What vid card??

[SStar269]

Hey guys, i was wanting an opinion on what video card i should buy. I want to to play Hl2 and counter-strike source, and i wanting 100fps on it. So what is the cheapest card(money wise) that can do that? I have a 3.2p4 , 1gig ram, and right now a 9600se. Get about 40fpst right now. Any suggestions?

[J-Dragon]

You should go check in the Video Card section of this forum or post there.

Do you have a budget for your card? That would help alot. On top, do you want 100 fps on Best Settings? AA? AF? Resolution? You got to be a little more specific.

But atm, I think the best deal is the Geforce 6600 GT. You can get one for $188 and it is more powerful then the Radeon 9800 Pro.

[ati.bob]

I'm an ATI fan, but I just can't ignore the performance of GeForce 6600GT can churn out, considering that both 9800 and 6600 are priced around the same (if not cheaper).. but 9800 Pro has a 256-bit memory bus while 6600GT only has 128-bit of memory bus. This will drag the performance down a notch with AA and AF options turned on..

[J-Dragon]

I am also an ATI fan. *Note card I have*

But.... perfomance wise, the 6600 GT does perform better. I suggest go read the Tetuser post about what card to buy. You'll learn alot. Alot of stats have been posted up.

What bob said about the AA and AF is true.. but... for example, benchmarking on UT2004, without AA and AF, the comparison of 9800 pro to 6600 GT is 117.2 to 160.3!!! that is almost 1.5x difference, n 9800 pro is in fact more expensive then the GT, around 30 dollars different.

[Even with AA and AF on, 9800 pro surpasses 6600 GT by only .5 frames. Cause the 9800 pro has 256-bit mem bus, as opposed to 6600 GT's 128-bit.] (in the UT2004 benchmark)

[ADV4NCED]

The 6600GT is the way to go, without a doubt, that thing is H@RDCORE for its price!

[SStar269]

i'm an ati user right now as well. I've had one geforce card in my life, and wasnt to happy with it. But you guys telling me, that the 6600 will be the better choice? if i bought the 9800pro, isnt there a way to softmod it or something, to make it better than the 6600? or is it just impossible?

[wazzledoozle]

The 6800LE is actually the best $200 range card right now, it has a 256 bit memory bus and further OC potential then a 6600GT, plus pipes to unlock.

[ADV4NCED]

a 6800LE for $200 ?? Isnt it quite alot more than that...

Anyway, I dont really know much about cards and there prices in USA, I live in South Africa :p

[DanTheBanjoman]

I get over 10K in 3dmark 03 with my unlocked 6800LE, it cost me 199 euros.

[wazzledoozle]

Here is a 6800LE for $229.99 in AGP 8x-
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-140-044&depa=1
Its core is also 25 MHz higher than a normal 6800LE

[DanTheBanjoman]

Most of them OC to 350-400 Mhz core easily and 800-900Mhz mem
thats apart from the unlocking. Really impressive cards once you "improve" them a bit :) even at stock speed they're not bad.

The odds of unlocking pipes are pretty high since you unlock them per 4, so you could unlock 2 sets of 4 pipes, if you're lucky all 8 work, if not 1 of the 2 sets prolly works.

[Nergal]

I wonder why ATI and Nvidia even made new gen. cards with an
128-bits architecture. I'm wondering when the 512-bits will come out?

-A 1GHZ core, with 2GHZ ram, 32pipes, 12shaders, 512bits- Hmmmmmmmm......
That will be my next card:D in a year or 2

[DanTheBanjoman]

They won't release a card that's 10× as fast when they can release a card that's 50% faster every 6-12 months and make money out of those first. Same goes for any part.

[Christer]

x800xl....:)

[critofur]

i'm an ati user right now as well. I've had one geforce card in my life, and wasnt to happy with it. But you guys telling me, that the 6600 will be the better choice? if i bought the 9800pro, isnt there a way to softmod it or something, to make it better than the 6600? or is it just impossible?

6600GT not the one without the "GT". I read many reviews with benchmarks, it is usually significantly faster than even 9800XT, sometimes double the performance.

Do you want some links? Google 9800 vs 6600GT -forum