New Gaming Rig

[Dove]

I'm thinking a 3850.

I'm still sticking with Ati.

 

[Finesse]

Ive got the hd 3850 agp and it runs my games fantastic and was cheap. Its the best card my pc can have. Only got a amd 3000 with 1.5 gb ddr400 ram.

I went overboard with this video card fully knowing my pc wont be able to use its full performance, but for only $200 Canadian i couldn't go wrong. Now i can play my games full blast

 

[Phil the Nuka-Cola Dude]

Is the 8800GT really that bad, I'm not interested in overclocking and the 8800GTS seems to be hard to get here at the moment.

What over nvidia cards are worth getting for gaming?

If you aren't interested in overclocking (~20% performance increase for 2 minutes of work), you might as well get a low-end card like the 8600.


There is no reason to buy a high-end card if you aren't going to overclock it (Like buying a corvette when you don't drive over 40).

 

[Kyuu]

Is the 8800GT really that bad, I'm not interested in overclocking and the 8800GTS seems to be hard to get here at the moment.

No, it's really not bad at all. However, the price gap between them and the 8800GTS is small and you get faster core, memory, and shader clocks (especially on the overclocked versions, obviously) and more shaders. It's really worth the small premium to just go for the GTS instead.

There is no reason to buy a high-end card if you aren't going to overclock it (Like buying a corvette when you don't drive over 40).

Rather a flawed analogy. A more pertinent analagy would be like saying it's not worth it to buy a Corvette unless you're going to modify it to go even faster. Which, of course, makes little sense.

My policy on overclocking is that you should only do it if you're unhappy with the quality/performance you're getting. If you can play a game at the resolution and quality you want at an acceptable frame-rate with the CPU/GPU at clock speeds, there's no reason to overclock unless you're the type who overclocks just for bragging rights. Also, overclocking makes your parts run hotter, so you're either risking overheating and shortening the life of your parts just for a relatively small performance gain, or you're buying expensive cooling solutions... when you could've just used the money you're spending on that to buy better stock parts in the first place. Overclocking is usually best done to eek more performance out of an aging component in lieu of replacement, I think.

 

[requiem_for_a_starfury]

There are people who like messing around under the hood as much if not more than the actual driving. I'm not one of them, if we were talking about tuning to make it more energy efficient I'd be all for that, but increasing performance? I'd rather just get a more powerful machine out of the box.

How does the 9800GTX compare? Is it a waste without an sli compatible motherboard?

 

[ZiggyMeister]

I ended up getting this
because 3ghz processor. Will I regret?

Well I can't see anything other than that it's a 3GHz Pentium 4 with Hyperthreading, an 80 GB hard drive, and 1GB of RAM. In all honesty, with your limited budget and low expectations, I'd say that's fine, though perhaps not... optimal. The only thing I'd be concerned about is that it might be an AGP motherboard, rather than a PCIe. But, still...

I managed to scare up 65 more dollars, so what are my options in regards to video cards on that budget?

Well, if the motherboard uses AGP, then this Radeon 2600 HD Pro is your best bet (HIS isn't exactly a well-known brand, but it's got dual-slot cooling, which is always nice if it fits in your case, 512MB of RAM, and the best core/memory clock speeds). If it's PCIe, then a Radeon 2600XT. Again, I wouldn't really recommend such low end cards, but if you really can't get any more money together and really want to be able to run San Andreas and SH4, those cards should probably manage it. Don't expect much if you ever try more recent games on it though.

Unfortunately the video card is useless until I get an LHF to VGA splitter or whatever that is, so I am stuck with my 2mb Trident.

I'm willing to bet whatever video card came with that HP is absolute garbage and not worth the effort, especially if you have to get a splitter to connect VGA to it.

@Kyuu

I think you made a small mistake there, you suggested 2 PCI-express video cards...
And your concern turns to be true, because according to the manual of that HP workstation it has 5 PCI sockets and a AGP socket (I couldn't find if it is AGP 4X or 8X, though).

@Xavierblazer

I guess you should have waited after the Buddhist monk set you free and read the replies on this thread, before buying anything, because in my opinion you would be better served with my initial suggestion and after a few months you could upgrade it with a better and dedicated video card. Of course it would crush your budget, but I think it would be a better investment...

As for the PC you now own and $65 US dollars budget, I suggest you the following video cards:
1st: ASUS Radeon HD 2600PRO 512MB: $69.99 after mail in rebate
2nd: HIS Radeon X1650PRO 512MB: $59.99 after mail in rebate
3rd: HIS Radeon X1650PRO 512MB: $49.99 after mail in rebate

In my country (Portugal), we have a popular saying: "The virtue is in the middle!", and it is applicable in several differently situations and I guess that it applies to the 2nd of this 3 video cards (it's in middle regarding price, specifications, performance, compromise, ...).

BTW: You should spank that MF Buddhist Monk that kidnapped you

 

[Phil the Nuka-Cola Dude]

My policy on overclocking is that you should only do it if you're unhappy with the quality/performance you're getting. If you can play a game at the resolution and quality you want at an acceptable frame-rate with the CPU/GPU at clock speeds, there's no reason to overclock unless you're the type who overclocks just for bragging rights.

Also, overclocking makes your parts run hotter, so you're either risking overheating and shortening the life of your parts just for a
relatively small performance gain, or you're buying expensive cooling solutions... when you could've just used the money you're spending on that to buy better stock parts in the first place.

The Point
------------
Your Head

More proof that not only are you completely ignorant of even the basics of overclocking, but about PC hardware in general. You are NEVER in danger of overheating if you can read and follow directions in a simple tutorial, and do you have ANY clue on how long it takes a card to burn out? No? Didn't think so (Protip: Years).

Wanna know what a 9800 GTX is? It is an 8800 GTS 512 with the memory overclocked, a slightly different bios, and a different sticker.

Please don't tell me that you're actually suggesting that someone spends ~300 dollars more on the ultra version of a graphics card when they can tweak their own to run at the exact same speeds for free. How naive can you be?

The point is to get more out of your parts, and sorry hun, but if you knew anything about hardware and purchased a case with decent airflow and tied back the cables, your card is going to be cool and quiet.

My GPU-Z (bottom right of the screen is my GPU temp).




As you can see, my card is overclocked and running at 55c. But wait, I'm running on stock-cooling... the temp MUST be wrong, because you can only get low temps with expensive cooling amirite?

G92 boards are safe up until a little over 90c, and I never go above 65 even in the most intense games with the fan at 60%.

Overclocking is usually best done to eek more performance out of an aging component in lieu of replacement, I think.

No.




Moral of the story: Overclocking is incredibly easy, the tutorials show even the most computer illiterate person (I'm looking at you, Kyuu) how to get your system absolutely FLYING.

If you've got the money to spend on a high-end component, you're doing yourself a disservice if you aren't squeezing every last drop of speed out of it.


*edit*

This post came off kind of mean, no offense Kyuu