Needing helpful advice, buying GFX card

[Beouwulf]

I figure since my comp will primarily be for gaming, it would be the gamers who could give me the best advice on this. So, I appologize if this is not the correct place for this thread.

My system so far is a p4s800 ASUS mobo with a P4 2.4g, 2 512 DDR RAM sticks, using a 450watt PSU.

I'm trying not to spend more than 200$. What would be the best card for my dollar?

[Jason1971]

I assume that the MoBo is PCI Express..... I just recently pruchased an Geforce 7600GT (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130017) . This is a great card for the money.

Here is a great website created by Saphalline www.sheaiden.com/GraphCard.php (http://www.sheaiden.com/GraphCard.php) . I used his site to help me decide what card I was going to get.

Jason

[Beouwulf]

So I assume PCI *express* is better then AGP? Forgive my ignorance, but the last computer I built was in 97. Now I need to find out if my mobo is PCI express.
Anyway, I think you for the advice and links brother, will keep you posted on what I get.

[mjc]

PCIexpress is the new replacement technology for AGP/regular PCI. It is as far above PCI as AGP was above ISA...

[jlreich]

That mobo has an AGP 8x (1.5v) slot.

[saphalline]

Radeon X800 GTO or GeForce 6800 GS (if you can still find one).

[jlreich]

Yeah that's what I was thinking, but after looking at Newegg the pickings were kinda slim for the $200 range.

[Beouwulf]

I thank you all for your help. www.sheaiden.com Was very helpful as well.

I am thinking of going with the 7800 GS. I know it's going to be about 50$ over the range of what I was looking to spend, but it's important for me to have pixel shaders on the card.

Any thoughts?

[saphalline]

AGP is severely hurting in the pixel shader department. ATI has things moderately covered in that area with their X1600's in AGP versions. But of course everyone wants the 7800 GS with its high polygon-pushing power. It's up to you, but I don't consider the 7800 GS to be a good buy. Not enough performance per dollar when it comes to new shader-intensive games.

[athlonfan]

Here's a great Chaintech video card from Newegg.com:


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814145002

[saphalline]

That vid card won't work. It's PCIe, not AGP. And as far as I know, NVidia has no plans of putting the 7600 GT into an AGP version.