The Short List: the Best Gaming Videocards for the money - Page 18

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All of those are fine for 1024x1280 but the HD 4850 is the best between those

Trying to decide between the many choices here. I will be running 1680x1050, and I'd like to have a 2nd monitor running at 1280x1024 if possible.

A) 2x 4850
B) 2x 8800
C) 1x 4870
D) 1x 9800

Obviously I will need to change motherboards based on some of these. With (A) I'll go with an X38/X48, (B) I'll go with an nForce SLI 750i. The other 2 I'm undecided.

I'm trying to stay in the under-$425 range (preferably less) for whichever I go with.

Thanks,
CF

Yeah, at 1680x1050 or above, you're better with Crossfired 4850s than the other choices; they should also be by far the best at handling AA.

And the fact that you'd like a second monitor running pretty much says you should get two cards rather than one. While one card might be fine for driving two displays with just the basic GUI running, I think you'd start to notice a difference if you're running some media-heavy apps, such as playing high-definition video on one (or both!) screens.

lol,i'm just talking about the facts not fanboys here

Yep,if NVIDIA drops the price of 9800GTX,then it will be a good buy because the difference between 9800GTX and HD 4850 isn't much.

I think this may be the longest thread on the forum; I remember when it was first put up, heh. As for the page-count, you should perhaps change to have more posts per page.

Though in reality, all that really matter is the first post and the last page or two, so you can safely ignore the rest of the posts given how old they are; no need to delete them.

this is a sticky so of course it will be long, now the pc vs ps3 thread that was still being resurrected after over a year, that was a long thread had to be closed otherwise it would still be on going.

^^ get a 4870, end of story

I was looking to upgrade my graphic card and the first place i came to research was here. But I dont understand why you guys dont have much with the 9800 gtx. The price has substantially dropped and w/rebate you can get it for 180 right now. TigerDirect has the BFG 9800GTX for 179.99. Whenever I look at price comparison charts of it up against other cards the 9800 gtx always does best or second best . Like in cod4 the charts show the 9800 gtx is better in performance compared to the 8800 ultra by 5fps w/out AA.

Is the 9800 gtx the best graphic card for price right now?
Or is there a flaw with the 9800 gtx im not aware of making it not that valuable.

thanks,
Greg

Although I know Cleeve is busy, I'm still a little disappointed to see the list here neglected for so long, and even to find the "official" list article posted on the main page has not quite updated as much as it should; it covered the launch of the Radeon 4800 series, but neglected to cover any of the price re-arrangements that occured immediately thereafter. As such, out of boredom I took the liberty to go and see what's happened... To find that perhaps on the terms of the price-performance scale, nVidia's doing even worse than I thought, as three of their cards have been effectively "bumped off" the list by virtue of holding their price as the next-up tier dropped down to reach them.

BEST GAMING VIDEOCARDS FOR THE MONEY:
PCI-E video cards, Late July, 2008

Best PCI-e card for under $80US:

• Radeon 2600 XT - Prices of this have fallen hard, hitting as low as the $60-65US range. While sold out, I also spotted that Newegg has the 256MB Sapphire version for only $40US. At this range, I feel that 256MB should be enough memory, making this an utter steal if it could be gotten.
• Removed: GeForce 8600GT GDDR3 - Due to the price of this not falling as much as the 2600 XT, I really can't say it could be recommended when it tends to cost some 20-25% more ($75-80US) for comparable performance; at that level, it winds up about as close to the next higher tier than it does to the 2600XT.

Best PCI-e card for ~$100US:

• Radeon 3850 512MB - Consistently, it appears a few of these are standing at around $100US in purchase price, though a number are running up as high as $140-150US, liable price stragglers to the price drops. (as well as price-dropped AGP versions)
• GeForce 9600 GSO - Be warned, there is a version out there that has only a 128-bit memory interface, (link) making it weaker, so do not be fooled by a version with 512MB of VRAM. Aside from that, the normal 192-bit, 384MB versions follow roughly the same price scaling as the 3850.
• Removed: GeForce 8600GTS - While previously the "best PCI-e card for under $100US," its price hasn't dropped much, leaving it very close in price to the considerably superior 3850 and 9600GSO.

Best PCI-e card for ~$120US:

• GeForce 9600GT - On average, these cards actually cling a bit closer to the $120US mark than the 3870, though as noted, in non-AA situations (which at $120US, is a distinct possibility) it tends to trail the 3870.
• Radeon 3870 - Generally, this seems to be a few dollars more, though in some situations it holds an edge over the 9600GT.

Best PCI-e card for ~$150US:

• GeForce 8800GT 512MB - As with others, the price has dropped further here. For a while, there was a $100US sale on a 256MB version, though that has ended.

Best PCI-e card for ~$180US:

• Radeon 4850 - Even though at the $200US MSRP, the card was killer, it seems that while AMD doesn't need to compete harder, the vendors and retailers themselves do, resulting in prices for the 4850 already being cut, as low as $175US. (link) This makes it hard to argue for any other card against this.
• GeForce 9800GTX - These cards are pricing in, on average, some $10US above the 4850. Coupled with how the Radeon holds a slight-yet-consistent edge across the board, it would favor that instead of this, though perhaps not by a margin that this couldn't ever be recommended.
• Removed: GeForce 8800GTS 512MB - As prices for the 9800GTX and 4850 have actually fallen a little, this has remained close to the same, making this card not really recommended anymore as you can buy either of the above two superior cards for the exact same price range.

Best PCI-e card for ~$290US:

• Radeon 4870 - Yes, even though places could reasonably charge more, there is cutthroat competition to sell these cards, particularly between different brands; Diamond seems to offer the lowest prices, as low as $275, (link) with Sapphire a few dollars behind. Given that the GTX 260 is quite demonstrably weaker across the board, and doesn't regularly come less than $300US right now, it would not be recommended.

Best PCI-e card for ~$360US:

• Two Radeon 4850s in Crossfire - The only cards that could claim to be more potent than a 4870 are the 9800GX2 and GTX 280... The former starting at some $380US, the latter at $450US, both offering only marginally more performance. For less than that amount, a pair of 4850s in CrossFire handily beat them.
• Two GeForce 9800GTX in SLi - While price and performance-wise, the 4850 Crossfire solution may be superior, it relies upon you actually having a Crossfire motherboard. For those with an SLi motherboard, there's no sane reason to throw it out if they have their eye on a dual-card setup; a pair of 9800GTXs isn't anything to scoff at.

Best PCI-e card for ~$580US:

• Two Radeon 4870s in Crossfire - Quite possibly rather gratuitous, with some speculation that AMD may bump the price of the 4870X2 as high as $550US, coupled with the fact that it's not out yet, provide possible reason to get a pair of 4870s. After all, word of the 4850X2 hasn't damped cheerful recommendations for 4850 Crossfire. Admitedly, the 4870X2 is coming in a month or two, while no one has officially announced their plans for a 4850X2 as of yet.

BEST GAMING VIDEOCARDS FOR THE MONEY:
AGP video cards, Late July, 2008

I only saw one real change, and that is that it appears the price on AGP 3850s have dropped to roughly $140-150US, from $160-170US. Much smaller price drops were seen on the 2600pro and XT cards, though overall their respective descriptions of "under $100" and "approximately $100" still fit.

Perhaps not. To be honest, I wouldn't bother with anything in that price range or above m'self in this current situation; it's not like you could ever be truly satisfied with playing Crysis at 1920x1200 or above with those... But at any rate, I'll just defend myself as forward-thinking...

As both Cleeve and I have consistently decided, we don't really like to consider after-rebate prices as valid for comparing the card's price overall, because they are never very consistent, and generally limited in time as to when they're offered.

ATI HD 4850 is better than 8800GT,but 2 8800GTs beat 1 HD 4850(Even the HD 4870)

8800GT SLi costs approximately the same as a 4870 while being a tad more powerful, provided you're running at medium-high or above resolutions. (anything above 1280x1024, I'd say) I'd say it's perhaps a worthwhile option if you have a SLi-ready board... Otherwise, I'd not worry too much about having SLi, especially since these days, there tend to be superior chipsets (namely from Intel) than those that support SLi.

Hi guys,

Is there a "Sticky" here that discusses Graphic Cards for the Laptops ... you know kinda the way you guys are doing here!?!?

Thanks,
G!

Someone above considered sli or cf for a dualmonitor setup - but doesn't sli and cf cancel the option for extended desktop? That's what I was told by some nerd in here anyway. Or is it only the connectors on the secondary card that are disabled?
(sli is pointless with the current cards being so powerful in my opinion, so never tried it)

Good to see another update, Cleeve, though your lack of posting here is a little disconcerting. I just have a couple of warnings to point out about the latest revision...

• As a serious potential problem, you note that you've found 9500GTs as low as $70US online, but neglect to mention that such cards appear to all be the DDR2 version; GDDR3 ones appear to start closer to $90US.
• Additionally, I noted that there are actually lower prices on that card outside of NewEgg; Tiger Direct, for instance, has some modified versions, such as This one for $50US, though it has the memory clocked even slower, to 800MHz.
• Strangely enough, there is also this overclocked version, which professes to have "DDR3" and is $50US as well, though I noted that the memory clock is 1200MHz, compared to 1600MHz for the actual GDDR3 version, and also packs only 256MB of RAM, though that likely may not be a problem for such a weaker card.
• Though I understand that you list a "best card for under $100US," it's a bit of a stickier situation once you consider that it appears that such a card is only $10US cheaper than a 3850. Coupling that with the fact that you can Apparently now get a somewhat-weaker 2600XT for $30US*, (Or $60US once their supplies invariably are exhausted in a while) this makes it hard to argue for the 9500GT on a price-performance basis, which is supposed to be what the list is about.
• Though it's a bit of nit-picking, I recall that the GeForce 9600 series uses the G94 GPU, not G92.
• Lastly, though this was pointed out in one of the article comments, the AGP section could both use a comment on finding the right drivers (using the latest AGP drivers for 'em will make your PC toast) and also could use some fixing to the table.

*The cheaper Radeon card appears to be identical to the more expensive one save in that it has only one DVI port, and has a D-SUB port instead of a second DVI, and lacks the extra stuff; I'd judge it to be a "lite" edition of the card, which should probably be fine for most people looking for a dirt-cheap video card.

[edit]After checking again, I retract what I said about the 2600 mentioned; it appears to be another one of those DDR2 cards; so a DDR2 card for $30US, or a full 2600XT for $60US. Shame on me for paying all-too-careful attention for DDR2 GeForce cards, but missing it when looking at the Radeons on the other side...

8800GT

HD 4850>8800GT>HD 3870

ATI HD 4850 performs like a 9800GTX(It has a slight lead over its nvidia's rival in some games),so its more powerful than a 8800GT(however if someone has a 8800GT,it isnt worth it to upgrade to a HD 4850)

Well that's some pretty random ****...

well 8800 gt needs to go in the cards for 100 dollars category or at least the cards for 125 dollars category.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 814141074R
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applica [...] =P450-8830
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814133232
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814500007

Yes but it's still should be in the 125 even without open box, fluke pricing and mir. 8800 gt's have gone way down on newegg and tigerdirect especially.

MY son has a gaming computer basd on a Athlon 6000X2 processor and 2 8600GT is SLI mode. He got a new 26" monitor and would like to upgrade the performance of his system. We were looking at the Geforce 280 or the 9800 GX. Both in the $380-420 range.

Are these the best options? Should we consider somthing else?

4850 in crossfire (but you need new mobo...)

new kid on the block now deserves to go to the top for best gfx card and price for topend . 4870X2. (until nvidia respond next year that is)

I would have chose the 9800gtx (not +, original) over the 4850.... they are around 175$ and beat the 4850 in gaming. (On my opinion.)