thinking of upgrading graphics card....

[Dangerous Dan]

well, i've had my GeForce 4 4200Ti for a few years now and i must say, it was (and still is) a wonderful card, still runs Doom 3 and Half-Life 2 on high detail settings smoothly up to around 1024x768. But i'm no fool, i know if i get behind the times too far i'll be left in the dust, the GeForce 4 series, after all, is two generations behind the top notch stuff.

So i've been doing a little scouting around for a nice new high-ish end card that'll last me well into the future, and i came across the new GeForce series (6XXX family). The 6800 is out of the question right now, at $650 (Canadian), but it seems the 6600 is quite affordable. I also realize that it's bes tto get the new PCI format, since it holds more pipes or whatever their called, and they're basically the thing of the future (but i will have to invest in a new motherboard). So i was wondering if i could get a few opinions on this (http://www.evga.com/products/moreinfo.asp?pn=256-P2-N369-TX) card (price at place i would purchase (http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=13353&vpn=256-P2-N369-TX&manufacture=eVGA)). It only has an 8 pixel pipeline, compared to the best of the best right now of 16. but i'm hesitent to buy this one simply because i've heard rumours that GeForce cards may be upped to an average of 12 pixel pipelines.

Now i know a lot of ppl are going to want to say "use Radeon," but i really don't want to, so if you guys think this one's good, bad, or ugly, plz inform me and guide me in the right direction either for somethign to wait for, or an affordable non-radeon alternative. :)

thx guys

[ME BIGGD01]

DD, i would suggest looking ath BFG's line of AGP cards. i had the bfg 6800 with 128 ram and bought for 265 usa and it ran faster then my current msi pci express card. the card comes stock over clocked a little and is guaranteed for life. thats a great deal in my book. there is also another feature many people dont know about these cards. right now all 6800 and i think gt cards only use 12 pipelines unlike the the ultras 16 pipelines but you can enable these cards to open the ports with a program called riva tuner. it will make your card much better with this and improve the scores etc etc. i have tested this to see it to believe and it really works. problem is it didnt work for my pci exprees card.

i suggest the 6800 bfg card for the low price and performance. the card has fast memory on it also and although only 128MB of ram it is pretty powerfull.:thumbs:

[Dangerous Dan]

DD, i would suggest looking ath BFG's line of AGP cards. i had the bfg 6800 with 128 ram and bought for 265 usa and it ran faster then my current msi pci express card. the card comes stock over clocked a little and is guaranteed for life. thats a great deal in my book. there is also another feature many people dont know about these cards. right now all 6800 and i think gt cards only use 12 pipelines unlike the the ultras 16 pipelines but you can enable these cards to open the ports with a program called riva tuner. it will make your card much better with this and improve the scores etc etc. i have tested this to see it to believe and it really works. problem is it didnt work for my pci exprees card.

i suggest the 6800 bfg card for the low price and performance. the card has fast memory on it also and although only 128MB of ram it is pretty powerfull.:thumbs: I have no doubt they are good cards, bus was one of these the one you were talking about? they just seem to be a little pricy... seeing how i have no income, lol, well, except for the first and third one, in that case it'd be affordable... i may just wait it out and see how low they drop within the next year or so... do you know if there are any schedualed price drops? a friend of mine said june, but i don't know how reliable he or his source was :S


specifics on NCIX.com (http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?majorcatid=101&minorcatid=108)


BFG GEFORCE 6600 GT OC AGP8X 128MB VGA DVI OUT VIDEO CARD RETAIL BOX (http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=13490&vpn=BFG6600GTAGPOC&manufacture=BFG%20Technologies) (BFG6600GTAGPOC) Yes $348.53 BUY (http://www.ncix.com/cart/index.php?additem=13490) BFGR68256GTO... BFG GEFORCE 6800 GT OC AGP8X 256MB DDR3 VGA DVI S-VIDEO OUT VIDEO CARD RETAIL BOX (http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=12476&vpn=BFGR68256GTOC&manufacture=BFG%20Technologies) (BFGR68256GTOC) Yes $646.61 BUY (http://www.ncix.com/cart/index.php?additem=12476) BFG6800OC BFG GEFORCE 6800 OC AGP8X 128MB DDR VGA DVI S-VIDEO OUT VIDEO CARD RETAIL BOX (http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=12477&vpn=BFG6800OC&manufacture=BFG%20Technologies) $389.85 BUY (http://www.ncix.com/cart/index.php?additem=12477) BFGR68256UOC BFG GEFORCE 6800 ULTRA OC AGP8X 256MB DDR3 DUAL DVI S-VIDEO VIDEO CARD WHITE BOX RETAIL (http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=12473&vpn=BFGR68256UOC&manufacture=BFG%20Technologies) Yes $723.20 BUY (http://www.ncix.com/cart/index.php?additem=12473) 855650000524 BFG GEFORCE 6800 ULTRA OC W/ WATER BLOCK AGP8X 256MB DDR3 DUAL DVI S-VIDEO VIDEO CARD RETAIL BOX (http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=12919&vpn=855650000524&manufacture=BFG%20Technologies) $831.68 BUY (http://www.ncix.com/cart/index.php?additem=12919)
edit: that spread sheet turned out quite ugly after pasting it, sorry if it burns the eyes, lol

[He Is Legend]

I would suggest ATI

Ati owns Nvidia

Try lookin for the or x800 http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-431&depa=0

or the 9800pro is awesome and very affordable
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-286&depa=0

[Slice]

I would suggest ATI

Ati owns Nvidia

Try lookin for the or x800 http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-431&depa=0

or the 9800pro is awesome and very affordable
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-286&depa=0
LOL, Ati owns Nvida, yeah right. Nvidia has the market right now because it owns Ati in the latest generation games. Don't be fooled by any benchmark programs results. Use a game as your benchmark rather then these programs. I would rather be getting 20fps more while playing a "real" game then flaunting some ridiculous number in a benchmarking program.

[Dangerous Dan]

lol, you know what game is on the back of the 9800 pro box? it's "Will Rock"... that made me laugh histarically, then i put the box down and walked away :P

[He Is Legend]

lol..yall might think that

But I have a friend who has the exact same computer as me except he has a amd 2200

a gig of ram and i think a 19 or 17 monitor

anyway..he had a 6800GT for a little while (rich ahole) http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-143-019&depa=0

then he bought the x800xt VIVO(cant find the card but powercolor makes it)and said it was WAY better than the 6800gt..the 6800gt caused him problems with his montior sometimes

he said he had 11+ more fps in doom

and a 20+ fps in hl2...

and i played it for a little while and it owns face..even though i only tell a slight difference than his other card

anyway...Ati owns once again

[Dangerous Dan]

here's the problem, it's high end, but it's not a high end PCI card, it's old school AGP... but i think i'm horribly wrong, i don't even knwo what i'm talking about :P

[ME BIGGD01]

i think both cards are good and both have it's advantages in certain games. this year i feel the advantage goes to nvidia but as far as ati goes, its still good. the only real problem i have with ati is the buggy drivers. many people on the web will confirm the usual game lockups and crash to desktop with ati cards. (yo slice-i still havent forgotten that 9700 card you hooked me up with cheap--my brother has it now but all in all it was a great card and 2x:thumbs: 2u for it). i think that many of the games today are be written for the shader 3.0 which is in all the 6000 series of nvidia. the detail is much better and ati does not support this feature yet but will soon.

dd--the card i was referring to i purchased at newegg. its call the geforce 6800oc. they have others but are very expensive. there is word that the 6600 will be coming to agp within a month or two and will be under 200 bucks. that may be a better deal because it will have newer chip and at a lower price.

[ME BIGGD01]

lol..yall might think that

But I have a friend who has the exact same computer as me except he has a amd 2200

a gig of ram and i think a 19 or 17 monitor

anyway..he had a 6800GT for a little while (rich ahole) http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-143-019&depa=0

then he bought the x800xt VIVO(cant find the card but powercolor makes it)and said it was WAY better than the 6800gt..the 6800gt caused him problems with his montior sometimes

he said he had 11+ more fps in doom

and a 20+ fps in hl2...

and i played it for a little while and it owns face..even though i only tell a slight difference than his other card

anyway...Ati owns once again
you have to match the cards with the series. look at the price differences and you would expect it to be a little better but really not the case when shader 3.0 or say doom3 is being played for example. the 6800 series owns with these games and can be googled to prove it.

[Death Engineer]

Now is a bad time to go PCI Express IMHO. It is still way to early in the market and the prices for the motherboards/video cards are just too high. They will come down in time as they are accepted as the norm. I'm happy with my 9800Pro and will likely not upgrade until I build a new machine (which will be no less than 5GHz CPU).

[Dangerous Dan]

dd--the card i was referring to i purchased at newegg. its call the geforce 6800oc. they have others but are very expensive. there is word that the 6600 will be coming to agp within a month or two and will be under 200 bucks. that may be a better deal because it will have newer chip and at a lower price.
well light-my-pants-on-fire-and-call-me-a-flaming-chimp, that sounds perfect, waiting a few months is the verdict, thankyou all (more specifically, mostly Bigg) for your help :D

oh, and i kinda have DE's mentality on upgrading for the big $$$$, wait until mostly everything you have is near obsolete (or you no longer quality for "recommended requirements") and then go crazy with a new mega system that'll tie ya over for the next generation and a half :cool:

[Ra\/en]

Dang.... i fall under the reccomended requirements.