Graphics card question

This is my first post here so Hello everyone

And here is what I'm wondering about.

I'm planning of getting a completely new pc, let's say it will be gaming and hd video machine. Not really sure about the specs for now, all I know it will be nforce motherboard, intel cpu and nvidia graphics card and 24-inch lcd monitor. No sense in buying small monitor since I plan keeping this one for a long time.

Now I'm reading this forum and still can't decide. Which graphics card (nvidia) would you guys recommend to get so I can play games on 1920 x 1200 resolution on high/max settings. I was thinking of getting one (or two if they're not too expensive) of those 8800 cards but can't decide which one, and frankly I'm gettin confused with GTX,GT and GTS stuff.

Thank you for your help.

For gaming, buy the best one you feel comfortable spending money on. Here is a list to start with: http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/0 [...] _graphics/

DONT go for an nVidia board.... I find nothing but problems with them, espcially RAM compatibility and poor overclocking compared to Intel boards.

Go for the Gigabyte X38-DS4 board.. it's what I use, and I cannot fault it one bit... been the best investment Ive made in my current machine (the watercooling kit being the 2nd)...

8800GTS 512mb are dropping in price so yeah get one bought, great card for the money... as are the 8800GT's and ATi HD3870's..... the advantage of buying a HD3870 is the Gigabyte motherboard is Crossfire capable so you could add a 2nd card later and have performance better than a single 8800GTS.... for around the same price, plus the Crossfire will perform better at those high resolutions, whereas the 8800GTS sweet spot is 1680 x 1050 resolution.

No not currently... and SLi and Crossfire are probably equal... some games prefer SLI, some prefer Crossfire...

I personally believe that the Intel X38 / X48 boards ARE THE BOARDS to go for right now... Im loyal to nVidia but Ive chosen a Crossfire based board simply because of the other great features it has. Plus I dont play at resolutions high enough to make full use of SLi scaling.

I think the high end nForce based boards are very expensive, I paid £115 for my X38 board, which supports 1600mhz FSB & 1200mhz DDR2...

Well everything in my shopping list is variable for now, except for monitor. I'm 100% going for 24 inch LCD and I think their optimal resolution is 1920x1200 So I'm trying to optimize everything around it both for my gaming and hd movie needs
This PC will last me for a long time since it will be quite a hit on my wallet.


Currently have Athlon 1.8 with gforce 4ti 4200 768 RAM and 17 inch CRT monitor so I need new machine quite badly

My Dad has the same motherboard as that... and its only x8 x8 for SLi...

For not alot extra the Gigabyte board will do the job perfectly... but maybe means going Crossfire instead of SLi if you want smooth high resolution gaming.

Plus that SLi mobo isnt PCI-Express 2.0... its all outdated technology for not alot less than the newer nicer stuff.

Agreed with the CPU though, I wish I'd of kept my Q6600 it were a great chip.

Doesnt make a difference to sli performance...

Pauldh posted this many times

http://www.techspot.com/review/45- [...] page4.html