So many cards, so little time X'(

[xXTomXx]

Well I just got a *decent* computer and need a video card. I have some knowledge on video cards but here's my question:

What graphic card company makes the best/most reliable cards in the market today? Keeping in mind price. For example the two most influential companies ATI and Nvidia.

I could reasearch all day, but nothing beats some public opinions.

Thx. :p

[Durrthock]

Ati and Nvidia aren't video card companies they make the chips that power the cards. The cards are made by outside companies like Powercolor and Evga.

So recommended companies Would be Evga , BFG Tech , and XFX
What kind of power are you looking for and what kind of money can you spend?

[simon275]

The cards with the best power to price ratio are the X1950 PRO and the X1900Gt. They are mid level cards that still pack a punch. They are ATI cards.

If you have deep pockets get a X8800 Card they are the top of the pops.

[Arden]

i just bought a bfg 7950 GT (-:

[isunktheship]

I used to use ATI, and had a bunch of problems, now I use NVidia. Both companies are great, so... just compare stats and buy your card. You want something thats fast(high memory as well as clock), uses PCI-E (16x), and has a decent number of pixel pipelines, for instance from cards have 4, my card has 24(Geforce 7900GT). I would recommend my card, I pull 100 fps in every source game I play.

[ESX]

It took me about a month to get my card.
Heres the process:
1) Decided on the x1600 without even looking at other ones. Price/quality is the reason.
2) Seen that x1600XT is available, why the heck not?
3) Oh look, they've got x1650 PRO for the same price, why not compare? decided on the x1650 at this point.
4) Performance tests on various websites just made me chose the 7600GT.
5) Went to the store, and whadya know? They're out of it, so I took the 7900GS and Im so happy with it :)

[Arden]

that was a little bit gay when you could have just gotten the performance tests and bought it online?

[ESX]

that was a little bit gay when you could have just gotten the performance tests and bought it online?
If youre talking about me, look at my location. Online computer stores here = evil.

[Arden]

OOps my bad. your totally right.

[monoflap]

It's hard to recommend a card (hah that rhymed) on the eve of directX 10. If you can wait, I would get a DX 10 card when Ati releases theirs and prices drop. If you need one now, I think the geforce 7 cards are very good. They aren't outragousley expensive, they get good fps in games (granted you have a decent cpu) and the drivers are good (every once and a while they screw up) Ati has good bang for the buck at the mid to low end but their drivers are flaky.

[bartvandenberg]

when it comes to buying a a new video card, you should always keep one thing in mind. and thats a NVIDIA chip.

Ive done a TON of video card research, online, reviews and from personal experiences, either myself or from people i know, and i constantly come back to the same conclusion and that is nvidia has the better card.

now.. brand names of cards
you have so many choices when it comes to what brand of card you want. most of that is personal preference, but. you should be able to set apart the good companies from the bad

recommended companies are

evga, asus, gigabyte and xfx

Other companies

BFG, 3D fuzion, MSI, Leadtek, PNY

but.. now keep in mind that most graphics card makers use the same chips, whether they be infineon chips or the like, so.. you can say there is a HUGE difference, but. i would personally never buy a video card from the later companies i listed.

And before i make too many people angry ill say that I'm sure ATI makes a decent chip, but.. since noone can get/make drivers to run them properly, whats the point. its like having a car, but it only drives well on certain roads..

I will praise nvidia till they die. From personal experience, and reading reviews.

and.. about the new geforce 8800 gts/gtx cards...sure they are dx10 capable, but.. do you know of any game that supports it? or is even planning on comin out supporting it within the next 6 months? i dont. So.. really, but. the time dx10 is being used, the 8800 cards will be next to obselete.

so.. with all this jibberish said (and i hope you make some sense of all my incoherent thoughts) ill leave you with a great recommendation

evga 7950gt 512mb 256 bit . you can search around, and get a really good deal on them, and they kick ass.


If you dont like the price, just make sure you get a card with at least 16 pixel rendering pipelines (preferably more, not less) .. a 7900gt works too(20 pipelines). if you really want to cheap out, and get a mid card, the 7600gt is still a decent card, but only 12 pipelines, and 128bit interface


Oh yah, and just so you know, for gaming, regardless of what everyone seems to think, your cpu is a small percentage. i say 50% for gpu, 25% cpu and 25% ram. i dont get any better frame rates goin from a 2ghz cpu to a 3ghz cpu, so... it cant be that noticeable

[monoflap]

Well Bart, there are somethings on which I agree and somethings I disagree with. First of all, about the 8800's. There are a number of big games coming out soon. Flight Simulator X is already out and Crysis which is scheduled for May, and Enemy Territory Quake Wars a little later down the road just to name a few. Also, vista which will include dx10 will be out by January so Dx10 will be used plenty in a span of 6 months. Of course these cards are ridiculously expensive so it would be wise to wait for ati to release their dx10 cards and prices drop. But to be completely honest, spending money on any dx9 card so close to dx10 is just silly. But if you must, I wouldn't get anything for more than 200 bucks. Those matters aside, I agree Nvidia has proven to be far more reliable as a company. I sorry I've kind of ripped on you bart its nothing personal, just trying to help him make the best choice :up: .

[Ronyx]

i too agree with some things and disagree with others. For instance:

Prices dropping is a lie. Prices WILL NOT drop for a good 4 or so months. Unless a next generation video card comes out then you can forget about buying an 8800GTX for 500$ (and next gen vid cards come out every 6-9 months)

I am on the verge of buying a 8800GTX card and am having NO second thoughts. I know that they will not become "obsolete" quickly and if you believe that it is best to buy a 7600GT now and wait for 9000 series then you will be waiting for teh rest of your life. 8800GTX is a future proof card which will keep me going for a minimum of a year among the finest and top end GFX cards on the market.

With the percentages it varies greatly for different games. You will see different reliabilities between games like Quake 4 and F.E.A.R. Quake 4 will depend more on AI and speed meaning it will rely on teh CPU for calculations and such. With FEAR it will go for the GPU because of the high intensity graphics. Here pipelines and DDR3 + Mobo RAM matter.

If i was going to buy a decent graphcis card i would say something like:
6800 Series (100$ price range)
7600 Series (300$ price range)
7900 Series (400-500$ price range)

[Redundant]

If i was going to buy a decent graphcis card i would say something like:
6800 Series (100$ price range)
7600 Series (300$ price range)
7900 Series (400-500$ price range)

Are you sure about that? Those prices seem awfully bloated. It's more along the lines of this:

6800 Series ($100 price range)
7600 Series ($140 price range)
7900 Series ($200 to $250 price range)

At least that's how it is on NewEgg...

[Ronyx]

really? well i have to get all my cards from a retailer and not online. my parents won't let me coz they keep saying it would be too much trouble and lots of risk. what if the card isn't up to scratch or is completley busted. that type of stuff.
Here in AU the prices are TOTALLY outrageous. they want me to pay 1600$ for a X6800..... and the E6700 is 750$. That's the sorta prices you would expect to pay in AU.

[Omega]

[QUOTE=Ronyx;61603]what if the card isn't up to scratch or is completley busted. that type of stuff. [QUOTE]

Then you RMA it ;)