Graphics Card Query - One Year Later, and I have a new idea.

  • Thread starter Tornado
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Tornado

Tornado

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Okay, I've finally decided that I want to update the old, stinky MX440 computer. Now I'm stuck in a rut.
I've read articles and whatnot, and they have come to a draw: GeForce 6600GT or GeForce 6800 vanilla? From what I've read, its insanely easy to make a 6800 vanilla crazy fast, but the 6600GT is the faster (slightly) of the two most of the time stock.
Suggestions?
 
That is some utter BS that you have heard, mate. 6800 is going to be faster than the 6600GT.

Go for a 7600GT. A nice one can be had for around $150 I think, and it will last you a while for games.
 
I agree with standard, I upgraded my Radeon 9550 to a 7600GT AGP, and the difference was astonishing.
The AGP versions do cop a slight price increase over the PCI-E versions, but its still a great card with great bang for buck.
One thing you should take into account though is whether your older components will bottleneck a 7600 or not.
 
Exactly.

I think an C2D E4300 bottlenecks the 8800GTX slightly at stock speeds. Either the GTX or GTS, don't remember.

As long as you have an unlocked board and decent cooling though, you can OC them like mad. Great chips, even the budget ones.


But yes, a 7 series is your best bet right now. You can make 6 series cards fast but the 7 series will completely obliterate it, even the cheapest ones. More pipes, the better.
 
Forgive me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the 7600 series have the same number of pipelines and vertex processors as the vanilla 6800, in addition to a smaller memory interface? How could a 7600GT be that much faster than a 6800?
Remember, I'm going from an MX440, which slots in between a GeForce 2 and a GeForce 3, to a 6-series. The difference doesn't need to be extraordinary enough to kill me.
 
I saw a 6800 vanilla for $20 more than a 7950 GT.

Now, the 6800 was AGP so a little more but still stupid.


Go ask on overclock.net if you want crazy in-depth reasons why it is better.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130274 7800GS for $200, $180 after rebate. 4 more pipes, same interface, 256MB of onboard RAM. Much nicer card. eVGA has a step-up program so when you want to go DX10, you can just step up to an 8800 or similar card. :D
 
How do you determine whic graphics card is better than another overall? I'm looking for a new card myself, ideally no more than £100-£120 but I have no idea what to look for.
 
Given that the price differences between a 6600 and a 7600GT are under $40 at the most, go for the 7600GT. Its a newer generation of cards and has higher stock clock speeds on the core and the RAM. Newegg has the 7600GT for around $100.

Personally, I have a Leadtek 7900GT TDH. Unfortunately it appears they've stopped making them...I did plan on going SLi with another one. The Leadteks cost a little more but they get "cherry picked" cores that are more likely to run as they are supposed to.
 
live4speed
How do you determine which graphics card is better than another overall? I'm looking for a new card myself, ideally no more than £100-£120 but I have no idea what to look for.
Click to expand...

You go to some review sites. I usually use anandtech.com and xbitlabs.com Sometimes, they may not compare the 2 cards in the same comparison, but I think that usually happens when one of the cards is a couple years old. The site may also show overclocked frame rates on the same graphs, so you have to be aware of that.
 
So, a year later, and I have put off a replacement card purchase until now, seeing it as unnecessary at the time.
However, the somewhat recent death (and subsequent cannibalization) of my best computer and the overheating problems of my middle-ground one are worrying me. My reliable MX440 is starting to explode on me (occasional artifacts in gameplay, etc.), and until I find out what is causing the overheating problems on my middle ground rig, I want to make sure olde reliable doesn't go in a catastrophic way.

So, I've been looking for cards under $50 just as a way to keep the old girl going. The most extreme gaming I ever do on the thing is Battlefield 1942/Soldier of Fortune II (a framerate boost from the mid-40s to more stable 60s would be nice, though), so I am not really worried about that aspect of computing too much. I've done some looking, and it seems that my best deal would be either a Radeon X1550, a Radeon HD2400 Pro or a GeForce 6200. Everything else in the price class seems to be total junk (relatively speaking). The Radeons seem to outclass the 6200 in every measure other than memory bandwidth (including power useage), but I'm not sure whether their benefits outweigh their cost or whether they would give better performance overall.

I could get my hands on an incredibly underclocked 6800XT for a tiny bit more, but I know in advance that I would have to replace the cooling system.

Does anyone have any suggestions/comments/recommendations? I'm personally leaning towards the HD 2400 Pro for its newness, supposed multimedia capabilities and DX10-age (not that that particular aspect is of any use to me), but I dunno.
 
I would say set your budget and stick to it. Get the best card for your budget limit.

You can easily find cards from $50-450.
 
So, yeah. I just said screw it an bought a 6800. Not as new, but I remembered that I had a 600 watt PSU (which is mostly why I was worried about power efficiency) and it will absolutely manhandle the other two. And it only cost $45.
 

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