800, I can upgrade.

Once I have results, I'll post them here for others in a similar boat to reference.

Thanks for the input/assist everyone.
 
Just got back from my Micro Center trip. That 8600gt was out of stock and back ordered.

After some careful deliberation, I chose to pick up a 7300gs and toss it in the wife's PC ($49.99-$10 rebate). It ended up beinh the most cost effective solution to my dilemma.

Can't go wrong for $39! And, since it is an EVGA card, I can take advantage of the trade up if I feel like it.

Only problem is, I get no upgrade :(
 
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