nvidia video cards
 

Who makes the best nvidia video cards? is a generic any worse off than an asus all specs the same?

It depends on what functions you want.
Different cards may have different functions. i.e the more expensive cards have TV-in. The premium ones may have TIVO.
Also, different card manufacturers will have different selection. I think ASUS usually have a smaller range as they tend to release "upper end" cards only - more expense but have more functions, more bundled software.
Some taiwanese brands would have large selection (and easily confuses consumers) - 128 or 256MB. TV-IN? DVI-out? Different memory speed? Different overclocking capabilities? Bundles old or crappy games and software.

it's up to you. You, as the consumer, have to decide what you want and what you are really to pay for.

Don't worry about the quality or power of the different manufacturers...worry about what you need, like panbert said. If you want a card with all sorts of TV inputs and outputs, then buy a nice card. If you want a standard videocard for gaming, then buy that.

And before you buy a videocard...ASK US FIRST! Don't be the guy that buys the 256 MB GeForce FX 5200 non-Ultra from Wal-Mart for $300!!

Seriously, if you want a tip on which card to get, tell us what you want on it and how much you're willing to spend. Plenty of people here can help (including myself).

-Lasereth

I probably can't comment much about where to get your hardware since I live in Australia so I don't know the best places to buy cards in U.S.

But yeah, tell us what you need your card to do and your budget. We can probably throw out a few suggestions.

Is the 9600se a good card? I think I am going to buy it soon. It says it has 128 megs of ram so it must be fast.

Strictly from a gaming perspective, I prefer Gainward

There's so much wrong with that statement, it's not funny anymore. ;)

The ATI radeon 9600SE is basically a less-powerful 9600. That's not bad at all generally, except that in this case it is. For only a few bucks more, you can get a much faster 9600 proper. As for the 128 mb: that's standard for cards ranging from the ati 9200/fx5200 to the ati 9800pro/fx5900... it only means it's got enough memory to play games, and this says pretty much nothing about the speed.

I think he was being sarcastic ;)

Now that I'm home I'll elaborate...

First, Brand dones't matter TOO much. I prefer Gainward because I often buy their "Golden Sample" cards (very overclockable) and even their standard cards seem to be put together in a very stable fashion, generally close to the spec board, but with some features. They offer cards from the inexpensive plain-old-video card to the VIVO digital video cards and everything in between.

As for the model, it all depends again. Personally, I love my GeForce FX 5600/256. It's a great card, it doesn't cost $600 and I game it to death and it takes the beating. I'd love to upgrade to a 6800 just for sheer geekitude, but I can't convince myself to cough up that kind of dough for something like a vid card.

You don't have to cough up that much cash for a 6800, not $600 anyways. You can get the "Vanilla 6800" for $287 on newegg. You'll definitely get a large increase in performance, even for just the regular 6800.

what is the nvidia 6800 comparable to when it comes to ati cards?

X800

The 6800 is the top of the line (and outperforms ATI on Doom 3)

Interesting though, it's the ATI X800 cards that come with a free copy of Doom 3 (well you get a coupon cause the game isn't released yet). The ATI 9600XT used to come with a coupon for Half-Life 2 but now it gives a discount for Doom 3 instead.

But you're right, currently nVidia cards outperform ATI cards in Doom3. But I wonder if driver upgrades will change that....