Posted: 2/28/2008 8:06:36 AM EDT
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Looking to spend about $200. I am not really a big gamer like I used to be so $200 is enough card for me. Nvidia only. Sorry I don't care for ATI drivers. I owned the first Radeon and the 9700 and went through plenty of drivers before either worked right. They may have gotten better but I never had a problem with Nvidia. I was looking at this one www.copystars.com/nvidia-8800gt-geforce-8800-gt_47002_prd1.htm this one www.allstarshop.com/shop/simprod.asp?pid=19823&ad=pwatch and debated this one www.ewiz.com/detail.php?p=MSI-96GT51&c=pw |
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Both the 8800gt and the 9600gt are great choices, and even though you say you aren't into games, both will run everything except crysis at max detail at 1680x1050(haven't tried anything higher yet). Of your choices, I would get the MSI 8800gt, but order it from newegg.com instead of some fly-by-night website that you linked to. Newegg's customer service, shipping, information, and access to reviews are first rate. Here you goMSI 8800GT |
thanks. I may go for that. Question though. the 9600 specs look similar. Is there any big difference? |
Just that the 9600GT has DX10.1 support and less muscle under the hood. But either will do nicely. |
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I would advise not going the NVidia route. ATI has been down the "Our drivers suck ass" road. Nvidia is walking it right now. In fact I was in the same boat as you. I wanted a sub 200 card. I went with a 8600 GTS. PIECE OF SHIT. You can read allll about it chere Suffice to say the first post in that thread was June 19th 07. The last post Feb 22nd 08. Point is, Nvidia has something seriously fucked up in its current cards and I wouldnt touch them. In fact, I got so tired of it I bought an ATI 1950. Couldnt be happier. Whats worse is Nvidia probably wont ever fix whats wrong because they are more concerned with pushing the next gen cards out the door. |
I wish I could go ATI but honestly , they lost me as a customer forever. Even at work some of the laptops with ATI chipsets are problematic. ETA were you on Vista? I can understand your problem then becuase my 6600gt ran great unbtil I went to Vists. No matter what Vista driver I used I always got the Nvidia driver crash problem. I went back to XP after over a year of Vista becuase I find its faster and more stable. |
is it a big difference? the specs on those 3 look almost exactly the same to me. Well as far as core clock and memory. all have 650+ on the core and 1.7+ on the memory |
Standard 8800GTs are about 15% faster than the standard 9600GTs. The MSI 8800GT is overclocked, so it is probably ~20% faster than a 9600. |
Thew 8800GT has more processing power, speed has nothing to do with it. |
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I appreciate alk the replies. I may consider ATI. The 8500 Pro I put in my kids comp a while back has had no issues and the x1300 I am using now has been trouble free. I have always been loyal to Nvidia but when Vista came out, it seems like their drivers for it kind of suck like ATI drivers used to. How are ATI drivers with Vista? I am not using it any more as I am on Linux right now but I re imaged my gaming HDD with XP Pro. IF I decide to go back to Vista, it will only be for DX10. I dont see me doing that anytime soon though. So, what comparable cards does ATI offer for that $? |
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Read THIS, these guys pretty much know everything there is to know. For your price range the 9600gt or the ATI 3870HD are your best bet. I'm an ATI man myself, but all the reviews on the 9600GT have been great. ETA: I read an article on the 9600Gt when it came out at Anandtech.com, they had nothing but praise for it. And like Tomshardware, they would know. |