Glad I could help!

EVGA 512-P3-N841-AR GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card -
Good deal? If I ever wanted to run two at the same time, what kind of PSU would be needed?

Not a good deal.

Check out the new GTX 295 that just came out. What a beast!

I'm running this Nvidia card at work.. QuadroFX

someone was telling me that a Geforce 9600 or something was just as good for way less.. is this true??

BTW, I'm running that because that's what was recommended to me buy the good people at Avid.

QuadroFX is a professional line of cards while GeForce 9600 is a gaming video card. If you do video editing, 3D rendering (especially CAD), stick with Quadro or FireGL if you like ATi.

Avid doesn't like ATI .. so it's the Quadro.

Thanks for the difference. Now I can tell that other dude he was wrong :lol:

Updated, the new GTX 295 will be added as soon as it's on NewEgg.

:) it's on newegg

Newegg.com - Fast & Furious Nvidia GeForce GTX295 Graphics card

The press release is, but if you click on the "Buy Now" tag, you come up with a null set, unfortunately.

weird...It actually had 6 products from all the vendors just an hour ago. I was amazed that the price wasn't stupid retarded in the $700-800 range, but in the $500 range.
-----Added 9/1/2009 at 12 : 47 : 42-----
even stranger... from IE I can locate it... from FF I can't.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...fiti/265-1.png

It's on the list now; I can access it on NewEgg with FF fine.

Hey Laser:

Why is it that the 9800 GT and GTS cards seem to have lower specs (memory bandwidth, etc) than the 8800GTS? Time for me to replace my 8800 - one of the outputs is dying. I want something equivalent or better in power, and I don't wanna spend $300. Any recommendations?

I don't know much about the 9800 GT/GTS. The 9800 GT is exactly the same as the 8800 GT. I've never even heard about the 9800 GTS or seen it reviewed.

Which 8800 GTS do you have? If it's the 320 MB or 640 MB then the 9800 GT is better. If it's the 512 MB then it's better than the 9800 GT.

If I were you I would get the Radeon HD 4850 if you are on an average budget (it's about $150 and is much better than the GeForce 8 or 9 series).

Thank you for this I was about to make a big mistake! Am now getting the Radeon HD 4850

Well I just picked myself up a GTX 285, the EVGA with standard clock speeds. After taxes and all that fun stuff it cost me $472.49 Canadian, free express shipping. The thing is HUGE!! I have the Antec 1200 case and I had trouble fitting it in, I could not imagine putting this thing in any smaller case. Just about to try it out on some games now.

I now have 2 8800GT cards I plan on selling, one is standard clock speeds on is the superclocked edition, both by EVGA.

Updated. I can't put the GeForce GTX 280 or 285 on the list because the Radeon HD 4870 is just too close to them performance-wise and is $100-$150 cheaper. They are strong cards but a little too pricey right now.

Seems the HD 4850 and the HD 4870 are going to get a price cut soon.

DailyTech - Radeon 4870 Gets $50 Price Cut to $149, Radeon 4850 Will Drop to $129

Updated, added the new GeForce GTS 250, updated every single price, deleted a few entries.

I've gotta say, this continues to be one of my favorite threads. Great work, Lasereth!

Now, if only I could convince Steve Jobs to allow OS X on non-Apple computers....

Updated!!!!!!!!!!!! The new GeForce GTX 275 and Radeon HD 4890 are now on the list. They are good choices if you really want to keep a single GPU card. The Radeon HD 4850 X2 is a dual-GPU card, but fits in a single PCI-E slot so it doesn't require an SLI/Crossfire power supply and is better performing in most tests, so if you are up for a single card/dual GPU card then that is the best choice still.

Added the new Radeon HD 4770 at $110 (what a great deal).

Updated, removed a few entries and also added the 2x Radeon HD 4770 in Crossfire mode to the list which is outrageously powerful for only $210.

Updated. Holy cow prices are plummeting again. $500 performance from a year ago is now $200. $400 performance from a year ago is now $150. Gotta love computer hardware......

Wow, that's crazy.

How much life do you think I should get out of my GeForce 8800GT?

I'm still using mine but I don't play a lot of different computer games. It's still fine for new games but I would expect to replace it by the end of this year or next year if you want the best settings.

Yeah, now that I think of it, I believe I'll get at least another year out of it. The dropping prices for viable replacements is a good sign, though.

We'll have to wait and see how demanding that new Star Wars MMO is. ;)

I should probably put my money into upgrading from Vista to Windows 7.

Checking this thread makes me a bit sad... I can't believe I paid $500 for an 8800GTX when they came out. Replaced it with an HD4870 not even a year later for only $250... and now my entire PC is out of date. Sigh... such is the life of an enthusiast :shakehead:

Updated

Wouldn't call the 4870 that outdated..I'd say its what mid-end among gaming standards (4770-->4890/various CF solutions).

Course I say that cuz I have a 4850. Still playing everything maxed though as I'm on 1680x1050 monitor.

Just bought the 4870 myself, got it for $130 plus shipping. I'll let you know how it goes. :thumbsup:

Hey, Lasereth, How much do you think PhysX should play in the decision between Nvidia and ATI? I'm not actually looking for a video card atm but I've run into 3 games in as many days that have used PhysX. Batman: Arkham Asylum, Mirror's Edge and City of Villians are those games. I know City of Villains has shitty ass graphics anyways but I've watched videos of both Batman and Mirrors Edge using PhysX and it seems to add so much to the game.

I don't know anything about PhysX, sorry.

PhysX is a closed source middleware physics engine developed by Ageia that Nvidia bought and is now trying to turn it into a leading brand name.

It's direct competitor is the Havok engine. Havok is the engine you see in Half-Life 2, Red Faction: Guerrilla and lots of other games.

Lots of game use PhysX, but not every game using PhysX supports it's hardware acceleration extras. An example of two of games that use the engine but not the hardware acceleration: Mass Effect(PC) & Rainbow Six Vegas 2(PC). An example of two of games that use the engine and the hardware acceleration: Mirror's Edge (PC) & Sacred II (PC).

Since no current console has a PhysX hardware card you won't see any console games with the added effects. Most likely if the game is being made for any console & a PC your only going to see limited added effects on the PC version anyway (the steam in Batman and the glass breaking in Mirror's Edge).

ATI is working with Intel (they own Havok) to bring hardware acceleration to their own cards. Pretty soon PhysX hardware acceleration maybe a moot point as ATI will be doing the same thing through Havok.

Edit: Personally, if the Nvidia card is comparable to the ATI card AND cheaper I'd buy the Nvidia for the PhysX. However, it's not that big a deal to me that I'd pay even $10 extra just to have PhysX in my games.

Last comment, MS has been looking into adding physics support into DirectX since 2006, supposedly it'll be in DX 11.


List of games using Havok Engine post 2006.

List of games using Havok Engine pre 2006.

List of games using PhysX

List of PhysX games with/without hardware acceleration

Updated

Updated, added the ridiculously awesome new Radeon HD 5000 series to the guide. These cards nullified half the list.

Lasereth, I saw this list on the new posts list and just wanted to say again, THANK YOU. This list made buying my video card for my system I built at the beginning of the year SO much easier. I recommend looking at this list for any person wanting to buy a video card or build a PC and I often refer to it when I'm helping friends out.

Hats off to you man.

Updated. The Radeon HD 4000 series is pretty much extinct now. Unfortunately this means that the best videocard deals on the market (the 4850 and 4870) are now gone. There are other cards in their price bracket that are decent but both of these cards will be sorely missed. Had to delete a lot of cards due to them being phased completely out and are really hard to find. The Radeon HD 5000 series have also skyrocketed in price by as much as $50+. Even with these prices they are worthy purchases, but nowhere near as good of a deal as they used to be.

I have an 8800GT 512MB still going strong, but I've purchased a larger monitor with a native resolution 1920x1200 so I need a stronger card to support gaming at that resolution.

I don't want to spend more than $200, but from what I've researched, all the cards in that price range would only give me a 10-15 fps advantage over 8800GT. Are there any rumored price drops or new video card models coming out? I'm thinking of waiting another year where $200 will be worth a much larger upgrade.

Thoughts?

For what it's worth, I can't tell you just how much the whole space has changed. I upgraded from an 8800GT to a 9800GTX Ultimate last year, and this year, Ice Crown Citadel just trounced the video cards. The only logical upgrade was a 200 series and the 250 and 260 didn't seem like such a great performance gain.

My research put me at the 275GTX range, which I bought (sorry nvidia fanboy because the ATI drivers and problems with them, killed me early on) which now is choking the mobo bus.

I'm looking at building a whole new machine to get the performance gains I'm looking for.