Video Card

Comments

• Eclecticonaut Elite Ranger

  January 2006

  This is the best new card you can find within those criteria: [url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150127[/url]
  
  Otherwise I would recommend [url=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102002]X800GTO [/url] or a used 6800GT/X800XL.
• Tyvar Next best thing to a St. Bernard

  January 2006

  A 6600 GT would get you increased performance for cheap.
  
  However,I think if you shopped around on the internet, starting with places like pricewatch.com and what ever the rest of the FO gang suggest, you could probably find a 6800, or x800xt for that price.
  
  I managed to aquire my X800XT AIW from ATI for about 210 with shipping factored in. And that was over the summer.
• Eclecticonaut Elite Ranger

  January 2006

  [QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Tyvar [/i]
  [B]A 6600 GT would get you increased performance for cheap.[/B][/QUOTE]
  Perhaps it would be a preferable choice, because that Northwood and PC2700 memory would be a certain bottleneck with faster cards...
  
  [url=http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2277&p=4]5900XT vs. 6600GT[/url]
  
  I'd say the performance gain is big enough.
• Space Ghost Elite Ranger

  January 2006

  Thanks a lot for the feedback! I guess I'll have to knuckle down and buy one... thanks again! :)
• Random Chaos Actually Carefully-selected Order in disguise

  January 2006

  GeForce 6600 and 6800 are very similar chips (since they are both the GeForce 6 series). Both are native AGP (even the PCI-Express ones - they use a bridge to make them work). The 7800 (GeForce 7) is out of your price range, but is also native AGP. nVidia hasn't come out with a native PCI-Express chip yet.
  
  I won't touch ATI with a 10 foot pole thanks to bad experience with device drivers from them...multiple times. Also, the newer ATI chips are all native PCI Express - not sure whether they dual develop them so they work on AGP, or if they developed some sort of bridge like nVidia did.
  
  --RC
• Rick Sector 14 Studios

  January 2006

  Only the 6xxx series use bridge chips...The 7800 is native PCI-E exclusively. There is no AGP 7800 card, nor will there be.
  
  ATI doesn't use bridge chips...they have native PCI-E and AGP versions for their respective cards.
  
  -R.
• Random Chaos Actually Carefully-selected Order in disguise

  January 2006

  That's somewhat questionable Rick :)
  
  The 6800 uses the NV42 core which is native AGP. Rumor has it that the 7800 core is the NV47, a native AGP chip, but has added a built in bridge on the chip for PCI Express, thus why it only runs PCI Express. nVidia denies it, but specs of the G70 (7800) and the NV47 (which was never released) are almost identical. I remember reading a review somewhere where they went into the architecture of the 7800, and they determined that it was the NV47+bridge in a single core, and that it suffered the same sort of delays that were present on the 6600 and the 6800 PCI Express versions that had a bridge external to the GPU. Of course, any review also has to be suspect :)
  
  
  Now, if you really want to go insane, you can get 2 of this card and run them in SLI mode - and yes, it does support that!
  
  [url]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814121213[/url]
• Akrovah Ranger

  January 2006

  I think only the 6800 was native AGP, and the 6600 series, coming out later, was native PCI-E.
  
  Case in point, my 6600GT AGP has a bridge chip on the board.
  
  Also, as a recomendation, i would definitly go with a 6600GT if you are looking for a sub $200 dollar part. New egg has one with 256 memory for $180.
  
  [URL=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150096]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150096[/URL]
  
  (Bridge chip also visible in pick.)
• Biggles <font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>

  January 2006

  I'm very happy with my fanless 6600GT.
• E.T Quote-o-matic

  January 2006

  I wouldn't touch those 6600s with anything else than that 10 foot pole (using it as club), it has been crippled by halving both memory bus and pipelines which shows in heavy games.
  
  Doom III is only game in which they can get even with Ati X800 GTO/XL... in other games (anything using DX9) they take quite a lot beating, just check FarCry or F.E.A.R.
  [url]http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/01/05/squeezing_value_out_of_lower_end_cards/[/url]
  
  
  And that shop has Sapphire X800GTO AGP under 200
• PSI-KILLER Needs help

  January 2006

  Using your whole budget and leaving nothing left over I would go with the BFG GeForce 6800 GS OC . It is AGP and allready overclocked. They say it will be the fastest AGP ever going to be produced.
• Space Ghost Elite Ranger

  January 2006

  Thanks for all of the input! I just wish I had more money... then again, don't we all. ;)