I'm finally upgrading my system after 5 years. So far I'm getting lucky finding good deals on the components and knew exactly what I was looking for and why. However video cards in the past 5 years have changed havn't they?
So far I've got:
AMD Athalon 64 3700+ San Diego core (scored extremly well at tomshardware)
ECS RS482-M Motherboard (wife found bundled with the proccessor at outpost.com for $240)
2GB of corsair 3200 ddr memory (frys had it for $100 day after christmas sale)
With this in mind I need to pick out the perfect video card to go with the collection of parts. Originally we were looking at spending $100 on video but I believe that I'll be needing more for this system as time progresses.
What are the most important factors when picking out a video card? Am I looking for pipes, memory speed, gpu speed, or amount of memory? I know that I want to stick to pci express so I made sure that the mobo supported it as my first consideration.
For price reasons I've been looking at the mostly x#00 ati chipsets and with all of the variations therein and have come up with a fairly short list:
Sapphire X800GTO2 256MB OEM $208
(unlockable to 16 pipes, but more than I'm willing to pay without a very good reason)
PowerColor x800GTO 16x 256mb retail $185
(16 pipelines but a little more than I want to pay, older chipset)
Sapphire x800PRO 256MB retail for $169 after rebate
(I've got no data on the GTO edition, how does it stack up to XT and PRO?)
Sapphire x800GTO 256 MB FireBlade Edition OEM for $160
(newer chipset, already overclocked, huge heat sink, will probably buy this one)
Sapphire x700 256 MB OEM for $102
(low end of the list do I really need more?)
Prices listed are from newegg as they seem to have the best deals on the net right now. If you know a cheaper price let me know.
I've ruled out the connect3D cards as they can't be unlocked to 16 pipes anymore. I have no data on the GeForce 6600 LEs but I'm assuming that they're mass produced crap.
If I need to spend more money than what I am, explain why. I've got to take what you give me to make my wife understand why I'm spending more than $100 in terms that she'll understand.
So far I've got:
AMD Athalon 64 3700+ San Diego core (scored extremly well at tomshardware)
ECS RS482-M Motherboard (wife found bundled with the proccessor at outpost.com for $240)
2GB of corsair 3200 ddr memory (frys had it for $100 day after christmas sale)
With this in mind I need to pick out the perfect video card to go with the collection of parts. Originally we were looking at spending $100 on video but I believe that I'll be needing more for this system as time progresses.
What are the most important factors when picking out a video card? Am I looking for pipes, memory speed, gpu speed, or amount of memory? I know that I want to stick to pci express so I made sure that the mobo supported it as my first consideration.
For price reasons I've been looking at the mostly x#00 ati chipsets and with all of the variations therein and have come up with a fairly short list:
Sapphire X800GTO2 256MB OEM $208
(unlockable to 16 pipes, but more than I'm willing to pay without a very good reason)
PowerColor x800GTO 16x 256mb retail $185
(16 pipelines but a little more than I want to pay, older chipset)
Sapphire x800PRO 256MB retail for $169 after rebate
(I've got no data on the GTO edition, how does it stack up to XT and PRO?)
Sapphire x800GTO 256 MB FireBlade Edition OEM for $160
(newer chipset, already overclocked, huge heat sink, will probably buy this one)
Sapphire x700 256 MB OEM for $102
(low end of the list do I really need more?)
Prices listed are from newegg as they seem to have the best deals on the net right now. If you know a cheaper price let me know.
I've ruled out the connect3D cards as they can't be unlocked to 16 pipes anymore. I have no data on the GeForce 6600 LEs but I'm assuming that they're mass produced crap.
If I need to spend more money than what I am, explain why. I've got to take what you give me to make my wife understand why I'm spending more than $100 in terms that she'll understand.
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