Video Card Selector

Video Card Guide

MY VIDEO CARD GUIDE

If you are having are hard time deciding on a video card to buy

replacing an old one, especially something like a ,"Ti4200," then your in luck.

This post will help you.

1.- What to consider
How much performance do I need and what for

How much can I spend?

Is it worth it to get a little lower end card to do something like a ram

upgrade etc?
How long do I plan on keeping the card?

Will I overclock it and if so, how much?

Am I for Nvidia,Ati, or even Matrox?
2.- Take your time!

If a site like newegg has something like a, "ONE DAY SALE," and the price is l

owered dramatically, don't believe it. About a week ago, Newegg droped the


9800PRO AIW 128MB from I think $245 to $239 and it said, " One day sale."

Its still the same price now. Keep in mind that things that say, " One day

sale," means the distributor has a hard time selling it item. Also, RESEARCH

before you buy. Trust me, you don't research and ask people about the card

who are owners and own it how the card is, then you are taking a SERIOUS

gamble.
3.- My video card helper

Perhaps, this will help everyone on the site on which video card to choose for

them whether upgrading or building a new system
ATI CARDS

9200- A ok card but doesn't support Direct X 9 to begin with. You can't

have that. Get a 5200 or 5200 ULTRA instead. This card just doesn't have

enough pep but the 5200 isnt a great choice either.

9500-9700- Preety good cards, and, support direct x 9. Not a bad deal for

the money, especially the 9700PRO. Those are nice cards but not high-end

like they first were when they came out almost 3 years ago I believe. The

9600 Series is the middle of ATI's lineup offering fair performance at an

excellence price. It crushes Nvidia's FX series.

9800 series- This is the card everyone is talking about. 2 years ago it was

$500 and now, sub $200. These are very nice cards but don't support

Pixelshader 3.0 which is bad for future games if you plan on keeping the

card. Also, these cards get HOT, so make sure you have plenty of cooling.

Adding a VGA silencer to one of these cards isnt a bad idea. If PS 3.0

doesn't bother you, go for it, but keep in mind you are getting old

archetecture but not yet ancient. Pixel shader 3.0 won't be activated for a while but when it is if you plan on keeping the card, it will come in handy with that extra support. Also be advised that if you get a 9800PRO or 9800NP and you have proper cooling, its preety easy to flash it to a 9800XT.

x800-x850- The x800 is also a great deal with 12-16 pipelines, but, where is

PS3. All that money and no PS3 support? Cmon, I think the 6800 series that

Nvidia makes is certainly a much better choice. But, the cards also get VERY

Hot but are top top of the line. Phenomenal image quality and super fast.

ATI though please note addressed the PS3 problem when the will release the

x850 series. Basically from what I've heard, the x850 is a supercharged x800

with PS3 support. I think that the x850 beats the 6800 series preety badly

but these babys get HOTT! So becareful, have lots of cooling
Nvidia

Mx-5200- run of the mill, not so great but a bang for buck. Depends on what you're doing.

5500-5900 Same image quality as 5200, just faster and faster and faster


after each model in the FX series.

6200-6600 series- GREAT cards! Bang for buck, image quality. Great middle-

highend cards (the 6600GT and on atleast). Keep in mind that the 6600GT

AGP or PCI-E are EXCELLENT choices.

6800 - The 6800 is gonna be replaced with the 6600GT but still not a bad

card if all you are looking for is image quality. the 6800GT is phenomenal with

image quality and speed. Also gets very HOT! The 6800 Ultra no offence

but in my opinion is a waste of $. Its like a overclocked 6800GT. A 6800LE can be unlocked with the extra pipes to make it to a 6800NU sometimes depending on the manufacturer and a 6800NU can also unlock pipes very easily to make it like a 6800GT.
OVERCLOCKING TIPS

Tip Number 1- Don't overclock a card more than over 65 Megahertz. I

learned the lesson when I had a 5200 Ultra and it fryed.

Tip Number 2- Make sure your card can overclock. ATI cards have a

tendency to softmod really easily like a 9800NP or a 9800PRO into XT but d

don't overclock nearly as well as Nvidia cards. Nvidia cards can't be

softmodded to my intelligence but I know the 5900XT or a 5900 sometimes

will softmod to a 5950 Ultra but doesn't always work.


Tip Number 3- Use Coolbits 3. Best overclocking software and most reliable.

Lets you test your settings to see if it will work or not but be aware that it is not always 100% accurate.
GOOD MANUFACTURERS
Sapphire
EVGA
Chaintech
Asus
Abit
XFX
ATI
BFG
AOPEN
ALTABARTON
CONNECT 3D
ELSA
GAINWARD
GIGABYTE
HIGHTECH
INFOTEK (they are ok but not the best)
LEADTEK
MSI
PROLINK
PNY (Ok but for the highest price in mediocore quality its not worth it)
Chelistica
Powercolor is ok. They softmod very easily be advised though.

BAD MANUFACTURERS
Jaton
Jetway
Amigo
Biostar
Transcend
Visiontek (But not the worst)


I hoped I helped you with my guide.

ok

I finished my article does it qualify to be in a sticky? Its the Video card selector.

u might wanna edit that so it looks a lil neater...then ill read it and decide if it should be a sticky and u might want to note about OC abilities...like about the 9800's how some can be flashed into XTs...and stuff like that ,good luck ! ---and also some more info on nvidia...nice job so far on ATI though!

Yup, tidy it up some and we'll see from there

JigPu

*merged with "ok" to keep redundant comments on it to a minimum (since the comments belong in this thread)*

JigPu

i personally like this post, probably going to get the 6600 gt once it goes down in price after the christmas rush

is

is this gonna be made as a sticky? I revised it

okay spacing looks good...now u just need some dividers and underlining so its easy to pick out important words/model names

ok

hows it now?

i hate to say this but i don't really think its that groundbreaking, mostly just common knowledge...the ati cards aren't that hard to decide what kind of performance they have....they are numbered.....higher = better

until there is something that goes WAY more in depth or is at least on something a little more creative i don't see it being necessary as a sticky.

this is just coming from somebody who reads alot of sticky's and my opinion shouldn't hold alot of weight, but im sure some would agree.

What about Powerstrip. or ATITOOL, or even RADLINKER for overclocking tools

also i wouldn't recommend writing things for the purpose of being a "sticky". Write things that are intelligent and conprehensive and informative and it will become a sticky on its own.

and saying "don't overclock over 65 mhz" isn't very informative

ok

ok sorry, o well, its not a tradegy that it cant become a sticky

I'd encourage you to keep tweaking this... if you can make a concise, accurate, easy to read guide to all of your listed cards it'll certainly be sticky worthy (stickies should transmit the "common knowledge" of the question takers to the question givers)...

keep up the good work, and on the side i'd recommend NOT throwing in a lot of pricing figures, since those guarantee your sticky will become outdated/inaccurate pretty quickly... it would be much better to give comments on performance, and on overclockability (perhaps recommending certain vendors for certain cards), and to give a link to pricegrabber.com/xbitlabspricesearchthingy beside each card to let the person reading look up the prices at any given moment for that card, and to use that to determing price to performance...

Use bold to make it easlier to skim through the thread, you might want to write this on a word processor and then just paste it on here.

Okay, i do not think that a 5200 should be suggested at all for ANY situation.. i would rather take a TI4600 over a Fx5200 or hey if your in that price range (~100) get the 9550 which goes for 100 i think..

about PS3.0 I know, i was leaning torwards that in my purchase, but i found out and realized, its just a marketing gimic! seriously, okay far cry is the one exception because its the only game that uses ps3, but then again in far cry it is only used in certain situations and those situations i read couldve been compatcted into shorter code which could have potentially used ps2. so no game has effectivly used ps3 to its full potential YET.

what about ati?

and

what about brand manufacturers (ex. BBA... BFG..)

i would still say the 6800NU has great potential (like the 9800pro and 5900) in that it can possibly be flashed to a higher level. the 6800 can unlock its "hidden" pipelines/vertex pixels but its not garunteeded to work, but they do have a high success rate.

Yes the 5900xt, nu, U can be flashed to the 5950 bios and some 6800nu's are able to be softmodded to open more pipes vertex shaders.

If your not supposed to go over 65hertz(mhz is the abreviation you are looking for) then my card should die considering I did over 110mhz on the core. If you have an ATI card I would reccomend using the ATI tool as it has alot of nifty features such as Artifact scanning.

Finally remember if you write a sticky you MUST MUST MUST update it whenever possible.