i'm at a loss, i've looked and i've read, and i'm still not sure, so finaly i will put it out to the mases to help,

the question is simple, which one is better for the long hawl? :?:

7600GT

For most people, the 7600GT. What do you see at in the x1600xt that is attracting you?

i can get a x1600xt for 120

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814141025

The X1600XT is a waste. It gets crap performance for the price it asks. The 7600GT is a much better option, especially since you can get either a two-slot cooler like on the 7900GTX or a silent heatpipe cooler.

So? I can find a 9250 for $30, doesn't mean I should buy it. You haven't said what this card will be used for. If its HTPC, or general use, the x1600 will be fine. If you want to use it for playing video games, you better grab the 7600GT. It is faster, and will keep up much better then the x1600.

Sorry, i should have stated first, i am just looking for a cheap card to keep me going while i wait for direct x 10, i'm using a 6600GT right now, to be honest i play mostly world of warcraft, and a few times i've played oblivion. since my screen is native 1440x900 i wanted one that was good enough to play games with that res, i'm not looking for great graphics now, just playble without having them look like stick men.

A 6600GT can handle WoW fine at 1600 x 1200 with the details maxed. My friend plays it on his integrated graphics on his Dell desktop (P4 2800, 512MB RAM) with mostly medium settings at 1024 x 768. I played it on my Dell notebook (Celeron 1200, 512MB) with the settings turned to low at 800 x 600 and it was playable.

I play it at 1680 x 1050 on a 7900 GT with an X2 3800+, and I've never seen a framerate lower than 40 fps

7600gt

To answer ur question - The Geforce 7600GT is far better and since u can get it for AGP now as well, there is no reason not to want it over the X1600XT.

However, they both suck. You should get a better card - 7900GT/X1900XT.

Can you show me a link to a 7600GT or a X1600XT AGP? Neither exist to my knowledge. There is a new 7600GS AGP and there has been a X1600pro AGP.

OP, the 7600GT is a better gaming card than the X1600XT. If gaming is your reason for buying the card, get the 7600GT.

sorry to bother all your heads again, but what is a x1800gto like?

By itself, not much better than a 7600GT. But, if you can get a HIS X1800GTO, currently $170 after rebate on NewEgg, and flash it to unlock an additional 4 pipelines, you'd have yourself one hell of a card for $170.

hmm, I don't mind paying that price for a card, so is that a good type of card too? is it hard to unlock the pipes? i'm not a stranger to bios updating n such, i've built all my machines from the ground up

I'm really sorry for all the hassle this is causing

Yeah, it's comparable to a 7600GT, and when you turn up the effects and resolution, it performs better than a 7600GT. Here's some info on unlocking:

http://www.bytesizedreviews.com/in [...] on=reviews

They use a different model of HIS card, but it's still the same company as the NewEgg deal I mentioned. Apparently, there's a lot of room for overclocking these cards as well.

If we don't talk overclocking, just stock performance, the 7600GT and X1800GTO are about equal. They trade blows depending on th game. Priced the same I'd buy the X1800GTO, but with pricing that I have seen, the 7600GT is usually found significantly cheaper...so my money would go into the 7600GT. If you are into Oblivion go with the X1800GTO, if not either will do; go with the cheaper one or the color you prefer.

But if he wants to spend some time and flash it to an X1800XL, the performance gain would be huge.

Would it require more cooling? i've already watercooled the PC so there is no heat from that, plus the system has a healthy flow of air from the tripple 120mm Fans (Frount x Side blowing over were the graphic card sits x Rear)

Heat shouldn't be a problem with a cooling setup like that. But if it is, it should be fairly easy and cheap to add a gpu waterblock into your current water set up.

Unlocking requires no extra cooling, but unlocking is not guaranteed success.

Overclocking might require extra cooling if you want to go extreme. But the X1800 GTO is an awesome overclocker with the stock cooler, too.