Next video card?

[Duty]

If you had $200 (us) to blow on a new video card which would you get? I am looking to get a new card and I don't really see much difference in the upper mid range cards. Game play seems good on all of them and work is mostly light video editing, pic editing and programming.


Thoughts?


Thx,
Jeff

[Admiral]

Hercules AIW 9800SE for video editing and the potential to soft mod it to a 9800Pro AIW. You can also keep it as it is, it would perform a bit slower than a 9600XT. If not, maybe an AIW 9600 Pro (BBA, Sapphire...) ?

And if you don't fancy the AIW cards there's always the 9600XT or the GeForce 5900XT.

[Gurm]

Probably Radeon 9600XT.

- Gurm

[Chrono_Wanderer]

9500PRO if you can find one, otherwise 9600PRO (make sure ATI or BBA) or 5700 Ultra (only if you want dual dvi, xfx makes them).

[Duty]

No Nvidia cards?


Thanks everyone...



Jeff

[Wulfman]

nv 5900 XT is supposed to offer a great bang/buck rating - outperforms the 9600XT easily.

http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/hardware/grafikkarten/aopen_aeolus_fx_5900_xt/4/#benchmarks

mfg
wulfman

[Gurm]

"Easily" is a relative term. And by "great bang" they mean that it makes a lot of noise and then explodes.

- Gurm

[Duty]

Originally posted by Gurm
"Easily" is a relative term. And by "great bang" they mean that it makes a lot of noise and then explodes.

- Gurm

LOL...

Thanks everyone,

Jeff

[bsdgeek]

http://techreport.com/reviews/2003q4/geforcefx-5900xt/index.x?pg=1

http://firingsquad.com/hardware/evga_e-geforce_fx_5900_xt_review/

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-130-179&catalog=48&manufactory=BROWSE&depa=1

I don't know, 5900XT/SE looks like a good $/performance deal to me.

[Kurt]

Originally posted by Admiral
Hercules AIW 9800SE for video editing and the potential to soft mod it to a 9800Pro AIW (...)

But the _RAM_ will still be slooooow....better get the 9600XT with a TV/DV card...

[dbdg]

9600Pro XT.

[Byock]

ATI 9600XT. No question.

@Gurm LOL

[Admiral]

Originally posted by Kurt
But the _RAM_ will still be slooooow....better get the 9600XT with a TV/DV card...

The Hercules model has a 256bit memory bus, they even state it on the box:



edit: and it's 3.3ns Samsung memory clocked at 680MHz, read the review on hexus.net. That card begs to be moded and it would be a real waste for the memory bus if you can't (haven't heard of failures yet).

[Kurt]

My math might be wrong but I don't see how a 3.3ns DDR can achieve 390MHz (680 DDR)... It's within specs for the 290MHz DDR it's supposed to offer...

They might have been lucky at Hexus...so you might or might not be so lucky yourself. OCing is not an exact science. I hope you won't be the one buying the lemon that'll barely sustain it's rated speed.

If you want to be sure, buy the 9600XT. Same price, more speed. Then you can start OCing it

[Admiral]

It's 340 MHz(680 DDR) not 390 MHz (780 DDR).
And I would believe them on those specs, since the 9800 non pro with 3.3ns Samsung clocked initially at 290 MHz would take you to around 350 MHz. Their AIW 9800SE is just "factory overclocked".
And yes, you're right, there is always the chance that you might get the lemon, that's why I suggested three more cards to choose from.