I'm getting a video card for my birthday this weekend and i'm lost on what to get.

I'm not getting an ATI. I have one and it sucks. It overheats and ruins any game that has decent graphics. It's an X1900XTX 512 MB.

I was hoping to get a GeForce card that was at least better than that but in the price range of $300-400. Anyone have any advice on what to get or at least what to look for?

Geforce 8800GT. Costs $250-$300

Thanks :D

I was just looking at those and I have a question. It says they are a DirectX card. I know that means they can run DirectX but does that mean they absolutely have to? Or can I use the card with Windows XP?

Example card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143081

The GT looks like the baby to get ATM but there are rumours of a GTS2 that should/may/will ;) beat it and not be overly expensive. Give me a few hours and I'll see what I can find; there's a guy round the corner who claims he'll be selling the new GTS2's in a couple of days for ~ 2000 RMB. I think the release date is 3rd Dec. He says they are far better than the GT, but there's 0 info in English on the net ATM. I'll get my wife to translate from Chinese.

The trouble is that is far too complex and new cards are too frequent so it's hard to decide.

I'm looking for a graphics card too :)

Personally, I'd hang off a couple of days until we find out what's around the corner.

Thanks :D

I was just looking at those and I have a question. It says they are a DirectX card. I know that means they can run DirectX but does that mean they absolutely have to? Or can I use the card with Windows XP?

Example card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143081
They are fine on XP. They support Directx10, but they also support DX9, openGL etc.

A very good card.

I'm out of touch, but I believe that DX9 comes with xp, but DX10 with vista.

Also, you'll need to post your system specs so that the boffins can advise what'll work well in it.

I'm out of touch, but I believe that DX9 comes with xp, but DX10 with vista.

Also, you'll need to post your system specs so that the boffins can advise what'll work well in it.
Yes, you can't get DX10 for XP.

Here's my specs:

Intel Core2 @ 2.13GHz
2GB of ram (I can't remember the brand, but it was top of the line a year ago).
Windows XP Pro
700Watt PSU
Good MoBo but I forget make and brand.

Basically just over a year ago when I was overseas I took a month or two to research everything and build it and it's rockin. Except that ATI card. I've had nothing but problems with it. It runs everything smooth and everything looks sweet on my 24" monitor except it overheats and starts by fractaling followed up by a crash due to overheating. I'm tired of dealing with ATI and have heard a ton of horror stories about them from 'professional' gamers I work with so i'm done with em.

I have till Sunday to pick my card because i'm all booked up time wise except for that day so i'm going out with my mom to get my birthday/Christmas present.

Current;y the only games I can play on my computer without it crashing are CIV IV, GTA:SA and WOW. I only play CIV still but that's getting boring again.

And yeah, Vista only comes with DirectX 10, I just wanted to make sure that I could run a DX10 card on my current system lol. I wanted input from somewhere other than the schmuck trying to sell it to me :lol: Those guys are notorious for their honesty.

The only thing you need to worry about is whether your motherboard supports PCIe or AGP graphics cards. If its a relatively modern MoBo, then its probably PCIe, but you should find-out. With a 700W PSU, you should have no problems with power for a new card, as long as it has the correct connectors to power the board - the 8800 GTS requires a 4-pin Molex. But looking at the picutres on Newegg, it looks like it comes with an adapter for this anyway.

yeah, my mobo has pci... my current card:

ATI Radeon X1900XTX 650MHZ 512MB 256BIT 1.55GHZ GDDR3 PCI-E Dual DVI-I VIVO HDTV Video Card

It's still selling for more than the new card i'm buying. I wish it'd just work. :mad: But... I've spent enough time working on it by myself, on forums, with ATI and I even sent it in to get replaced and nothing has changed.

http://www.expreview.com/news/hard/2007-11-16/1195203167d6959.html

That's about all I can find on the new 8800GTS.

It looks like it will be a HUGE improvement over the old GTS and a respectable improvement over the GT.

New GTS (if it's true that is):

- Texture Fill Rate:62.1 billion/sec
- Memory Bandwidth:41.6 GB/sec

For comparision:


ASUS Ultra

- Texture Fill Rate: 39.1 billion/sec
- Memory Bandwidth: 103.6GB/s

The fill rate looks a fraction better than the ultra, but the Ultra's bandwidth is enormous.

ASUS GTX

Texture Fill Rate: 36.8 billion/sec
- Memory Bandwidth: 86.4GB/s

It's strange how the GTS fill rate is so high!

That's about all I can find on the new 8800GTS.

Here's a test report on TweakTown (http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/1234/1). To me it looks like that new 8800GTS or Radeon 3870 would be the way to go, depending on your needs. I personally wouldn't pick 8800GT (I've seen enough comments about inadequate cooling on local forums).

Thanks Kuuk. I couldn't find that site and I liked the story of how they got the card :goodjob: .

It seems NVidia have been extremely ruthless here by releasing cards before readiness just to scupper ATI.

Normal naming conventions are that the GT -> GTS -> GTX -> GTU I think.:confused:

The article implies that the GTS2 is SLI-able. If they are, I'll either get the 1gig model or wait until January. The name of the game for me is getting Crysis to run nicely.

Wait January or GTS2 now?

I hope these thoughts help the OP too :)

GeForece 8800 GTS would be great for your computer. If you have some more money to spend, 8800 GTX or 8800 Ultra. Easily will run high-end games for the next 2 years or so.

Here's a test report on TweakTown (http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/1234/1). To me it looks like that new 8800GTS or Radeon 3870 would be the way to go, depending on your needs. I personally wouldn't pick 8800GT (I've seen enough comments about inadequate cooling on local forums).

I have a 8800 GTS, and there are no problems with cooling. If people are complaining about cooling on the GT, then I'd suggest that its a manufacturer issue, not a chipset issue, because the manufacturers generally provide their own cooling solutions.

The problem is getting your hands on one, and the price you have to pay for it. I have an old 6600 GT OC, still does a good job. Yes I want a new GPU, but I will wait till the market(prices) get back top normal

I have a 8800 GTS, and there are no problems with cooling. If people are complaining about cooling on the GT, then I'd suggest that its a manufacturer issue, not a chipset issue, because the manufacturers generally provide their own cooling solutions.

GTS (new one) has dual slot cooling solution while GT has only one slot. The issue is (based on 2nd hand info here) not the chipset but Nvidia's reference cooling that doesn't cool the power intake (or whatever virransyöttö is called in English) enough. I've seen multiple people reporting that they have needed to increase the fan speed way above the stock RPM to get new games like Crysis be stable (which isn't too good considering GT is supposed to be rather noisy to start with).

Kuuk etc.: I get paid on the 14th Dec and I'm thinking of building a system. The graphics card being the key component, hard-working guy that I am. :)

Is there any particular reason to wait until Jan, or will that turn into Feb or even March? I don't want to be stuck playing Civ 2 on my works' crappy laptop until March! If not, the GTS 2 is the card of choice. And then the question is whether to buy 1 or 2 an SLI them. I can see arguments both ways. If I buy 1, it'll be cheaper to replace with 2 something better in the near future.

So I got my card today. 8800 GTS Superclocked 640 MB.

I turned on Supreme Commander and put everything to max and started launching nukes. No lag and no fractaling. So many games to catch up on now. So many things to blow up. :D

Congrats M8; you're one up on me.

I hope we didn't confuse you by talking about the new GTS! :blush:

It'll handle the games that you listed though. :thumbsup:

Is there any particular reason to wait until Jan, or will that turn into Feb or even March? I don't want to be stuck playing Civ 2 on my works' crappy laptop until March! If not, the GTS 2 is the card of choice. And then the question is whether to buy 1 or 2 an SLI them. I can see arguments both ways. If I buy 1, it'll be cheaper to replace with 2 something better in the near future.

If you've decided that GTS 2 is your card of choice I see no compelling reasons to wait (except that stores may not have them yet, I have a vague idea that the official release date is around the middle of this month). And I'd buy 1 to start with and only update to SLI if really needed (which I doubt) as the power consumption of such SLI system would be rather high.

If you've decided that GTS 2 is your card of choice I see no compelling reasons to wait (except that stores may not have them yet, I have a vague idea that the official release date is around the middle of this month). And I'd buy 1 to start with and only update to SLI if really needed (which I doubt) as the power consumption of such SLI system would be rather high.

I think you're right. It's easier for me as I can get a decent system (ex-monitor) for about 500 pounds and a great system for 900 in China.