Looking for a video card.

A

aaa

CAGiversary!
I need a new video card, and I want to spend under $250, so I wanted to know if anyone has some advice. I was thinking about this one since it is a great card, and is only $230.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16814102425


Anyone know of a card under $250 that gives me more performance for the buck? The x800 pro seems to be worth $80 more than a 6600gt. Is that correct? Thanks for any help.
 
Again, its a fine card. I dont think its the best price/performance for the dollar spent (the 66ooGT gets that title) but if youre willing to front the difference, it is certainly an admirable card and probably the best performer in its price range (Im not high on the 68oo)

That said, since the new high end ATI cards are coming down the pipe soon, you *should* see a savings if you wait it out until then or perhaps you ll even be able to score a better card for like or near same money. (depending on if you catch a good deal)
 
[quote name='godhatesjustyou']then i would recommend this card:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814121195

and recently Computer Games did an article comparing budget cards to see which had the best "bang for their buck" and the 6600 GT came out on top.

[/QUOTE]

As great as the 66ooGT is value wise, Im not sure I agree its the best way to go in this case. Reason being is he's willing to spend the extra bucks and the X800 pro is a fine card that does outclass the 66oo GT.

The decision comes down to how difficult it is to stomach the difference in price. Seems hes ok with that and personally, even though its not as good of a value, I like the x800pro pick because hes on an AGP board which means whenever the card he buys needs to be replaced, hes most likely going to need a new mobo. Obviously, the x800 pro wont be "old tech" before the 66oo GT would be.

G.H.J.Y. = thanks man. :D
 
[quote name='psiufoxx2']Not a bad price if you're willing to get a FACTORY refurb:

$199 for an ATI branded Radeon x800 Pro

Friggin' 3 year warranty from ATI is nice.[/QUOTE]

plus while shipping is a bitch (15 bucks)

there is a coupon that knocks off ten percent "1010"

found it over at FW

also you may just want to go with the PE card since the difference is not all that much. I know I personally would go with the PE card due to the extra performance (I know the PE has 16 pipelines but do not remember if the pro does though I think it does). Even though ATi shows it as pre-order some people over at FW were saying that they should be in stock around mid August (so you may have to wait a month to get a better card)
 
If I were you Id just buy a 6200 non TC and unlock it to a 6600. Thats by far the biggest bang for buck. For less than 100 bucks you can unlock and get a card that costs closer to 200 and will last a while.
 
Thank you guys for all of your comments. I think I will pass on the 6600gt simply because right now I can afford a better card, and that better card will last me longer. Right now, I am going between the 6800GT, X800PRO, or the refurbished X800XTPE (Thank you very much for showing that to me)

My concern with getting a refurbished card is that I will get shipped a faulty card, and then it will be such a hassle to have to send it back to ATI, have them fix it, and then have them send it back to me. Right now I am leaning towards a 6800GT. It is the most expensive, but it has the 3.0 shader models, and has 16 pipelines.

Could someone please tell me if this PSU is enough for all of these cards?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817181103

If I can spend $30 less on the PSU, it will be much easier for me to go ahead and spend the extra money for the 6800GT.

And the last question is that do I need to buy anything to keep these cards cool, or does the power supply take care of that?
 
That power supply will fry with those cards. Spend the money on a good psu with at least 450 W from a reliable brand such as Antec. If you can, go for the 6800GT. It will last you a long time. Also, what cpu do you have? You need to have a good cpu to get the best performance.
 
[quote name='Flying PJ']That power supply will fry with those cards. Spend the money on a good psu with at least 450 W from a reliable brand such as Antec. If you can, go for the 6800GT. It will last you a long time. Also, what cpu do you have? You need to have a good cpu to get the best performance.[/QUOTE]

On one PC I have a AMD Athlon 3400+. The other PC has a intel 2.4 ghz CPU. I know the AMD CPU is powerful enough, but is the Intel? I'd assume it isn't.
 
I just have a regular PC tower, so do I need an ATX PSU case, or something different?
 
Do NOT, under ANY circumstances buy that power supply and team it with any of those cards. It would be like owning a ferrari and driving it to the limit on bald tires.

Im not good with the numbers but I can say with relative certainty that that intel is going to be a poor match for these monster cards. Yes, it will run most likely but its a bad pairing and very wasteful of the top of a top of the line cards power.

As far as cooling you should be ok but you need to check. If you have a very boring off the shelf case, it may not have the fan and air movement needed to support such a heavy load card. Im always in favor of swaping out fans whenever doing a huge jump in video cards. There is no such thing as too much cooling.

Completely put the 6800 GT out of your mind if you cant drop $50 - $80 on a good power supply. Pretty much put ALL of these cards out of your mind if your budget cuts it THAT close.

You really need to tell us a lot more about your machine for us to make a better assesment. You see, the cpu works in tandium with the powersupply and the videocard to output those purdy pictures. The whole system is as good as its weakest link so to justify buying a supercard, you really need to have a damn good cpu and a solid, stable, high powered PSU. If not, best case you are spending money on a card you cant fully tap. Worst case, you turn your new 6800 GT into a pop tart.
 
[quote name='supadupacheap']Do NOT, under ANY circumstances buy that power supply and team it with any of those cards. It would be like owning a ferrari and driving it to the limit on bald tires.

Im not good with the numbers but I can say with relative certainty that that intel is going to be a poor match for these monster cards. Yes, it will run most likely but its a bad pairing and very wasteful of the top of a top of the line cards power.

As far as cooling you should be ok but you need to check. If you have a very boring off the shelf case, it may not have the fan and air movement needed to support such a heavy load card. Im always in favor of swaping out fans whenever doing a huge jump in video cards. There is no such thing as too much cooling.

Completely put the 6800 GT out of your mind if you cant drop $50 - $80 on a good power supply. Pretty much put ALL of these cards out of your mind if your budget cuts it THAT close.

You really need to tell us a lot more about your machine for us to make a better assesment. You see, the cpu works in tandium with the powersupply and the videocard to output those purdy pictures. The whole system is as good as its weakest link so to justify buying a supercard, you really need to have a damn good cpu and a solid, stable, high powered PSU. If not, best case you are spending money on a card you cant fully tap. Worst case, you turn your new 6800 GT into a pop tart.[/QUOTE]

Thank you for going into some details. I can afford to spend as much money as I want into my PC, it is just that I don't want to spend too much. My system as of now is:

AMD Athlon 3400+
512mb ram (i'll find out the exact kind of ram in a day or two)
FX5200

When I am done upgrading, this is what my system should look like:
AMD Athlon 3400+
1 gig ram
6800GT or 6800Ultra (explained below)

I am upgrading an HP desktop that is pretty new (6 months old) but I am assuming that the PSU won't be enough for any of these cards, and it is worth $50 extra to prevent artifacts and the possibility of burning the card. My main concern is that I spent money to get a 2-year warranty from MicroCenter, and if I upgrade the PC, I don't know if that will end the warranty. If that is the case, then I might not upgrade now. I am assuming that the 3400+ CPU will be enough to get very good performance from the card, and maybe this power supply will be enough for the card?

http://microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0186055


If not, I can spend
Lastly, I might want to go with this card since it is only $14 more, but is an open box. By getting this card, I don't need to worry about shipping costs, plus, I can pick it up from the store 10 minutes away from me with instore pickup, and I wouldn't be surprised if MicroCenter could install it for me for free since they have been great customer service wise, and I bought a $1000 PC, a $300 video card, and $120 worth of ram and a PSU.

http://microcenter.com/single_product_results_bargain.phtml?product_id=175956

Do you think I will need to buy cooling? Again, I will buy what I need to get the performance I want, but I don't want to spend more than I need to.

Thank you very much for helping me through this since I am just starting to get into the PC scene. :applause: Thank you.
 
if you are going to put that type of investment into a card I would wait for Black Friday. the new ATi cards are supposed to have 32 pipelines (according to the rumors) and will probably see some type of deal on Black Friday.

I know it may be a while, but dropping 400 on a card is a big investment and I would wait
 
hey Casey, i'm planning on upgrading my computer soon, and i'm gonna start to save up money for Black Friday. question is, would most essential parts for a computer (mobo/cpu, RAM, graphic card) be on sale on that day? cause i've only been to one or two Black Fridays in the past, but i've never really took a notice to computer parts.
 
[quote name='godhatesjustyou']hey Casey, i'm planning on upgrading my computer soon, and i'm gonna start to save up money for Black Friday. question is, would most essential parts for a computer (mobo/cpu, RAM, graphic card) be on sale on that day? cause i've only been to one or two Black Fridays in the past, but i've never really took a notice to computer parts.[/QUOTE]

GHJY

Nah man. BFriday is usually about scoring one or two items at a great deal. Its not like an across the board sale. If you want to do it all on the cheap. Cruise fatwallet daily, when you see a good deal on a part you ll need, hit it. Gather them up and come black friday you should have all you need to build it (and at reduced cost)
 
I may be talking out of my a$$ here so somebody correct me if Im wrong but, an Athlon 3400+ wont tap enough of a 6800GT and certainly not enough of the Ultra to warrant the cost.

The 3400+ is a good processor but its not a powerhouse. You need a damn juggernaught to push a 6800 GT or Ultra.

Most of the guys I know tend to pair the 6600 GT with that processor. As Im really bad with clockspeed and bus numbers, I cant offer hard data as to why your processor cant push a 6800GT. My gut feeling though is that it cant (hopefully somebody has numbers to show that)
 
:(

oh yeah, i live like a block away from Fry's. and that's one of the few places i'll go on Black friday, so i guess i should've asked the question more specifically:
Does anyone know if Fry's Electronics will have deals for computer parts on Black Friday?

but i guess i shouldn't get my hopes up too much, and try to find some parts here and there when i see a sale.
 
[quote name='godhatesjustyou']:(

oh yeah, i live like a block away from Fry's. and that's one of the few places i'll go on Black friday, so i guess i should've asked the question more specifically:
Does anyone know if Fry's Electronics will have deals for computer parts on Black Friday?

but i guess i shouldn't get my hopes up too much, and try to find some parts here and there when i see a sale.[/QUOTE]

Frys tends to. We wont know until closer to the date. Your best bet is still to buy stuff when you see it cheap then when you have all you need, put it all together.

I find I can usually find deals on:

Cases
PSUs
VCards
SCards
Optical and Hard Drives

I rarely find "deals" on processors and when I do they are usually too low end for me to want. So, just bite the bullet there.
 
[quote name='godhatesjustyou']hey Casey, i'm planning on upgrading my computer soon, and i'm gonna start to save up money for Black Friday. question is, would most essential parts for a computer (mobo/cpu, RAM, graphic card) be on sale on that day? cause i've only been to one or two Black Fridays in the past, but i've never really took a notice to computer parts.[/QUOTE]

graphics cards always seem to be heavily reduced as do hard drives. Don't really know about other components.

Kind of torn between getting one of those refurb cards from ATi next month or saving for BF and upgading the mobo and ram (mobo uses 2700 speed ram and has AGP port). Though I am leaning to grabbing the refurb and then just building a new PC after things start to push 64 bit capabilities
 
I'm sorry, when is black Friday again? Also, I won't spend more than $300 on the video card.

Now, I heard that BestBuy has X800XL AGPs for prices as low as $178 to $206, so if my BB has that card in stock for that low of a price, I will buy on the spot since the card seems to be around equal performance-wise as the 6800GT, but the 6800GT has the 3.0 shader models. Only reason why I sort of want an ATI card is that I play HL2, CS:S, and all of the mods so much, and ATI cards run better with HL2.
 
[quote name='aaa']I'm sorry, when is black Friday again? Also, I won't spend more than $300 on the video card.

Now, I heard that BestBuy has X800XL AGPs for prices as low as $178 to $206, so if my BB has that card in stock for that low of a price, I will buy on the spot since the card seems to be around equal performance-wise as the 6800GT, but the 6800GT has the 3.0 shader models. Only reason why I sort of want an ATI card is that I play HL2, CS:S, and all of the mods so much, and ATI cards run better with HL2.[/QUOTE]

Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving. Most stores open at 4-6am and have crazy deals sectioned off throughout the day - 6-8am deals, 8am-10am deals, etc etc. You can always find great items at great discounts - but you generally have to send in rebates.

And didn't you say that you only have an AGP slot? I would be sure to check that card out at Best Buy.. Because the x800xl was designed as a PCIe card, the AGP variant may be more expensive. If it is $206 (the higher end of the range you indicated), buy it. That would be a hella good deal.
 
Oh and take a looksee here:

6552.png


Good point of comparison (using WoW, one of my mainstays).

I still stick by my original statement that the 6600gt is the way to go. You can get it for around $144 after rebates (for AGP) and better use your remaining money on faster ram and a more capable PSU. Just my thoughts, anyway.
 
[quote name='psiufoxx2']Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving. Most stores open at 4-6am and have crazy deals sectioned off throughout the day - 6-8am deals, 8am-10am deals, etc etc. You can always find great items at great discounts - but you generally have to send in rebates.

And didn't you say that you only have an AGP slot? I would be sure to check that card out at Best Buy.. Because the x800xl was designed as a PCIe card, the AGP variant may be more expensive. If it is $206 (the higher end of the range you indicated), buy it. That would be a hella good deal.[/QUOTE]

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=936728

https://webspace.utexas.edu/danyo/x800xl%20receipt.jpg?uniq=fqxexn

I will call the 3 best buys in my area, and hopefully, I will get lucky.

BTW, how do I post a picture?

This deal is YMMV though.
 
[quote name='aaa']http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=936728

https://webspace.utexas.edu/danyo/x800xl%20receipt.jpg?uniq=fqxexn

I will call the 3 best buys in my area, and hopefully, I will get lucky.

BTW, how do I post a picture?

This deal is YMMV though.[/QUOTE]

There are a few ways to post a picture. Most times I am copying an image already on the web, so I just right click the image I want, choose "Copy Image Location.." then I come to CAG and click the icon for Insert Picture -- the only color icon residing on the toolbar above the text entry box (the one with a little sun and field on it) and then I paste in the image location.

Voila!

Oh and... I saw this on the web. Is $299.99 Best Buy's national price for the x800xl? Because $206 seems a little TOO good a deal, even YMMV.
 
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