graphics card

[mdwh]

As far as computing power. That is pretty much nothing. Checking the specs on my cell phone. It has a clock of 1900 mhz. So basically your buying the equivalent of 1/3 of a cell phone.

It's true that clock speeds aren't a reliable indicate of actual performance when comparing different chips - however, it's still true that newer graphics cards are significantly faster. Did you check out those benchmarks I linked? I know from my own experience that my NVIDIA 8600 is way faster than my Intel GMA 950, or my older Radeon 9800.

Where is the evidence to support your claim?

As I said.. the difference is better support for shaders, graphic technology, physics, and other aspects.

And many of those improvements are also there to improve performance further (e.g., shaders allow better performance as things can be processed on the graphics card without sending the information each frame).

And try http://www.nvidia.com/page/geforce_8800.html for info on the shader clock speed. New Egg isn't exactly the definitive source of information on the technical details of graphics chips.

 

[2222love3333]

I think at this time the 8800GT is the way to go. I just got this GeForce 8800GT, incredibly good performance. I upgraded from a 7800GT, which was certainly a decent card, but the 8800 positively blows it away, especially on newer shader-intensive games. Stock cooler, even though it is single slot with a small fan, does a decent job, and is VERY quiet on the default 29% speed. So far,so great.

 

[carmen510]

If you have 250 bucks to spare, the PNY XLR8 GeForce 8800 GT is almost as good as the GTX, at half the price.

 

[Civfan333]

I'll be broke if I buy anything above 150$...

 

[Elta]

******* Before I say if you can run Medieval 2 with which videocard etc - how much ram do you have? with 1 gig of ram you will be fine - it will run perfect.




http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150258

For around 100 bucks this is the bet you can get. It will run medieval 2 with all the settings on high and as many units as possible.

Here is a graph so you get a rough idea of good different cards are http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_2007.html

Here is the gist of how Nvidia releases cards.

They release a new series say 5 thousands - 6 thousands etc

The low numbers like 8300, 8400, and 8,500s are good cheap cards for computers who just need a little more than standard GFX power ( standard being built into the mother board cards) Like lets say like some accountant want to use a 30 inch moniter to help him do huge spread sheets or what ever and his 7100 built into his motherboard can't handle such a big resolution. Since he does not want to play pc games it would be a good idea for him to put a nice cheap 7,300,7400,7500 - 8,300,8400 or 8,500

That's the non gamer cards that are out right now ( as in you can buy them new right now )

the 8,600 - 8,800 series are for gamers
A budget gamer like you who doesn't want to run the latest and greatest games (graphics wise) will do fine with a 8,600. You will want to upgrade in about 2 years if you buy a 8,600 now so keep that in mind.


the different names for cards with the same numbers just denote that they are slightly different 8800gt, 8,800 gts 8,800 gtx, 8,800 ultra. ..... not a big difference thou.

When they talk about the memory like lets say 8,600 with 256mb that 256 mb is ram on the videocard that will go only to run the videocard. This 256 mb will ease the work load on the ram your computer has.

Make sure you have a PCI express slot in you computer if you want to put that 8,600 in. If you have AGP you will need something else.

I hope that helps.

P.S. install it your self or get a friend who knows how to do it, you don't want to spend 30 bucks installing a 100 dollar card.
I hope that helps

 

[Civfan333]

Thank you, I don't have 1 gig of RAM, but I'm hoping to buy one this weekend....

 

[Elta]

Thank you, I don't have 1 gig of RAM, but I'm hoping to buy one this weekend....

I should mention that I meant with 1 gig and a 8600

 

[Civfan333]

Yeah, my bro's saving up for the graphic card

 

[Elta]

Yeah, my bro's saving up for the graphic card

:highfive:

 

[Civfan333]

yeah, he decided I pay for the RAM and he pays for the graphics card when it was on sale the the card was cheaper but when we went to best buy, it was sold out and the RAM went on sale this week for 30$ instead of 100 something so I get the better part of the deal if it isn't sold out yet.....