not sure if i should go for one or not what are your thoughts? do any of you guys own any? know of any good ones?

Umm well, whats your budget, and what sort of games do you play?

sky's the limit [450max]

stalkers
doom3
hl2
and whatever next
but a lower price would be nice but i can go 450

In order: 1 being I will never own, and 5 I "really" will never own.

1ATI Radeon 9800Pro 128 mb around $200
2ATI Radeon 9800Pro 256mb around $350
3ATI Radeon 9800XT around $300
4ATI Radeon x800pro around $400
5ATI Radeon x800XT around $440

know anything on nvidia?

Overpriced and underperforming.....

Quote: Originally Posted by TYCOON Overpriced and underperforming.....

Hey ATI Fanboy.........thats not always the case.


In my case I had $200 to spend about 6 or 8 months ago. Bought an ATI 9600xt........it was alright but I didnt think I was getting what I wanted. 3dmark03 3800

Bought EVGA 5900se - way better performance and it was $30 LESS. 15 more FPS in NFS Underground and 3dmark03 of 5207.

If money was no object I would have bought a 9800XT, but it was and in my range ATI was overpriced and underperforming. I prefer not to say one company ALWAYS is better than another, I think it makes me look stupid. Especially when they make such a broad range of cards.

i love nvidia, never would go back to ati (xcept for the all in wonder, but thats different!)

Seeing as how you want to play the best then you need the best vid card your money can buy. Unless all the jaggies don't get on your nerves in which case you might as well buy a console system. You can backorder one of those X800XTPE's from Gateway (linked in the deals and steals area) for under $450 and that is by far the best that is available or soon to be available.

The only real consideration is how soon the hipo pci express (not the one coming out now, I think it is measured in Mb like 4, 8, 16 & 32-4 & 8 is what is coming out now-I may be saying this all wrong but you get the idea) will be out and if you think you can upgrade when it does come out (damn near your whole system). At this point however there is'nt even software to take advantage of PCI express so I guess that is another reason to say fork it and go with the agp version.

Quote: Originally Posted by aaronrkelly Hey ATI Fanboy.........thats not always the case

Overpriced and underperforming.....
Anything nVidia can do ATi can do better, for less.

hardocp.com has some benchmarks up for the 6800 i think? it's like in the x800 review i think?

Quote: Originally Posted by maskedviperus i love nvidia, never would go back to ati (xcept for the all in wonder, but thats different!)

I love nvidia also.......but I also have a ATI card in my other computer.....I love it also...I don't know where I stand on who's better. If I was forced to choose I would go with Nvidia....I think?
Back to the topic....if you have 450 to blow spend it on the best one you can find, get info from everyone here and have fun with it!! I wish I could help but you didn't specify what brand you are looking for? Nvidia or ATI?

either i'm pneutral i'm trying to find the top N and the top A card

when do the 6800's come out?

Quote: Originally Posted by aaronrkelly Hey ATI Fanboy.........thats not always the case.

My graphics cards:

1. GeForce2mx400
2. GeForce2ti200
3.GeForce3ti500
4.Geforce4mx460
5.Geforrce4ti4200 (Asus super fast editon 16% overclocked from them)
6.ATi 9600XT

So I wouldnt say Im that big of a fanboy, I go for what gives me the most FPS for my $, and right now Nvidia is getting ther ass whooped. What kind of crap is that, needing 2 molex connectors and 2 pci slots, **** ATis are only using 1 and 1 pci slot.

Quote: Originally Posted by SirDavisCarrots not sure if i should go for one or not what are your thoughts? do any of you guys own any? know of any good ones?

I was short on cash so I got the eVGA nVidia FX5500 (about $140) I've been really happy with it, I only play network games against my wife and I don't really do any Online multiplayer sessions so I don't know how the frame rate drop would be. (I bet it'd start crying and tell the police I touched it's GPU) However, it does Unreal, Halo, Deus Ex 2, and XIII like a champ at high res. I also get to have dual monitors! (PimpRig AND Fark, AT THE SAME TIME????)

/digitally blessed

I bought a refurbished ASUS 5950 Ultra and I am very pleased with it. Got it at newegg for less than 300 bucks.

ok the best bang for the buck is the ATi 9800SE Softmodded into a pro+. the card in about $140 and can be pushed to 1000 points of my XT at 100% reliability! but remember that all of them dont clock/Mod.....but for 140 you are still getting a helluva card!