Best video card for money?

[computergeek75]

hey all,

i wanted to get some opinions on what you think is the best deal as far as performance and money goes in a graphics card. i did some research a while ago using the comparison charts on this website, and it appeared to me that the ATI Radeon X800 XL was the best deal. i factored in most of the columns in the comparison chart. I looked at Nvidia cards of the same performance and saw they were consistently more money. i also noticed that the X800 XL had nearly the same performance ratings as a X1800 XL, but for much less. why is this? are the Nvidia cards much better? if so, how are they better? and how is the X1800 XL better if the performance ratings are almost dead even? i know it has to be better, but im not sure what part of it is better. its quite confusing.

so, if you can help me with this issue, i would gladly appreciate it. also, i would like your opinions on graphics cards. i was planning on purchasing the best one for the money separately from the next computer i buy, so i would like the suggestions. i wouldn't like to spend too too much though.

thanx,
the geek

[Gabriel Torres]

Hi there The Geek,

The basic difference between X800 and X1800 is the support of Shader 3.0 on the later. Shader 3.0 is quite new and only new games use this feature. Only 3DMark06 fully supports it, a program we didn't use because it was released before we ran all our tests (we plan to redo everything using this new version).

I personally like X800 XL, as I do like all video cards that provide a good cost/benefit ratio, i.e. the maximum performance for its price range.

I'd buy one if I were you.

Cheers,
Gabriel.

[computergeek75]

thanks gabriel.

how bout the difference between the X800XL and the Nvidia cards? do the Nvidia cards in the same performance range support more shaders and stuff like that? (FSAA, that kinda thing) or is the quality of the shaders and such better?

-computergeek

[Gabriel Torres]

Hi,

Video cards from GeForce 6 and GeForce 7 series support Shader 3.0.

For the performance, please refer to our reviews.

Cheers,
Gabriel.

[Skye]

This is a question that users will always have, and the answers certainly don't stay the same. Although Hardware Secrets does video card reviews, it doesn't frequently stack up competing video cards in each tier and then offer buying advice. Try to find a website that does.

Tom's Hardware is a good site for now, but they may not always write these articles.

Here is an article titled The best Gaming Video Cards for the Money: March 2007. They will probably post more current articles as cards improve.