Hello, Little Help please.

[Nuc]

I have a friend thats going to be buying a new video card shortly. He wants to go with the 5900 for sure.

http://www.buyxtremegear.com/gainward5900.html Is the card hes currently looking at.

He doesnt have to much money to be spending. He just wants a lil more expert help. I have the 5900 ultra myself and its amazing card I must say.

He has 1 of 3 choices.
1. Get the http://www.buyxtremegear.com/gainward5900.html
2. Save up a lil more maybe and go with a 5900 ultra
3. Or he could go with the 5900 128 mb.

The 128 mb is still a amazing card and will run most any game great down the line even the 256 mb games, He wont need the extra 128 mb for some time anyhow and that would save a bunch of money.

[Bailey]

The 128 mb is still a amazing card and will run most any game great down the line even the 256 mb games, He wont need the extra 128 mb for some time anyhow and that would save a bunch of money
That pretty much sums it up, the extra 128 isn't to useful at the moment. Also factor in how long he intends to keep the card, it may be useful before he wants to upgrade.

IMHO the best deal on a 5900 is this -

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-143-008&catalog=48&depa=1

More than likely this card will do Ultra+ speeds.

[theflyingrat]

If it's an SE model, the core may do Ultra speeds, but the memory almost will definitely not. If it's an SE (XT, whatever name manufacturers are giving it nowadays,) it probably only has a memory clock of 700 MHz. If you make it to 800 with that, you're lucky. But it will still slaughter any available card for that price. The only thing that will be better for under $200 is the $199 Radeon 9700s from multiwave.

I was pretty lucky to get into the game when Newegg had the Albatron FX5900s for $199 - stock 400 core, 850 memory, and it runs 460 core, 950 memory for as long as I want it to. Now, all that seems to be available for that price are the 390 or 400 core cards with the 700 MHz memory.

edit : just read another post - is the BFG card for $175 really a 400/850 card? That's a fantastic deal, if so...

[Bailey]

edit : just read another post - is the BFG card for $175 really a 400/850 card? That's a fantastic deal, if so...

Yep, here's the link to the product's BFG's web page:

http://www.bfgtech.com/5900_redux.html

And I thought I got a steal w/ an XFX 400/800 @ $189 a couple of months ago. This card @ this price is a great deal.

[YellowDart]

WOW! That's an amazing deal. That card will do 5900u speeds easily. If you've got decent cooling and a little luck, it could even approach 5950 speeds...