best video card

H

Hulk

Supreme [H]ardness
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Nov 4, 2005
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so whats the best GPU money can buy right now? i've been out of the loop for like 4 months.:cool:
 
Fastest single card is the GTX295. Most cost efficient would be 2 GTX275 in SLI or 2 4890 crossfire.
 
The fastest single-GPU cards are the nVidia GTX 285 or the ATi 4890. The fastest dual-GPU cards are the nVidia GTX 295 and the ATi 4870X2. In both cases, the nVidia cards are significantly more expensive than the ATi cards, while not being significantly faster.

I'm ignoring the ASUS Mars because that costs $1700; the $1200 premium for a minor overclock is too stupid.
 
Where can I purchase this Asus mars 295 limited edition card?

and why the premium? I mean, it's going to be outdated, granted it might take 3+ years.

$1,000 over 3 years ain't bad, fellas.
 
Hulk you would regret paying that much as of now. I paid $700 for my 8800Ultra 2 yrs ago.

Now kicking myself in the ass since cards that of same performance are <$200. kthnx
 
Hulk said:
Where can I purchase this Asus mars 295 limited edition card?

and why the premium? I mean, it's going to be outdated, granted it might take 3+ years.

$1,000 over 3 years ain't bad, fellas.
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No, it will be outdated by the end of the year, if not sooner, which is why the premium is stupid. A GTX 295 is essentially two GTX 275 cards mashed into one. The Mars is essentially two GTX 285 cards mashed into one. The performance difference between a GTX 275 and a GTX 285 is rather small. It would be far, far cheaper to buy a SLI motherboard and two GTX 285 cards than it would be to buy a Mars, and they would perform better because they are using two slots rather than one.
 
michaLcoughliN said:
Hulk you would regret paying that much as of now. I paid $700 for my 8800Ultra 2 yrs ago.

Now kicking myself in the ass since cards that of same performance are <$200. kthnx
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hahahah, samething that I did for 8800 GTX..

but oh well..

since ATI come back strong this time, I doubt nVidia will do anything like that again like they did again with GTX 280...seriously stupid..
 
evilsofa said:
I'm ignoring the ASUS Mars because that costs $1700; the $1200 premium for a minor overclock is too stupid.
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Cr*ps pants..
signature_distory.jpg


How many of those cards to they actually sell?

I would go with the dual GTX275's at the moment.
 
keep in mind the 4890 will run warmer then the gtx280 correct>? just so you know and its not a shocker or something when you see the temps. i hope you have good case cooling also but that goes with any video card or hardware you purchase to put into a case.
 
I think I might have heard that it might run quite a bit cooler thanks to it's fan speed being really high: ATI kind of went the opposite way with the 4890's cooling compared to the original 4870s: Loud and cool vs quiet and hot.

Turning the fan down wouldn't be too hard to do though.
 
shansoft said:
if you are a lazy overclocker, and want to overclock easily without all the trouble..

go for ASUS, they have voltage Tweak program..

else definitely go for XFX...
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i second the nod for asus if you want to get nice oc's out of your card. the voltage tweak is very useful. warranty terms pretty good too, 3 years, no proof of purchase needed. Quality of service could be better, though.

xfx is a good choice too. i'd stay away from his / sapphire, but that's just me.
 
stainremover said:
i second the nod for asus if you want to get nice oc's out of your card. the voltage tweak is very useful. warranty terms pretty good too, 3 years, no proof of purchase needed. Quality of service could be better, though.

xfx is a good choice too. i'd stay away from his / sapphire, but that's just me.
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not just you

sapphire / HIS / powercolor / MSI / VisionTek .. their cards are just not that good.
.
 
Thanks... doing some research now been a looong time (as in years) since I built a gaming rig so read read read read read for me.
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michaLcoughliN said:
Hulk you would regret paying that much as of now. I paid $700 for my 8800Ultra 2 yrs ago.

Now kicking myself in the ass since cards that of same performance are <$200. kthnx
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It's almost not worth it, you know what I mean? You paid $700 for a card that's worth $130 AND DROPPING!!!

At least with camera gear you buy fast glass for $1,000 you can resell it 5 years later for 95% of that. :rolleyes:
 
ThisMonsterLives said:
ASUS Mars 295 Limited Edition
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^This.

shadowghost said:
Fastest single card is the GTX295. Most cost efficient would be 2 GTX275 in SLI or 2 4890 crossfire.
Click to expand...

Well the ASUS Mars is going to be faster than the run of the mill Geforce GTX 295. As for the cost efficiency, I agree.

evilsofa said:
The fastest single-GPU cards are the nVidia GTX 285 or the ATi 4890. The fastest dual-GPU cards are the nVidia GTX 295 and the ATi 4870X2. In both cases, the nVidia cards are significantly more expensive than the ATi cards, while not being significantly faster.

I'm ignoring the ASUS Mars because that costs $1700; the $1200 premium for a minor overclock is too stupid.
Click to expand...

Why do people continue to make this distinction? Faster is faster. It doesn't matter how they did it. I've seen no evidence of any microstuttering on the 4870 X2 personally and I've never seen any complaints about single Geforce GTX 295 equipped systems having that issue either. Quad-SLI may be another story. It was with the Geforce 9800GX2's.

Hulk said:
Where can I purchase this Asus mars 295 limited edition card?

and why the premium? I mean, it's going to be outdated, granted it might take 3+ years.

$1,000 over 3 years ain't bad, fellas.
Click to expand...

No, try 3-6 months. We should see NVIDIA's GT300 by then. The ASUS Mars Limited Edition is limited to 1,000 units world wide. Hence the premium price. It isn't $1,000 over three years, its $1,700 for one of those cards right now. In 3 to 6 months it probably won't be worth $500.00.
 
Hulk said:
Where can I purchase this Asus mars 295 limited edition card?

and why the premium? I mean, it's going to be outdated, granted it might take 3+ years.

$1,000 over 3 years ain't bad, fellas.
Click to expand...

It's actually terrible, fella. Tack 700 dollars onto your 1,000. It'll be outdated when the GTX300 and HD5xxx series comes out.
 
Dan_D said:
No, try 3-6 months. We should see NVIDIA's GT300 by then. The ASUS Mars Limited Edition is limited to 1,000 units world wide. Hence the premium price. It isn't $1,000 over three years, its $1,700 for one of those cards right now. In 3 to 6 months it probably won't be worth $500.00.
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To me right now, the MARS isn't worth 500.
 
RADEoN said:
To me right now, the MARS isn't worth 500.
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I wouldn't either. I'd have paid $500 or even $600 for one if they had been available when the reference Geforce GTX 295's came out. At this point the launch of the next generation cards is just too close to drop that kind of coin on this generations hardware. At their current $1,700 price tag they are just a waste of money in my opinion.
 
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Hulk said:
It's almost not worth it, you know what I mean? You paid $700 for a card that's worth $130 AND DROPPING!!!

At least with camera gear you buy fast glass for $1,000 you can resell it 5 years later for 95% of that. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Thus is the nature of depreciation, especially so with computer components...

Caveat emptor.
 
Falling Anvil said:
I think I might have heard that it might run quite a bit cooler thanks to it's fan speed being really high: ATI kind of went the opposite way with the 4890's cooling compared to the original 4870s: Loud and cool vs quiet and hot.

Turning the fan down wouldn't be too hard to do though.
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My 4890 isn't overly loud, no more so then anything else in my comp. It ramps up a bit in games, but at idle I sleep no problem in the same room as it.
 
psyside said:
Anyone have link of Asus Mars review (with Crysis,Farcry etc.)
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I don't know if any review samples of the Mars are out there. For a review site to purchase one or two for testing would be insanely expensive.
 
Dan_D said:
^This.



Well the ASUS Mars is going to be faster than the run of the mill Geforce GTX 295. As for the cost efficiency, I agree.



Why do people continue to make this distinction? Faster is faster. It doesn't matter how they did it. I've seen no evidence of any microstuttering on the 4870 X2 personally and I've never seen any complaints about single Geforce GTX 295 equipped systems having that issue either. Quad-SLI may be another story. It was with the Geforce 9800GX2's.



No, try 3-6 months. We should see NVIDIA's GT300 by then. The ASUS Mars Limited Edition is limited to 1,000 units world wide. Hence the premium price. It isn't $1,000 over three years, its $1,700 for one of those cards right now. In 3 to 6 months it probably won't be worth $500.00.
Click to expand...

I really hope we do see the GT300s, Nvidia better put something out better than faster DX10 parts. It seems like the tech industry is lagging because of the "economic crisis" I wish we'd see some software to leverage our current cards too!
 
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