Need Some Advice on Card Choices, Please

[Gate_Keeper]

Hello,

1st time posting here, great site with alot of good info, have learned a great deal reading through the posts as I have been out of touch with the evolution of Video cards for some time.

Last card upgrade I did was 6 months ago when I upgraded my MoBo & CPU. Old MoBo was AGP with a fantastic perfroming ATI 9800XT (I admit for years now I have been an ATI Fanboy, I always found that to me they performed better and the image quality was better than NVIDIA, Just my opinion), LOVED that card, but alas, game technology finally caught up to me and passed me.

So I upgraded, new MoBo was PCI-e, so excitedly went out and got an ATI X1300XT expecting to light years ahead in performance and run all my games almost maxxed with eye-candy.

Much to my dismay, the X1300XT was kind of a disappointment in the performance department, while fairly good, it really didn't perform that much better than my ol' trusted 9800XT in my opinion.

So, I'm in the market for a new card, I've got a brand new Samsung 22" 226BW "S" panel and I need a good card to match.

While my first instinct tells me to go out and buy an ATI X1950 PRO or X1950XT or a HD2900XT my previous experience kind of left a sour tast in my mouth toward ATI, so I am off the train and taking a step forward.

I am going to give NVIDIA a chance to convert me.

Cards I am looking at:

7950 GT OC 256MB ($199.00)
7950 GT 512MB ($349.00)
7950 GT OC 512MB ($279.00)
8800 GTS 320MB ($279.00)
8800 GTS OC 320MB ($349.00)
8800 GTS Superclocked 320MB ($299.00)
8800 GTS 640MB ($399.00)

or should I stick with ATI:

X1950 PRO 256MB ($247.00)
X1950 PRO XGE 256MB ($219.00)
X1950XT 512MB ($399.00)
HD2900XT 512MB ($399.00)

I included the prices for comparison, the price tag isn't really a consideration as I can afford any one of these cards, but I also don't want to just throw away my money. ( I know the prices are on the high side but I am restricted to buying from a retail store and NOT online, so I have to deal with the higher prices anyway.)

My main concern is the differences between the NVIDIA cards as I haven't owned an NVIDIA since BEFORE they came out with original Geforce cards.
I've read that the 7950's are great performers and also that the 8800's are great performers. But are the 8800's that much better than the 7950's to warrant spending the extra $$$?? And NO, I am not that concerned with how DX10 will run right now, I am more concerned with how they perform with the games we have now. (I'll cross that DX10 bridge when I come to it, no sooner.)

I just need alittle guidence and wisdom from someone that knows, so I can make an educated decision.

Dang, I just realised how long I rambled on in this post so I'll cut it short here.

Thanks for your help in advance.

Gate_Keeper

 

[slashzapper]

I own a 8800 ,320meg card excellent to say the least.

makes my games beg for mercy :twisted:

As for ati not worth it at the moment unless you want a heater in your computer cabinet .

In my biast opinion :lol: nvidia is where it is at the moment .

 

[blade85]

your x1300 was one of the lowest spec graphics card in the x1000 series. I doubt its better than the 9800XT.


Any who,

if you want to save money then go for the 1950 pro versions, but if u dont mind speding some, go for the 8800GTS version ( they may last you longer a they are fairly faster and support extra stuff that you maaay end up using like dx10). you could also opt for the HD2900XT, but so far the consensus is that they are a bit too hot and power hungry along with drivers that arent very good.

 

[Gate_Keeper]

your x1300 was one of the lowest spec graphics card in the x1000 series. I doubt its better than the 9800XT.

Yea, I learned that the hard way, thats what i get for just going out and getting a card without reading up on it first. I just figured it was part of ATI's lineup of next gen cards so it had to be better than my ol' 9800.

I think the only reason I saw any performance at all from the X1300 was the increase in bandwith from the PCI-e compared to the AGP.

Any how, thanks for the input guys, I think I'm gonna go with the 8800 GTS (unless I can scrape enough together to move up to the 8800 GTX )