video card help

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1

im building a system that might run a few games (Starcraft 2 maybe) and vista ultimate – mainly for pictures/editing some videos/browsing

system so far

q6600
8gb ram
AUSI P5e WS Professional LGA 775

I need help on a video card… ive been out of the pc building game too long to make sense of all of the models on the market… i dont think i need a 500 dolla card… maybe 200-300? pcie 16x?

basically i don’t want vista ultimate to bottle neck and I want some room to play some games… i think the wife will play sims or something sweet like that…

2

I just got a Visiontek ATI radeon HD3870 512MB for $213 at Best Buy. Top of the line for ATI right now and is only a bit slower than the Nvidia Geforce 8800GT 512MB, which can be had for $250 or so, depending on brand. IMO either one of those cards would be perfectly fine.

3

Get the 8800 GT in SLi or the HD3870 in Crossfire.

4

For his purposes and budget, he doesn’t need SLI nor xfire.

I’d go with the HD3870 for bang for the buck, at bestbuy.

An 8800GT 256mb would be find for what your doing, but its $20 more. So go with the ATI card and you will be happy for a long time.

also, jw on why you bought 8GB of ram, and which ram you bought/how much it cost?

5

its cheap right now on newegg.

6

how much ram is Vista ultimate capable of using?

7

32 bit wont see more than 3 gb as far as I know. If hes running 64 bit then itll detect his 8 gigs. Go with nvidias new 8800gts g92. 512mb I think, just a little over $300. Itll go great with a q6600.

8

Good Choice.

9

if you’re only playing a few games, just got for a dx9 card, their cheap these days. (sub 100) and still perform great.

or if you want a DX10 card, you can get an 8600GT on the cheap as well (120-ish). All the benefits of DX10 without the price hit (HDCP compliant). It’s not high end by todays standards, but it will hold it’s own.

or if you’re looking for something a little quicker, go for the 8800GT… you wont be sorry

10

128GB

11

with a q6600 youd be so sad with a 7 series or an 8600. Gotta be 8800 gt or gts. Who wants gpu bottleneck? Not me…