Video card recommendations? [modified]
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A game that I play frequently has better graphics when used with a decent video card. Lately, the numbers don't mean crap anymore and a higher chipset number may not be a better card. This is the recommended configuration for the premium graphics client: 256MB GeForce 7950 or higher, ATi Radeon X1900 or higher and Similar chips from other manufacturers I'm hoping the jolly fat man, or someone else, brings me something that matches that. I'm not looking for something at the top end of the spectrum, just something that's a little better than the requirements but without breaking the bank (Less than $200). My requirements: PCI Express, VGA output. The motherboard I have only provides PCIe x8 (but according to the PCIe specs, PCIe x16 devices will work, only at half the throughput. A different MB will be something for another day. Any suggestions? [edit: Is this my 15 minutes of fame? Being one of the linked topics in the daily newsletter? :)]
I don't claim to be a know it all, for I know that I am not...
I usually have an answer though.
modified on Tuesday, October 28, 2008 1:40 PM
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A game that I play frequently has better graphics when used with a decent video card. Lately, the numbers don't mean crap anymore and a higher chipset number may not be a better card. This is the recommended configuration for the premium graphics client: 256MB GeForce 7950 or higher, ATi Radeon X1900 or higher and Similar chips from other manufacturers I'm hoping the jolly fat man, or someone else, brings me something that matches that. I'm not looking for something at the top end of the spectrum, just something that's a little better than the requirements but without breaking the bank (Less than $200). My requirements: PCI Express, VGA output. The motherboard I have only provides PCIe x8 (but according to the PCIe specs, PCIe x16 devices will work, only at half the throughput. A different MB will be something for another day. Any suggestions? [edit: Is this my 15 minutes of fame? Being one of the linked topics in the daily newsletter? :)]
I don't claim to be a know it all, for I know that I am not...
I usually have an answer though.
modified on Tuesday, October 28, 2008 1:40 PM
Scott Barbour wrote:
premium graphics client:
... EVE Online? and to answer your question, I'd go for a nVidia 8800GT. I think they're still the best bang for the buck.
// Steve McLenithan
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A game that I play frequently has better graphics when used with a decent video card. Lately, the numbers don't mean crap anymore and a higher chipset number may not be a better card. This is the recommended configuration for the premium graphics client: 256MB GeForce 7950 or higher, ATi Radeon X1900 or higher and Similar chips from other manufacturers I'm hoping the jolly fat man, or someone else, brings me something that matches that. I'm not looking for something at the top end of the spectrum, just something that's a little better than the requirements but without breaking the bank (Less than $200). My requirements: PCI Express, VGA output. The motherboard I have only provides PCIe x8 (but according to the PCIe specs, PCIe x16 devices will work, only at half the throughput. A different MB will be something for another day. Any suggestions? [edit: Is this my 15 minutes of fame? Being one of the linked topics in the daily newsletter? :)]
I don't claim to be a know it all, for I know that I am not...
I usually have an answer though.
modified on Tuesday, October 28, 2008 1:40 PM
ATI 4850 is a great card for the money. ~$180 And make sure your power supply is up to the task whatever you buy. Some of these cards use a gazillion or so watt power supply to run.
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Scott Barbour wrote:
premium graphics client:
... EVE Online? and to answer your question, I'd go for a nVidia 8800GT. I think they're still the best bang for the buck.
// Steve McLenithan
I'd stay away from NVidia if I was you. The NVidia chipset burnt out on my laptop due to hardware problems, and they want to charge me to fix it because it is 1 week out of warranty. I think NVidia should pick up the tab as it is due to their faulty chipset. This one will run and run. Seems there is a big black cloud hanging over them as many of their recent chips have a high failure rate. I think they are going to take a very big hit as more people hit this problem.
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ATI 4850 is a great card for the money. ~$180 And make sure your power supply is up to the task whatever you buy. Some of these cards use a gazillion or so watt power supply to run.
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I'd stay away from NVidia if I was you. The NVidia chipset burnt out on my laptop due to hardware problems, and they want to charge me to fix it because it is 1 week out of warranty. I think NVidia should pick up the tab as it is due to their faulty chipset. This one will run and run. Seems there is a big black cloud hanging over them as many of their recent chips have a high failure rate. I think they are going to take a very big hit as more people hit this problem.
You can't possibly be serious... Comparing your manufacturer's proprietary laptop boards to a desktop card is apples and oranges my friend. Gaming laptops usually have horrible problems with cooling as well. Besides, BFG and several other nVidia manufacturers have lifetime warranties on their cards.
// Steve McLenithan
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A game that I play frequently has better graphics when used with a decent video card. Lately, the numbers don't mean crap anymore and a higher chipset number may not be a better card. This is the recommended configuration for the premium graphics client: 256MB GeForce 7950 or higher, ATi Radeon X1900 or higher and Similar chips from other manufacturers I'm hoping the jolly fat man, or someone else, brings me something that matches that. I'm not looking for something at the top end of the spectrum, just something that's a little better than the requirements but without breaking the bank (Less than $200). My requirements: PCI Express, VGA output. The motherboard I have only provides PCIe x8 (but according to the PCIe specs, PCIe x16 devices will work, only at half the throughput. A different MB will be something for another day. Any suggestions? [edit: Is this my 15 minutes of fame? Being one of the linked topics in the daily newsletter? :)]
I don't claim to be a know it all, for I know that I am not...
I usually have an answer though.
modified on Tuesday, October 28, 2008 1:40 PM
I've got a nVidia 8800GTS (320MB)[^] and run's two 22" monitors quite happily, was playing San Andreas while watching a movie no trouble at all. If you're wanting to stay under $200 you can probably upgrade to the ones with more memory (512MB etc) (when I bought it it was about £300 so ~$600 at the time). It runs on x8 sockets as far as I know (if you're running in SLI for example) but I've got mine plugged into one of the two x16 slots so can't comment. The output is DVI but D-SUB -> DVI converters are a couple of bucks (as you americans would say) so no problem there.
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You can't possibly be serious... Comparing your manufacturer's proprietary laptop boards to a desktop card is apples and oranges my friend. Gaming laptops usually have horrible problems with cooling as well. Besides, BFG and several other nVidia manufacturers have lifetime warranties on their cards.
// Steve McLenithan
Steve McLenithan wrote:
Gaming laptops usually have horrible problems with cooling as well.
not if you take care of them. we buy nothing but gaming laptops. And outside of one programmer spilling juice inside his laptop (ouch), we've managed to keep all alive for years.
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb) John Andrew Holmes "It is well to remember that the entire universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others."
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A game that I play frequently has better graphics when used with a decent video card. Lately, the numbers don't mean crap anymore and a higher chipset number may not be a better card. This is the recommended configuration for the premium graphics client: 256MB GeForce 7950 or higher, ATi Radeon X1900 or higher and Similar chips from other manufacturers I'm hoping the jolly fat man, or someone else, brings me something that matches that. I'm not looking for something at the top end of the spectrum, just something that's a little better than the requirements but without breaking the bank (Less than $200). My requirements: PCI Express, VGA output. The motherboard I have only provides PCIe x8 (but according to the PCIe specs, PCIe x16 devices will work, only at half the throughput. A different MB will be something for another day. Any suggestions? [edit: Is this my 15 minutes of fame? Being one of the linked topics in the daily newsletter? :)]
I don't claim to be a know it all, for I know that I am not...
I usually have an answer though.
modified on Tuesday, October 28, 2008 1:40 PM
I would avoid the 7950 (which is a GX2 model if I recall) and any other GX2 model unless you have 16x. You don't want to deal with SLI at PCIe 8x speeds. the 8800GT is a wonderful card, cheap, powerful, and one and a half generations old so easy to acquire. the 8600 series can be had dirt cheap as well, but run a bit slower. My money would be on the 8800GT, they are powerful for hte price. :) You didn't mention OpenGL or DirectX, though for last years models, you shouldn't have problems with either nVidia or ATI with either. It usually takes each about a year to catch up to the other in OpenGL vs DirectX. ATI is stronger in the latter, nVidia stronger in the former, but about a year later they are equal.
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb) John Andrew Holmes "It is well to remember that the entire universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others."
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Scott Barbour wrote:
premium graphics client:
... EVE Online? and to answer your question, I'd go for a nVidia 8800GT. I think they're still the best bang for the buck.
// Steve McLenithan
You hit the nail right on the head, EVE Online is my gaming crack of choice. Right now, I'm using the GeForce 6100 chipset built into the motherboard. With EVE, it "can" run the premium client, but it's really only good for making nice screenshots. The performance is horrible (and of course, the built-in chipset has no memory of it's own.) I have this system because the hard drive in my laptop had seized (no spin at all), and the replacement overheats the computer when playing anything graphics intense. It was a "get what you need now, optimize it later" job.
I don't claim to be a know it all, for I know that I am not...
I usually have an answer though.
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A game that I play frequently has better graphics when used with a decent video card. Lately, the numbers don't mean crap anymore and a higher chipset number may not be a better card. This is the recommended configuration for the premium graphics client: 256MB GeForce 7950 or higher, ATi Radeon X1900 or higher and Similar chips from other manufacturers I'm hoping the jolly fat man, or someone else, brings me something that matches that. I'm not looking for something at the top end of the spectrum, just something that's a little better than the requirements but without breaking the bank (Less than $200). My requirements: PCI Express, VGA output. The motherboard I have only provides PCIe x8 (but according to the PCIe specs, PCIe x16 devices will work, only at half the throughput. A different MB will be something for another day. Any suggestions? [edit: Is this my 15 minutes of fame? Being one of the linked topics in the daily newsletter? :)]
I don't claim to be a know it all, for I know that I am not...
I usually have an answer though.
modified on Tuesday, October 28, 2008 1:40 PM
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A game that I play frequently has better graphics when used with a decent video card. Lately, the numbers don't mean crap anymore and a higher chipset number may not be a better card. This is the recommended configuration for the premium graphics client: 256MB GeForce 7950 or higher, ATi Radeon X1900 or higher and Similar chips from other manufacturers I'm hoping the jolly fat man, or someone else, brings me something that matches that. I'm not looking for something at the top end of the spectrum, just something that's a little better than the requirements but without breaking the bank (Less than $200). My requirements: PCI Express, VGA output. The motherboard I have only provides PCIe x8 (but according to the PCIe specs, PCIe x16 devices will work, only at half the throughput. A different MB will be something for another day. Any suggestions? [edit: Is this my 15 minutes of fame? Being one of the linked topics in the daily newsletter? :)]
I don't claim to be a know it all, for I know that I am not...
I usually have an answer though.
modified on Tuesday, October 28, 2008 1:40 PM
Hands down best deal for your money right now is the 512MB Nvidia 8800 GT(not the gts.. the GT) This card beats out pretty much every 8 series card and a lot of the newer 9 series as well. It doesn't even flinch when using flip 3d WHILE playing games like crysis on their highest settings. Here's the kicker you can get this card for 149$ from a few different places right now and it will easily scale to 2 or 3 way sli when you finally decide to spend that extra 70-150$ for a worthwhile MB. I went through this dilemma about 6 months back when i built my latest beast of a dev box. I poured through benchmarks/reviews online as I do for most of my hardware purchases. I couldn't find a bad review on this card, and will vouch for its performance any day of the week.
DrewG, MCSD .Net
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Hands down best deal for your money right now is the 512MB Nvidia 8800 GT(not the gts.. the GT) This card beats out pretty much every 8 series card and a lot of the newer 9 series as well. It doesn't even flinch when using flip 3d WHILE playing games like crysis on their highest settings. Here's the kicker you can get this card for 149$ from a few different places right now and it will easily scale to 2 or 3 way sli when you finally decide to spend that extra 70-150$ for a worthwhile MB. I went through this dilemma about 6 months back when i built my latest beast of a dev box. I poured through benchmarks/reviews online as I do for most of my hardware purchases. I couldn't find a bad review on this card, and will vouch for its performance any day of the week.
DrewG, MCSD .Net
Hmm, six months back the 8800GT was the card to go for but now ATI has brought out its 4800 series, including the 4850 which is much more powerful than nVidia's 8800GT. An nVidia 8800GT will be more than up to the job, but for the same money you can now get a newer, faster card.
Regards Nelviticus
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You can't possibly be serious... Comparing your manufacturer's proprietary laptop boards to a desktop card is apples and oranges my friend. Gaming laptops usually have horrible problems with cooling as well. Besides, BFG and several other nVidia manufacturers have lifetime warranties on their cards.
// Steve McLenithan
Chipset was NVIDIA GeForce 8600M (Dedicated GDDR3 256MB video memory) [^] See following filing if you don't believe me: http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1045810/000119312508145974/d8k.htm[^] Here is some more reference: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080716-nvidia-denies-rumors-of-mass-gpu-failures.html[^]
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A game that I play frequently has better graphics when used with a decent video card. Lately, the numbers don't mean crap anymore and a higher chipset number may not be a better card. This is the recommended configuration for the premium graphics client: 256MB GeForce 7950 or higher, ATi Radeon X1900 or higher and Similar chips from other manufacturers I'm hoping the jolly fat man, or someone else, brings me something that matches that. I'm not looking for something at the top end of the spectrum, just something that's a little better than the requirements but without breaking the bank (Less than $200). My requirements: PCI Express, VGA output. The motherboard I have only provides PCIe x8 (but according to the PCIe specs, PCIe x16 devices will work, only at half the throughput. A different MB will be something for another day. Any suggestions? [edit: Is this my 15 minutes of fame? Being one of the linked topics in the daily newsletter? :)]
I don't claim to be a know it all, for I know that I am not...
I usually have an answer though.
modified on Tuesday, October 28, 2008 1:40 PM
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A game that I play frequently has better graphics when used with a decent video card. Lately, the numbers don't mean crap anymore and a higher chipset number may not be a better card. This is the recommended configuration for the premium graphics client: 256MB GeForce 7950 or higher, ATi Radeon X1900 or higher and Similar chips from other manufacturers I'm hoping the jolly fat man, or someone else, brings me something that matches that. I'm not looking for something at the top end of the spectrum, just something that's a little better than the requirements but without breaking the bank (Less than $200). My requirements: PCI Express, VGA output. The motherboard I have only provides PCIe x8 (but according to the PCIe specs, PCIe x16 devices will work, only at half the throughput. A different MB will be something for another day. Any suggestions? [edit: Is this my 15 minutes of fame? Being one of the linked topics in the daily newsletter? :)]
I don't claim to be a know it all, for I know that I am not...
I usually have an answer though.
modified on Tuesday, October 28, 2008 1:40 PM
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You can't possibly be serious... Comparing your manufacturer's proprietary laptop boards to a desktop card is apples and oranges my friend. Gaming laptops usually have horrible problems with cooling as well. Besides, BFG and several other nVidia manufacturers have lifetime warranties on their cards.
// Steve McLenithan
Steve McLenithan wrote:
Besides, BFG and several other nVidia manufacturers have lifetime warranties on their cards.
What lifetime are they specifying on the cards?
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You can't possibly be serious... Comparing your manufacturer's proprietary laptop boards to a desktop card is apples and oranges my friend. Gaming laptops usually have horrible problems with cooling as well. Besides, BFG and several other nVidia manufacturers have lifetime warranties on their cards.
// Steve McLenithan
He's half right, NV does have(had?) a manufacturing problem with their laptop cards but the desktop ones haven't been affected outside of paranoid delusions from the inquirer (whose video card stories are more biased than ATI press releases :rolleyes: ). The prime suspect is weak solder joints and insufficiently rigid PCBs flexing until the balls break.
Today's lesson is brought to you by the word "niggardly". Remember kids, don't attribute to racism what can be explained by Scandinavian language roots. -- Robert Royall
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Hmm, six months back the 8800GT was the card to go for but now ATI has brought out its 4800 series, including the 4850 which is much more powerful than nVidia's 8800GT. An nVidia 8800GT will be more than up to the job, but for the same money you can now get a newer, faster card.
Regards Nelviticus
You can find the 8800GT for $100ish, the 4850 is $150ish. ATI had a big bang for the buck edge when the 4800 series first came out but NVidia dropped their prices enough that it's not there anymore.
Today's lesson is brought to you by the word "niggardly". Remember kids, don't attribute to racism what can be explained by Scandinavian language roots. -- Robert Royall
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I've got a nVidia 8800GTS (320MB)[^] and run's two 22" monitors quite happily, was playing San Andreas while watching a movie no trouble at all. If you're wanting to stay under $200 you can probably upgrade to the ones with more memory (512MB etc) (when I bought it it was about £300 so ~$600 at the time). It runs on x8 sockets as far as I know (if you're running in SLI for example) but I've got mine plugged into one of the two x16 slots so can't comment. The output is DVI but D-SUB -> DVI converters are a couple of bucks (as you americans would say) so no problem there.
Ed.Poore wrote:
The output is DVI but D-SUB -> DVI converters are a couple of bucks (as you americans would say) so no problem there.
Your card didn't come with them bundled with it? Every US DVI card I've seen has included at least one adapter, some are starting to add a DVI-HDMI adapter as well now.
Today's lesson is brought to you by the word "niggardly". Remember kids, don't attribute to racism what can be explained by Scandinavian language roots. -- Robert Royall