upgrading after 4 years...opinions needed.

Cthulhu

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 1, 2003
Messages
413
so it's finally time to put my p4 2.4c, 9800pro 128meg machine to rest. i've been doing some research here on the forums and have pretty much decided on this card.. can you all recommend anything else at the same general price point? doesn't have to be ati, i'm just looking for the best bang for my buck. will be gaming a little; wow, lotro, spore...nothing too crazy. thanks in advance.. :D
 
Best bang for the buck at under $200 is X1950XT 256MB (last I checked was $169 AR), best bang for the buck overall is an EVGA 8800GTS 320MB for $259 AR (last I checked). I wouldn't go for the X1950PRO, especially not that 512MB version.
 
thanks for the replies. so is the 7900gt comparable to that X1950PRO that i had picked out? any other suggestions?
 
thanks for the replies. so is the 7900gt comparable to that X1950PRO that i had picked out? any other suggestions?

I think you meant the GS, not GT. It's a wee bit slower, but can be found much cheaper. Still, considering that you upgrade once every 4 years, I'd go with an 8800GTS. For $260, it's a superb value. Nothing at a lower price comes even close to this beast.
 
if you dont care about dx10, the fastest card out is the X1950 XT 256MB from newegg, pretty damn cheap too @ 179.99 AR.
 
I use the 8800GTS 320MB version, I think it's an awesome, amazing card, especially for >$300. You may not be able to run AA on everything at a higher resolution, but hey, you're still getting nice FPS with everything else maxed.
 
anything but ATI, because ATI is horrible.

Nice blanket comment. Why weren't you in the 2900XT review post hating on that card?

Before this NVIDIA card, I've ALWAYS had ATI cards, and they've been awesome for me. had a 9500 Pro, 9800 Pro, and finally an X1600Pro (that was probably my least favorite, but it was on sale, hehe).

ATI is good.
 
Nice blanket comment. Why weren't you in the 2900XT review post hating on that card?

Before this NVIDIA card, I've ALWAYS had ATI cards, and they've been awesome for me. had a 9500 Pro, 9800 Pro, and finally an X1600Pro (that was probably my least favorite, but it was on sale, hehe).

ATI is good.

Agreed, I prefer nvidia, but I respect ATI because they make some superb cards. Sure they messed up with the HD2900XT, but I bet their next card will be awesome. I <3 competition.
 
yeah, we both have 19" lcds so 1280x1024 will be the rez we'll be playing at...so i'm sure that any card mentioned here will suffice. that 8800 looks pretty nice, but damn...i didn't want to spend that much. :( i mean, i'm sure considering the performance of the card the price is probably really good. maybe i'll check the for sale forum and see if i can get them for cheaper. :D
 
yeah, we both have 19" lcds so 1280x1024 will be the rez we'll be playing at...so i'm sure that any card mentioned here will suffice. that 8800 looks pretty nice, but damn...i didn't want to spend that much. :( i mean, i'm sure considering the performance of the card the price is probably really good. maybe i'll check the for sale forum and see if i can get them for cheaper. :D

Yea, think about the fact that you can keep the 8800 for a few years and be able to play the latest games with very respectable settings (especially at 1280x1024). Also, who knows, you might upgrade to a new LCD and want to run 1680x1050 or more.
 
Before this NVIDIA card, I've ALWAYS had ATI cards, and they've been awesome for me. had a 9500 Pro, 9800 Pro, and finally an X1600Pro (that was probably my least favorite, but it was on sale, hehe).

ATI is good.

yes, i've always had ati as well... my wife is still using my old 9500pro. :eek: it's still running strong after all these years...same with my 9800pro.
 
Nice blanket comment. Why weren't you in the 2900XT review post hating on that card?

Before this NVIDIA card, I've ALWAYS had ATI cards, and they've been awesome for me. had a 9500 Pro, 9800 Pro, and finally an X1600Pro (that was probably my least favorite, but it was on sale, hehe).

ATI is good.

Sigh. I'm betting he considers ^empty^'s anti-ATi statements as gospel too. Typical nVidiots are in a class of their own.

*and before someone questions my perspective, look closely at what I'm using right now.
 
okay, so apparently the 8800gts is a pretty popular card and it doesn't look like i'll be finding any in the fs/ft forum...lol. so where would the 8600gts 256meg fit in? better or worse than the x1950xt? bout the same?
 
Just a small correction: The 8800GTS is 320mb. Anyways, the 8800 is faster than the X1950. If you can afford it, go for the GTS, it will serve yo longer.
 
my last post was asking about the 8600gts 256meg, not the 8800gts. was asking how the 8600gts 256meg was compared to the x1950xt.
 
my last post was asking about the 8600gts 256meg, not the 8800gts. was asking how the 8600gts 256meg was compared to the x1950xt.

Oh, sorry :p The X1950XT is faster than the 8600GTS. The only advantage of the 8600GTS is the DX10 support. But, DX10 runs so slow(even on 8800GTX) that the 8600GTS would probably be pretty much useless for DX10. However, since you will probably end up upgrading soon after the refreshes of both HD2900 and G80 or possibly for the R700 or G90 then investing in the X1950XT is probably the better choice. You can play games right now with higher FPS than the 8600 and when the time comes you can upgrade. Since the X1950XT costs less, go with that. The only downfall is that the X1950 is power hungry, loud and produces quite a bit of heat. Still, the X1950 would be my choice.
 
my last post was asking about the 8600gts 256meg, not the 8800gts. was asking how the 8600gts 256meg was compared to the x1950xt.

Once again, under $200, the X1950XT is king by a long margin. 8600GTS is only good if you're planning on using your PC as an HTPC since those series have hardware H.264 decoding.
 
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