why is this one better

Ok as time is comming near to finish the build, i find the part i am having the most trouble with is the vid card. What makes one 8800gts or 8800gt or 8800gtx. What should i look for is it higher core speed? it it the size of the memory? Then with some of the GTS you get the ( g92 ) some have it, some dont. any help would be great.

this is what my system is so far, so people have a better idea

780i mobo
q6600
4 gig ram corsair
i will be buying a 24" lcd soon after i choose the vid cards
Os will be vista ultimate 64 bit
psu is a ocz 700 watt gamextream

Well as far as i have seen this is one hell of a card for the money myself and mousemonkey were on a thread earlier this week and agreed that at price performance this was one hell of a card (at least thats the impresion i got i will let mousemonkey nay or yay that PM him if he dosent answer this thread) but it has a better than standard cooler and that has been the biggest complaint amoungst users (that the card got very hot) also its a pre Overclocked model and MSI are very good at this kind of thing in fact if it makes sence to you i consider them to be the HIS of Nvidia cards (If you dont understand that put HIS into google and see what they do wiyh ATI cards.) any ways this card will perform as near as danm it to a 512 GTS at about $80 less at last weeks prices + trebate so its a no brainer as far as im concerned.
That covers Nvidia as far as ATI goes i would recomend a 3870 512 but you need to decide on price/ performance also if you dont need it asap you could consider waiting to see what the 700/770 from ati delevers.
Mactronix

Unless he finds a 8800GTS 512MB on sale. Or if he can afford the extra cost.

I'd go with the 8800GTS 512MB any day over the 8800GT 512MB.

I think that's good advice, and the ATI equivalent would be 1920 x 1200, get 3870x2, for lower res get 3870. Forget 2900XT at any price point above free gift.

The way card naming's been going with, I keep thinking of Spinal Tap and Nigel's amplifier that's better because it goes up to 11. While ATI can be criticized for the 3xxx convention on architecture that's what the 2xxx cards should have been to begin with; it's Nvidia that's really mucked things up for their fans with several flavors of 8800gts.

Considering the rather alarming amount of posts from people who appear to be having problems with a heat/noise issue that is a direct result of the single slot cooler on the GT's then I reckon that an extra 25% for a better cooler and a bit more performance without the added hassle of replacing the stock HSF is going to be more than worth it for quite a few people.

mactronix if you were referring to that MSI card with the '7900GTO like' cooler then yes I thought that was a stunning deal.

Edit: I see that you were.

i was to belive that all ATI cards happened to be Crossfire and not SLI. I mite be wrong.

So, core speed or memory size dsont matter? i just see some GeForce cards have 550 mhz up to 570mhz dose this matter much?

the 780i Mobo i have is for SLI. I am going to end up running SLI but i mite not do so untell i see what the new 9800 will be like. the whole vid cards make me feel like i am running aorund in a circle.

Is one card better to OC then others? i have read that the xfx is a better OC. i dont know if this is true

Mactronix: I never read your posts. It hurts my head. This is a (.)

This is a paragraph break.

have you used thease cards befor or know someone that has? i know they havnt been out for awhile like other brands. i think i will be aimming tp the gts-g92 seems they are the best all around for the price range. plus to oc it alittle wouldnt hurt anything.

I have not used either of those two speicific cards, but would not hesitate to try (buy) either one. matter of fact I would go with one of those over any reference cooled 8800GT including evga (which I look toward first).

That's because they tested the NX8800GT reference cooled model. Like all ref 8800GT coolers, they stink.
pic of the card they tested bottom of this page: http://techreport.com/articles.x/14120/4

This one looks too be much better: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Show [...] Video+Card

I like how they placed the fan in the middle, it improves efficiency compared to putting the fan on one side.

The draw back is some of the hot air goes back into the case.

So that would be the one that I linked to earlier in the thread then would it.
Mactronix

Yep, you da man!

So basicly you are stuck with Nvidia and no DX10.1. The 512 gts is a very nice card. You are going to have to calculate your display and that will dictate what graphics card you buy.