best bang for the buck video card?

[xXDuskXx]

yeah, i'd say you should purchase the 320 mb evga 8800 gts

 

[Sirius_GTO]

can you explain why? thank you

 

[Waphlez]

Newegg.com - Buy Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more!


there are soooo many listed... what the heck? How do I know which one is best? I mean... the one with the highest core clock (576) is less expensive than the one with a 540 core clock...

Well first you have the 320MB versions, there are 2 of them, then you have the 640MB versions, there are 3 of them, varying in clockspeed and the last one has a ACS3 cooler.

320MB performs almost identical to 640MB, as they both use the same GPU, just different amounts of memory.

 

[Sirius_GTO]

i mean over the 640mb of course, for only a price difference of $100.

 

[Sirius_GTO]

i see, so it's performance increase (or in this case lack of) doesn't justify paying the price increase.

 

[Waphlez]

Well, the HD 2900XT is an option.

Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE 100201SR Radeon HD 2900XT 512MB 512-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP VIVO Video Card - Retail

Performs very close the 8800GTS, does better in certain games, does worse in other games.

VR-Zone : Technology Beats - ATi Radeon 2000 Series Launch: X2900XT Review

That graph is a good one for you to look at as it compares all 3 (2900 and the 8800 320 and 640).As you can see the 640MB performs better in high resolutions/ heavy AA/AF. Also Neverwinter Nights doesn't run too well on the 2900 but in Oblivion it performs almost identical to the 8800's.

In Companies of Heroes it tears the 8800s up, makes you think about R600's true potential.

 

[Gabb]

Well, the HD 2900XT is an option.

Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE 100201SR Radeon HD 2900XT 512MB 512-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP VIVO Video Card - Retail

Performs very close the 8800GTS, does better in certain games, does worse in other games.

VR-Zone : Technology Beats - ATi Radeon 2000 Series Launch: X2900XT Review

That graph is a good one for you to look at as it compares all 3 (2900 and the 8800 320 and 640).As you can see the 640MB performs better in high resolutions/ heavy AA/AF. Also Neverwinter Nights doesn't run too well on the 2900 but in Oblivion it performs almost identical to the 8800's.

In Companies of Heroes it tears the 8800s up, makes you think about R600's true potential.

I read somewhere the R600 chipset has a severe problem when it comes to doing AA in video games, either it AA lowers its performance significantly compared to the G80 series, or theres artifacts or mess ups in the AA.

 

[Waphlez]

I read somewhere the R600 chipset has a severe problem when it comes to doing AA in video games, either it AA lowers its performance significantly compared to the G80 series, or theres artifacts or mess ups in the AA.

VR-Zone : Technology Beats - ATi Radeon 2000 Series Launch: X2900XT Review

Well, look at the bottom two 2142 graphs. As far as I know that is a driver issue, and if that gets cleared up the 2900 will be a really nice product.

EDIT: Also those are benchmarks when the 2900 launched, don't know what the current status of their drivers are.

However, if you do get the 2900, it devours power and runs very hot. It isn't as efficient as nVidia's alternatives.

The 2900 also has incredible overclocking potential, the same VR-Zone review as shown above got theirs to 1GHz. Of course that is after they modded the **** out of it. Also out of the box, the 2900 is just under the 8800GTX in 3dMark06.

 

[Invisible]

Also out of the box, the 2900 is just under the 8800GTX in 3dMark06.

the 512 mb or the 1 gb

 

[Waphlez]

the 512 mb or the 1 gb

[ Hardware.Info ] - ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT

512MB, there are a lot of graphs and by looking at the 3dMark06 graphs the 2900 perfroms just like a 8800GTX or faster most of the time. 3dMark always ran well on ATI cards compared to real world performance.