I'm building a new rig and will be ordering parts by the end of the week. I need a video card but can't decide which to buy. I don't want to spend a lot on a card because I consider the current offerings old tech. I want to buy a new card next year when NVidia and ATI finally release their next generation cards.
I would buy an 8800GT but because of limited availability prices are high and I'd probably have to wait to receive the card. The HD3850 and HD3870 are more reasonable at $176 and $219 respectively but performance is sub-par and I'm guessing that new faster cards are just around the corner. I'd also prefer to upgrade from NVidia -> NVidia or ATI -> ATI to limit driver issues in the future (has anyone experienced problems driver issues when upgrading from one brand to the other??)
That leaves me with lower performing cards such as the 8600GT and previous generation cards that I can get for ~100 or less. The problem here is that I'll have a new 24" monitor and I don't know that those cards would be able to drive a resolution of 1920x1200 not to mention gaming. I currently don't do a lot of gaming (my current rig doesn't have the horsepower). I would eventually like to play Crysis, Bio Shock, etc. but probably not until I upgrade my video card. However, I would like to play some RTS games in the meantime.
So, that's my dilema. What should I do?
TIA for your help.
I would buy an 8800GT but because of limited availability prices are high and I'd probably have to wait to receive the card. The HD3850 and HD3870 are more reasonable at $176 and $219 respectively but performance is sub-par and I'm guessing that new faster cards are just around the corner. I'd also prefer to upgrade from NVidia -> NVidia or ATI -> ATI to limit driver issues in the future (has anyone experienced problems driver issues when upgrading from one brand to the other??)
That leaves me with lower performing cards such as the 8600GT and previous generation cards that I can get for ~100 or less. The problem here is that I'll have a new 24" monitor and I don't know that those cards would be able to drive a resolution of 1920x1200 not to mention gaming. I currently don't do a lot of gaming (my current rig doesn't have the horsepower). I would eventually like to play Crysis, Bio Shock, etc. but probably not until I upgrade my video card. However, I would like to play some RTS games in the meantime.
So, that's my dilema. What should I do?
TIA for your help.