Card Suggestions Please

M

MrHood22

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Aug 21, 2007
Messages
4,312
Hi. I have an 8800GT OC and a 2900Pro (256bit). When I bought the 2900Pro it said 512bit but I guess they realized it wasn't that and changed it back so I think i'll just RMA it. So now i'm looking for a card less then $200 so I can play the Half Life series (CSS, DODS, TF2, L4D, ect) and some another semi current games like COD4 and stuff. I can only play at 1280 x 1024 so it doesn't need to be all that great.

I'm selling my 8800GT so I can save up for one big upgrade (or a new build).

I was thinking that 8600GT 512mb GDDR3 for $100

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...318922&Description=8600GT+512mb&name=With+Fan

Maybe the MSI one for $100 after rebate.

Any suggestions?
 
Well with a slower card and lower resolution, you don't really need one with 512mb of ram. I doubt an 8600GT has enough power to enable enough graphical features to use it all.

If your only looking to spend $100 for gaming, an 8600GT would be your best bet, either that or look for something used that's a more powerful card.


Though even with the slower memory bus on the 2900, it's not a horrible card. I mean all the new cards only have 256 bit buses. If you got a good price on it, it may be better to keep it instead of going for a 8600GT as it is a more powerful card and should OC nicely provided it has enough cooling.
 
well less then $200 is what i'm looking at. I thought of the 2900Pro (512bit) and OC it to 2900XT but that would probably hurt my PSU which already has to support 3 internal HD's.

The 8600GT 512mb GDDR3 will be better then any 8600GT 256mb GDDR3 though, right?
 
I'd get a 8600GTS over a 8600GT. I've seen them for around $120. I think it's worth the extra $20 to get a GTS. 256mb should be fine for 1280x1024. I wouldn't pay extra for the 512mb version.

Another option might be to check out the older gen cards like the X1950 Pro or the 7900GS. They are both decently powerful (moreso than the 8600GT I'd imagine), and are priced around the same.
 
I'd go the new ATI Series 3800...


HD3870 for $219.99

or

HD3850 for $199.99

Both would be good for what you are looking for. I know you said under $200, but that extra $20 would be well worth it.
 
At those prices, you might as well just keep the 8800GT you already have. If you're not going to save yourself at least $100, just keep what you have.
 
I'd say go for a 3850. Overkill for your needs now perhaps, but well under your $200 budget (like $150 after rebate at NewEgg) and will serve you well if you do want to get more demanding games (but on the same monitor; otherwise I'd get the 512MB version) in the future.
 
sent you a PM with an offer for a 7950gt that i have for sale if you would like

preinsalled with a zalman VF900 and ramsink

130$shipped if you want

can the rest of you guys reply letting the OP know this is perfect for his needs
 
Well one of that major things that i was dumb enough to let out was the fact that i'm not getting the performance I should be out of this. I had a big 8 page post about it and no one could figure it out. Basically I get better gaming performance out of my x850xt (with the same settings). I had an 8600GT for a few weeks before I got my 8800Gt and it worked really good. It gave me better results then i'm getting with my 8800GT now so I figure I might as well just go back to that 8600GT and hold off until I can do a major upgrade.

Like the guy said above, if I can't save atleast $100 there's no reason to get anything.

I got my 8800GT for $250ish so I don't think i'd spend $200 on a 3000 series.
 
Well if you have an old vid card that works well, why not just use that until you have the $ to do your full upgrade? It'll save you cash in the long run.
 
If you already have an 8600GT sitting around that you used to use...just use that.
 
Sorry, i failed to mention that I got rid of my 8600GT when my 8800 came.

I have an x850xt sitting around but that thing artifacts like crazy. I may try to OC my AMD x2 4000 some more and my RAM and see if that will loosen up the BN on my 8800.
 
At the speed you have in your sig, I can't see your cpu being too slow for the graphics card.
 
Well trust me. Out of the 8 Pages I had asking for help about 3 of them would be filled with accusations on my CPU.

I think in the act of OCing my CPU I underclocked my RAM so i'll have to re-oc my CPU without taking away from my ram.

If that was the case, could that result in poor GPU performance?
 
Doubt it, especially with an AMD system. AMD systems have great memory bandwith compared to most Intel systems. The newer chipsets are starting to catch up, but they still lag behind. Running memtest86+ to see how much memory bandwith your getting wouldn't be a bad thing. And checking CPU-z or something for what kind of timings it's running at and what speed could verify that it's running decently fast or doesn't have the timings gone crazy or something.

And I know that on an Intel system at least, main memory bandwith does little to nothing to alter game performance of most games. I did some testing on that with my old 975x for fun.


Though having your memory run at full speed is never a bad thing, more is always better. I mean same reason we OC our CPU's and Video cards ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top