Need Opinion on New Video Card

[nmX.Memnoch]

From looking at those reviews and taking into consideration that i only play games at 1024 since i only have a 17" monitor, I'm sticking with my new 6800GS for a while.

The thing you have to realize about reviews is that they aren't all created equal. Another thing to keep in mind is that they may not have turned the card up to it's maximum possible settings for a given resolution.

For instance, if they benchmarked it at 1024x768x32-bit color with 2X FSAA and 8X AF and it was beating the 6800GS by a decent margin, then it's possible that you can turn the FSSA up to 4X and AF up to 16X and still get the same frame rates as the 6800GS...but you have better image quality. Don't put so much stock into the frame rates anymore.

You also have to remember that the 7x00 series has several new Antialiasing methods that the 6x00 series doesn't. Read the stuff about Transparency Antialiasing on this page:

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html...GhlbnRodXNpYXN0

Same frame rates but higher image quality? I'll take it any day.

[jago_lfn]

From looking at those reviews and taking into consideration that i only play games at 1024 since i only have a 17" monitor, I'm sticking with my new 6800GS for a while.

The thing you have to realize about reviews is that they aren't all created equal. Another thing to keep in mind is that they may not have turned the card up to it's maximum possible settings for a given resolution.

For instance, if they benchmarked it at 1024x768x32-bit color with 2X FSAA and 8X AF and it was beating the 6800GS by a decent margin, then it's possible that you can turn the FSSA up to 4X and AF up to 16X and still get the same frame rates as the 6800GS...but you have better image quality. Don't put so much stock into the frame rates anymore.

You also have to remember that the 7x00 series has several new Antialiasing methods that the 6x00 series doesn't. Read the stuff about Transparency Antialiasing on this page:

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html...GhlbnRodXNpYXN0

Same frame rates but higher image quality? I'll take it any day.

The thing is though i've never used fsaa and af and whatever and never have except for one time i tried on my old geforce 4 and it made everything blurry and lagged like you wouldnt believe. I normally turn those off in the nvidia control panel and slide the image quality slider to preformance and my games still look good. I just know the 6800GS i have now hauls in comparison to the old geforce 4 and radeon 9200 I had long ago. I just didnt realize at the time i ordered my card that a 7600gt could be had for 20 dollars more or I'd have gotten that instead.

[theubergeek]

Well, I've been doing a bit of looking, and here's what I am thinking so far:

If I go with an ATI chipset, it will be an x1600XT.

If I go with nVidia, it will be a 7600GT.

Now all I have to do is come up with some $$$, and decide on a card.

I thank all of you for your opinions thus far, they have really helped!

[nmX.Memnoch]

The thing is though i've never used fsaa and af and whatever and never have except for one time i tried on my old geforce 4 and it made everything blurry and lagged like you wouldnt believe. I normally turn those off in the nvidia control panel and slide the image quality slider to preformance and my games still look good. I just know the 6800GS i have now hauls in comparison to the old geforce 4 and radeon 9200 I had long ago. I just didnt realize at the time i ordered my card that a 7600gt could be had for 20 dollars more or I'd have gotten that instead.

The GeForce 4 didn't have enough power to really run full-screen antialiasing. And Anisotropic Filtering was pretty much broke on it. The AF is probably what made things look blurry.

I highly suggest you give FSAA and AF another look (literally). The image quality today's cards can achieve is astounding...and it's only getting better. Half-Life 2 is a perfect example of a game that benefits quite a bit from FSAA.