Good Card < $170

[smadge]

I need to get a relatively good video card for gaming, but it has to be around $170 usd. I've narrowed it down to the 6800 GS and the Radeon X850XT (but any other suggestions are nice too). As you can see from the link they're about the same price. The x850xt has 4 more pixel pipelines but the 6800 GS has SM 3.Thanks for any help you can give Into what I should get.
The Cards

 

[mrbagrat]

The nvidia, its by eVGA. Probably a better card, although I didn't really look at it in depth.

 

[Seth]

Go the X850XT as:
1. Ati are better
2. The X850XT is much better than the 6800 GS (GS is bad!!! you want GT)

 

[ceewi1]

1. Ati are better

2. The X850XT is much better than the 6800 GS (GS is bad!!! you want GT)

The GT has 4 extra pipelines, but the GS makes up for it with higher clocks. The performance difference between the GS and GT is VERY small (the GT holds a VERY slight advantage).

 

[elmarcorulz]

The GT has 4 extra pipelines, but the GS makes up for it with higher clocks. The performance difference between the GS and GT is VERY small (the GT holds a VERY slight advantage).

Well surely you'd take the extra pipes then oc it to match the speeds of the GS

 

[fade2green514]

actually why would you do that, the GT costs $220 on newegg, whereas the GS which probably performs just as good and is more o/cable is like $160. hmm $60 difference, performs almost as good... sounds like a deal to me. i'd go for the GS.
if not then you may as well look for a 7900gt i heard they go for around $280, thats only $60 more than the 6800gt.... and a HUGE step up from either. (trust me, 7 series = win)
oh yea, ATI aren't better. ATI and NVidia are both extremely good brands... personally i think NVidia's SLI is better than ATI's crossfire though... thats why i went NVidia. (i plan on adding another card)

 

[Jet]

We aren't talking about the 6800GT or anything.
X850XT>>>>>>>6800GS performance wise.

(Not because it's Ati, because it's faster.

 

[maroon1]

personally i would go with 6800GS without thinking.

 

[smadge]

I like all of the enthusiastic replies, but I dont want to listen to your opinion without factual backup. Why is the 6800gs a good idea? How is the x850xt faster? and of course no fanboyism.

 

[ceewi1]

Firstly, if your budget can stretch a little, the 7600GT is a good choice, it will outperform either card.

Here's a review comparing the three cards you may want to take a look at: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2006/03/21/bfg_7600_gt_oc_ati_x1800gto/1.html

It's probably not an issue for you, but remember that the X850XT takes up two slots, and is much louder than the 6800GS.

Well surely you'd take the extra pipes then oc it to match the speeds of the GS

Different core, so they don't have the same clock-ceiling. The extra cost for the 68GT is prohibitive, there are better cards if you want to spend that much (the 76GT being one of them). In general, the 68GS is actually considered to be a better overclocker than the 68GT.

 

[holyjunk]

the ati beats the nvida out by all costs except the ps and vs version http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=41&card2=354

 

[Jet]

And that's just the X800XT add 20mhz to the core and 40 to the memory.