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Video Card - Good enough?
Osirus28
Member Posts: 23
Ok. Well I plan on buying a new desktop soon and don't know which Video Card to buy. I won't be using a monitor, but a HDTV so my max resolution will be 1366 x 768. What DX10 card do you recommend? Im basically stuck between the 8600GTS and 8800GTS (320mb) I know the 8800 is better, but is overkill for what I need? (Planning on playing MMO's like Gods and Heroes, AoC and WAR and a few RTS for a few years, but will probably ugprade later down the road) at 1366 x 768 resolution? Oh, and sorry if this isn't the place for this question.
New Computer:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5400+
2GB RAM
8800GTS (320mb) / 8600GTS
Comments
The 8800 GTS definitely isn't overkill, and I'd recommend it. I have a 8600GT and I am perfectly happy with it, but I will need to upgrade in about a year or so, whereas you wouldn't really have to.
My rule of thumb when buying new 3D cards is to buy the 2nd best in the market. That way you get the best bang for your buck and don't overpay and still get top quality hardware that will last you for a while. Let's face it, the way that the gaming hardware is going they're rushing out new cards every 6-8 months and things get obsolete before most of the hardware wears out. For the past 8 years of gaming NONE of my cards ever broke but was replaced whenever they can't play the new games. If you want DX10 cards 8800 is a good buy, the new ATI Radeon X2400 is the next generation card with DX10 support. Personally I don't see DX10 getting mainstream for the next 2-3 years (the standard right now is still DX9) ... the best buy (best bang for your buck) in the market right now is the Nvidia Geforce 8 card (8800) and the ATI Radeon X1900 series.
Hehe. Well I come from a ATI Radeon x300/550 and CoX and WoW looked fine to me. Dunno what resolution I played at though. So I bet both of those are a HUGE improvement over what I have now. If I was to buy a Radeon x1950, how long do you think that would last me graphically? Saving money is always good, but also if I get it, I'll have money to buy something better than the 8800GTS if I wanted to.
As another thought, I won't be playing any FPS, (which I assume would be the fastest to integrate DX10), just MMO's (90%) and Real-time strategies (10%). All the other gaming goes to my consoles.
EDIT: Also keep in mind this is a 1366 x 768 MAX resolution
Liddokun's "second best" rule of thumb is a good one. I have a 640mb 8800GTS, and it's overkill for World of Warcraft and City of Heroes, even at 1680x1050 resolution, but it's going to be exactly what I need for running the upcoming games like Warhammer and Age of Conan. It might even let me play Vanguard one day.
I recommend spending the extra money for a more powerful card. If it's more than you need right now, it's going to be that much longer before you need to replace it. Mine should keep me going for another two years, at which point I'll get sick of playing 2009's MMOs at the lowest video settings and upgrade.
Well the reason I wasn't so sure about getting 8800GTS 320 is since these are 1st generation DX10 cards, and there are no DX10 games out, there's nothing to test them with. Now when the Nvidia 9xxx series and Ati x3xxx come out (6 months MAX) won't they play DX10 games better? And since there's really no reason for DX10 right now, I could get excellent performance out of DX9 cards for a cheaper price, and ultimately get a better DX10 card once I actually need it?
lol. Im so confused on what to get.
If you have no intention at all to play dx10 games, you could just go for a high end 7-series geforce or equivelant ATi. I'd recommend against it though. What you have is a pretty good system, and with anything less than a 8800 or (or, again, equivelant ATi), it'd pretty much seem like a chokepoint in your system. Then again, if you plan to upgrade in a year like I plan to, a 8600 would suffice. Do remember that a 8800 is literally twice as good as a 8600. But it's also twice as costly.
It's really up to you.
Oh, and about the 8600 series, how does it's performance relate to the ATI x1900 series?
I personally don't have any experience with the x1900, but I assume they're about equal. I stopped using ATi at x800 and haven't recently seen any benchmarks with both the x1900 and the 8600 in it. Personally, I like Nvidia more though, even though I've previously ran through two generations of ATi cards, I find the Nvidia drivers to be better.
But here's a handy guide for you to read through, I hope it'll help.
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/06/11/the_best_gaming_video_cards_for_the_money/
You have to remember that Monitors are HD. So switching to an HD-TV really isn't anything special.
On actual cards though. The 8800 and HD2900 just outperform everything else on the market right now. But I am hearing from some people to wait. One reason is that the 8xxxx line was released a bit too early and that even though it can run DX10, it might not have enough functionality. While the 2900 has driver issues, and runs hot while also only being a mid-range card. It does however have some features that should be in the card in the near future as the drivers are worked on. If you really just want a card right now, then I would get the 8800 GTS that has 640 MB DDR3 ram. Unlike the GTX it won't run you close to $600 or more, just incase it goes outdated. However, using the 8600 is also a good idea if you want to mill it out and not go over a $200 price tag while also getting a DX10 card until they work out the kinks in the 2900 or come out with the 9xxxx line.