Need a video card that will last me a while, and has component outs.

D

drone8888

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The Radeon X800 XT is what I was looking at,........ but that thing is nowhere to be found.

I only want to spend $250 max.
Hopefully less, on an unwanted one. ..... :)

Anyways,........ I'd like a model with 256/16x, dvi-i and component outs.

I want to amalgomate my PC and my HDTV into a media center,.... then maybe I can get into PC games.
I'll settle for Doom 3 on my XBox for now,... or in March,... but I'd like to play it in it's native form, in the HIGHEST resolution possible.

So,.........any good sites, or sales on these???

I see the LE version is like $600+ so please don't bash me if I'm asking too much.
Like I said,........I haven't been into PC games, therefore, I know nothing about hardware upgrades.


Thanks.
:)
 
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[quote name='drone8888']The Radeon X800 XT is what I was looking at,........ but that thing is nowhere to be found.

I only want to spend $250 max.
Hopefully less, on an unwanted one. ..... :)

Anyways,........ I'd like a model with 256/16x, dvi-i and component outs.

I want to amalgomate my PC and my HDTV into a media center,.... then maybe I can get into PC games.
I'll settle for Doom 3 on my XBox for now,... or in March,... but I'd like to play it in it's native form, in the HIGHEST resolution possible.

So,.........any good sites, or sales on these???

I see the LE version is like $600+ so please don't bash me if I'm asking too much.
Like I said,........I haven't been into PC games, therefore, I know nothing about hardware upgrades.


Thanks.
:)[/quote]

Good luck....that's all I can say.
 
[quote name='rockhero']I'm not sure there exists a computer that cnan play Doom 3 in the highest resolution possible.[/quote]


ur right ID software said the only way to play doom at the highest resolution is to have a 512mb video card which isnt even out yet .
I have the radeon x800 xt PE pci express edition and it came with a conv to change to component but it was kinda pricey 620 , that was in november
 
or u can wait for the x800 xt edition that is an all in wonder card I dont kno if thats out yet but it will be kinda pricey I tihink.
 
Check pricewatch.com

just make sure to look at the vendor ratings.

Oh... and newegg.com come might be worth a look
 
[quote name='drone8888']The Radeon X800 XT is what I was looking at,........ but that thing is nowhere to be found.[/quote]

It's also nowhere near $250.
 
You wont find that nice of a graphics card for $250, if you need a new computer, and want it to be your entertainment center, you should look at media center PCs.
 
WOW!!!!!!!!!

You paid $620?????!!!!

That's crazy!!

Well,.... I've seen similar cards for $300, with the out I'm looking for, but they're from PNY and some other less known companies.

I have very little knowledge of who or what is good.

Also,... when I say I want to play Doom 3 in the highest res,............... I mean,... I want a card that isn't going to be obsolete in 3 years.
Something that plays Doom 3 now,... that will support future games.


I know there are some older cards that can handle HL2 and Doom 3,.... but I figure I have around $250, so I might as well get the best for the money.

Most developers don't utilize a graphics cards' full inventory, until it becomes semi-standard,... right???
I mean,........ most games made will be about the same for a few years, until the next big thing.
More pipelines, bandwidth, processing power, etc......, right???


Any help??

Thanks.
:)
 
Unfortunately, just about any PC part is going to be obsolete in one year, let alone two to three. Most people don't care that something new or better has come out though. At a budget of $250 you're either looking at the entry to mid level new generation cards (Radeon X600-700), or the high level last generation crds (Radon 9800XT etc). You might be able to find some good deals but $250 does not give a lot of breathing room for a graphics card that you want to use for two to three years.
 
Well,...... the $$$ was actually my XBox2/Revolution savings.

I just figured that I should utilize my HDTV, and get in on all the cool games I've been missing with my stock card.

Thanks.
:)
 
[quote name='drone8888']WOW!!!!!!!!!

You paid $620?????!!!!

That's crazy!!

Well,.... I've seen similar cards for $300, with the out I'm looking for, but they're from PNY and some other less known companies.

I have very little knowledge of who or what is good.

Also,... when I say I want to play Doom 3 in the highest res,............... I mean,... I want a card that isn't going to be obsolete in 3 years.
Something that plays Doom 3 now,... that will support future games.


I know there are some older cards that can handle HL2 and Doom 3,.... but I figure I have around $250, so I might as well get the best for the money.

Most developers don't utilize a graphics cards' full inventory, until it becomes semi-standard,... right???
I mean,........ most games made will be about the same for a few years, until the next big thing.
More pipelines, bandwidth, processing power, etc......, right???


Any help??

Thanks.
:)[/quote]


yeah I thought so myself lol anyway SleazyC is right, for ur price range ur looking at the x700 series which is good , before I build my newest pc my older pc had the radeon 9600 xt which was good but there were beter cards out also. plus u want to make it into a media type pc u might wanna get an all in wonder card from ati (nvidias offering isnt all that great from what iv read) that can serve ur purpose

try this card this was the best card like a year ago plus its an all in wonder and its at a reasonable privce just put ur zip code in

http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=973526/
 
I have the the radeon 9700 pro and it runs HL2 and Doom 3 just fine. You can't max all the settings... but its good enough and fairly cheap.
 
If you're getting DVI out, why do you need component also? I would imagine a VGA to component adapter would better serve the purpose(and wallet). I'm running a BFG 6800OC and it runs D3 and HL2 like a champ. If you're willing to spend more, look for the 256meg 6800.
 
Well,...........Sony is a bit vague on the whole DVI signal from the PC to the HDTV thing.

Supposedly it voids the warranty.

So I want to play it safe,......yet have the ability to cross the line, if I feel the urgency.

:)

Thanks for the advice so far.
:)
 
I just dropped $230 for a Radeon 9800 Pro All in Wonder from ATI. It may not be the most powerful card out there but it can still push the polys and effects. I also had the idea of connecting my computer to my HDTV and this card allows me to do that with component output. The card also has a TV tuner so you could turn your PC into a tv or route your cable tv through your computer so that you could watch tv on either. The card also allows my computer to act as a TiVo (pause live tv, record shows on my hard drive then burn them to a CD/DVD, etc.) I'm happy with it but I do more with my computer than just play games. I edit video and other junk so this card was a natural choice but you may find that you are paying for things you do not want. If you want the low down on where the video card market is right now go here:
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041110/buyers_guide-13.html
This page is in the middle of an article by tom's hardware guide but the chart is very useful as to what the roadmap for the future is like and tom's is a great source for all computer stuff. The rest of the article will clue you in to everything want or need to know. As far as where to buy the card you can check pricewatch.com but I recommed newegg.com above all others. Their prices are just a bit more than the lowest but they have great service, customer service, and I trust them. One more thing to keep in mind is that your CPU can greatly effect game performance. Sure the load is being pushed off more and more to the graphics card (GPU) but games are including more and more that the GPU can not and will not handle (physics, AI, etc.) and these things take a ton of power. Good luck.
 
FYI, HDTV resolutions would be 1280 x 720 for 720p or 1920 x 1080 for 1080i, for a frame of reference.

Do you have PCI Express or an AGP port as far as video is concerned?

For an AGP slot, this nvidia 6600GT has component out (aka, HDTV cable) and is within the budget (plus it's a nice card).

for PCI Express cards, you could get the PCI-Express version of the 6600GT (of which there are plenty of manufacturers to choose from)

ATI doesn't seem to have a card at that price point with the right features - either $150 or close to $400.

The x800 XT does retail for $600+, check this out... $685.50


HOWEVER.... if you're planning on running this on ultra-high resolutions (which the other poster was mistaken about, the req. for 512mb video cards is for maximum texture quality, which is not the same as resolution - the amount of RAM and the pure, raw SPEED of the card aren't necessarily correlated) you might have to think again. DOOM 3 is a beast.

What other specs does the PC have?

I have a 6800GT and an A64 3200+ with 1gb ram, (which mind you is pretty high-end) and I run Doom 3 at 1280x1024 @ about 70-80 or so FPS - with AA and AF turned off. I don't know how well a slower video card will be able to handle the game at even higher resolutions.
 
I have a 2.2GHz VAIO, with 768megs of RAM.
I have 200Gigs of HDD, and I'm not sure if I have the Express PCI,... but I doubt it.

I just installed a USB 2.0, in an AGP slot, I think???

Anyways,.......my HDTV is capable of true HD resolutions,............but again,.......I was merely making an example with Doom 3.
I would just feel more comfortable using my 50in screen, then my 19in CRT.

Also,.......thanks for the advice.

I would love to edit my home movies, and the likes.
I have not been able to do it though, even with all of the crappy Sony software that was included.

I even have MS Plus, and I can't get the editting tools to work.

So I have some videos that need some fixing too.

I was looking at the All In Wonders a while ago,... but they seemed low end. So,... Akuma, can you play Doom 3 and HL2 without any framedrops, or defects???

I'll check out the 6600 and 6800 though.
Thanks.
:)
 
I have yet to try Doom 3 and Half-Life 2 on my system, I'll download the Half-Life 2 demo and see what kind of performance I get. I don't know how quick you wanted to make your purchase but it should take me about a day or two to get all of that done. I'll give you a shout when I test it and I'll watch this tread just in case you decide to go ahead and make a purchase. It's kind of funny, I bought a new graphics card but can't afford the games to enjoy it with. Doesn't it figure? LOL
 
[quote name='jam3582']yeah I thought so myself lol anyway SleazyC is right, for ur price range ur looking at the x700 series which is good , before I build my newest pc my older pc had the radeon 9600 xt which was good but there were beter cards out also. plus u want to make it into a media type pc u might wanna get an all in wonder card from ati (nvidias offering isnt all that great from what iv read) that can serve ur purpose

try this card this was the best card like a year ago plus its an all in wonder and its at a reasonable privce just put ur zip code in

http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=973526/[/quote]

I just bought the x700 and I love it. For what you get, you can't beat the price. It has everything that you're interested in OP. Also if you're planning on getting Half-Life 2 anyway, there's a 20$ rebate inside the box for the X700 pro (which is what I have) which can be picked up for $200 (before rebate) at Best Buy.
 
[quote name='drone8888']I have a 2.2GHz VAIO, with 768megs of RAM.
I have 200Gigs of HDD, and I'm not sure if I have the Express PCI,... but I doubt it.

I just installed a USB 2.0, in an AGP slot, I think???

Anyways,.......my HDTV is capable of true HD resolutions,............but again,.......I was merely making an example with Doom 3.
I would just feel more comfortable using my 50in screen, then my 19in CRT.

Also,.......thanks for the advice.

I would love to edit my home movies, and the likes.
I have not been able to do it though, even with all of the crappy Sony software that was included.

I even have MS Plus, and I can't get the editting tools to work.

So I have some videos that need some fixing too.

I was looking at the All In Wonders a while ago,... but they seemed low end. So,... Akuma, can you play Doom 3 and HL2 without any framedrops, or defects???

I'll check out the 6600 and 6800 though.
Thanks.
:)[/quote]

Hey,

I have almost the same set up as you. 2.26 ghz and 768 ram. I have a 6800 running in mine and Doom 3 is flawless. I have it set at 1280 x 1024 resolution(which is the highest res. my monitor allows) and the settings are at High quality.

They run about $275 online though. CompUSA had them for $200 a couple weeks ago though. I got mine from best buy for $269 but it included half life 2 and fry cry 2 which I both sold on ebay. I also had a bunch of reward zone and monopoly money. So I paid like $180 when it was all done.

I'd suggest looking at the 6600 GT if you cant find any deals on the 6800. Best buy has the pny 6600 GT for $187 plus tax this week.
 
Well I tried the Half-Life 2 demo and I was able to run it at 1600x1200 with little to no problems. I forgot to check actual frame rates and all that stuff, sorry. There is a word of caution. I can tell that Valve went out of their way to ensure a smooth play experience for any one brave enough to download the demo (at 751MB it's huge). There are no options to enable anti-aliasing or filtering or adjust world or character detail, you get the idea. The textures are so low-res that they are down right ugly. I'm sure that this has something to do with how well it ran on my machine. By the way my stats are:

2.4 Ghz P4 with 533Mhz FSB no Hyper-threading
Win XP Pro
512MB RDRAM
4x AGP

So as you can see my system is starting to show it's age a bit now. I'm waiting for the big hardware roll-over before I build my next system. You might want to wait as well so that you don't have to start from scratch in a year or so. If you do not know about the hardware roll-over just know that there is going to be a major redesign of the motherboard standard that will require most (but not all) supporting parts to change as well. Power supplies and the connectors for optical and hard drives will be very different. PCI Express will be the new standard for expansion cards but even this will come in two speeds kind of like the diffence between PCI ports and Advanced Graphics Ports.
So if you must have this hardware now then by all means go out and get it but I recommend you wait.
 
Be wary of the All in Wonders cards if you have a Pentium 4 w/ HyperThreading. Damn thing locks up after 30minutes. ATi is aware of the problem but they won't get off thier asses and fix it.:censored:

On a side note, anything you need for an HTPC you should be able to get here. http://www.pcalchemy.com/

I personally would recommend the Haugpauuge line of cards as they have ardware encoding/ decoding (PVR-350). The Ati cards rely more heavily on your processor.
 
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