I need a video card now!
 

Arite.. I built a new pc sans the vid crd..
Athlon64 3200+, 1 gig pc3200 ram, 160 gig hdd, msi neo plat,... and a RIVA TNT 2... so:

Of the GeForce 6's and Radeon x800's, what can I get that is the most bang for my buck?.. I can afford up to 600 bucks.. but you know "a penny saved is a penny earned".. I could use any left over money for college life, food, etc... Any any any input would be appreciated.

Depends. Do you want top of the line, or simply good enough?

An Ati radeon 9800 pro might be a good choice if you want good enough, but a GF6 or x800 might be better if you want top of the line. They're just really expensive...

If you want good frames per second with current games, save some bucks and get a 9800 Pro. It's still a great card. Hell, my 9500 Pro is still fine for all the games I play. $500 for a video card is insane, in my opinion.

I would get a 9800 pro now and wait for games to come out that really push it. The 9800 pro is just such a good deal right now at about $200. I suspect that it will run Doom3 and Half-life2 pretty well. I don't think a game is going to come out that really strains the 9800 pro until next year and then new top of the line cars will be out.

Yeah, a 9800 Pro will run the hell out of every game you come across for at least the next 18 months, all settings turned to the max, with a decent resolution (at least 1024*768), and most likely never drop below the ever-necessary framerate of 30 fps. And I fuckin' KNOW that HL2 will run like a bitch on a 9800 Pro, same goes for Doom 3. The only thing that will run like shit on a 9800 Pro, as of right now, is the Unreal 3 Engine, which, according to the guys who are designing it, claim that a 6800 Ultra is the only thing that will run it at more than 1-5 fps. So yeah, go with a 9800 Pro, it's too much of a bargain not to.

Best bang for your buck? Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro 128 MB. Next best? Radeon X800 Pro or GeForce 6 6800 GT. Overkill-super-top of the line? GeForce 6 6850 Ultra or Radeon X800 XT Platinum Edition.

-Lasereth

I like how there's actually a difference now between mid-range (9800 pro) and top-of-the-line (x800 pro) cards. Previously, we had the 9800 pro and the 9800 XT, with many pro versions being over-clockable to an XT. The x800 actually increases the spead dramatically.

Yeah, the X800 and the 6800 are the first major, truly major performance boosts that anyone has seen in a good while. Fucking amazing increase in performance due to these cards.

You'll be hard pressed to find anyone that wouldn't recommend a 9800 pro. Especially for the $. The guys here did for me and I've been happy with mine ever since. Runs FarCry VERY WELL in my Athlon 2500+ with a Gig of RAM.