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Hi all,


First, please accept my apology, Cleeve, it was not right of me to go personally at you. I was just in a very bad mood when I came home last night, and then saw these posts.

And to you all, please read my entire post before commenting on PCI cards not being for gamers. As my post stated:

I have an ATI Radeon 9800 PRO 128MB (that I will change to a GeForce 6800 GT I hope - to benefit from nView) which I am very satisfied with, and I have two 17" monitors connected to that one, and then I have a horrible old 1MB ATI card in a PCI socket to run outlook on a 3rd 17" monitor.

I do play games, but for me the game quality does not measure in FPS. At this moment I am playing EQ2, a very graphics intensive game, and I normally only play it on one monitor.
I tried a few nights ago to stretch the game, in windowed mode, across the two screens I have on the 9800 Pro card, and it worked out ok actually.

What I simply thought then was that now I want to play it across all three monitors, and I would need a new PCI card for the 3rd screen to do so.

And I started speculating if the performance would be best with one triple-head (Parhelia) AGP card, or with one AGP, and two PCI cards. Or even if I use the 9800 Pro for two, and add a PCI card for the 3rd.

That was all my question was about in the first place, I never intended to say that playing on a PCI card was useful, which I agree with you guys, it probably wouldn't be today.

And thank you, Cleeve, for the last post, where you include a test on PCI Cards, that was VERY helpful. I had been searching everywhere for a PCI Cards test, but with no luck.

Please understand that 2 screens will not do, as it is very annoying to have the center of your view split across two screens. With 3 screens I would still have my character on the center screen, and expand the area for inventory, stats, maps, etc.

And finally... I am talking about PCI cards, to all those of you who tell me to go for a SLI setup... I am not talking about a PCI-E card

I have a Dell 8300 computer, with a P4 3000 MHz HT CPU, 1024 MB Dual Channel RAM, 800 MHz FSB, WD 200 GB 8MB Cache HD, SB Audigy 2, etc. It has one AGP slot and a number of PCI slots.

Thanks again, all, and please accept my apology for being a jerk.


//Xesc

Meh, no harm done. Apology accepted.

For my part. sorry if I responded a bit curtly to your original post.

Best regards,

Update:

Changed best PCI-express card over $500 to Radeon X1900 XT, due to cheaper price and equal performance to Geforce 7800 GTX 512.

Jan 26 updates to PCI-express category:

Moved the 6800GS and X800 XL to the $250 - $300 category as newegg offers them in this price category. Removed the regular X800 GTO from the pci-express list as the 6800 GS is notably better now that it's in the same category.

Added the X850 XT in the $200-$250 category as they are going for as little as $209 on Newegg!

Just wanted to say...nice board, Cleeve. Do you think the 7300 GS will be added to the list soon?

Thanks man.

The 7300 GS has a crippled 64-bit memory bus from what I've seen... I think it'll probably perform only slightly better than the 6200.

I doubt it'll come close to challenging the 6600/X1300 for best budget card, but we'll see when the benches arrive.

If you've seen some benches though, shoot 'em my way...

Not yet...the 7800 GS looks decent. Will that one possibly be on your list?

The 7800 GS might be the best AGP card available, but it's nowhere near a best card for the money at $350...

Feb 7, 2006 update:

Removed the X800 XT/X850 XT from best AGP buy above $200 because they are becoming very scarce below $250, and are in the $300 range for the most part now.

Recommend upgrading to PCI-express mobo and 7800 GT to people who have more than $200 to spend on an AGP card, until the 7800 GS can be found for <$250

You need to add a zero to the lithography process measures and make them nanometers rather than microns as 1 micron = 1000 nanometers.

Sorry, the lingo is a bit misleading.

What is commonly referred to as the "13 micron process" is actually 0.13 microns. The first CPU's were much larger and the micron name has stuck, although people simply omit the decimal point much of the time. But this has been the slang for some time in the processor world I'm afraid.

You'll probably be happy that as time goes on and the process is reduced, it's more commonly shifting to nanometers which is more correct.

Scrap the X800XL, the GTO's are replacing them since Ati is putting the R430 (XL) core in the GTO's

X800XL shoudl stay, not all (not even the majority) of X800GTOs are R430s, in fact most are R480s and R423s.

But the number of different chips (R420,423,430,480,481) in the GTO is ridiculous, GTO2 = R480 though, but still doesn't mean the X850XT should go either.

Feb 15, 2006: 7800GS available under $300 USD: http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Mer [...] watch&NR=1

Update perhaps for $250-$300 AGP? Also the 7300 GS is only like $80. Is it really as bad as people say it is? It does have DDR2 or GDDR3 memory in it...

I'll hold off on the 7800 recommendation until it's $250ish. Still expensive considering it's a 16-pipe part.

The 7300 GS really IS as bad as everyone says. not even as good as a 6600 from what I've seen, but honestly I should check more benches.

Id says pce-i, 7800Gt is more bang for the buck.

Everything is not that plain or simple.

The best card for me is an ATI card because I know what the developers of the game I like to play develop with, even though the 7800gt provides a better value and works great.

The best card for a HTPC might be the card with the most power available in a fanless form, or it might be a more powerful card with a water cooler attachment.

I don't favor making this sticky, because it changes way to often, but also because choosing a graphics card is one of the few real upgrades that a user can do to an existing computer (even a mass produced factory stamped out DELL). So I think each user should give some individual attention to their selection and not select the mass approved "BEST" model according to this list.

You are missing the spirit of this sticky.

It is a guideline as to the best GPU buys for the money, nothing more. Of course some people require peronal attention, but hey, that's why this is a forum where anyone can post.

It HAS to change often, as videocard prices change often. That's just the way the industry works. If it was static, it would be completely useless as far as pointing out the "Best card for the money".

If you're an Ati fanboy, or Nvidia fanboy, you're not looking for value... you're looking for a brand. You should notice that if there isn't a clear winner in a price segment, either brand of card is mentioned. But in the case of the 7800 GT, it's a better value than any Ati offering of the same price, plain and simple. There's no convincing argument otherwise... until the prices change (which they will - and then the list will get updated again)