http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/0 [...] index.html
 
Detailed video card specifications and reviews are great - that is, if you have the time to do the research. But at the end of the day, what a gamer needs is the best video card within a certain budget, and that's what we're going to show you.

Don't know if you can still find it But the eVGA 7600 GT is on sale for 69.99 after $20 Mail-in at Micro Center. Quite the steal.

Uh... I don't think the 6800 GT is suposed to be better than the 6800 Ultra.  Someone not checking before putting up the article?

I am currently thinking of upgrading from my old GeForce 6600GT.  As per this article, I'm considering going for the 8600GT or perhaps one of the recommended Radeon X1950 cards.  However, I have a few questions regarding the resident experts here:
 
1) Which particular brands/models do you recommend?  I see that the price you quote is usually the "bottom of the barrel" price.  Is that essentially the option you're recommending for each?
 
2) I am currently running an Athlon 64 3500+.  Is it worth it to go all the way up to the Radeon X1950 XT or will I run into a processor bottleneck?
 
3) I only have a 420W power supply.  It seems like the 8600GT wouldn't be a problem, but I cannot find any information on the Radeon's power requirements.  Additionally, I see user comments on New Egg that claim those cards are power hogs.  Do you have any information on specific Radeon cards that I could run with my current power supply, or anywhere I can find said information?  Even the card manufacturers sites have been unhelpful.
 
Thanks a lot in advance!!

hey jujigatame, Ill try to help
 
1. I dont think brands really matter as most stick to ati/nvidia's reference design. Evga/bfg tech/His are known for making good cards but you can always check reviews about a particular card on newegg.com
 
2. I used to have a amd 3200+ and upgraded to a 7900gt from the same 6600gt you have. The fps difference was enormous. The x1950xt is supposedly faster than the 7900gt so you'll see a bigger jump than I did
 
3. 420W should be fine. Heres a link to make sure though
http://www.extreme.outervision.com [...] orlite.jsp

If you are gaming at all 1950 series is the sweet spot for price/performance for your system.IMO don't waste good money on the 8600 or 2600.BTW there hasn't been a lot of change in the charts in the last couple of months and I concur wholeheartedly with the reccomendations made.

When something sais prossessor bottlenecked, taht doesnt mean that past a certain point your graphics power doesnt do anything, it just means it doesnt do as well as if there was no bottleneck.
 
Performance doesnt just magically disapear though. Go for it if you can afford it!

 
The x1950 XTs are the power hogs.  The x1950 Pros aren't that bad.  The requiremenets listed on the box for the x1950 Pros is a 450W PSU with 30A on the 12V rail  (I'm pretty sure it was 30A, may have been 25A).  That of course is just a guideline and it will depend on how much other things you are powering.  If its a good 420W PSU you should be fine with the x1950 Pro.
 

vip:

Thanks for the help.  I'm still a little worried about the power supply, though.  That link you provided seemed to show very low numbers when I tried to use it.  I'm concerned because I was originally considering this upgrade a few months ago and was looking at the GeForce 7900GS.  Some of the models listed a 450W requirement.

Erloas:

Is that standard practice?  I personally hesitate to buy a card that says it requires a 450W supply when I only have a 420W.  Makes me nervous.  My supply only gets 17A at 12V.  

You may be better off with a 7600GT or perhaps an 8600GT.
The higher end cards would be pushing your system and I don't like to do that.
 
Amps, however, is where it is all at.
 
Example - The new Corsair 450w CPU puts out 33amps at 12v and can handle just any card out there with a single power connector.
 
Meanwhile, bad 500w or 550w CPUs could not do the same.

Can I just strongly advise you (from personal experience) STAY AWAY FROM 8600's (although i have a gts it wouldn't surprise me if the gt was **** to) and for that matter the ati equivalent

Definitely leaning towards the 8600GT after reading zenmaster's post.  I think it should give enough performance for my purposes.  I'm basically making this upgrade for Call of Duty 2 and Oblivion and maybe a couple of other games and then will probably get a whole new system in a year or two.  Honestly I think 2007 has been a really weak year for games so far, and considering that I'm already like a year and a half behind on my game queue, I'm not worried about having to play games like Crysis on my current system.

what res are you going to be playing on?, do you care if you can max the details?

I'd be playing on 1280x1024.  I'd like to max out as much as possible but I won't die of disappointment if I can't turn the AA way up or anything like that.  I already played FEAR with the 6600GT so I'm used to having to turn down graphics options.

the 8600gt is really underpowered. Its capable of some really high clocks, but cards like the 7900gs with stock speeds can still beat it.  

 
What are you talking about? The 6800 ultra is shown one tier higher than the 6800 GT.
 

The 2600xt/8600gt cards arent really intended for gaming.. maybe really low end gaming at 1024/768.

If you want to game im sorry but youll have to fork out more money.
 

Hmmm, no mention of the quietly released 512mb version of the 8600 gts ? Some reviews point to to higher
framerates not to mention that its memory is in the old school 256, 512, versus the 320 ,640 768 builds of
the other 8800 series. Just my two cents.
 

Hatman, it's not the money, it's the fact that the beefier cards may require more power than my PSU is capable of offering.  Also, I feel like the 8600GT will be able to play Oblivion decently well, which is probably the most intensive game I'll throw at it.

It's your choice but you could SLI two 8600's and it wouldn't make 1 1950 for around 150 after rebate on Newegg.Get a good enough PSU that you could use in your new build.IMHO

Thanks for all the replies, guys.  Honestly, I would go with the X1950 Pro without a second thought, but the added hassle and cost of a new power supply has pushed me towards the 8600GT.  I'll probably go with one of the OCed models.  I think it'll do me just fine considering that Oblivion is the toughest thing I'll throw at it and I'll probably replace the whole system in a year or so.