Gamers guide to buying a video card

[charlie]

Thought it may be fun to make a thread or a list of the top gaming video cards for today's video games. We pretty much all play HL2, Doom3, MOHPA, FarCry, etc, etc....
Not everyone wants to spend $500 on a video card and they wonder what will be best for the game they play. So lets make a list of best video cards for TODAY'S video games.... not necessarily 3DMark benchies, but REAL games!!!
So let's take a stab at it
Here are a list of some contenders (not necessarily in correct order)
And it's ok to mix agp AND pci-e

1) X800xt PLAT ED
2) X800xt
3) 6800U
4) X800 pro
5) 6800 gt
6) x700pro
7) 9800xt
8) 6800
9) 6600gt
10) 9800pro
11) 5950U
12) 9700pro
13) 9600xt
14) 5900
15) 6200
16) 9550
17) x600
18) 5750

I can't think of anymore off the top of my head... maybe if someone could edit the list to their opinion of #1-#? and add some gpu's!!

Remember, this is real gaming cards, not just 3DMarks....

[k|ngp|n]

UT2k4 isn't really "todays" game...but I play it alot on my rig with 9800pro and the game runs flawlessly and I can tell no difference with x800xt.

[KuRi]

You forgot one thing, nvidia for games, ati for benches

[Bennah]

Looks ok to me, but x700pro better than a 9800xt?

[Bennah]

Where is the X850XT PE available?

[Bennah]

hm, one thinks that the X700pro is better than the 6600gt and the other thinks not.

PCI-E.... Asus X700pro or Gainward GS GLH 6600GT on a Neo4 Plat (non SLI)?

[HermS]

I think this will be a tricky one to pin down, it all depends what you want... Whether you run with AA/AF would really be the deciding factor.

[Bennah]

Yea, well in all games I tend to run AA/AF atleast 2x4x.

[perkam]

hm, one thinks that the X700pro is better than the 6600gt and the other thinks not.

Too many ppl were asking that question, so Anandtech did an article about it Here: X700 Pro vs. 6600 GT

As for your AA/AF 2x/4x question...the X700 PRO isnt the X700XT, but while overclocked it still outpaced, by a wee bit, the 6600gt when AA and AF is enabled in Half Life 2.

However, X700 PRO is very hard to find at a cheaper price than the 6600GT and ATI hasnt made good on its promises to make an AGP version of the card which I personally was affected by. You're not gonna hear me say this many times, but, I think you should go for the GT just because its a more practical and proven choice and I myself have waited not to get one BECAUSE the X700 PRO/XT AGP has been on my list for so long which was a mistake.

Its your decision in the end and the Anandtech article even tells you which X700 PRO is best (PowerColor) if you DO decide to go that path.

EDIT: As for the thread topic, Beyond 3D has an entire collection of all the current gfx cards in tabular form INCLUDING IMAGES OF EACH CARD with more info on each than most ppl (not here) know about the cards they DO have LOL . You can check it out here:

3D Reference Board Specifications

Perkam

[reject]

nv has best iq with the new 71.20 betas.
and running with 8x AF has very little performance penalty, 16x has about what 8x used to
and i think refresh rates dont lower fps anymore when going to a higher one
for gaming id get a 6800gt but for benchmarking it sucks
the x800XL is the best of both worlds, but 6800gt is the king of agp for gaming

[STEvil]

cant wait to see if modding an x800xl to have external power connector will let it overclock real nice...

[Kanavit]

heres' my list:

6800u SLI x2
6800gt SLI x2
x800xtpe
x800xt
6800u
6800gt
6600gt SLI x2
x800 pro
6800nu, le
9800 xt,pro, le.

[Bennah]

Too many ppl were asking that question, so Anandtech did an article about it Here: X700 Pro vs. 6600 GT

As for your AA/AF 2x/4x question...the X700 PRO isnt the X700XT, but while overclocked it still outpaced, by a wee bit, the 6600gt when AA and AF is enabled in Half Life 2.

However, X700 PRO is very hard to find at a cheaper price than the 6600GT and ATI hasnt made good on its promises to make an AGP version of the card which I personally was affected by. You're not gonna hear me say this many times, but, I think you should go for the GT just because its a more practical and proven choice and I myself have waited not to get one BECAUSE the X700 PRO/XT AGP has been on my list for so long which was a mistake.

Its your decision in the end and the Anandtech article even tells you which X700 PRO is best (PowerColor) if you DO decide to go that path.

EDIT: As for the thread topic, Beyond 3D has an entire collection of all the current gfx cards in tabular form INCLUDING IMAGES OF EACH CARD with more info on each than most ppl (not here) know about the cards they DO have LOL . You can check it out here:

3D Reference Board Specifications

Perkam

Thanks for the links. I'd grab a 6600GT then change mobo then get another one for some SLI action