Video Card Upgrade Advice

Anaeran

Anaeran

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Looking to upgrade my video card for the new wave of PC games coming out. Currently running a Geforce 7900 GT 256mb card on an ASUS p5e motherboard with windows xp home edition.

Would this card - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150289 - be able to run with my other hardware and provide a solid upgrade for the price? And are there any better options out there?

Specifically thinking of Age of Conan and Warhammer Online here.
 
I would go for reviews on the card for advice as to whether it is good or not. Irregardless, it will work with your other hardware.

You should see marked performance increases from your 7900 to the 9600 on any newer games (2007+) and marginal improvements on games that are older. Should be able to SLi them too, but only thing that board specifically mentioned was X-Fire.
 
One thing I've been wondering, but no one's ever explained to me, was why is the 9600 cheaper than the 8800? It's a newer card, it has the same specs from what I saw on the box, but it was significantly cheaper than a few of the 8800's; and no one could tell me why. Are they a more economic version of the 8800, or are they actually better but just don't need the price tag?
 
8800 gtx or ultra still performs better than most of the 9 series.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130347

Yeah, it's a little more expensive, but it can play every game on the market right now. The only thing I can think of that may not play at max settings/fps would be something like Crysis, and Crysis sucks anyway.
 
What is a better stat for performance- more stream processors or higher memory clock speed?

I noticed the 9600GT only has 64 stream processors to the 8800's 112, but the memory clock speed on the 9600GT blows the lower ones away.
 
Bajaratt said:
One thing I've been wondering, but no one's ever explained to me, was why is the 9600 cheaper than the 8800? It's a newer card, it has the same specs from what I saw on the box, but it was significantly cheaper than a few of the 8800's; and no one could tell me why. Are they a more economic version of the 8800, or are they actually better but just don't need the price tag?
Click to expand...
Welcome to the new price war.

It started with one of the 8800 flavours. Top-end card came out for ~$250. Nvidia did it to beat AMD to the punchline, who did the same a couple months later with the 3870.

The days of $600 top-end cards is now solely for the multi-core GPUs. Any of the current-gen single-core offerings are all under $250, many under $200.
 
Ah, thanks.
 
You're gonna be happy with what you get either way.
 
You'll be happy with either. The PNY looks a little faster than the EVGA. Just one thing I'd check from the manufacturer is the warranty. EVGA usually offers a lifetime one, which is one reason I like them.
 
The 9600 GT is slightly slower than an 8800 GT. I have an 8800 and love it. The 9600 is an excellent card for the price. You will be happy with it.
 
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