What Is A Good GFX Card?

[warmwaffles]

Allright guys just as the title says what is a good card but is just under $400-$600....

I dont know which company to go to..Nvidia or ATI.

ATI has that new dual card that is supposed to be faster than Nvidias dual card.

BTW I am planning to run off this board and if you have any better suggestions on a Mobo....lemme know

MOTHER BOARD PLANNING TO USE???

EDIT:

ALSO I need a good tower...anyone got any good Ideas...I am liking black and something that looks sleek

 

[Comraddict]

??? You can get NV GF 7800 GT for around $350-$400

 

[Zakharov]

Comraddict is right, if you have that kind of money to spend then a 7800GT is a great choice.

From the benchmarks I have seen, although the Radeon X1800XT is marginally faster than GF 7800GTX, it seems the GF 7800GT is better than the Radeon X1800XL. Even then the results are questionable as the only tests of the XT I have seen use the 512MB model. Overall both companies' cards seem to perform equally well, but the new ATI cards cost significantly more for the same kind of performance.

This problem with civ 4 and ATI cards has also reaffirmed to me why I prefer nvidia. Their drivers are much more stable and compatible with new software. For this reason, along with price, I would recommend the 7800GT or even the 7800GTX if you can afford it.

The motherboard you selected seems fine. You could also look at this Gigabyte model:

LINK

Or, if you have a bit more money to spend you could go for a DFI Lanparty board.

 

[Speedo]

ATI has that new dual card that is supposed to be faster than Nvidias dual card.

Not sure what you're referring to? If you mean SLI vs Crossfire, both of those require you to buy two gfx cards, which I doubt you want. Not to mention that SLI will require an SLI mobo, while Crossfire will require a Crossfire mobo.

Look at cards in this order, and decide how much you're willing to spend: GF7800GTX > GF7800GT > GF6800GT > GF6600GT

 

[CruddyLeper]

I think he's talking about ATI XT1800. Recently overclocked at over 1GHz (liquid nitrogen, Finland).

Pretty amazing... considering it's not on public release until early November.

As for a better mobo... Abit AN8 Fatal1ty SLi . I recently spent a couple of nights online advising a novice system builder how to use one of these, twin 7800GTX and a 4400 CPU.

Hell of a first build. Must admit, although Asus have the reputation, Abit's releases in the last 18 months have just had the edge... and Fatal1ty is supposed to be the gamer's rig. Check out the manual here...

My that's a big URL

Perhaps ATI Crossfire will top nVidia SLI in the next year - who knows?

 

[Jeratain]

Just a week or two ago you were able to buy an ATI X800 GTO2 and could flash the BIOS so it would run at X850 XT speeds. I think prices have gone up on those cards now that the news has gotten out about this.

 

[Speedo]

As for a better mobo... Abit AN8 Fatal1ty SLi . I recently spent a couple of nights online advising a novice system builder how to use one of these, twin 7800GTX and a 4400 CPU.

Hell of a first build. Must admit, although Asus have the reputation, Abit's releases in the last 18 months have just had the edge... and Fatal1ty is supposed to be the gamer's rig. Check out the manual here...

*shrug* I prefer Asus, and can't really see spending the money on an SLI board if you've no intentions of using it. Everyone has their own preferences. I'd say though that the top board at the moment would be the new Asus model that allows dual PCIe x16.

 

[warmwaffles]

Ok now thats all said and done....I still need a tower...I want a mid-tower not the full tower...those sons-o-*****es are huge