is the Nvidia 8800 REALLY worth the price?

I m a guy who bought a new HP media center pc and love it ..here are the specs

amd x2 5000 2.6 ghx

2 gb ram

350 gb hd

ati 1600

etc

im considering upgrading my video card due to some slowdown in certain games,(company of heroes,supreme commander demo,etc) what difference will i notice with the new card and will it justify the 500 dollars id spend on it. ill be debating this this whole weekend. please give a guy who loves computer games great advice. should i stick with the ati card for now or upgrade.

I m a guy who bought a new HP media center pc and love it ..here are the specs

amd x2 5000 2.6 ghx

2 gb ram

350 gb hd

ati 1600

etc

im considering upgrading my video card due to some slowdown in certain games,(company of heroes,supreme commander demo,etc) what difference will i notice with the new card and will it justify the 500 dollars id spend on it. ill be debating this this whole weekend. please give a guy who loves computer games great advice. should i stick with the ati card for now or upgrade.

SciDev

What resolution is your monitor?  Also, what is your PSU?  An 8800 series from a X1600 would be huge.

the x1600 is a great card, but you should put this in the hardware forum

I decided to bust my nut and get an 8800GTX.  I've had if for about a month.  It cost a lot: I paid about $550.00 or so.

I've played Doom 3, Quake 4, FEAR, and Call of Duty 2 on it.  Quake 4, Doom 3, and FEAR required me to upgrade my system RAM from 1gig to 3 Gigs.  I was experiencing alot of hard drive swapping when I had the games maxed on graphical settings.  With this card and the games maxed with AA 16x Aniso, highest resolution setting, and everthing else maxed, you need alot of system RAM.  You have 2 gigs, you'll probably be all set with that.  After I went from 1 gig to 3, everything was buttery smooth.  Call of Duty 2 looked fantastic with just 1 Gig, but it isn't in the same league as the other three titles graphically.  Plus I thought CoD2 was rather lackluster for reasons I won't go into here.  Anyway....

My vitals are:

• Core Duo 6600 overed to 2.933
• 3 Gigs dual channel DDR 6400 2x1Gg + 2x512mb
• 8800 GTX
• 650 psu

If you do get an 8800GTX, you'll be impressed and if you have SLI, you can add another when they get a little cheaper, provided your PSU has the appropriate rails and can dish out the necessary juices.

8800 is dx10..Crucifier

Yes, but it can also run DX9 as well as DX8 and DX7 games. The 8800 chipset is indeed created to be DX10 compliant, but, it is not exclusive to DX10 only.

It all boils down to what you can afford. If you can afford it get it, if not then don't. I laugh at people who say wait till it's cheaper. The logic behind the statement is so off the wall it's laughable (well if it wasn't so tragic). Let's figure. Spend $200 on a cheaper card. Ok great so far, now the card has come down in price, so you get it. Great card.

Lets add things up now. The price of both cards adds up too what you probably would have spent on the card in the first place, only difference is you didn't get to enjoy how good the card was was for the time it took the price to come down. Now if you're really lucky, you might have saved alittle, but not really enough to justify the wait. So in the long run you're going to spend around the same amount anyway. If you want a quality card you're going to have to pay for it. It's just the way it goes.

 I've got an 8800gts and I love it. So it all boils down to the question, can you afford it. If you can get it. Or you can wait till you get a monitor that runs well at higher resolutions to justify all that power and money.

It all boils down to what you can afford. If you can afford it get it, if not then don't. I laugh at people who say wait till it's cheaper. The logic behind the statement is so off the wall it's laughable (well if it wasn't so tragic). Let's figure. Spend $200 on a cheaper card. Ok great so far, now the card has come down in price, so you get it. Great card.

Lets add things up now. The price of both cards adds up too what you probably would have spent on the card in the first place, only difference is you didn't get to enjoy how good the card was was for the time it took the price to come down. Now if you're really lucky, you might have saved alittle, but not really enough to justify the wait. So in the long run you're going to spend around the same amount anyway. If you want a quality card you're going to have to pay for it. It's just the way it goes.

I've got an 8800gts and I love it. So it all boils down to the question, can you afford it. If you can get it. Or you can wait till you get a monitor that runs well at higher resolutions to justify all that power and money.

wallydog63

[QUOTE="Crucifier"]8800 is dx10..t0adphr0g

Yes, but it can also run DX9 as well as DX8 and DX7 games. The 8800 chipset is indeed created to be DX10 compliant, but, it is not exclusive to DX10 only.

I m a guy who bought a new HP media center pc and love it ..here are the specs

amd x2 5000 2.6 ghx

2 gb ram

350 gb hd

ati 1600

etc

im considering upgrading my video card due to some slowdown in certain games,(company of heroes,supreme commander demo,etc) what difference will i notice with the new card and will it justify the 500 dollars id spend on it. ill be debating this this whole weekend. please give a guy who loves computer games great advice. should i stick with the ati card for now or upgrade.

SciDev

[QUOTE="SciDev"]

I m a guy who bought a new HP media center pc and love it ..here are the specs

amd x2 5000 2.6 ghx

2 gb ram

350 gb hd

ati 1600

etc

im considering upgrading my video card due to some slowdown in certain games,(company of heroes,supreme commander demo,etc) what difference will i notice with the new card and will it justify the 500 dollars id spend on it. ill be debating this this whole weekend. please give a guy who loves computer games great advice. should i stick with the ati card for now or upgrade.

EntwineX

I woild never pay that much for a video card, no way in hell.BounceDK