Newbie Question.

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heyman421

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I'm trying to piece together a new PC to buy with my tax return in the near future.

Right now i've got a single core 3.6ghz P4, and want to get a quad when they drop in price in the spring/summer.

Now, i've never really played games on my PC before. Then the newer trackmania games came out, and now gaming has become a consideration :) TM: united is addictive, and my computer can barely play it :(

Right now i have an ATI x1300. Laugh it up :)

Anyways, i'm looking at Nvidia 8 series cards, and i noticed that depending on the actual manufacturer of the card, there's huge differences in price.

The 8800gtx's range from $550 to $800, depending on the manufacturer of the actual card.

The ones i'm referring to are the PNY vs. the BFG Tech cards.

They're both PCX16 cards, both 575mhz, both 8800gtx's, both directx10 compatable, both..... the same.

Is there an actual performance advantage between different cards with the same GPU's, or are you paying for the name alone?

Again, this may be a stupid question, but i've never really paid much attention to video cards, and now that i'm running widescreen at 1680x1050, i'm realizing my video card's downfalls :)

So what do i lose by getting the $550 card vs. the $800 card? Am i even going to notice?

And stupid question, but how would either of the cards compare to my current x1300? Hahaha, for a better comparison, how would the graphics compare to a ps3 or xbox360? I would hope fairly close for more money than either!

Thanks guys.
 
Is there an actual performance advantage between different cards with the same GPU's, or are you paying for the name alone?
Click to expand...

Just look at the clock speed and memory speed of any 8800GTX, the one that has higher clock speeds and memory are always better.

For example the eVGA 8800GTX has clock speed of 621MHz and memory speed 2000MHz and cost only $609.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130079

The GIGABYTE has speeds of 575/1800 and it much more expensive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814125049

So, the eVGA is cheaper and better

If you want to buy a 8800GTX, then I recommend eVGA or XFX 8800GTX, because they are the best performer for the price

XFX 8800GTX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150205


And stupid question, but how would either of the cards compare to my current x1300? Hahaha, for a better comparison, how would the graphics compare to a ps3 or xbox360? I would hope fairly close for more money than either!
Click to expand...
The graphics of PS3 and Xbox 360 are much better than X1300 in most games.
 
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thank you very much

so price isn't always the dictator of the best card

i've heard nothing but good about evga.

how often to manufacturers chaneg small things such as the onboard bios, or hardware revision #'s? Would it be pretty risky to buy ONE card now, and another later to do SLI? Or do you need to buy them both at once?

I don't wanna only order one, and then get stuck not being able to find a perfect match a few months down the road, i'd rather just wait and buy both at once, and just use my x1300 in my new computer for the time being.

but if i could get away with buying one 8800 now, and buying another down the road to take advantage of the SLI configuration, that would really be ideal for me, since i could get BETTER performance for now, and then just step it up a notch when i get bored :)

thanks.
 
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