Video Card Suggestions - Medium Budget Rig

[mphartzheim]

I'm in the process of (slowly) building a medium budget gaming rig ($1200-1600). I currently have only purchased the monitor (20.1" widescreen LCD 1680x1050 native resolution).

What I'm looking to do is buy the lowest of the current high-end products. I want to be able to build on a medium budget now, and 6 months to 1 year from now, updgrade components to boost performance. I'm looking for a dual PCI-e motherboard (only purchasing one video card at this time... second video card will come as one of those future upgrades). I'm planning on a CPU in the range of 2.0-2.4ghz and 2 GB of system RAM.

I'm a bit lost when it comes to what all the specs on graphics cards really mean at the bottom line. 6800GT... 7800GT... 7800GTX... 6800GS... what's the real bottom line there?

I'd like a card that can push the 1680x1050 resolution of my monitor at decent (45-60fps) framerates at high (not maximum) settings. I don't really want to spend more than $400 on this card, either (but don't rule cards in the $400-450 range out... if it will be a good card for a year or two then I could push the budget to that price).

Thanks in advance.

 

[WT]

Its kinda sad that you are asking for a medium budget card and want to spend no more than $400 when a lotta guys consider that a high end card price point. $400 would buy a nice part time (light gaming only) PC these days !!! I'll recommend an EVGA 7800GT (517 unit with copper heatsink) for your setup, which is currently around $314 at the 'Egg. There's just too much to explain about current cards, so try and read the stickied FAQ at the top of the forum.

Edit: oops, looks like the sticky is gone !

I hate to use Toms as a FAQ, but here goes: VGA buyers guide

 

[Stu L Tissimus]

I'd recommend some variant of a GeForce 7800GT, they're pretty cheap nowadays. ATi doesn't really have a good competitior for the mid-range market - The Radeon X1600 is severely crippled by the 128-bit bus. If you wanted, you could also take a look at the X850XTPE (or some variant of X800/X850). Your last choice is to wait for ATi to announce the X1700. But I'd say just go with the 7800GT.

 

[mphartzheim]

haha

Well, I really don't want to spend anywhere near $400, I was just putting a limit on things to keep it reasonable. I also found that to be a good middle ground considering the price range of video cards ($50 - $700).

I've read the sticky at the top of this forum, and I'll check out the Tom's guide.

If the 7800GT is capable of pushing that resolution fairly well, that looks like a good price.

 

[selfbuilt]

I'd second the 7800GT at the moment ... you are going to want a decent amout of pep to run that monitor at native resolution. If you wait until the next generation nvidia cards come out, the 7800GTX might come down in price to something reasonable for you. Or you could maybe find a deal on an ATI X1800 soon, as they get phased out in favour of the new X1900s.

 

[mphartzheim]

WT, you mentioned the 517 specifically, any reason in particular?

How does this Newegg combo sound? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130238

I'll be needing a mobo, too, and was looking at Socket 939's. I haven't done any research into the reliability of eVGA's motherboards, so I can't really make a good judgement yet.

From the looks of the THG guide, it seems the 7800GT will get me between 30-90 fps at that resolution and high settings... which sounds great. I think that's the perfect card for me.


EDIT: The reviews for that motherboard seem mixed. A lot of people really like it, a lot of people say it's worth what you pay for it (free).

 

[mphartzheim]

I've decided on the 7800GT. I made a post asking for other suggestions over in the general hardware forum... here's the link to what I'm looking at: http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=27&threadid=1789208&forumid=1