02-15-2005, 10:26 PM
Malakar,Feb 15 2005, 04:59 PM Wrote:I agree totally. I made the mistake of buying one of those for about 100$ a while back, and it sucked. Got a Radeon 9600 for about 10$ more and it was much better. I hear you need to be careful about the model of NVidia cards you get, they don't make it simple to get a good card.
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Not entirely true. ATi suffers from the same problems. However, NVidia's latest creations (the 6200) ARE a complete step backwards, which is a true shame. Up until now, they've been making leaps and bounds forwards. I don't know what they were thinking with them, nor the 5200, for that matter (which are actually BETTER than the 6200s!). At any rate, what people need to learn to do is do some RESEARCH before you buy something computer-related.
For example:
VGA Charts IV - Doom 3
GeForce 6600 GT AGP - Doom 3 HQ 0x AA, 8x AF
GeForce 6600 GT AGP - Doom 3 HQ 4x AA, 8x AF
These show you a good graphical analysis of the performance of many mid-to-high end video cards. The 6600 GT in AGP form is a very solid card for the money. The 6800, 6800 GT, and 6800 Ultra can't be beat, but they also cost a lot more. The gap between the 6800 and the 6800 GT is far wider than between the GT and Ultra, mostly because the GT runs at vastly higher clock speeds and has more pipelines (although the others can be unlocked in the plain 6800 - just don't expect to get GT-like clock speeds ;)).
For the future, bookmark Tom's Hardware Guide. It's an incredible resource for all things computer-related, and their video card segments are top-notch.
Roland *The Gunslinger*