Thoughts on a new VC....

[humble]

My 7900GT is showing signs of going under, it's a brand with a life time warranty but I'm eyeballing an upgrade to my system anyway figuring that whatever I get back will go to one of the kids/wife as an upgrade. Currently I'm running a 6600 cpu on a asus P5K-e MB with 4 G's of ram...

I dont play any current generation games on the PC...anything thats a "box game" is on PS3. So.....

Looking at Toms...

8600GTS is best bang for the buck at under $100

3850/9600GSO is at ~$120

8800GT is about $160

And the 4850 is at $200

Right now my thoughts are to buy a 4850. My MB supports crossfire and my PS will easily run both cards. My understanding from reading Toms is that  2 x 4850 beats the 260...

So I'd get one now and then the other on "closeout"....

At the same time its really only for AH so there is probably no real value beyond the 8600GTS

Thoughts???

[Fulmar]

Well let's think futuristically...

Within the next 2 years, do you plan on only playing Aces High 95% of the time?  Do you own or play any other games right now?

If you're that big of a AH junky and life does not exist outside of it, I'd proably would stick the 3850 in there if you want to upgrade/replace that card.

Otherwise, the 4850 seem to be dymo and crossfire would help with high end games playing at large resolutions.

[BaldEagl]

I've never been an ATI fan but of the NVidea cards, if you can afford it, skip the 8600 and go for the 8800.  The 8800 is overkill for AH but will work for you for a long time because of that.

[humble]

Well let's think futuristically...

Within the next 2 years, do you plan on only playing Aces High 95% of the time?  Do you own or play any other games right now?

If you're that big of a AH junky and life does not exist outside of it, I'd proably would stick the 3850 in there if you want to upgrade/replace that card.

Otherwise, the 4850 seem to be dymo and crossfire would help with high end games playing at large resolutions.

Not on the PC, I use PS3 for anything else....

[Fulmar]

Then I'd save the $60 and get an 8600 and buy youself another PS3 game.

[falcon23]

I have an 8600GT and wish I would of  bought the 8800...

                                                           Falcon23

[Tigger29]

Look at the 9600GT.  From what I've seen they run about $160 and can sometimes outperform the 8800...

[Getback]

I gave an 8600GT away! Almost brand new. Maybe 3 months old and only used about 1 month. Went to an ATI 3850 on one comp and a 3870 on the other.

[Chalenge]

8800GT us best bang for your buck now so you must have seen a old review on Toms.

[humble]

8800GT us best bang for your buck now so you must have seen a old review on Toms.

The July 08 list has the 8600GTS as best bang for the buck in the "under $100" catagory

[humble]

Thought I'd update this....

After ping ponging back and forth I finally got an 8800GT on newegg for $130 after rebate with free shipping. The other contenders where a 3870 with zalman fan for $99 or one of a couple of 4850's that were all right in the $160 range after rebate. There was actually a 256M 8800GT for $99 but it was sold out or i'd have grabbed it I think.

After all is said and done a couple of factors came into play. I'm a bit leary of the catalyst drivers overall and never have felt that ATI driver support is all that good. I really dont play any box games so I'm not really worried about crossfire etc. No question that the 4850 is a better value overall then the 8800GT...but for what I want/need the 8800 is a safer bet. I'm guessing that I'm about 1/2 way thru the life cycle of my current box (6600 on a P5K-e MB). The 8800 should carry me thru the rest of the cycle just fine.