Legit Reviews

I am looking at getting a new Video card for my computer, its giving me the green screen of death. I do play several games on the PC, but not ALOT, but I do want to get the most for my buck. I am looking for something great, yet cheap, if that makes sense at all! Post links if you can, I would of posted this in the VId card section, but there are two main cards, and I didn't want to spam it in two places!

I have a MSI 8800GT, and it is awesome. You can get an 8800GT now for around $150-$160... a quick search on Newegg came up with this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814150280 - $139.99 after rebates

You can easily overclock these. I have the reference cooler and a single slot card and I got mine up to 675mhz. With the Zalman Cooler on this card you could easily get it higher, just keep and eye on your temperatures.

Keep in mind that this is a PCI-e card, and if you have AGP this won't be compatible. If you post your hardware specs we can help you find the right card for your system.

for best bang for buck, you're probably looking at $100-$200 price range right?

for Nvidia the 8800GT and the 9600GT are popular choices in that range
EVGA 8800GT $164.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814130319

XFX 9600GT $139.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814150304

for ATI/AMD the HD 3850 and HD 3870 will probably do the trick
DIAMOND Viper HD 3850 $119.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814103051

Sapphire HD 3870 $155.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814102719

In order of how fast they are(slowest first):
HD 3850
9600 GT
HD 3870
8800 GT

Make sure of course you know which is compatible with your motherboard and how much wattage your power supply can output, otherwise you will find more screens of death

my brother has a 8800 GS its a very nice card. plays all the games he plays.. starcraft, bf2142, cs:s, company of heros, warhammer - very nicely.. they can be had at newegg for around $90 after rebates
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814130332

I will post all the specs a bit later, I know my power supply is a 530W, motherboard is an ASUS, but not sure the exact spec. I will get it all to you later tonight.

I also recommend the 8800GT. It runs pretty well in my system. I haven't tried Crysis yet but CoD2, CoD4, Bioshock, Hellgate London, Witcher all run fine at my 24" panels native res.

I love my XFX 8800GTS 512. $250, and it came with Call of Duty 4 too!

Plays Crysis all Very High with 2x AA @ 1680x1050, and any other game totally maxed out!

If I am correct, here are the top four card that you should look for, from cheap to most expensive:

8800 GS
9600 GT
8800 GT
8800 GT 512MB (edit: whoops, meant to write 8800 GTS)

All of these should be perfect for a casual gamer

Sapientun wrote:If I am correct, here are the top four card that you should look for, from cheap to most expensive:

8800 GS
9600 GT
8800 GT
8800 GT 512MB

All of these should be perfect for a casual gamer

If the first 8800 GT is the 256MB version then the 512MB 9600 GT is a better buy IMHO. I would go with the 8800 GT 512MB still

I'd go with the 8800GT/GTS (G92 512 version) as well, but that's just me I guess.

Here is the stuff I run

Windows XP Prof
Motherboard - Asus A8N-SLI
PowerSupply - Hiper Type R Series 580W
2GigRam

All of the listed cards would do well for you. You could even go SLI with a couple 8800GTs if you have the money.

vicaphit wrote:All of the listed cards would do well for you. You could even go SLI with a couple 8800GTs if you have the money.

not on that psu he couldnt

martini161 wrote:

vicaphit wrote:All of the listed cards would do well for you. You could even go SLI with a couple 8800GTs if you have the money.

not on that psu he couldnt

A decent brand 530w PSU is definitely enough for 8800GT/9600GT SLI. If it's a generic brand PSU though, then that's a different story.

But IMO it's better to go with 1 good card instead of 2 inferior cards. Plus Intel chipsets are more stable than Nvidia.

Try to go with something that does not need to be cooled that much,or at least does not consume that much power. It would be advisable to get a g92 gpu. g92 is the next generation of nVidia graphics processors. The 8800 gts and the 9800 are both very good gpu's from what I hear, and they will give pretty good 3d gaming performance.

Liquidsnake wrote:I am looking at getting a new Video card for my computer, its giving me the green screen of death. I do play several games on the PC, but not ALOT, but I do want to get the most for my buck. I am looking for something great, yet cheap, if that makes sense at all! Post links if you can, I would of posted this in the VId card section, but there are two main cards, and I didn't want to spam it in two places!

If you want the most bang for your buck, as you said, I would recommend the 9600gt, for ~$130 you could get a helluva good GPU there, something that is more powerful than both the xbox360 and ps3's at least. If you wanted to upgrade in the future slapping another one in for less than $100 down the road would be a viable option too, but I dont know how well performance is scaling with the current sli configurations out there.

9600gt ftw!