High Performance Video
 

OK guys, in need of some advice. I am upgrading my video card, and am looking for a good gaming card that is $150 or less. It must have 512 of memory, and I will be playing oblivion with it. I prefer a Gefore 6800 or better GPU. Any suggestions?

Definitely check out Lasereth's sticky thread at the top of the forum.

He's well versed in the way of the video card and updates it regularly. His thread has helped me through several video card purchases; he does not disappoint.

You might want to leave some specifics regardless. What kind of interface do you need? Do you have a preference in brands?

Plenty of stuff to browse through at newegg. I wouldn't base a purchase on the reviews there alone, but they usually point you in the right direction.

http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthread.php?t=68344

but for under $150, you wont find one with half a gig. my suggestion is to increase your budget, or decrease your expectation.

I'd get either the GeForce 7600 GT for $125, or the Radeon X1950 Pro for $175. The Radeon X1900 GT used to be the best for $150, but it looks like NewEgg dropped the model at that price.

PS: the memory on the videocard doesn't matter. Having 512 MB of ram on a videocard is the LAST thing you want to care about when determining which card you want. Memory on the videocard has negligible effects on performance above 256 MB unless you're running a $3k computer.

Quoted for truth. There are absolutely HORRIBLE 512 cards, and amazing 256. I'd be more concerned with actual benchmarks.

This was last updated in April '06, but it's still pretty solid.

http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics.html

Actually, that interactive benchmark is updated constantly. It's one of my tools for making my guide listed above also. :)

OK, question now. Does it matter what specific brand of 7600gt? There are many options, also is the 7300GT a BIG drop in performance? Thanx in advance.

the 7300 gt is a huge drop in performance. 64 bit memory, 50% less pipelines, half the memory speed, 2/3rds the core clock.

Thanks Dilbert. I will go with the 7600 then for sure.

7600 gt, or 7600 gs, not 7600.

right, that was what i meant...guess I should have been more specific! :grin:

I'd just like to add that I bought a Radeon X1950 Pro recently and it runs Oblivion with every single setting at the highest (except AA) at max resolution at 45-60 FPS constant, even outdoors. This game looks amazing with the X1950 Pro.

Hmmmm...interesting....