Video Card - What To Buy?

[Kalah]

The first one is a fine pick, just not go lower to 9500 as any one under that line are dead cases.

I've seen new gaming PCs still being sold with the GT8800...

Here are or will be soon available a much better cards from ATI surpassing the 3x line so 4x cards. This is a new generation, small efficient, powerful and cheap. (I promise that I will not repeat the last word again - but it's somehow feeling important.)

Cheap? I like cheap. I'm just wondering how long I'm going to wait; it seems no matter when I decide to splash out on a new card, I will find something at low prices. Producers need my money.

you have either PCie 16x slot or AGP 8x...

I have PCie16x, yes. I checked that last time 'round.

[Pol]

The first one is a fine pick, just not go lower to 9500 as any one under that line are dead cases.

I've seen new gaming PCs still being sold with the GT8800...

Yes because nvidia overproduced these cards, they still have a full stores to the ceiling. Doesn't make it a good offer however.

I'm also afraid that the prices will never drop so much. Here are certain categories and cadrs are made to being put in. Still you may look for extra offers, these can cut it - need a bit of time or luck or both.

[Kalah]

I can get the Gainward GeForce 9600GT 512MB GDDR3, PCI-Express 2.0, 2xDVI/HDCP card for about $100....

[Asheera]

And to think that I got my GeForce 6200 for $115... (some years ago, obviously )

Prices change indeed

[Pol]

Huh, then probably don't think and do it. Here will be always some gap. The radeons which I outlined above should cost about 250$

We are selling palit 9600 as oem card for roughly the same price - round 100$ (and still have a gain). They aren't too powerful but they are reliable, don't need extra power and support nicely linux.

From the other perspective, ati is having upper hand at the moment with a better technology and equal or lower price when compared against.

[Paulus1]

I can only agree with Pol, the 9600GT is a steal at $100.

And as Pol sadi - if you are looking at other cards, then don't go down to the 8x00 or 9500 series, and if you want to go ATI, then stick with the 4xx0 series (I've bought a 4670 recently).

But you have to make sure that your power supply can deliver at least 400W (according to sys. req. for the 9600GT, but also depending on the power draw of your other components). Your PSU also needs to have a spare 6-pin connector or 2 spare hdd power connectors to power the thing.

Maybe you should consider getting a new rig instead, you can get a decent one really cheap at the moment (especially if you can do the assembly yourself).

[Kalah]

Your PSU also needs to have a spare 6-pin connector or 2 spare hdd power connectors to power the thing.

I have utterly no idea what that means...

Maybe you should consider getting a new rig instead, you can get a decent one really cheap at the moment (especially if you can do the assembly yourself).

Neeeeu no no no ... I really like my current PC, it's just a matter of spending a few quid on a better video card..

[Paulus1]

Your PSU also needs to have a spare 6-pin connector or 2 spare hdd power connectors to power the thing.

I have utterly no idea what that means...

Take a look at this thing: http://www.komplett.dk/k/ki.aspx?sku=376200

When you open your case and check the wires from your power supply you either need a connector like the one on the left with 6 pins or two spare 4 pin connectors + the converter cable (maybe it's included with the video card)

My own experience with upgrades is, that it's not really worth it... you just discover a new bottleneck in your system, and is almost no better of than before.

[Kalah]

Ahkay, every time I do this, it seems I end up not buying anything, but yet again I'd like to buy a new video card for my PC. What do you guys think of these?

The candidates:
XFX GeForce GTS 250 512MB PhysX CUDA ~ $225
HIS Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 ~$190
Asus GeForce 9600GT 1GB PhysX CUDA ~$200
Asus GeForce 9600GT 512MB Silent PhysX ~$190

... or any other suggestions from this list?

[Ethric]

Admit it, you're just after the attention. Shoo, go out and play in the snow.

[Paulus1]

The GTS250 and the HD4850 should perform around the same level, with the GTS250 slightly ahead in most cases.

Both should clearly outperform the 9600GT.

[Kalah]

How is the GTX 260 compared to the GTS 250? I noticed that the price on this one isn't too much higher...

[Paulus1]

The GTX 260 is clearly faster.
You should be aware that the 260 that you linked to, is older tech with only 192 stream processors - but it should still be faster.

The GTS 250 is around par with the 9800GTX+.

You can compare benchmark performance in this article
http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-260-review/12

[Borsuc]

What type of card you want, what do you expect from it, etc???
Personally I recommend one that wastes few power (which also means less heatup) and has passive cooling (no noise, no fan, no heat due to air friction, no energy powering up the fan, no fan to waste space inside the case ).

[Kalah]

I only expect it to be better than my current one, which isn't much write home about (ATI Radeon x600 256mb hypermemory). I think I've settled on this one. I don't think I want to pay much more than that for a video card. In fact I was thinking about even less, but that would mean buying something like this, which just doesn't seem powerful enough to warrant the upgrade (unless you guys can recommend it...).

(Here's to hoping I can manage to put it into my PC properly... )

[Paulus1]

Honestly, any current vid.card for sale will be miles ahead of your current one. Options like the 9800GTX, 9600GT, HD4830 or HD4670 are also worth considering. They will certainly play any current games except at the insanely high settings (and maybe with Crysis being the exception).

Do you have any specific games in mind, that you want to play, but your current card can't handle?

[Kalah]

I bought the GTS 250.

New video card arriving soon!

[Kalah]

So, it arrived in the post today. I just installed it, and after fiddling around with that for about half an hour, installed the drivers and messed with the screen settings, I can only say this:

This s**t rocks!

I started up X3 reunion just now, and I'm never leaving this chair again. I was surprised at the size of the thing. It arrived in a big cardboard box, not just some small envelope thing. When comparing the new air-cooled card to the old (below), the difference is staggering.

[Kalah]

So ... it may be time for another update. I kept the one you see above when I built my new PC, transferring it to the new rig. It seems adequate for my current games (XCOM and X3, mostly), so I don't want to spend a ton of money, but then I came across what seemed like a bargain.

Here's the old one: XFX GeForce GTS 250, 512mb PhysX CUDA, PCI-Express 2.0, 2xDVI, 738/2200MHz

This new one: MSI GeForce GT 610 2GB PhysX CUDA PCI-Express 2.0, DDR3 and others like it ... the price is only around $65 for those. The cooling is different; no fans.

What do we think?

[GreatEmerald]

The 610 is way, way slower than the 250. The 610 is about as fast as Intel integrated HD Graphics 3000 (Sandy Bridge). So it's enough for office use, but I'm pretty sure it won't be able to handle XCOM.


Now personally, I am looking for something akin to the 610 (although from AMD) so I could put it in my HTPC. Right now the HTPC is using an HD 4890, which is way, way, way too overkill for it, because it's huge, eats a lot of power and generates too much heat, yet all it does is show TV. Replacing it with a smaller, cheap card like that would be perfect (since the motherboard doesn't have an integrated graphics chip). But then I don't really use it too often to begin with, so I'm not sure it's worth the investment. Hmm...