the 8xxx are cinema series, unless you are playing the sims with DX10 lol you will not get much from any of these cards.
what they are good for:
dual monitor support 8xxx series have VP2 engine for purevideo HD (meaning they will play blu-ray/hd-dvd without much cpu) make sure you disable turbocache on all of these cards it will slow down your system.
the 64bit cards usually always enable turbocache
they all suck for gaming, the rest is your banking on the folks giving you a MIR in a reasonable time. EVGA has that trade up program if you totally hate the card but its not going to give any sort of deal.
I'd pick the $10 MIR 8400 then the 7300GS , you'd feel right dumb if you lost $30 MIR on a 7300 card for whatever reason.
Sims 2 uses DX9 so DX10 isn't even useful for that. These cards with the possible exception of the 7300GT are good primarily for HTPC use. All will handle HDTV content without breaking a sweat. 8400GS are the best in the list for HTPC since they support some HD-DVD acceleration.
For gaming, 7300GT is the one to get. It's not that great either, but better than the rest. It's on par with the old 6600GT. It should handle 2-3yr old games with ease!
us said: didn't fry's just have a 7900GS and a 7600GT for $50 AR? I think those would be well worth the extra $10 more.
Fry had 7600GT, and it got OOS very fast, since it was apparently a price mistake. Best Buy also has a bunch of cards on clearance in that price range (including 7900GS for $46), but finding them is not easy.
I picked up 7300GT at BB for $27 because that's the only clearance card I could find. Used to have 7900GS (which was constantly crashing the games, locking up, rebooting, and artifacting, even when underclocked), so I had to scale back the graphic details in NWN2 expansion pack a little, and in Bioshock a lot. Still, both games are playable at reasonable resolution at reasonable frame rates, as long as you are OK with scaling down some eye candy.
I'm a total non-gamer, but I like my occasional Starcraft II/Warcraft III. Anyone know what board would be minimal for Starcraft III yet? The old versions work fine with onboard graphics. None of our home machines run World of Warcraft smoothly. Gene
FatGene said: I'm a total non-gamer, but I like my occasional Starcraft II/Warcraft III. Anyone know what board would be minimal for Starcraft III yet? The old versions work fine with onboard graphics. None of our home machines run World of Warcraft smoothly. Gene
Any game that works fine with onboard graphics should be even better with these cards. These cards might be poor for gaming, but they'll certainly spank any onboard graphics.
benelli
Member
posted: Nov. 2, 2007 @ 3:19p
onion said: benelli said: onion said: All BAD deals...
What price range should they be in? $25 AR
Greatly appreciated.
muczen
Member
posted: Nov. 2, 2007 @ 3:35p
Rather than beat up the merit of these cards for lack of high end gaming potential lets talk about what they are good for.
If you are looking to upgrade one of the many Dell deals these are great compared to what Dell would charge. I normally build my machines but I didn't have the time right now and I needed one for my kids. (internet and homework) I opted for a Vostro line and went with onboard video. I then picked up one of these cheap cards which Dell was selling for $149 as an add-on. It may not be the best computer in the world but I built a pretty good machine with a 20" LCD for $549 delivered including one of these cards and 2GB ram.
Green for the poster as an upgrade for an internet PC!
Not sure why people are spending $40 + at least $6 shipping on these cards. For the same $46 you can buy a geforce 6800gt on eBay which is at LEAST 3 times as fast as these cards....hey, its your $$$
what about pricewise? This good price? I just want a NON-onboard but with dual monitor so I can have 3 monitors? I think i can afford $29 and why is onion so mad about all these deals???
Yeah, the prices are pretty decent and I think Onion's opinion of a card's worth is dependent on its gaming performance. For example, the card he recommends as being better than these for nearly the same price, 6800GT, doesn't even support the full implementation of PureVideo and consumes a great deal more power than any of these. It is better for gaming, but definitely not for video. These cards are better for video.
the xfx 8400gs fanless low profile card is still under $30 AR at ZZF. $20 rebate expires 11/15/07. free shipping. bought one myself a month ago, for a future HTPC system. had an xfx rebate last year and they worked hard to make sure i got new checks after i moved and rebate checks went to old address. good customer support!
squid729 said: bought one myself a month ago, for a future HTPC system.
bought one for the same reason... Thanks for the link... I've been looking to purchase a couple of spare cheap PCIe video cards anyways, just to have.. most of the ones I have spare in my box are AGP.
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