Help me pick a card....choices inside...

[-iLLuZioN-B18C1]

best bang for the buck....

choices


6600 gt normal price
9800 pro 128mb agp $150
9600xt 128 mb agp $101.40
AIW 9600xt agp $150
AIW 9800 pro agp $180
x700 pro 256 mb pcie 199.40

and what is the difference b/w agp and pcie?

 

[BossNoodleKaboodle]

AGP 6800nu. Beats the pants off all of them. PCI-E won't be needed for a while considering that AGP 4X is still plenty of bandwidht (1GB/s) for even the 6800U.

 

[abudhu]

AGP 6800nu. Beats the pants off all of them.

And cost 100 dollars more than what he is looking at...

I'd go with the 9800 Pro. Even though I am a Nvidia guy.
Do a search, or read the [H] articles for the difference in AGP/PCI-E. I am sure someone will boil it down for you, but that will not be me

 

[gwai lo]

if that 9800Pro wasn't way cheap i'd say go for the 6600GT..but since it is...yeah

 

[BossNoodleKaboodle]

Actually the 6800nu went for 200 dollars around Xmas and the 6600GT was about 170 last I heard. Not that big of a difference.

 

[dIsRuPtIvE]

Depends on what you'll be using it for. I myself would probably go with the AIW 9800 Pro.

 

[Hate_Bot]

Quasi-Hardcore gaming: 6600GT

more casual gaming: 9800PRO

aand I would suggest that everyone should (sometime soon) switch to PCI-E. Although right now it's not used to it's full potential, it's like SLI, pretty soon it will be (once Nvidia releases the drivers that support more games which should be in a few weeks.) Or you could just make your own custom profiles....

 

[ameoba]

Of course, if you want to switch to PCIe you need a motherboard with a PCIe slot. They are completely different interfaces. Odds are you don't have one, so that narrows the choice down to the AGP cards.


AIW cards are nice, but they don't rank well in the "bang for the buck" column - you pay a definate premium for the AIW functionality. If you really want TV in/out, you probably want a stand-alone capture card.

As for the $150 9800Pro, are you sure it's got the full 256-bit memory bus instead of the nerfed 128-bit one? Checking on pricewatch, the cheapest full 9800Pro is $195 (there's one at $176, but it's ambiguously specified and 'ati certified' isn't a brand name that instills confidence in me) which puts it at almost the same price an AGP 6600GT. The 6600GT is a superior card thus provides the best bang for the buck of the list.

...it also costs twice what the 9600XT does, which is something to consider if you're really against spending $200 on a graphics card.

 

[Z(+)DIAC]

6600 gt or 6800...NO Doubt

BFG > eVGA > Leadtek > XFX > MSI > PNY

 

[-iLLuZioN-B18C1]

As for the $150 9800Pro, are you sure it's got the full 256-bit memory bus instead of the nerfed 128-bit one? Checking on pricewatch, the cheapest full 9800Pro is $195 (there's one at $176, but it's ambiguously specified and 'ati certified' isn't a brand name that instills confidence in me).

i work at Best buy thats how i can get those prices...

 

[ameoba]

Ahh... that explains why you don't know the difference between the cards

 

[kick@ss]

6600 Gt

 

[rcf1987]

The best card you have listed is the 6600GT the X700 has 256mb of memory and not enough gpu power to utilize it also I think is pci-e only.


6600GT HANDS DOWN

 

[CleanSlate]

9800 pro, is it a 128-bit or 256bit? If it's 128bit get the 6600gt if not get the 9800 pro.

~Adam