Whats best video card for the money? Please unbiased people only!!!, thank you

S

SaViOr-

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Sep 10, 2004
Messages
1,479
Hey guys i want to know what the best vid card out for gaming is right now cuz im going to be building a new gaming pc in a little bit, i don't want any nvidia vs ati debates, just a straight forward answer. Money wont be an issue for this. Please post your comments and opinions.

Thanks you in advance
SaViOr :cool:
 
SaViOr- said:
Hey guys i want to know what the best vid card out for gaming is right now cuz im going to be building a new gaming pc in a little bit, i don't want any nvidia vs ati debates, just a straight forward answer. Money wont be an issue for this. Please post your comments and opinions.

Thanks you in advance
SaViOr :cool:
Click to expand...

if money isnt an isssue....x800xt pe

if money is an issue 6800 gt

lower down and i'd recommend a 9800 pro
 
I would say the 6800GT, cause you can flash it to a Ultra being that they are the same exact card, the only differance is the giganitc heatsink thats on the Ultra.

But... I will warn you, it might cause issues for you, as it did for me. It does some crazy stuff when in 2d mode due to some RAM clocks issues, which is why I flashed mine to an Ultra in the frist place. Now im not sure if thats across the board, brand wise, but I know that my eVGA game me some headaches. It runs flawlessly now after about 2 weeks worth of working to get it there. So if you don't want the headaches stay away from the 6800GT, at least the eVGA version.
 
Best value for money is the 6800GT for sure. Over double the performance of a 9800XT or 5950Ultra and 90% of a XT PE performance. Most will overclock to Ultra speeds too, without any flashing - just use rivatuner.
 
I have been looking at an upgrade myself, so I have been doing an awful lot of research also. I came to this decision not by choice but neccessity, My Asus A7N8X Deluxe started having problems, first the NIC's went out then I started getting errors on my hard drive I checked the ram thinking it might be bad ram it wasn't, to make it short it was the Mobo. I then purchased an new Mobo (cheap one this time) a Shuttle AN35 Ultra, I transfered all my gear to the new Mobo including my ATI 9700 Pro and my new motherboard ate it and my Enermax 400 watt power supply and destroyed itself in the process. I have not bought many Shuttle products recently and this makes me a little shy of doing so again.

So back to your dilemma, I looked at the Nvidia 6800 GT and Ultra also the ATI X800 Pro and XT as well as the 9800 Pro and XT, I didn't bother with any of the Nvidia cards lower than the 6800 mostly because I was unimpressed with them. mostly because I had a card that performed really well at the time.

Basically to sum it up X800 is the top performer all around the 6800 Ultra is a Close second both cards give and take on the lead depends on which games you play, but in the end the Radeon X800 XT is top dog. If the choice were between the X800 Pro and the 6800 GT it's a little tougher decision as they both are about equal, then it's just a choice of manufacturer preference. When you get to the 9800 Pro or XT compared to the 6800 Again it is a choice of preference, Myself in that price range I'm kind of fond with the 9800 Pro or XT mostly because of my good experience with the 9700 Pro though the 6800 perfroms slightly better all around ( therefore my dilemma stick with what I was quite happy with or go with something new and get the 6800 ) . Stay away from the ATI X600 or X300 since they appear to be the 9600XT and 9200? in a new wrapper. So if you decide on a X600 I would save a few and get a 9600 XT or an Nvidia product in the 5900 or 5950 range? but I wouldn't recommend either the ATI or Nvidia in that range unless your on a budget. All cards were the 256 meg (when available) versions so all prices were about equal for the comparisons.
 
SaViOr- said:
Hey guys i want to know what the best vid card out for gaming is right now cuz im going to be building a new gaming pc in a little bit, i don't want any nvidia vs ati debates, just a straight forward answer. Money wont be an issue for this. Please post your comments and opinions.

Thanks you in advance
SaViOr :cool:
Click to expand...

I'm glad someone took my advice of adding the "unbiased people only" disclaimer.

Money no object? x800xt PE, if you can find it. Hell, 6800UE if you can't find the XT PE.

The high end "money no object" cards are pretty hard to come by, but if you're into AA/AF the x800 seems like the better card overall.

-MrD
 
depends on the size of your screen.

If you're going to be running at higher than 1280x1024 resolution, probably a 6800GT.

If you're going to be running at 1280x1024 or less, 6800 non-ultra all the way. Try unlocking your pipes for even more satisfaction.

I have a 6800 non-ultra and am CPU limited in everything at 1280x1024 (2.4 ghz P4 @ 2.9 ghz)
 
Evil Weazel said:
When you get to the 9800 Pro or XT compared to the 6800 Again it is a choice of preference, Myself in that price range I'm kind of fond with the 9800 Pro or XT mostly because of my good experience with the 9700 Pro though the 6800 perfroms slightly better all around ( therefore my dilemma stick with what I was quite happy with or go with something new and get the 6800 ) .
Click to expand...

You've never seen a 6800nu and a 9800 Pro (or 9700 Pro, whatever) side by side.

My 6800nu OCed beats my roommate's 9800XT oc'ed in every game. Period. Slightly better isn't even the word to describe it. We're talking 30% to 50% faster with an exception for CPU limited games, but the lead is retaken once AA is bumped up.

In Doom 3, more than 100% faster.

Apparently the 256 mb of ram on the 9800XT just doesn't give it the edge.

This also was before I unlocked the remaining 4 pipelines on the 6800. Now my roommate doesn't even want to benchmark with me anymore.
 
6800 GT benchmarks speak for themselves. Though I guess out of the sub $200 dollar cards, I'd still go 9800pro.
 
HIgh PriceShiat : (ATi - x800XT-PE) - (nVidia - 6800UE }
Slighly Lower: (ATi - x800XT) - (nVidia - 6800GT }
Medium: (ATi - x800 ) - (nVidia - 6800 }
Lower: (ATi - x800) - (nVidia - Vanilla 6800 }
 
Since you don't want to debate ATI vs. Nvidia, then I suggest the XGI Volari Duo. :p

Just kidding. Get whatever high end card you can get your hands on, be it a Radeon X800XT PE or a 6800UE. They're both going to give you good performance.
 
ive been suggesting the 6800 vanilla to a lot of people that are looking for a card in the 200-250 range. right now its $266 on the top vendors on pricewatch. its a really good card and worth the few extra $..
 
Charles said:
You've never seen a 6800nu and a 9800 Pro (or 9700 Pro, whatever) side by side.

My 6800nu OCed beats my roommate's 9800XT oc'ed in every game. Period. Slightly better isn't even the word to describe it. We're talking 30% to 50% faster with an exception for CPU limited games, but the lead is retaken once AA is bumped up.

In Doom 3, more than 100% faster.

Apparently the 256 mb of ram on the 9800XT just doesn't give it the edge.

This also was before I unlocked the remaining 4 pipelines on the 6800. Now my roommate doesn't even want to benchmark with me anymore.
Click to expand...

I'm not talking about overclocked, you can't count on everyone getting the same OC on every card and I've never had the stomach to modify and possibly ruin a $200-$400 dollar video card. actually what sold me most when I switched to ATI with the 9700 Pro was that 32 bit color was noticably better with ATI while and it was amazingly fast. I always hated the washed out color of Nvidia products, before I bought my 9700 pro I had Nvidia in my system as well as my wifes system. So that being said, how is Nvidia in 32 bit color now? keeping in mind I have very good color perception and can see the difference in older cards. Because honestly the main reason I was considering ATI again was because I didn't want to go back to 32 bit color that looked like 16 bit. If money were no object I'd definitely go for the X800 XT but my budget is 9800 XT or 6800 vanilla variety.
 
6800 GT uber 1337!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


0011011000111000001100000011000001100111011101000010000001101111011101110110111001110011001000000111100101101111011101010010000001100001011011000110110000100001001000010010000100100001001000010010000100100001001000010010000000110001001100110011001100110111
 
Evil Weazel said:
I'm not talking about overclocked, you can't count on everyone getting the same OC on every card and I've never had the stomach to modify and possibly ruin a $200-$400 dollar video card. actually what sold me most when I switched to ATI with the 9700 Pro was that 32 bit color was noticably better with ATI while and it was amazingly fast. I always hated the washed out color of Nvidia products, before I bought my 9700 pro I had Nvidia in my system as well as my wifes system. So that being said, how is Nvidia in 32 bit color now? keeping in mind I have very good color perception and can see the difference in older cards. Because honestly the main reason I was considering ATI again was because I didn't want to go back to 32 bit color that looked like 16 bit. If money were no object I'd definitely go for the X800 XT but my budget is 9800 XT or 6800 vanilla variety.
Click to expand...

Fine, non-OC'ed the 6800 beats the 9800XT by the same percentages I stated earlier, but at lower framerates:p ask anybody who has both

I believe that NVidia has 32 bit color down, then again I'm not too much of a connoiseur (spelled incorrectly) for those sorts of things.
 
SaViOr- said:
Hey guys i want to know what the best vid card out for gaming is right now cuz im going to be building a new gaming pc in a little bit, i don't want any nvidia vs ati debates, just a straight forward answer. Money wont be an issue for this. Please post your comments and opinions.

Thanks you in advance
SaViOr :cool:
Click to expand...

If money isn't an issue, the XT PE is the best card you can buy.
 
MrDigital said:
I'm glad someone took my advice of adding the "unbiased people only" disclaimer.

Money no object? x800xt PE, if you can find it. Hell, 6800UE if you can't find the XT PE.

The high end "money no object" cards are pretty hard to come by, but if you're into AA/AF the x800 seems like the better card overall.

-MrD
Click to expand...

Not really. My X800Pro is clearly slower than my 6800GT at 1600x1200 with AA and AF. This is on every game I've tried. Cat 4.9 vs. 66.30's and 66.70's.
 
Sir-Fragalot said:
Not really. My X800Pro is clearly slower than my 6800GT at 1600x1200 with AA and AF. This is on every game I've tried. Cat 4.9 vs. 66.30's and 66.70's.
Click to expand...

Pro is 12 pipelines, the XT PE is 16 pipelines, big difference.
 
I'd say it depends on the game.
If you had the money the best video card for the money would be
the 6800GT. I don't think the X800XT or the 6800U is worth the mony IMHO.
It might be superior, but it's definitely not worth the money price/performance wise.

On the other hand, if you have a low budget,
I'd say, if you want it to last long, go for 6600GT when it comes out.
Since it has shader3.0 support, I would assume it would last a bit longer than the
X700XT.

If you are willing to play all HL2 and HL2 engine based games, I would recommend
the X700XT over the 6600GT since it seems like SOURCE engine is optimized for
ATI cards (check anandtech's review and see 6600GT vs X700XT).

If you are going to play Doom3, which I don't think is a big deal since you can beat it so
fast and multiplayer it not so great, definitely go with the 6600GT/6800GT.
but again, there will be games that will be based on the doom3 engine, so it's up to you.

Anyways, if you are a hardcore CSer, then go with the X700XT.

I currently have the AMD64 3000+ and 6800GT, and can play CS:S at 1600x1200 all high settings without a problem. Seems too smooth it gives me a headache.

If you are really low on money, and just want to play games in 1024x768 at a decent framerate playing doom3 or hl2, go for the 9700pro/9800pro.
Before switching to the 6800GT, it gave me good enough frames to play in 1024x768 medium settings for both doom3 and CS:S.

the 6800GT will run you about 350-390,
the 6600GT will probably run you about 220 (Though if you get it early when the AGP comes out I assume you'll be paying premium),
X700XT will go around 200 (Same with the 6600GT, premium if you get it early),
and the 9700pro around 115 used
9800 pro around 140.
 
If you'd like to buy a current-generation card, I'd say go with a 6800GT or just plain old 6800, depending on how tight money is.

If you'd like to buy a last-generation card, I'd say a 9800Pro is your best bet.

If money is no object at all, I suppose it would come down to a 6800 Ultra OC or an x800XTPE depending on what games you enjoy playing.

I use a 6800GT in my game box and I'm thrilled with the card. If I had to narrow my card down to just one recomendation, thats the card it would be.


Good luck
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top