Best video card for $340

[brownbox]

Say I had this much money (which I dont, but can get it if theres an amazingly good reason), what would be a good card? 8800's are around 470, so far too much out of my range.

ATi? Nvidia?

So far, i see either the Radeon X1950 or the Geforce 7950.

[Timmo]

Ive got a NVidia 8600 GTS- Super which, from memory was around the $350 mark?

512MB memory, 1210 Khz Memory Clock, 880 mhz core clock...usually run it a bit lower than that though as it gets unstable.....probably need to get updated drivers

[brownbox]

Hmmm alright, Im gonna get two 8600GT's and some decent coolers, then overclock them and run them SLI. My current 8600GT is a bit of a dog to overclock, so I selling it to a friend

[creator2003]

if you are getting two gts you mite aswell put that moneys together and get a 8800 ultra and not worry about all the overclocking you do ,i mean what is the point overclocking it if the one 8800 can do just as much not o/c ,,running SLI are you running double moniters ??? triple head to go ?? i mean what are you going to achive anyway by doing all this ,,
$340 well id get the 8600gts .
are you still running vista ?? as you would need too, to get the full out of any 800 series card ,i got mine due to the fact the clock speeds where higher ,not that im running the cr@p vista yet but when i do im ready and the card will be "well who knows by then ?"

so i suppose what im saying is that you must get your system running vista again to run your card right ,and it wont matter how much overclocking you do it wont help if you dont have no1 done "vista "
timmo im using the 163. beta drivers at the moment and seem to be better than what i could fined out there for me card ...
good luck BB but save and go for the big boys card 8800 and there should be no need for the overclocking and cooling as its right up there with all of that already ..
mike

[brownbox]

Keep in mind that I enjoy overclocking and tweaking. Also keep in mind that an 8600GTS is a GT with higher clock speeds, with double the price.

Also, im running XP.

[creator2003]

Actully mine was like $260 from overseas about 2 months ago , and yeah i havent fogotten ,dont forget i was overclocking before you started with nzff or a good machine "i think i even gave you the same advice back then "
Overclocking is a richmans sport or a poor man trying to get better out of cr@p hardware ,i know you like tinkering but if you put all that into good hardware etc and didnt o/c you would have a pretty dam good puter ... one that works and is relible in everyway ..i stopped o/c when i got better cards and cpu there is just no point to it anymore if i have the same if not better system than when i was overclocking the snot out of it ..
if you are a rich man so be it , some extra cpus and g/cards on the dump pile down the back of the farm wont be much on your carbon footprint will it ...

8600gts is like one of the best overclockers with its high 675 /1000 that "over clocked is like 720 something /1020 something i forget ,but for price and wack zal sink on it with the mods it screems ...

[brownbox]

i see myself half way between a richman and a poor man. I am not the richest guy, so I am getting the budgetest best overclocking system so I can make it fast. Then again, I do have the money to replace an accidentally broken component. So yeah.

I also want to try out SLI. Never tried it before, but it looks like a bit of fun. Twice the number of cards. Twice the fun.


Also, I try to overclock my stuff within reasonable limits. E.g, CPU to 3ghz, not to 3.5-3.6 like some people do, so this way it is still running at the same voltage, with the same amount of heat produced. Same with the RAM. People overclock it to 800 or even 1000mhz, but I am keeping mine at 1 speed up. The graphics card is similar. I try to get to the next model up, but I dont go overboard and start volt modding them and all that

[creator2003]

all good dude you know me have to just say what i feel ,you guys are lucky i hold myself back yeah ive been thinking of the SLI but a triple head to go mite be better for what i do with me pc ,,
keep us informed on what you do in the end ,,

[brownbox]

Ok change of plans. Everyones out of stock with the cheap 8600gt's, and the further down the list I go in price spy, the more expensive they get. I am slowly getting towards $400 now, and I really dont have half a grand to spend

I have come down to two options
1. 8600GTS- A nice 8600GTS with a really nice cooler will fit my budget
2. A X1950 Pro- Same as above. Which one?

[creator2003]

id go the 8600gts because it had better reviews and i know you like your o/cing ,,try buying offshore i got my one of ebay from ozzy land for like 280 all up with postage ..
but only my opinion dude as i havent had the other card in my puter so would know how it runs ..

[brownbox]

Yeah, definately not the radeon. Absolutely no overclocking on that thing, and the coolers mean to be junk... really not my cup of tea. Also, no SLI for later on.

Another card just entered my options.
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/948/nvidi...ocks/index.html

Perhaps one of these and a cooler to match? Ill keep you informed.

Man I love shopping...