Best graphics card for gaming? Thread

Which one is it?

I found these and thought they were offered at a good price, but they almost seem too cheap to be true. Enlighten me.

Newegg.com

Newegg.com

There are so many difference versions. Which to buy?

Thanks

Both gfx cards are outdated, i recommend getting a newer card like a radeon x600/700 or a GF6600/6600GT.

Neither of those are "top of the line" anymore. Not even their serieses are top of the line anymore.

How much are you looking at paying?

$200-$250.

Preferably less.

I want a good card that will keep up with technology for quite some time.

I checked the Radeon X700 and X600 series cards and they require a PCI-x16 slot. What is a PCI-x16 slot? Would an Intel D850GB Motherboard include a PCI-X16 slot?

Edited by (in order): M11293, M11293, M11293

I suppose PCI-x16 is another way of saying PCI-Express. Only very new motherboards have PCI express, its not something you are likely to find in a 'pre-built' computer (A Dell, HP, Compaq for example).

The best graphics card for gaming is either the Geforce 6800 Ultra or the Radeon X800 XT. Both are out of your price range though.

M11293 wrote: $200-$250.

Preferably less.

I want a good card that will keep up with technology for quite some time.

I checked the Radeon X700 and X600 series cards and they require a PCI-x16 slot. What is a PCI-x16 slot? Would an Intel D850GB Motherboard include a PCI-X16 slot?

How long do you mean by quite some time. Cause you may have to be prepared to spend a little more depending on your definition.

Neither of those are "top of the line" anymore. Not even their serieses are top of the line anymore.

How much are you looking at paying?

He's talking about mid-range cards, and 6600GT/6800 are the best from this group.

ATI Radeon 9800 Pro. It's one of the best mid-range cards out there (practically at the top), and I own one. It runs today's games pretty damn well. Of course, if you're willing to spend that much money, you can wait a while, and the x800 should come down to your price range soon enough.

i can only agree with ippo. i have the same card and i am totally satisfied with it. i am pretty confident that it will handle most games for the upcoming 2 years, maybe not at the highest detail level but it will work

Radeon's suck for driver support, hope you like your bad opengl. I've also had a R9800pro but it sucks for Call of Duty and Blender, also it was unstable so I went back to my Geforce2

Get some geforce, any one, BUT ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY AVOID GEFORCE4MX AND GEFORCEFX 5200-5600 (ultra versions included)

Edited by (in order): leilei, leilei

nvidia pays people to not support ati

Why 5200? The lan gaming center I go to uses a 5200 and it runs awesome... though they did say they are going to have to upgrade before the install Half-Life 2.

There are also a lot more DirectX 9.0-based games than OpenGL games on the market at the moment, so it shouldn't come down to those reasons.

Well I am a cheap ass unless it comes to my girl. So yeah I think I am gona get a FX5200 lol.

Hatel3reed wrote: So yeah I think I am gona get a FX5200 lol.

NO

Imthedarkcyde and Shortcutman have one of those, and it performs as slow as my computer on a geforce2! (And they have superior cpus, supposedly.) A Geforce4TI is WAY BETTER. Seriously.

Oh and for the record, i'm no nvidiot- i'm a PowerVR fan mainly. The last nvidia product I purchased for myself was 5 years ago and it's the GeForce2GTS 64mb i'm still using now.

Ippo wrote: There are also a lot more DirectX 9.0-based games than OpenGL games on the market at the moment, so it shouldn't come down to those reasons.

So what you're saying is that Direct3D kicks OpenGL in the arse and you'll only want to play D3D games? pull-eez. It's not just the games, it's the applications that also use OpenGL. Take Blender for instance, as well as most to all of the open-source software out there that involves 3D accelleration and visual. Bad driver support can not be excused.

Edited by (in order): leilei, leilei, leilei, leilei

But is this guy looking for a program that can run Blender well? No. He's looking at PC games as his main point in buying a new graphics card for his computer.

And I never said that Directx 9.0 beat the crap out of OpenGL games. All I was saying was that there were more of those kinds of games on the market, so he should decide on which games he's looking to play right now, seeing as how STALKER, FEAR, and Battlefield 2 are all Directx9-oriented.

I'm looking at what he wants to do with the card; not the side projects that might come along.

I don't think my motherboard supports an 8X AGP card. I might was well get a new motherboard also, which brings me to the decision if I should just build a completely new PC.

Look at these stats. I am running the Intel 850GB for my motherboard. It doesn't even come close to supporting the requirements for any of the cards I am looking at.

Support.intel.com

Now what do I do? Get a Radeon 9600XT 256mb DDR?

Edited by (in order): M11293, M11293

I have a Geforce FX5600 and it runs fine and i have had no problems with it. I have yet to come across a game it will not run smoothly.

I would go GeForece 6800 but thats just me...