Challah

I am going to be purchasing a new card for Hellgate: London and beyond. Here are my current specs:

Dell XPS Gen4
Pentium 4 3.4GHz (2 CPUs)
2.5 gigs DDR2 RAM
Nvidia 6800

My two best options seem to be the GeForce 8800 GTS and the GeForce OC 7950GT. I don't care about DX10. If anything, I'm inclined towards DX9 because I don't want to go through the hassle of installing Vista.

I have several question blobs:

1. First of all, do any of you own either of the mentioned cards? If so, are you happy with your purchase, have you had any serious problems with them, etc?

2. Is investing in a DX10 card worth it at this point? How much extra are you paying for DX10 goodies? Would the cost of DX10 goodies be better spent on a more juicy DX9 card or are the new DX10 cards more sophisticated and plainly better (ignoring DX10 features, obviously)?

3. Would the boost from the two cards I have in mind be noticeable enough to warrant spending 400-500 bucks, or am I better off saving up for a year and investing in a $1000 beast of epic pwnage?

I'm a university student and my next card has to last until I'm finished my undergrad studies (3 more years starting this fall). Then law school. Holy crap.

Hopefully some of you will join the human resistance and help us repel the demonic hordes.

FOR THE LIVING!

Dilbert1234567

you've got it all wrong, don't buy the top of the line, it's just not worth it, go with a mid range and you'll be quite happy, and in a year, year and a half, you can get a new card, and still be under your current budget. i have a 7950 GSTand it serves me just fine. the 7 series vs the 6 series would be a big boost, as would the 8 vs the 7, however, if you're on a budget, I'd recommend going with the 7900 GS or 7950 GT or waiting a few months and getting a 8800 gts when the price comes down a bit.

what slot do you have for for the card AGP, or PCI-e?

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xepherys

1) 8800GTS, and yes, very happy.

2) Yes! Don't think of a DX10 card as requiring a Vista upgrade. They still run DX9 just fine and the cards work perfectly on XP systems. But when the time comes (and it will come in less than 3 years), you'll be glad you can upgrade to Vista and can use DX10.

3) The boost from 6-series to 7-series is pretty amazing. The boost from 7- to 8-series is also impressive, plus as pointed out in point #2, you gain the option for DX10 when the time is right.

I recommend the eVGA 640-P2-N821-AR (about US$350 form Newegg). eVGA and Asus are the only two brands I ever purchase, and I've never been let down by either. BFG Tech is also very good. Frankly, if you can cough up 350, that's the way to go. If you can't, get the 7950. The lower memory 8600s and especially the 8500s just aren't worth it, IMHO.

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Lasereth

Your CPU might bottleneck the geforce 8800 gts 320 but it's still a worthy purchase. I'd buy it since it's so freaking cheap now. Worth every penny. Plus when you upgrade your CPU later the videocard will be even more powerful.

If you don't want to spend quite that much ($270) then buy a 7900 GS ($150) or a Radeon X1950 XT ($190). The 7950 GT is a little overpriced for the performance.

And don't worry about the DX10 crap. Buy the card in your price to performance range. You don't have to make any changes to your operating system with a DX10 card.

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Challah

Dilbert - I think it's PCI. How do I check? Dxdiag isn't telling me.

xepherys - One of the local computer shops has that card for 500 cdn dollars. I can't order online , as I don't yet have a credit card.

Lasereth - The 8800 GTS 320MB is 400 cdn dollars here. And my current card already has 256MB. Not sure if that's worth it.

Here are two other questions now that I know which cards I'm looking at:

1. Are there other numbers to consider, besides MB of memory? I haven't bought a graphics card on its own before, and I'm not exactly sure how to go about doing it. The 8800 GTS 320, for example, costs 400 cdn dollars and only has ~60 more MB than my current card. What makes it worthwhile?

2. How much can we reasonably expect the prices of the 8800 series to drop by, say, early September? I'll be getting some birthday money from relatives then so that might be a good time to upgrade.

I'm also working under the assumption that I won't have cooling or compatability issues with any of the cards we are discussing. Again, I'm using a Dell XPS Gen4 machine that is a few years old. If buying one of the more expensive cards would require upgrading my power supply, fan, etc., that definitely enters into the equation.

Thanks for the help.

Challah

purelife

if you dont care for dx10, dont bother with the 8800. I have one now but that is because i was able to buy it cheap on ebay and sell the 7900 GTO i had. So basically i was able to get the 8800 for like $50 bucks.

But, if you play PC games and plan on having this card for 3 years, i would suggest getting the 8800. Games are changing drastically, and a high end card is needed to experience the game the way it was intended to be played.

... well i see that i basically contradicted myself.

But really, if you play games and wont upgrade for a long time after this, I would go for the 8800. but please please dont waste all that money buying in a store! what a rip off! find a way to pay online, using paypal. You dont need a credit card, just a bank account. You will save so much money!

I got my 8800 GTS for $300. Shop around and you will find good deals!

and upgrading from your 6800, you will see a HUGE improvement.

I used to have a 6800, then went to 7900 GTO, and what a happy day that was. I play games like COD2 and BF2, and with that upgrade alone my FPS increased crazy amounts. The upgrade to the 8800 hasnt been as significant, but i do see the difference.

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Challah

300 American dollars? If I were to order a card, assuming I got it from www.newegg.com or a similar site, it would have to be delivered to Canada. Then consider the conversion rate. The Canadian dollar is doing well at the moment but still, it's a factor.

I'll speak to my bank about setting up a Paypal account. It's probably something I should do anyway.

As I said earlier, a 8800 GTS 320MB from one of the local shops is $400 CDN. You got yours for $300 (I'm assuming American) online and it doesn't look like buying one from a shop here would actually cost me much more than that.

But thank you, I'll look into it.

purelife

i didnt realize you were speaking in canadian dollars.

yes, i got mine for about $300 american dollars, from www.buy.com actually. Damn i think i said ebay in my last post, but i meant thats where i sold my 7900.. (i should probably not multitask so much, and actually CAREFULLY read my post before submitting)..Well I think the price of the 8800s went up a little since when i purchased mine about 2 weeks ago, so it may be a little more now..

and as for setting up the paypal account, i dont think you will need to talk with your bank. You should be able to go to www.paypal.com and just sign up. when you add your bank account information, paypal will make a small deposit into your account that you will have to verify to prove you are real owner, and then you should be all set to use it.

have you decided which card you are going with?

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"the good must inspire themselves by the ending of evil" - unblinded

Challah

Probably an 8800. Which exact one will depend on how prices look at the end of the summer.

Lasereth

The memory doesn't matter to 95% of all PC gamers. Read my videocard buyer's guide (sticky at the top) for more information on how to purchase a videocard. The memory on the card is the last thing you should care about when buying a videocard. The actual chip in the videocard is what matters the most, not the memory. Then you find a price point you can deal with and find the absolute best performance out of a card up until the price point.

Your best bet is the GeForce 7900 GS or the Radeon X1950 XT on newegg.com. If you want to buy a videocard that will last years, then buy the GeForce 8800 GTS 320, but keep in mind that you won't see the power of the card unless you have an extremely fast CPU to go with it (Core 2 Duo performance). But when you do eventually buy a better CPU, the videocard will get even faster. The first two cards I mentioned will suit your CPU nicely (but probably still be slightly bottlenecked by it).

I'd also like to restate that the Geforce 8 series having DX10 shouldn't affect your decision to buy a GeForce 8 at all. These cards are supremely powerful regardless of their DX 10 capabilities.

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Challah

I feel like an ass for not taking the time to look through the stickies, sorry.

After reading the guide, I'll probably go with the 7900 GS as you suggested. I can't argue with the price and I think that it will give me the performance needed to run Hellgate: London well.