Which video card do you recommend?

[obiwan05]

Okay, I never thought I'd be asking one of these, but can you give me your opion on which card to get?

I do not do a lot of gaming (ie likely 10 hrs at most in the last year!).
The system is used for a lot of photoshop, some video editing, muxing and demuxing video streams (take the raw streams from satalitte pvr and put on to dvd).

I went through the recommend list sticky and for the 'cheap' cards it suggested the 7300gt w/ddr3 memory or the x800gto....but the local suppliers around here do not have the 7300s with ddr3, and they also do not have the x850s and the x800s are still pretty pricy...

The cards that I think I have narrowed it down to are:

x1600pro w/256mb $150
x1600pro w/512 $170
x800gto w/512 $200
7600gts w/256 $190
7600gt w/256 $220

whats the difference between the 7600gt and the 7600gts?

Any help would be appreciated.

thanks.

 

[cleeve]

If you game less than 10 hours in an entire year, go for a cheap X1300 or 6600.

It's not worth it to pay the extra $$ for functionality you won't use...

 

[obiwan05]

I've been wanting to try out a couple of newer games - fps and rts.

checked the prices of the x1300 is $135, $15 more and I've got an x1600pro.

 

[prozac26]

I would pay $15 more to upgrade from X1300 to X1600.

 

[obiwan05]

x1600pro 256mb it is then.

Thanks for the input

 

[cleeve]

Definitely worth it for the $150 X1600 PRO then, out of those cards and prices.

 

[edwuave]

Go get a Geforce 7300GT DDR3 version, it is a very nice card, score 5000+ marks in 3dmark05 at default core clock and memory. it smoke out the 6800GS,x1600 and even x800gto(in some games) and come close to 7600GT. what nice is it, it can be overclocked to 50% of its core clock.some more, its price range is almost same as x1300.
make sure u get the DDR3 version and not the DDR2. but too bad this card is only available in Asia and UK only.

 

[obiwan05]

pcie also, my pricing is in CND$ so a little skewed against USD$
x1900gt is $289 locally so way out of what my cash allowance is.

the 7600gt seems to be the better card then the x1600pro....but $40 better for the amount of gaming I do, I don't know if I can justify it.

 

[cleeve]

IN Canada, on tigerdirect.ca canadian prices:

X1600 PRO: $126.99
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1892526&CatId=1560

7600 GT: $170.99 with rebate
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2427578&CatId=1560

The 7600 GT is worth the extra money for gaming, but the X1600 PRO will have some nice video stuff with AVIVO... video encoding acceleration.

 

[obiwan05]

Thanks Cleeve,

For the less than $10 difference and the get now and not pay for shipping, I'll buy local (though I was in the process of looking those up on tiger when I got the notification you had replied again!)

Considering that I do more video then gaming, I think I will stick with the x1600pro.

Thanks to everyone who responded!