How to handle video card shopping for cheap people...
Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 12:10 pm
I'm putting this here cause it could be up for discussion. So, not all of us can afford or "waste" (as some people would put it) over 200 dollars on any single piece of hardware that isn't a motherboard or a cpu.
Some of us are extra frugal and don't believe in spending more than 60 dollars on a video card (me). So how to handle this problem without buying the wrong thing or paying more than you should?
Well, obviously you don't care about impressing others- what you want is a functional video card. Something that will survive long enough to run games in 4-5 years, albeit at the lowest graphic settings possible.
First step is to find out what games you want to play and know what their system reqs are. Never buy a new video card that is under recommended. If you buy a recommended video card for a newish game (Oblivion), it will probably survive to meet minimum system reqs for a game in the future (Elder Scrolls V).
The actual speeds of the card are not as important as what it supports. For example, the Radeon 9800 Pro and the Geforce 6800 are comparable cards that are in the 100 price range- but will probably be down to 60 within 6 months to a year (my bet). Of the two, I find the Geforce to be the obvious pick because of its support for pixel and vertex shader 3.0, whereas the ATI card only supports 2.0 (note, these are agp cards- haven't dealt with switching motherboards to a pci-e one yet).
When shopping for a card it helps to look for the price range above the range you're interested in buying, and then comparing cards in that range and finding the one that can support more (priority 1) and then speeds (2)- which depends on whether or not you want to OC it too.
Some people ask me why I limit myself to a 60 dollar card when I can pay 3 times that and get a card that not only lasts 3 times as long for games, but gives you higher quality graphics in the meantime. If you find a really good deal on a card, then it might be worth a stretch. But a more expensive card is a gamble. You don't know how quickly it will lose value and paying less decreases that risk. Or say something happens and in two years your card stops working (don't pretend like this never happens ;p)- you have much less protection under a higher cost investment than the lower one.
All in all, you have to ask yourself what type of man you are. Do you prefer a high-maintenance 20 year old wife with the risk that she'll stop putting out within a year or two, and that she might start aging faster than had hoped.... Or would you rather get two 28 year old wives in the same time period and have the freedom to keep or dump one depending on how satisfied you are with the marriage, supposing that by 28 her aging rate is known and that it's far less likely that she'll get gangrene (lose value by 50% or more) than the 20 year old...
I know most people here are looking for one-night stands with 18 year olds [those of you buying those 400 dollar cards and then selling them months later for the next new one... you know who you are]... money-wasters ;)
(Note: the views expressed here are that of testosterone-laden 21 year male and shouldn't be taken as a serious analogy)
Some of us are extra frugal and don't believe in spending more than 60 dollars on a video card (me). So how to handle this problem without buying the wrong thing or paying more than you should?
Well, obviously you don't care about impressing others- what you want is a functional video card. Something that will survive long enough to run games in 4-5 years, albeit at the lowest graphic settings possible.
First step is to find out what games you want to play and know what their system reqs are. Never buy a new video card that is under recommended. If you buy a recommended video card for a newish game (Oblivion), it will probably survive to meet minimum system reqs for a game in the future (Elder Scrolls V).
The actual speeds of the card are not as important as what it supports. For example, the Radeon 9800 Pro and the Geforce 6800 are comparable cards that are in the 100 price range- but will probably be down to 60 within 6 months to a year (my bet). Of the two, I find the Geforce to be the obvious pick because of its support for pixel and vertex shader 3.0, whereas the ATI card only supports 2.0 (note, these are agp cards- haven't dealt with switching motherboards to a pci-e one yet).
When shopping for a card it helps to look for the price range above the range you're interested in buying, and then comparing cards in that range and finding the one that can support more (priority 1) and then speeds (2)- which depends on whether or not you want to OC it too.
Some people ask me why I limit myself to a 60 dollar card when I can pay 3 times that and get a card that not only lasts 3 times as long for games, but gives you higher quality graphics in the meantime. If you find a really good deal on a card, then it might be worth a stretch. But a more expensive card is a gamble. You don't know how quickly it will lose value and paying less decreases that risk. Or say something happens and in two years your card stops working (don't pretend like this never happens ;p)- you have much less protection under a higher cost investment than the lower one.
All in all, you have to ask yourself what type of man you are. Do you prefer a high-maintenance 20 year old wife with the risk that she'll stop putting out within a year or two, and that she might start aging faster than had hoped.... Or would you rather get two 28 year old wives in the same time period and have the freedom to keep or dump one depending on how satisfied you are with the marriage, supposing that by 28 her aging rate is known and that it's far less likely that she'll get gangrene (lose value by 50% or more) than the 20 year old...
I know most people here are looking for one-night stands with 18 year olds [those of you buying those 400 dollar cards and then selling them months later for the next new one... you know who you are]... money-wasters ;)
(Note: the views expressed here are that of testosterone-laden 21 year male and shouldn't be taken as a serious analogy)
Running NFSUG required a certain level of video card. We went one level higher of a card to run it. When NFSUG-MW came out, our choice did well to keep the card without spending more $$. 
