help me select a GPU

[soupnatizzle]

well ive desided on almost everything exept the videocard, ive narrowed it down but im just not imformed enouph to make a final desition.
this is what the card must have/do

300 dollars is the general price tag, ill go over or under if i must.

must work well with the MOBO i plan to get ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131013)

best blend of performance and stability.

thats about it, there are just so many cards out there and i cant figure out which one is right for me..

[Fred_Flintstone]

Take a look a Saphallines' Stickies on the subject.. ;)

Click Here (http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?t=47398)
Scroll down to Video Cards.. :p

[soupnatizzle]

i did, im looking at the cards i just dont understand, there are two geforce 7900s but one is 40 dollars more.. im confused..

[madad2005]

The more expensive one if pre-overclocked and comes with warranty to cover it and the other doesn't. Considering the 7900GT is sh*t-hot anyway, why would you bother trying to overclock it any further? Overclocking is only required when you are playing a very demanding game, and you need just a few more fps to get smooth gameplay (ie. to take 20fps to 25fps). If you are already getting 50fps in a game, you don't need overclocking. Tom's hardware guide has an excellent list of graphics card performance at all price ranges, but I'd say just go for the cheapest 7900GT that you can find (which happens to be the xfx card at newegg.com).

[saphalline]

The more expensive one has higher clock speeds. It's even more OC'ed than the cheaper one. Keep in mind these aren't the only options you should consider for a vid card, they're just some shining examples that I picked at the time I updated the sticky. Nearly all 7900 GT's are factory OC'ed (due to the overclockability of the GPU) but the more expensive ones are OC'ed higher. That's really the only difference.

If you want to get a cheaper one for the mere sake of owning a 7900 GT, go for it. If you're willing to skip McD's for a week ;) spend the extra money for the more OC'ed one.