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Need some advice

N

neogamer741

n00b
Joined
Mar 30, 2004
Messages
26
Athlon 2400+ Thoroughbred
Dual Channel 1024MB pc2700 Corsair XMS series RAM
asus A7V8x-x mobo
80gb WD HD 7200rpm, 8mb buffer
asus radeon 9600se vid card

Basically, I'm willing to spend < 225 (based on newegg). I'm clueless as to what vid card will suit me best. I'm a full time online gamer (call of duty, world of warcraft, half-life 2, cs 1.6) I'm looking for framerate at medium settings (4xAA, 1024x768). Thats about it.

any suggestions?
 
Even top end cards have a tough time with 4xAA, especially if you use quality textures and AF as well. You'd do fine with a 6600GT but you'd be better off at higher resolution with no AA and 2xAF and just turn all optimizations off.
 
I don't think you'd want to go much higher than the AGP 6600GT with that CPU. Fortunately the 6600GT is right in your budget and everywhere agrees it's a really good card. I don't see why 10x7 with 4xaa should be a problem, but as mentioned above, you'd probably get away with 1280x1024 with perhaps 2xAA on a lot of games.

The alternative for a little bit more than your budget is the 6800 non-Ultra. At stock it's only marginally faster than the 6600GT - about the same percentage faster as the increased cost. It does however have more potential in that you MAY be able to unlock extra pixel pipelines and an extra vertex shader, but this is a bit of a lottery.

I get the impression you are just after a good card to put in your PC and forget about. If that's the case I'd go with the 6600GT.
 
Very true. If you plan to carry over the card to the next PC the best buy would in fact be the 6800 non ultra. If you can find it for $250-280 snag one and you'll love it. You can run Doom 3 at Ultra quality on it(albeit with slowdown) but Doom 3 Ultra @ 1600x1200 2X AF is incredible. It looks pre-rendered.
 
Great. Looks like my question was answered, I'll post my specs and ask for verification, to double check, however.

2500+ barton
512 pc 2700 RAM dual channel mode
Asus A7N8X-E nforce2 chipset

Would everyone's recommendations for this configuration be a 6600GT as well? I was concerned I might overshoot my CPU, and still might. Can anyone give me a go ahead and not to worry about it? :)

Also should note that my price range is literally exactly the same as the topic starter, but I do have room to OC my CPU with little trouble. Mem's just holding me back now, but since I'm such a budget gamer, there's no point in upgrading mem to facilitate a faster CPU with a GF3. :( Thanks for the direction.
 
im using my geforce 6800 OC on my wimpy 2100 but i must say it rocks.

i like my BFG card. and they have a lifetime warrenty.
 
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