Lost as far as performance levels go

[[evo]]

As i get older, I have less and less time to read every review that hits the web and am not sure of whats what these days. Last time I bought a video card (2 years at least IIRC) I scooped and end of line X800XT AIW for a couple of hundred (CAD) and have been very pleased since.

However it looks like I may need to perform a motherboard + chip upgrade soon which would leave my current card useless. I COUld use the extra Juice anyways as I'd like to play some COD4 and Crysis.

All my gaming will be in 1440 X 900, would like to acheive high settings in most games, crysis being the understanded exception.

I am so lost in how the newer cards compare to each other though, no joke. Used to be able to look at the model numbers and figure out where in the range they lie, but no longer. How does this work now?

Any card reccommendations? I dont wat to buy a 'new' card to find out its slower than my curret one as could happen in the past. I'll be going with an AMD platform and at probably 4gb of ram, if that helps. Then I'll need to get a new TV card

 

[GregP24]

At 1440x900, I think the best card for you is nVidia's 9600GT or 8800GT. Both cards will play everything on the market, and coming out, at max detail with fast, fluid framerates(except Crysis). The 880GT is a bit more powerful than the 9600GT, but at your resolution you won't really see the difference.
9600GT's can be had for around $166, 8800GT's can be had for under $200 after rebates.

 

[MrWizard6600]

No worries, things have gotten convoluted since you left as the markets starting to stagnate, ATI hasn't answered the call this round.

First thing you need to know about videocards: www.gpureview.com. The entire database of every card thats been made in the 21st century and a chunk back into the 20th. GPUreview has all the hard numbers on the hardware as well as a list of the reviews done on it, of course some are more popular the others.

But you left the all important question unanswered! Whats your budget?!

The lowest cost/frame card out there for a gamer is probably the Geforce 8800GS. They're going for around $160. Here it is for $149.99 from Newegg. the 8800GS has 96 Stream Processors (SPs, these are a Unified Pixel and Vertex shader, basically the replacement pipe) (down from 128 stock on the G92), and a slightly crippled 192bit memory bus.

The 8800GT can be found for around $225, and reflects the $50 hike. It performs significantly better at stock speeds, but has heat issues meaning you get little cooling overhead for over clocking. The 8800GT has the G92 locked to only 112Sps, and the full 256bit memory bus.

The 8800GTS 512mb (based on the G92 core, unlike the 8800GTS 320mb and 8800GTS 640mb which are based on a locked G80) is another notable card, but at $350, the law of diminishing returns is in full0 effect. That said, the dual slotted cooler means it runs much much cooler, and will over clock much higher. This is really Nvidia's highest end current SKU, unless your willing to remove your commonsense and go for an 8800GTX or ultra which costs hundreds more and in some situations under performs, or, at best, outperforms by 10%). The G92 8800GTS has the full 128 stream processors (unlike the G80 based 8800GTS 640/320mb, who mostly have 96 but select few have 112), the same amount the Ultra has, and their clocked higher. The only one real stat the 8800 Ultra and GTX have over the G92 8800GTS is the 384bit memory bus. The GTX and Ultra also have 24 ROPs where the G92 8800GT and GTS only have 16, but they're clocked higher which makes up for the difference.

The 9600GT wiggles its way between the 8800GT and 8800GS at $190, and reflects the price point well, but doesn't do anything ground breaking (as you might think it would being the first card of the "9 series", which is looking more and more like nothing more then a marketing gimmick).

From the red team, We've got the HD3850, which for a while was the entry level gaming card, but has been usurped by the cheaper better performing 8800GS. The HD3870 falls into the same category. Unable to really hit its MRSP, its vastly outperformed by the 8800GT which is managing to hit the same price point.

Arguably, the most powerful graphics card on the planet does come from the red team though: the HD 3870 X2 it actually has two RV670s on it, the same core used in the HD3870. Its going for just under $500.

One thing to consider about all these graphics cards, but perticularly the HD3870X2, is their power requirements. I wouldn't want to try running any of these cards on anything less then a 400W (250W reliable on 12V alone) PSU. Odds are too however, that if your current Powersupply is powering an AGP X800 that it wont have the 6 pin pcie aux power cable needed on all of the above listed cards.

One benefit the Radeon cards have is crossfire, which is superior to SLI not because of the cards themselves of any technical issues with either configuration, but because Crossfire is licensed to intel chipsets which are by almost all accounts superior to Nvidia chipsets. X38, Intel's top most expensive chipset (cheapest motherboard based on it is $220, aside from Intels own DX38BT motherboard which goes for $199 regularly on NCIXs "sales" but runs DDR3 which murders any money that could be saved there six times over.) [sorry where was I... right X38] supports full 16X, 16X crossfire. Their latest mainstream chipset, P35, goes for anywhere between $100 and $250, with the majority hanging around $140. P35 runs the Frankinstien 16X, 4X crossfire, which does have an impact on performance, usually in the ball park of 10-15%.

One of the nice things about P35 boards is that for a little extra you can get 4 DDR2 slots, and an extra 2 DDR3 slots, so when DDR3 production is in full swing, and your ready to upgrade, so is your motherboard. There are multiple MSI and Asus boards that support both ram types.

anyways, you wanted advice on videocards, and above is everything but the kitchen sink.

and one more thing HAH: I beat you two, Dannyboi and HardwareGuru (who I'm sure will both hit this thread shortly and offer their advice).