Question about gfx cards

not to gravedig but I've a question on video cards and saw no reason to make a new topic when this one suffices.

Currently my desktop has a Geforce 5900 ultra that seems to be doing fine. It handles Half Life 2 without any sort of real stress and I've never needed anything more. However, recent black friday ads say tha tbest buy is going to have the ati x700 256 mb card for 100 dollars. That's about 100 less than it's list price. Now I work at best buy so I have to be at the store anyway so it's not like I'm going to be fighting the masses just to get the card.

Do you think it's worth purchasing the card? Are there any compatibility issues involved in changing my desktop from a geforce to an ati?

Adding more complexity to it, I plan on upgrading my computer next year in a complete overhaul. So would it even be worth getting this card now instead of just waiting til next year around this time?

Comments, criticism, random flaming to boost post counts?

P.s. Ratty, I've a comp sci question i may be PM'ing you about later this week, hope you are ready for it :).
 
Since I've just assembled my new PC (as in: the harddisk is coming in this afternoon, and that's the last part), I've done a bit of research on this stuff. My conclusion was that the 6600 GT was the best bang for your buck, especially when you take the XFX version, which has 2xDVI.

In this case it depends entirely on the type of X700 you want. If it's a normal X700, don't do it. It isn't (much) better than your current cideocard, and the 256MB won't really help it, it can't do much with that amount of memory. Plus it seems that while the X700 performs on par with a 6600 GT in some games, it completely fails in others.
Furthermore, it seems $100 isn't really a low price, it's about the price it's available for here.

However, if we're talking about a X700 Pro, then I'd say that it might do you good. However, a generally really good rule when purchasing any form of computer parts is not to do it unless your current setup feels inadequate.
 
ATi Radeon X700 Pro 256MB GDDR3 AGP Graphics Card (AR) - $99.99

That's the card they're selling. I'm not sure on how my current setup is doing as I'm at college and just using my laptop. However, my brother has complained that our desktop has been slowing down lately, not sure if it' sthe vid card or just all the shit that's piled up on the comp.
 
If he's complaining it's slowing down, it has to be the shit piled up on your PC.

Since it's an X700 Pro, well, it's a good buy. It's a lot cheaper than normal, and the card is quite good. However, again, if the level your current video card is at isn't bothering you, upgrading is a waste of money, really.
 
I agree with Sander. X700 Pro may have a noticeable performance edge over GeForce 5900, but technologically they are roughly on the same level (if I'm not mistaken, they feature the same generation of shaders). My suggestion - save your money for a total system upgrade.
 
Upgrading my computer at the end of the month. Considering buying a GF 7800 EXTREEEEEME.

Thoughts?
 
$500 In the marvelous world of the Warsaw Electronics Market.

Don't mind the price, been saving for some time.
 
Do you have a PCI-E motherboard to go along with it? (Unless they started making AGP models, in which case ignore that) What processor are you going to be using it with? If it's an old computer you might as well get something cheaper because it will be bottlenecked by the rest of the system's performance, and if you're putting off upgrading the motherboard/processor for a while there will probably be a better card available for the same price by the time you upgrade.
 
Actually, when I meant "upgrading my computer", I meant dumping everything except the shiny new Eizo 21' CRT monitor, the sound card, the hard disks and the DVD/RW drive. :D

My PC is an old heap of scrap. It's a Celeron 633 with old 192MB SDRAM. The motherboard is antique as well. The Graphics card is a Ge Force 2 MX.

You get the drift. Going to get paid for a comission soon, and have savings. So I'll be buying myself a completely new rig. Pentium D processor, 2GB RAM and all.
Other than that, I need to upgrade the computer for professional and academical reasons, as I have to use something to work on Maya and 3DSmax pretty soon.
 
I'm not knowledgable about computers. I just got my computer upgraded too, with 6600 GT graphics, 1G ram and a better motherboard. Unfortunately my Pentium 4 processor stopped working for some reason and the technician replaced it with an equivalent Celeron one. What is the difference between Celeron and Pentium?
 
The difference is that celeron is a piece of shit. Seriously it's like they took a regular pentium and stripped everything from it leaving only the useless clock speed. In other words, you got fucked.

I also recently upgraded from a Duron 1800(yes, I know it's the AMD equivalent of the Celeron, what can I do, I'm poor.) to a AMD Athlon 64 1800+ with a kick-ass motherboard and a gig of ram.
 
Wooz: don't take an Intel processor. The AMD processors are a loot cooler, and it's coolers quieter, and consume much less energy. Add to that the fact that they perform better than Pentiums in a lot of things, getting a Pentium isn't really useful. Especially when considering they're usually more expensive as well.

If you want a really great upgrade, go for this:
Asus A8N-SLI motherboard
Geforce 7800 GTX 512MB
2048MB RAM
AMD Athlon 64 4000+

If you want a good PC for around $500 (exluding case and harddisks):
Asus A8N-E motherboard
Geforce 6600GT 128MB
1024MB RAM
Amd Athlon 3200+

Which is incidentally what I just got. ANd it works brilliantly,
 
Sander said:
If you want a good PC for around $500 (exluding case and harddisks):
Asus A8N-E motherboard
Geforce 6600GT 128MB
1024MB RAM
Amd Athlon 3200+

Which is incidentally what I just got. ANd it works brilliantly,
Click to expand...

That's pretty much the exact same setup I have except with a 3000+ and I'm completely happy with it.

About the Intel vs. AMD thing -If Wooz is going to be doing a lot of graphics work with it Intel might be the better choice, as I hear they perform better than AMD's in that area. Then again, the extra ram you could buy with the savings on an AMD might have more of an impact on that sort of task than the processor.
 
If he does a lot of graphics work (especially modelling / rendering), a dual-core Athlon is a much better choice than any Intel CPU. Pentium IV has no redeeming features at all nowadays.
 
64 bit will work on an XP, though I do have third-world programs on my computer that can't update for shit and detect this new software as Windows network or something along those lines. I don't know, my computer works so I'm happy.

I do have an SLI capable mobo with two 7800 GTX's, and you'll have to disable SLI mode every-once-in-awhile to play older games which crash when in SLI mode.

P.S. It fucking sucks that Fallout games won't work (except maybe Tactics, haven't tried) on my 64 bit XP without disabling a few things. I hate backwards incompetent/forwards incompetent software!
 
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