Which Vid card?

What are the rest of your system specs? Is your chipset Nvidia or ATI?

I'm building my computer from the ground up, so things might change..

MOBO: ASUS P5W DH DELUXE http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E1681...

CPU: Core 2 Duo E6600 (no need for a link, everyone knows what it iss)

Ram: CZ Gold 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 (probably will change the ram due to problems with the asus mobo) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E1682...

PSU: something with dual 12V rails (still researching it)

Already have optical drives, harddrives and audio card.

I would get the x1800xt to hold me over until the next gen cards. Its not that far off (Nov~Dec seems to be the consensus) and they will smoke the x1900xtx. Although, you may have to wait longer to really use the card as Vista is a complete mystery at this point.

But if you're going to do that make sure you get a high quality power supply with at least 600W. Antec and PC&C to name two.

But if you can't wait 6 months then get the x1900xtx and have fun.  

As with computers, all things seem to change.

I discovered my budge is smaller than originally expected and I think I am going to just upgrade my mobo and buy a PCI express card.

I'm getting this mobo: Thunder K8WE (S2895)

It has SLI, which amazes me since its a server board with DDR1.

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So, I beg the question: Would it be worth running?

1. SAPPHIRE 100146L Radeon X1600XT (x2) in sli config @ $112x2

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E1681...

VS

2. any PCI express vid card @ $224?

I would THINK, that for the price, the SLI config would run better, but i don't know.

newegg has the HIS x1900xt 256 for under $250. That would hold you over till Vista has its bugs worked out and till the second generation of DX10 cards are out. It would smoke the crossfire x1600 setup. I say this because migrating to the new platforms "Vista" and DX10 cards in the first 6 months is overpriced and full of bugs better to let the dust settle.

249.99 would be a good price for the 256 mb card.

Would it be worth dropping an additional 65 bucks ($315) for the 512 mb model?

SAPPHIRE 100149L Radeon X1900XT 512MB

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E1681...

That would be a great card IMO over my current AGP x800xt and would most likely allow me to let the dust settle around the new amd K8L and intel wars to see whats worth buying.

This for the 315 price tag, i'd get another 2 years or so out of this card?

If your going to want to run dual GPUs on that motherboard, you won't be able to do it with ATI GPUs because it's an SLI mobo. You'll need crossfire for 2 X1900XTs.

Probably not. You won't notice much difference between the two on today's games.

in my eyes SLI is wayyyy to expensive for what you get for it. Also buying the newest highest-end cards means price/quality is pretty bad cause you pay a shitload for a card thats slightly better than the more affordeble cards. So I'd say buy one of them new 7900GS, it will run great.

So paying 315 for twice the ram is just not a good idea?

My question stems from playing quake 4. The highest setting states that you need a video card w/ 512 ram. You think the 256 mb version of the card would run the game just about as well?

I'm not saying you're wrong at all, just not sure why, thats all.

Quake 4 is one of very few games that really benefit from more than 256MB of video RAM, but for the most part you'll only gain a couple FPS.

Assuming I play quake 4 a lot, do you think it would be pointless to put another 65 bucks into a card to get more FPS on a single game?

I'm probably going to use this card for the next 2 years untill I build a new system. Thats why I'm just second guessing if its a good idea or not to drop and extra 65 bucks into video that will be used for 2 years +.

If you plan on using it for that long, I'd say it's probably worth it. For those who upgrade more often it's not. Within the next year, there will be more games that take advantage of the extra memory. If I had that option, and could afford it I'd opt for 512MB.

I guess I should have been more specific from the begginning. This will be my primary video card until I build my new system in 08-09 ( I plan ahead alot,   ).

Spending much more though would be a a waste IMHO. The whole "more ram for newer games over the next few years" is my primary driving force in choosing a card.

Thanks for the help. The x1900xt would be a much better card than the x1600 pro in SLI. I'm probably going to buy a 3rd party cooler for it since thats only 15 bucks (I've heard the stock cooler is LOUD).

I appreciate all the help. I've been busy with college lately and haven't had a lot of time to build a new PC in a while and haven't kept up as much as I'd like. My last true overclocking job involved MANUALLY changing jumpers on the MOBO since software OC'ing didn't even exist back then.

Not a problem. If you are thinking about possibly running a dual GPU config in the future, you're mobo has to support Crossfire. While it's OK to run a single ATI card on an SLI mobo, it doesn't support dual ATI GPUs.  

You need a different mobo, one that supports crossfire, not sli. Get the x1900 or wait for the x1950 (what is it, a month?). I'd say wait, but I know it can be really hard. But you usually are happier with yourself for waiting. Plus it lasts longer.

I have 2 dilemas:

1. The "server" is my main computer with all my data on it. I need it running ASAP. I can't wait even a few weeks. I know, it blows.

2. I'm not really willing to spend 500-550 bucks on a new card. 300 is about the highest i'll go (315 is Just over 300   ). 512 mb is good enough, although not the BEST, it will certainly run everything I need and save me 200 bucks.

Otherwise, I would definitally wait for the x1950xtx. It looks sweet. If I had a conroe system, it would be a different story. I'm running dual 940 opterons (250) @ 2.4 ghz w/ 8 gigs DDR1. Fast, but not top of the line by any means. I don't want to put much more into the computer since it'll be used as a file server in the future.