Best Gaming Nvidia Card for approx. $300?

What is the best gaming Nvidia Card for approx. $300?

I want all that DirectX 9, pixel-shader, etc.

Preferably something that doesn't require messing with power supply
connections, and preferably something that plugs into an AGP port. I'm not
sure if I have PCI-Express or not.

Uziyahu wrote:
What is the best gaming Nvidia Card for approx. $300?

Look for a 6800 (try newegg.com ), you need to cough up with a bit more for
a GT model. On other hand a 6600GT will meet mosts requirements and will
even save you some bucks.

I want all that DirectX 9, pixel-shader, etc.
All recent cards have that.

Preferably something that doesn't require messing with power supply
connections, and preferably something that plugs into an AGP port.

You wont get around that, both agp cards and pci-e cards in that class needs
an external supply. Its very easy to install though, usually just a matter
of attaching a supplied Y splitter cable.

I'm not sure if I have PCI-Express or not.

Find out, makes a big difference .. And if you have, you wont have any use
for AGP cards.

It doesnt sound like you really know what you need/want, so i would advice
you to spend a little time examinating your current system and find out what
motherboard (and cpu,ram and current gfx card) you have. Also consider
what games you intend to play on it, getting a 6800 to play solitaire is
overkill

Uziyahu wrote:

What is the best gaming Nvidia Card for approx. $300?

I want all that DirectX 9, pixel-shader, etc.

Preferably something that doesn't require messing with power supply
connections, and preferably something that plugs into an AGP port. I'm
not sure if I have PCI-Express or not.

If you're not sure, find out first--if you have PCI Express then it is
almost certain that you do _not_ have AGP and vice versa.

--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

Definitely not Solitaire. I'm wanting all the latest effects found in
Half-Life 2 to be turned on.


"Sune Storgaard" wrote in message
...
Uziyahu wrote:
What is the best gaming Nvidia Card for approx. $300?

Look for a 6800 (try newegg.com ), you need to cough up with a bit more
for a GT model. On other hand a 6600GT will meet mosts requirements and
will even save you some bucks.

I want all that DirectX 9, pixel-shader, etc.
All recent cards have that.

Preferably something that doesn't require messing with power supply
connections, and preferably something that plugs into an AGP port.

You wont get around that, both agp cards and pci-e cards in that class
needs an external supply. Its very easy to install though, usually just a
matter of attaching a supplied Y splitter cable.

I'm not sure if I have PCI-Express or not.

Find out, makes a big difference .. And if you have, you wont have any use
for AGP cards.

It doesnt sound like you really know what you need/want, so i would advice
you to spend a little time examinating your current system and find out
what motherboard (and cpu,ram and current gfx card) you have. Also
consider what games you intend to play on it, getting a 6800 to play
solitaire is overkill

Oh, well, in that case, I probably don't have PCI Express, because I've been
plugging AGP cards into this system.

--Uzi

"J. Clarke" wrote in message
...
Uziyahu wrote:

What is the best gaming Nvidia Card for approx. $300?

I want all that DirectX 9, pixel-shader, etc.

Preferably something that doesn't require messing with power supply
connections, and preferably something that plugs into an AGP port. I'm
not sure if I have PCI-Express or not.

If you're not sure, find out first--if you have PCI Express then it is
almost certain that you do _not_ have AGP and vice versa.

--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

Are all Direct X 9 compliant cards Shader Model 3 capable?

And is there a big difference between OpenGL 1.4 capable and 1.5 capable?
What games would I use that for?

And I'm wondering how much of an increase in power I would get if I got a
GeForce FX 5000 series over the 6600GT or 6800GT? Compared to my GeForce 4
Ti4600?

--Uzi


"Uziyahu" wrote in message
. ..
Oh, well, in that case, I probably don't have PCI Express, because I've
been plugging AGP cards into this system.

--Uzi

"J. Clarke" wrote in message
...
Uziyahu wrote:

What is the best gaming Nvidia Card for approx. $300?

I want all that DirectX 9, pixel-shader, etc.

Preferably something that doesn't require messing with power supply
connections, and preferably something that plugs into an AGP port. I'm
not sure if I have PCI-Express or not.

If you're not sure, find out first--if you have PCI Express then it is
almost certain that you do _not_ have AGP and vice versa.

--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

Uziyahu wrote:

And I'm wondering how much of an increase in power I would get if I
got a GeForce FX 5000 series over the 6600GT or 6800GT?

None. The 5000 series is an older and slower series.

Although synthetic benchmarks don't tell the whole stories, and a single one
isn't all that useful, here's a list of 3DMark 03 scores taken from THG (no
aliasing or anisotropic filtering):

6800GT AGP: 10987
6600GT AGP: ~7800 (extrapolated from PCIe speeds and other sites
based on relative scores vis-a-vis the 6800GT)
5950 Ultra: 6489
5800 Ultra: 5870
5700 Ultra: 4037
5600 Ultra: 3439
5200 Ultra: 2065
5200: 1550

Compared to my GeForce 4 Ti4600?

It's hard to say, since the Ti4600 is an older generation card with less
capabilities and different strengths. However, the 3DMark 03 score on the
same hardware as above is:

Ti 4600: 2092

With anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering turned on, the differences are
even more pronounced, with the Ti4600 scoring less than a third of what it
does without AA/AF, while the 6xxx series manages to still score almost two
thirds of what they do without AA/AF.

To sum it up, most 5xxx and 6xxx series card will be faster than what you
have, but more importantly, they will have capabilities that the 4600
doesn't have, and will have less of a performance penalty when using
anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering.

Regards,
--
*Art

On 4/6/2005 8:45 AM Uziyahu brightened our day with:

Are all Direct X 9 compliant cards Shader Model 3 capable?

And is there a big difference between OpenGL 1.4 capable and 1.5 capable?
What games would I use that for?

And I'm wondering how much of an increase in power I would get if I got a
GeForce FX 5000 series over the 6600GT or 6800GT? Compared to my GeForce 4
Ti4600?

--Uzi


What is the best gaming Nvidia Card for approx. $300?

I want all that DirectX 9, pixel-shader, etc.

Preferably something that doesn't require messing with power supply
connections, and preferably something that plugs into an AGP port. I'm
not sure if I have PCI-Express or not.



I think only the 6 series cards are SM 3.0. I just bought a non
Ultra/GT 6800 for $180 secondhand, but never used. You can get non
Ultra/GT 6800's at newegg.com for ~$250. I think they're frickin'
excellent. I have my extra pipelines unlocked, get 45 fps avg. in Doom
3 with 4xAA and 16x AF High Quality.
They're AGP cards and do require a molex connection from the PSU, that's
just unavoidable these days.

--
Steve ¤»Inglo«¤
www.inglostadt.com

Uziyahu wrote:

Definitely not Solitaire. I'm wanting all the latest effects found in
Half-Life 2 to be turned on.

If that's your specific requirement and your budget is $300 then go with a
6600GT. Performance in HL2 is almost identical to that of the non-GT 6800
and you save a hundred bucks or so. If you can go $330 or so then a 6800GT
would give you a little more performance.

"Sune Storgaard" wrote in message
...
Uziyahu wrote:
What is the best gaming Nvidia Card for approx. $300?

Look for a 6800 (try newegg.com ), you need to cough up with a bit more
for a GT model. On other hand a 6600GT will meet mosts requirements and
will even save you some bucks.

I want all that DirectX 9, pixel-shader, etc.
All recent cards have that.

Preferably something that doesn't require messing with power supply
connections, and preferably something that plugs into an AGP port.

You wont get around that, both agp cards and pci-e cards in that class
needs an external supply. Its very easy to install though, usually just a
matter of attaching a supplied Y splitter cable.

I'm not sure if I have PCI-Express or not.

Find out, makes a big difference .. And if you have, you wont have any
use for AGP cards.

It doesnt sound like you really know what you need/want, so i would
advice you to spend a little time examinating your current system and
find out
what motherboard (and cpu,ram and current gfx card) you have. Also
consider what games you intend to play on it, getting a 6800 to play
solitaire is overkill


--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

Any specific brand you would recommend on the 6800GT?

--Uzi

"Inglo" ioo@??.¿¿¿ wrote in message
m...
On 4/6/2005 8:45 AM Uziyahu brightened our day with:

Are all Direct X 9 compliant cards Shader Model 3 capable?

And is there a big difference between OpenGL 1.4 capable and 1.5 capable?
What games would I use that for?

And I'm wondering how much of an increase in power I would get if I got a
GeForce FX 5000 series over the 6600GT or 6800GT? Compared to my GeForce
4 Ti4600?

--Uzi

What is the best gaming Nvidia Card for approx. $300?

I want all that DirectX 9, pixel-shader, etc.

Preferably something that doesn't require messing with power supply
connections, and preferably something that plugs into an AGP port. I'm
not sure if I have PCI-Express or not.


I think only the 6 series cards are SM 3.0. I just bought a non Ultra/GT
6800 for $180 secondhand, but never used. You can get non Ultra/GT
6800's at newegg.com for ~$250. I think they're frickin' excellent. I
have my extra pipelines unlocked, get 45 fps avg. in Doom 3 with 4xAA and
16x AF High Quality.
They're AGP cards and do require a molex connection from the PSU, that's
just unavoidable these days.

--
Steve ¤»Inglo«¤
www.inglostadt.com