Vanilla vid card advice

[Malikai_Ravnsyn]

I think i have this system setup pretty well, onyl issues for me remain the vid card and the cooling system for the CPU. I have about a $200-$250 budget for the vid card, PCI E all the way, I'm just not sure about getting an SLI card or not. The only ones I've seen on newegg come from companies that I've never heard anything about, and I'm not sure I fully trust them or not. I have an EVGA 6600 Gt atm, non SLI. Any Help would be greatly appreciated. Here is my system build currenty: http://secure.newegg.com/app/WishLis...VIEW&ID=773033
I have often had trouble with this link, if that wont work here are my mobo and current vid cars respectively:

http://www.newegg.com/app/SearchProductResult.asp?Description=13-130-487&DEPA=

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=14-130-214&depa=0

[Malikai_Ravnsyn]

Re: Vanilla vid card advice

A friend of mine recommended this HIS card: http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProduc...161-129&depa=0, I see that it is a 256 card, which seems better, but the 6600 GT usually outperforms the x700 despite this does it not? Also, its not available SLI, which the evga isn't either, but there is a leadtech 6600GT SLI out there. I'm just not sure what to go with, the cooling on this card is massive, and as I plan to have 2 matching vid cards with this mobo, will that interfere? Im not sure that another card could fit with it with a cooling system such as this on the card. Thanks again in advance.

[Arjun]

Re: Vanilla vid card advice

That X700pro is a good card, no question. But it won't outperform a 6600gt except maybe in a small minority of benchmarks. It may be able to draw close or even beat the nvidia slightly in high resolutions with high AA and high AF in certain games where the extra memory helps. But overall the geforce is better. If your going to upgrade its got to be a significant step up. Otherwise no point. If i were you i would hang on to the EVGA until the next generation. But if you want to upgrade an X800 256mb will give a boost for about 250$.
But its not worth it in my opinion. If i were you i would hold onto my $ for the next gen, shouldn't be long- there will be some good new stuff this year. Or i would increase my budget to at least 300$ and get a X800pro or a 6800gt, that way the performance increase will really put a smile on your face.

In my opinion SLI is not worth considering for the sake of future proofing (only worth if u have 2 cards to begin with). When your card is outdated its better to buy a new one rather than have 2 oldies which will probably be slower than 1 next gen card and definiely inferior technically.

BTW whats your CPU, thats important to consider when choosing a video card because you don't want a mismatch where 1 will bottleneck the other.

[Malikai_Ravnsyn]

Re: Vanilla vid card advice

Thanks for the response man, and I think that i will stick with the evga. Right now I'm running: http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProduc...103-502&depa=0
which I don't think is too terrible, I plan on overclocking it soon, and it shouldn't hinder my performance with most vid cards yet.

[Terry East]

Re: Vanilla vid card advice

When shopping for ATI cards watch out for anything labled as "Pro". That is usually a cheaper version without half of the pixel pipelines. Tomshardware is a good place to get the skinny on what card has what.

[Eaglee]

Re: Vanilla vid card advice

When shopping for ATI cards watch out for anything labled as "Pro". That is usually a cheaper version without half of the pixel pipelines. Tomshardware is a good place to get the skinny on what card has what.

You're mistaking pro for SE.