Something to replace the 7900gt

My new system is:

Asus P5W DH Deluxe
Conroe E6600
600 Watt GameXStream OCZ
OCZ DDR2 6400 1X2 Gig memory
7200.10 Seagate 320Gig Hard Drive
P180

Basically, I'm starting to wimp out on the 7900gt due to so many issues and so many people complaining of artifacting in short periods of time. My question is, that I might as well take this oppurtunity to get a slightly lower card and wait for DX10 and take the oppurtunity to "up" some of the specifications on my system. So far my system comes up to:

Product:
Quantity:
Total:

OCZ GameXStream Power Supply (SLI Ready) 600W
(OCZ600GXSSLI)
Price: $143.17 Quantity: $143.17
Availability: Usually Ships Within 1 to 3 business days

ANTEC P180 Advanced Super Mid Tower Silver
(P180)
Price: $153.47 Quantity: $153.47
Availability: In Stock

Zalman CPU Fan LED-CU With 70mm Fan LED Retail
(CNPS9500 LED)
Price: $66.95 Quantity: $66.95
Availability: Usually Ships Within 1 to 3 business days

OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-6400 Dual Channel Gold XTC
(OCZ2G8002GK)
Price: $307.97 Quantity: $307.97
Availability: Usually Ships Within 1 to 3 business days

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB 7200 rpm 16 MB
(ST3320620AS)
Price: $110.21 Quantity: $110.21
Availability: In Stock

NEC 16x Dual layer Black Bulk Pack
(ND-3550A-BK0A)
Price: $46.87 Quantity: $46.87
Availability: Usually Ships Within 1 to 3 business days

INTEL Pentium Conroe E6600 2.4GHz FSB1066MHz 4MB LGA775 Dual-Core
Price: $421.27 Quantity: $421.27
Availability: Coming Soon Accepting Back Order

ASUS INTEL 975X 3PCI/2PCI-E X16/2PCI-E X1 D.GB LAN
(P5W DH DELUXE)
Price: $287.37 Quantity: $287.37
Availability: Please Call for Stock

Total:
$1,537.28

That's CANADIAN dollars so prices are slightly higher than American. My question is this. Try and find me a cheaper graphics card that can run everything today with at least moderate FPS and give me advice on where I can upgrade my system either more. I was thinking of doing something with hard drives. My budget is 2000$ CANADIAN without tax so 2300 with.

For video cards I was considering the 7600GT. I have never gone ATI but I don't mind trying new things.

Thanks for any advice.

Edit: I recently a cheap 250 dollar X1800XL but I have never heard of this card. Any advice?

And also, I play games like Battlefield 2, RCT3 (which can be surprisingly graphic hungry in large parks), and Oblivion (which even my 6600gt could handle sometimes).

If you have concerns about the 7900GT, then maybe stretch your budget a tiny bit for the X1900XT from ATI?

I've just bought one to replace my 7800GT (which gave dissapointing performance in Oblivion) and I'm very happy with it.

Performance is great, so is image quality, and it should last fairly well until DX 10 I hope.

The 7600GT, though, you would most certainly find (while a reasonable card) would frustrate you with performance if you want to push the graphics settings on newer games - especially Oblivion outdoors! It certainly won't give a Conroe E6600 room to breathe. In a system of that quality I'd say an X1900XT would look more 'in place'.

The XTX version is a waste of money in my opinion, not alot of performance difference for teh extra cash... save that for DX10!

If you're feeling plush, the 7950GX2 would really be the card to push some serious benchie numbers alongside the Conroe E6600 - but it has a price tag to match.

By the way, the rest of your build is...disturbingly...exactly...what...I...would...build.... except I'd swap the OCZ for an Antec NeoHE (quieter), and I'd probably choose a Raptor as an OS/Application drive with the Seagate for storage.

According to the benchies, the E6600 is outperforming the E6400 by between 5-35% depending on the application (eg GPU-bound FEAR at 1600x1200 4xAA 8xAF will show less of a difference than Doom3 at 1024x768).

In light of that performance difference I'd definitely say that the E6600 is currently the higher 'medium-range' CPU of the moment, so I'd go for that.

Basically, if I was building your PC RIGHT NOW, I'd do pretty much the same as above but with an E6600 and the NeoHE 550w as I mentioned.

However, either would be a pretty awesome build.

Where are you ordering from?

I couldn't get the first site to work, but on the second site, I didn't see anything better than the 7900GT in it's price range.

What about a X1900GT???

if your not getting a 7900gt then get the 7600
http://www.ncix.com/products/index [...] cture=eVGA
maybe wait till this weeks sale, you never know u might save even more!

please tell me where the x1900gt is cheaper than the 7900gt?? NCIX had the evga 7900gt in the 299 range a while back

Newegg has the Sapphire X1900GT for $229 right now...and I think the prices on all X1900 cards are dropping very soon because of the impending release of the X1950. I forgot what site I read that on...some article from yesterday.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102022

To Coops07, on my local site from where I am buying my things from;

X1900XT: 379
http://www.infonec.com/site/main.p [...] l&id=15718

7900GT: 329
http://www.infonec.com/site/main.p [...] l&id=16558

X1900GT: 259 http://www.infonec.com/site/main.p [...] l&id=16913

Thats the prices in Canadian dollars.

To frankzoola, the X1800GTO or 7600GT is not powerful engough for the games I want to play and I do not see it as a worth while upgrade from a 6600GT.

To Heyyou27, the 7900GT does outperform, but only marginally, and the X1900GT is available to me for more than 100 dollars less than the 7900GT.

To racerboywonder, that was my thinking in that when I buy the card in september it might be even cheaper.

My situation allows for either the X1900GT, X1900XT, or 7900GT. The X1900XT I can just squeeze into my budget but I would prefer to go for the X1900GT as it performs as well as the 7900GT for 120 dollars less.

Thanks for all the help so far. More help is greatly appreciated.

I was thinking of the GTO but it's at the same price as the X1900GT so I figured I might as well get the GT or the XT which is 379. I was originally getting the 6400 but I figured the 6600 would be better in the long run with the extra cache which people said "apparently made the difference". In fact I heard claims that the 6600 performed 5-35% better than the 6400 in game and its only 100 dollars more from my local stores.

I also decided against the 7900GT after all the problems it was getting.

Does anyone have an idea as to which to get?

X1900XT 379$
X1900GT 259$ (Probably my choice)
7900GT 329$ (Prefer not to get :? )

i have a 7900 gt and all these horror storeys of problems with that card was mostly from that one back from EVGA that were clocked very high. i have a bfg 7900GT and it works great. havent tried to o/c it yet but i dont need to as i can play bf2 with 4xAA and 16xAF on at 12x10( 17" lcd nativve res.) and i coudl play fear at 12x10 with 2x AA an 8X AF on .

but i bought it over the x1900gt because of the price. i got the bfg 7900GT for 279+ tax ( Canadian) where the x1900gt's are 330( for a saphire)

nice prices btw i usualy shop at canadacomputers.com because there is a shop close by that i can drive too . but there stock levels are horible.