Need help choosing a vid card (not for bench.)

[qazxcv]

Hello everyone, this is my first post but I've been reading a lot here.
I'm looking to buy a video card, mainly for gaming. I dont care about benchmarking, but I'd like to get a video card with which I can max out Battlefield 2 and still be able to play it without any lag.

I had a BFG 6600 GT OC, and I could only play @ 1024x768 on medium settings, and I dont have it now.

Here are my specs.

MSI 7093
AMD Athlon 64 3200+
768 MB of RAM

I have 3 choices here:

ASUS EAX800/2DTV/256M 256M Radeon X800 PCI-E 256MB DDR DVI TV-OUT
@ 320$ (canadian)

or

SAPPHIRE ATI X800 256M DDR TV DVI PCI-E Bulk @ 312$

or

LEADTEK 6800-128TD NVIDIA (A400TDH) GF6800 128MB DDR TV +DVI+HW
@ 336$

(BTW: do you guys know what "bulk" means in the 2nd one? Does it mean OEM?)

I just read that all of them dont have GDDR3 memory. Would this really affect gaming? Also, does the 256mb of memory of the x800 makes a difference?
Please post anything you may have to say
Thanks =)

[Peen]

You need more RAM first, 6600 GT isnt bad, but less then 1gb is bad ESPECIALLY for BF2

[[XC] leviathan18]

i play on high but i have 2 6600gt but a friend plays the same as me with 1

[VoRtAn_MaDgE]

What do u mean when u say "max out Battlefield 2" ???

All at maximum ? What resolution ?

http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/4788/bf8cu.jpg

http://img274.imageshack.us/img274/8278/bf25pq.jpg

"The shader-heavy applications in our testing suite really took advantage of the GeForce 7800 GTX. You saw this in the case of Far Cry, particularly once HDR is enabled. A single GeForce 7800 GTX card running Far Cry with HDR was able to outperform two GeForce 6800 Ultra cards running in SLI mode! The other two applications where GeForce 7800 GTX put up a particularly strong showing were Battlefield 2, where the 7800 GTX outperformed the 6800 Ultra SLI configuration in all but one test (2048x1536 with 4xAA/16xAF), while the 7800 GTX was largely able to keep up with the SLI config in Half-Life 2, matching it in performance at 2048x1536"

[qazxcv]

You need more RAM first, 6600 GT isnt bad, but less then 1gb is bad ESPECIALLY for BF2

When I was looking in my windows task manager, the game wasnt using more than 400 MB... would it really make a difference?
Actually, I have physically have 1GB of RAM, but my motherboard does not support 3 sticks; it must be either 1,2 or 4. I actually have 2x 256MB and 1x 512MB sticks (kingston), so there's one being "wasted".

[qazxcv]

What do u mean when u say "max out Battlefield 2" ???

All at maximum ? What resolution ?


Sorry, I forgot to mention. I'd like to be able to play at 1280 x 1024 pixels, and set the game's settings all to high, in the video options. That would be enough for me, and it would mean future games would work well too, since this game is pretty ressource demanding.

[[XC] leviathan18]

x800xl

[qazxcv]

x800xl
Thats not in my options...

BTW, I just read an article
http://hardware.gamespot.com/Story-ST-x-2147-x-x-x&body_pagenum=5
You can see in that page that going from 512MB of memory to 1GB does not increase significantly the performance.. so my 6600Gt was the only problem..

[VoRtAn_MaDgE]

It's a bit hard to tell wich one to choose...depends on the amount of money you are willing to spend.

[qazxcv]

It's a bit hard to tell wich one to choose...depends on the amount of money you are willing to spend.
320$ ± 15$ , canadian. The prices are already in my first post

[charlie]

None fo those will "max out" BF2 at anything more than 1024 x 768...

The best gaming experience will be the 6800NU hopefully with the last 4 pipelines opened via software. That'll look nice :D

And yes... switching to 2 x 512mB would be nice... 4 x 512mB (or 2 x 1gB) may give slight benefits.

C

[TMM]

6800 and unlock to 16pipe if it will.

[onethreehill]

I have 3 choices here:

ASUS EAX800/2DTV/256M 256M Radeon X800 PCI-E 256MB DDR DVI TV-OUT
@ 320$ (canadian)

SAPPHIRE ATI X800 256M DDR TV DVI PCI-E Bulk @ 312$ or

LEADTEK 6800-128TD NVIDIA (A400TDH) GF6800 128MB DDR TV +DVI+HW
@ 336$

(BTW: do you guys know what "bulk" means in the 2nd one? Does it mean OEM?)

I just read that all of them dont have GDDR3 memory. Would this really affect gaming? Also, does the 256mb of memory of the x800 makes a difference?
Please post anything you may have to say
Thanks =)

ASUS & Sapphire X800s are using 2.0ns GDDR3 memory. 392/700-900MHz

Leadtek 6800 PCI-E is 256MB of DDR1 memory. 325/600-650MHz
(Leadtek 6800 AGP is 128MB of DDR1 memory. 325/700MHz)

X800 is faster than 6800

[charlie]

ASUS & Sapphire X800s are using 2.0ns GDDR3 memory. 392/700-900MHz

Leadtek 6800 PCI-E is 256MB of DDR1 memory. 325/600-650MHz
(Leadtek 6800 AGP is 128MB of DDR1 memory. 325/700MHz)

X800 is faster than 6800

x800 12 pipe is NOT faster than 6800 12 pipe at dx9 apps.... and gets killed by 6800/16!

The best card in this class is the X800XL by a MILE... save if you must, but don't waste money on x800.

C

[qazxcv]

So.. which one should I get?

[charlie]

x800xl... but if the x800xl is $300USD, then you may as well get x800xt AIW @ $330

But that's getting expensive! I'm in the same boat as you, actually... for my gaming rig I'm buying a 6800NU by Leadtek hopefully modding to 16 pipes and running about 400/800 @$180

C

[onethreehill]

x800 12 pipe is NOT faster than 6800 12 pipe at dx9 apps.... and gets killed by 6800/16!

The best card in this class is the X800XL by a MILE... save if you must, but don't waste money on x800.

C

I think you are comparing a 6800GT with X800

EDIT: X800XL is faster than 6800GT in Doom3??

[charlie]

the best bargain in the category!!!!!!

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=33644

[[XC] leviathan18]

he knows what he is comparing a 6800nu unlocked.... with a x800

[charlie]

oh yeah... for the $$ the x800 16 pipe cards are the BEST.... but the price difference between 6800NU and X800XL is a 1gB set of new DDR ;)

C

[qazxcv]

Guys.. I was talking about canadian currency.. I cant order from newegg because they only ship to the states.. (btw, 10 US = 12,4 CAD).

Dont talk about the 6800GT or Ultra or x800 XL, because that is a pretty big difference in $ and I must stay into my budge, because like Charlie said, I could buy other things with that $, plus I have to keep my money to pay for school books. But I just want to have fun with games during my summer.

So x800 VS 6800, both "vanilla", who wins?
And wouldnt that be enough to max out BF2?

[charlie]

No, you won't MAX OUT BF2, but it'll look nice. Go 6800NU and use RivaTuner to open the 16 pipes. At 12 pipes, depending on the game, it's probably a draw... but those 4 pipes will give you a 6800GT core...

C

[Peen]

you cant max out Bf2 with any cards, and you will need over 1gb of ram to do that also. You may be only using 400mb of ram, but are you running low res and details?

[ZX7891]

you cant max out Bf2 with any cards
look up around 10-15 posts and there are diagrams up there that may change your mind

[qazxcv]

you cant max out Bf2 with any cards, and you will need over 1gb of ram to do that also. You may be only using 400mb of ram, but are you running low res and details?

I said a few posts earlier what max-out for me means.. I dont mean like at 1600 1200 and everything 8x aas..
Just putting the video options at high and at a decent resolution would be okay for me.. I dont need 8xaaf

[Peen]

look up around 10-15 posts and there are diagrams up there that may change your mind
And not have slow downs all the time?
Its just 1600x1200, not even close to max. Id want 30fps min frame rate. I highly doubt any cards could do that now. I guess I dont know what max is, I think like 1600x1200 4xAA 8-16xAF max in game details