Best Latest and Greatest Graphics card?

[Pyong Kawaguchi]

i dont have an ati card but i got an nvidia geforce 6000 (i think)

and it works real well, supports hd dual monitor tv output etc, its really nice, i got it for 40$

[Mr Buckshot]

If all you want to play is H2V on high, you don't need a crazy DX10 card. If you want DX10, go for a Geforce 8600 GT, but high-end DX9 cards like the Geforce 7900 and even midrange cards like the 7600 will run H2V quite well.

If you go for, say, an 8800, H2V does nothing to show what such a card is capable of. Something like FEAR or Oblivion is a better way to test the higher end cards.

Besides, the best of the best video cards (8800 GTX, HD 2900) need beefy power supplies and may not even fit inside your computer case (physically).

edit: The best game to test the best video cards is the upcoming Crysis.

[Amit]

If all you want to play is H2V on high, you don't need a crazy DX10 card. If you want DX10, go for a Geforce 8600 GT, but high-end DX9 cards like the Geforce 7900 and even midrange cards like the 7600 will run H2V quite well.

If you go for, say, an 8800, H2V does nothing to show what such a card is capable of. Something like FEAR or Oblivion is a better way to test the higher end cards.

Besides, the best of the best video cards (8800 GTX, HD 2900) need beefy power supplies and may not even fit inside your computer case (physically).

edit: The best game to test the best video cards is the upcoming Crysis.

This is the most intelligible post I have seen throughout the entire thread. You people seem to forget that the 8800GTX is actually 2 cards in one, like the 7950GX2. That is the reason it seems to rape the shit out of everything else.

Here are the real facts: ATi's Catalyst drivers for Windows Vista actually do work better than nVidia's ForceWare drivers. At the current moment, nVidia does beat ATi down with the benchmarks but most of us don't exactly have $400 US($500 CAD) to buy the best video card currently out. Well with ATi, the prices are fairly low, quite lower than nVidia's. Most of the time it comes down to the mid-range cards to be in the real battle. The GeForce 7600 GS went against the Radeon X1600 PRO, the 7600GT went against the X1600 XT and X1650 PRO. They all performed similarly in most games to the other card that they were matched against and they had a real nice price to performance ratio. That is just happening again but nVidia has the unfair advantage of adding a second card to boost performance way above where CrossFire becomes a joke.

For some practical info, buy the GeForce 8800GTS since it is currently the best card with priceerformance out there. Soon that will change when the HD 2600 series is released. The HD 2600XT will PWN all mid-range cards in it's class with high clock speeds, extremely low power consumption(no extra freakin power cord needed!) , and relatively low price. In september or around that time, ATi might announce a new card like they did with the X1950 PRO last year. Just maybe this one will be called the HD 2900PRO and will have the same reputation as the Radeon X1950PRO.

[legionaire45]

You people seem to forget that the 8800GTX is actually 2 cards in one, like the 7950GX2. That is the reason it seems to rape the shit out of everything else.

....your kidding me, right?

Here are the real facts: ATi's Catalyst drivers for Windows Vista actually do work better than nVidia's ForceWare drivers. At the current moment, nVidia does beat ATi down with the benchmarks but most of us don't exactly have $400 US($500 CAD) to buy the best video card currently out. Well with ATi, the prices are fairly low, quite lower than nVidia's. Most of the time it comes down to the mid-range cards to be in the real battle. The GeForce 7600 GS went against the Radeon X1600 PRO, the 7600GT went against the X1600 XT and X1650 PRO. They all performed similarly in most games to the other card that they were matched against and they had a real nice price to performance ratio. That is just happening again but nVidia has the unfair advantage of adding a second card to boost performance way above where CrossFire becomes a joke.

...The 8800 GTS 320 mb costs $299 (seen it for as low as $250) and the 640 costs $400, but I have seen it for as low as $320. The HD2900XT costs $400-$430. The HD2900XT trades spots with the 8800 GTS 640 mb and currently has awful drivers. This is ATI's low-high end product, not their highest end -- save that for the HD2900XTX or HD2900XTX2 (dual cards in a single slot, either like the Sapphire dual X1950 card or the 7950 GX2, not yet known) if it isn't simply a rumor.

And as for the X1650 vs the 7600GT....



(remember that ATI cards usually run Source based games better)



And in the video card industry, there is no such thing as an unfair advantage -- there is no cheating in this industry.

[Mr Buckshot]

I don't like my video cards to cost more than $200. For $300 and more, I might as well buy a fully-featured console and not one computer part, which is why I avoid the top-of-the-line video cards. Sure, I won't be running at 1920x1200 on max with 100+fps but 1024x768 or 1280x800 on high with 60 fps isn't bad either.

Top-of-the-line cards like the 8800 GTX will get you good framerates in this generation, but when, say, DX11 is out, the 8800 will lose out and that's a lot of money spent. Think about it - if you bought a Radeon 9600 back in early 2002 (before the 9700 came out), it would've cost several hundred too. And today, the 9600 is considered low-end and struggles with newer stuff.

[Amit]

....your kidding me, right?

...The 8800 GTS 320 mb costs $299 (seen it for as low as $250) and the 640 costs $400, but I have seen it for as low as $320. The HD2900XT costs $400-$430. The HD2900XT trades spots with the 8800 GTS 640 mb and currently has awful drivers. This is ATI's low-high end product, not their highest end -- save that for the HD2900XTX or HD2900XTX2 (dual cards in a single slot, either like the Sapphire dual X1950 card or the 7950 GX2, not yet known) if it isn't simply a rumor.

And as for the X1650 vs the 7600GT....



(remember that ATI cards usually run Source based games better)



And in the video card industry, there is no such thing as an unfair advantage -- there is no cheating in this industry.

When you quoted my post of the 8800GTX being a 2-in-1 card, I wasn't joking. Check it out at the nVidia forums, it actually is. The HD 2900XT is very new so of course the drivers are gonna be Fubar. They may need to create new ones altogether. What's your point when you put those benchmarks up of the X1650XT and the GeForce 7600GT? It just restates what said in my previous post. Those two cards are set against each other and perform relatively the same. I actually expected the 7600GT to come out as the best since it really is the best I have seen for only $189 Canadian.

There is such thing as an unfair advantage when it comes to benchmarks and overall performance seeing as two cards clocked at, let's say 1.3Ghz will be 2.6ghz overall. That card is then sent against a card clocked at maybe 1.4Ghz. The card with the higher overall clock speed will obviously have better performance than the lower clocked one, otherwise there is something seriously wrong.

[Xetsuei]

When you quoted my post of the 8800GTX being a 2-in-1 card, I wasn't joking. Check it out at the nVidia forums, it actually is. The HD 2900XT is very new so of course the drivers are gonna be Fubar. They may need to create new ones altogether. What's your point when you put those benchmarks up of the X1650XT and the GeForce 7600GT? It just restates what said in my previous post. Those two cards are set against each other and perform relatively the same. I actually expected the 7600GT to come out as the best since it really is the best I have seen for only $189 Canadian.

There is such thing as an unfair advantage when it comes to benchmarks and overall performance seeing as two cards clocked at, let's say 1.3Ghz will be 2.6ghz overall. That card is then sent against a card clocked at maybe 1.4Ghz. The card with the higher overall clock speed will obviously have better performance than the lower clocked one, otherwise there is something seriously wrong.

What? Hell no. The whole top part of the 8800GTX is just a fan and heat sink. It does not have two GPUs. And having two cards that are both clocked at 1.3Ghz does not add up to 2.6Ghz. Lol, you can't add the speeds of the GPUs up.

[InnerGoat]

When you quoted my post of the 8800GTX being a 2-in-1 card, I wasn't joking.

So, prove it then.

[Xetsuei]

You people seem to forget that the 8800GTX is actually 2 cards in one, like the 7950GX2.

[InnerGoat]

Here I has a pic



Now where is the second card.