Good gaming video card that wont hurt my wallet.

[Ring0]

Ok, so after sleeping and thinking about this stuff and learning many new things, here is what I am down to.

ATI 100-435105 Radeon 9800PRO 256MB 256-bit DDR AGP 4X/8X
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102361

or

eVGA 128-A8-N343-AX Geforce 6800 128MB 256-bit DDR AGP 4X/8X
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130202

Basicly what I am looking at here is the geforce with less ram but more pipelines (i have only learned about pipelines from reading this thread. I OC my comp all the time but i have never done it to my video card.)

If anyone can give me a little guidance here or tell me what I am gaining/loosing from each card, it would be much appreciated.


Once again, if it helps any i play World of Warcraft and might get BF2.

 

[Sprooty]

9800 Pro dose not not really even compare to a 6800.

Scroll up and look at the 1st benchmark the doom3 one ^^^^^^

The 6800 is 5th from the top and the 9800 ith 5th from the bottom.

 

[Ring0]

Ok, so clearly im better off with the geforce 6800. One thing that i would like to know, is where you are viewing the stats about the ammount of pipelines there are. I dont see it!

SO sacrificing half the ram for a pipeline upgrade from 8 -> 12 is thumbs up?

 

[003]

Yes, more pipelines is better. The 6800 also supports SM3. Pipelines is listed in the detailed specs on newegg.

 

[Ring0]

This is good. I will probably be buying one in a few days.

 

[Trifid]

As this has not been said: VRAM means nothing, as long as it has some. 128mb is more than enough right now for games (excluding DOOM 3) And the 9800 is not powerful enough to use the extra memory.

The 6800 can have its pipelines unlocked to have 16.

 

[ShoobieRat]

Good gaming video card that wont hurt my wallet.

Most should be okay. There was that one old ATI card that had a built-in tentacle appendage that would hunt for your wallet while you were playing games and light it on fire...failing at that it would light your left foot on fire...but those have been discontinued due to driver problems.

 

[Ring0]

As this has not been said: VRAM means nothing, as long as it has some. 128mb is more than enough right now for games (excluding DOOM 3) And the 9800 is not powerful enough to use the extra memory.

The 6800 can have its pipelines unlocked to have 16.

Thank you for enlightening me on this. One other thing, how do you unlock pipelines and what program (if any) should i be using. That also might need to be a new thread.

 

[mgoldb2]

Thank you for enlightening me on this. One other thing, how do you unlock pipelines and what program (if any) should i be using. That also might need to be a new thread.

The 6800 is one of the harder cards to acturaly unlock the pipelines. You have to get really lucky for it to work on that card. There usually a software method and a hardware method to unlock. Truthfully I dont recommend trying it for that card. It possiable that some of the lock pipelines are dead. If you unlock a dead pipeline you risk loosing the whole card. SOmetimes all the locked pipelines are healthy buy there no gurentee on it.

 

[Ring0]

Hmm... Well i dont want to **** anything up so i might start another thread about it to get more opinions. Thanks alot guys!