Vid card hunting

MorbidKate · Post by **MorbidKate** » Mon Aug 27, 2007 9:00 pm

My computer upgrade is nearing completion and I'm planning to save the graphics card purchase for last, until Mask of the Betrayer is released. Has anyone heard of any news about new cards coming out in the fall or is the Nvidia 8800 GTS 320MB still the card of choice? I'm also wondering if my current 500w PS is enough.

TIA,

Kate

fluffmonster · Post by **fluffmonster** » Mon Aug 27, 2007 9:09 pm

i've heard the 9800s are supposed to be fairly badass, but I've not seen anything but rumor at this point.

If you get an eVGA, they have a 90-day stepup program where you can get a better card from them and just pay the difference. You have to give them the previous card though, so you could end up going without for a little while.

8800gts 320 kicks ass on DX9 games...its a pretty good value. whether 500w is enough depends on the rest of your system and how much quality yer current PSU has. I was able to push an 8800gts with my 485w enermax, but i'm not sure i could get much overclocking out of it so I got a beefier one.

MorbidKate · Post by **MorbidKate** » Mon Aug 27, 2007 9:29 pm

fluffmonster wrote:i've heard the 9800s are supposed to be fairly badass, but I've not seen anything but rumor at this point.

If you get an eVGA, they have a 90-day stepup program where you can get a better card from them and just pay the difference. You have to give them the previous card though, so you could end up going without for a little while.

8800gts 320 kicks ass on DX9 games...its a pretty good value. whether 500w is enough depends on the rest of your system and how much quality yer current PSU has. I was able to push an 8800gts with my 485w enermax, but i'm not sure i could get much overclocking out of it so I got a beefier one.

Thanks Fluff. I've found some stuff on the net to suggesting a November release and pricing somewhere around $549-649 USD for the GeForce 9800 GTX and $399-449 USD for the GeForce 9800 GTS.

I guess many will be looking at how much of a price cut the 8800 series gets with an eye towards just how much faster the new cards will be. One thing is certain though, my 6800 GT is showing it's age these days.

Kate

Joos · Post by **Joos** » Mon Aug 27, 2007 10:35 pm

Yes, the 8800GTS is still the most bang for buck. Can't really add more, some good advice there already, so...

Grand Fromage · Post by **Grand Fromage** » Mon Aug 27, 2007 10:39 pm

You should note that DX10 cards are obsolete now, and DX10.1 ones will be coming out. But games still won't even require DX10 for a number of years so it may not matter very much to you.

MorbidKate · Post by **MorbidKate** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 12:07 am

Grand Fromage wrote:You should note that DX10 cards are obsolete now, and DX10.1 ones will be coming out. But games still won't even require DX10 for a number of years so it may not matter very much to you.

Having DirectX 10.0 support gives the card some legs so yeah, I'm not going to worry about 10.1 for the next 3 years or so anyway. As long as the price of the 9800s push down the 8800s to a more tempting price point I'll be happy and I think a lot of ALFAns besides me will be looking at Fall/Christmas as the time to buy or upgrade in step with what we hope will be a couple NWN2 Live servers.

Any ATI options in the pipeline?? If only to keep prices in check?

Kate

Joos · Post by **Joos** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 1:25 am

Any ATI options in the pipeline?? If only to keep prices in check?

The current crop of ATi cards work better than nVidia cards in DirectX10, but performs more than a fair bit worse in DX9. And since most games currently and in the near future will be DX9, I reckon the nVidia offerings are the way to go.

Cendran · Post by **Cendran** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 5:49 pm

When I built my new computer at the beginning of the year, I mostly used Tom's Hardware Guide for my research. They started doing a monthly article rating the best vid cards for the money. Here is the link to August's article.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/08/06/ ... the_money/

Swift · Post by **Swift** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 6:06 pm

640meg Innovision (or Inno3d as it is often listed) 8800gts ftw baby. Extremely good card, though still a little pricey.

MorbidKate · Post by **MorbidKate** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 6:42 pm

Swift wrote:640meg Innovision (or Inno3d as it is often listed) 8800gts ftw baby. Extremely good card, though still a little pricey.

In Canada, the 320MB 8800GTS goes for about $350 and the 640MB version goes for about $450. I'll hold off until the expansion comes out and see if the new 9800s push down the 640MBs by about $100. If so, I'll bite.

fluffmonster · Post by **fluffmonster** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 6:46 pm

the 640mb isn't worth it...test after test shows no difference at resolutions under 1600x1200, and less than 5fps above that. I'm not even sure you'd notice a difference with a 24" widescreen. Now, maybe in the future as textures get even more complex a bigger difference will emerge, but if you won't be holding the card that long anyway then who cares.

Swift · Post by **Swift** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 7:17 pm

fluffmonster wrote:the 640mb isn't worth it...test after test shows no difference at resolutions under 1600x1200, and less than 5fps above that. I'm not even sure you'd notice a difference with a 24" widescreen. Now, maybe in the future as textures get even more complex a bigger difference will emerge, but if you won't be holding the card that long anyway then who cares.

Depends how long you go between upgrades. My full upgrades are usually 2.5-3 years apart with a video card upgrade at about 18 months. I bought the 640 so that in 18-24 months when more and more games utilize it with higher rez textures, i wouldn't need to go out and upgrade again.

And games will use it. The only way Nvidia and ATI can continue to sell bigger and better cards is by driving developers to support new features as the come out. With cards already hitting 1 gig of onboard memory, it won't be very long before very high rez textures appear in more games.

Quake 4 is 2 years old and shipped with 512meg textures.

That said, yes, if your not a big gamer, it is probably not worth it.

fluffmonster · Post by **fluffmonster** » Tue Aug 28, 2007 8:18 pm

if you got an extra hundred bucks sitting around doing nothing, then sure go for the 640. otherwise, the performance difference simply isn't meaningful. You got some results to show me that say otherwise, I'm all ears. Otherwise, stfu

fluffmonster · Post by **fluffmonster** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 4:57 am

http://www.digitimes.com/mobos/a20070829PD216.html

Digitimes wrote: Nvidia's G92 mid-range graphics chip is provisionally set to launch on November 12 this year,...

Despite the new chip designs, G92 and G98 can only be considered an update of the GeForce 8 series since they will not include any major changes, the sources explained.

wvincenti · Post by **wvincenti** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 2:51 pm

Or you could buy a pair of these if you're looking to save some money:
ASUS EN8500GT 512Megs $98 each.

An interesting design with huge heat sinks instead of fans on the video cards. I haven't had any overheating problems yet and having my PC run quieter is a nice bonus.

-Bill