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Shopping for DX9 at about the $200 price point

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jackrungh

Member
Joined
Apr 30, 2004
As I see it the obvious choice in price vs performance here is the x1950xt 512 if ATI is considered. The 256 is a good bit cheaper but wouldn't I be correct in saying the 512 will give the card more staying power as it begins to become insufficient?

So thats decided on unless one of you has an alternate view, but I cannot really ignore the recent price drops from nvidia, specifically the 8800GTS 320. On all the benches I've seen, it is significantly faster than the x1950xtx even. My question is, can I run it in XP with DX9, and have the option to upgrade when situations might change, or is it not backwards-compatible?
 
The 8800 series is fully backwards compatible. They work just fine with XP and DX9. If you are looking for staying power, then you definitely want something like the 8800GTS. It's going to take a little bit before DX10 becomes mandatory to play the latest games, but it will happen.
 
Well look at it this way. What resolution do you plan on using? Do you tend to use alot of AA?

High resolution (1600x1200 or 1680x1050 and up) 512meg will help out a lot. COH is a prime example of this.

Lower resolutions the 256 and 320meg card won't hurt at all or won't show really any drop in performance. Totally up to you but if at 1280x1024 I'd say the 8800GTS 320meg might be a nice performer, if higher resolution thats a tough to decide between but if you could get a 8800GTS 640Meg thats what I'd concider or the X19xx cards. If you wait til next month might see price drops and see what the ATI offering has as well can look at all the second hand cards in the classifieds at that time as well.
 
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