Video Card Buying Guide

[flclisgreat]

apparently those guys don't know about www.newegg.com. as the x1950xt is $220, with a $20 MIR.

[SKYMTL]

Can someone please tell me how they get that the X1800GTO is still available anywhere in sufficient quantities? And at the price of a 7600GT?

[Babrbarossa]

they're on for 93 usd at newegg

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814142067

[Babrbarossa]

Tom's has released their May guide to GPU units. The thing to note is that NVidia's mid range DX1o units are NOT worth the money and cards like the ATI x1900 XT and the 7900GT are still the kings of this price range. I imagine once AMD brings their new lineup to market, that NVidia will lower their prices, but we'll see.

Guide at Tom's

[Cleeve]

Hi fellas,

Tom's might have fallen out of favor with some of the folks here at hardwarecanucks, but you should know that the 'Best Card's for the Money' monthly feature on Tom's Hardware is written by a Winnipegger! :D

And flcisgreat: I don't take manufacturer's rebates into consideration when writing the article. Rebates come and go quickly - I also don't consider open box pricing.

Best Regards,

- Cleeve

[Babrbarossa]

Yay Canucks! I don't think anyone really has an issue with this segment really- I always felt that it had a certain air of sensibility that seemed dintinctly...well..Canadian! Thanks for chiming in- hope you'll drop in often!

[Babrbarossa]

Here's the June update to Tom's guide. No big surprises here...

The big graphics card story in May was the introduction of the new Radeon HD 2900 XT. ATI's new flagship card, the HD 2900 XT trades blows with the 8800 GTS 640mb. The only problem is that the HD 2900 XT costs $410, while the 8800 GTS 640mb can be found for as little as $350. It's hard to justify the extra $60 for similar performance, so until the HD 2900 XT price becomes competitive with the 8800 GTS 640, we can't recommend it.
The Geforce 8800 Ultra has also arrived; it's essentially an overclocked 8800 GTX. In reality, this card is an 8800 GTX with an overclock - and an $800 price tag. Given that the 8800 GTX goes for $540, it's really hard to recommend spending an extra $260 for an overclock. Until the price of the 8800 Ultra drops to maybe $50 over the price of a GTX, we'll be reluctant to recommend it.
At this point, everyone's waiting for the upcoming Radeon midrange cards: the HD 2400 and HD 2600 series. While Nvidia's high end Geforce 8800 is the king of videocards right now, their midrange 8600/8500 cards are much less impressive, so it will be interesting to see if ATI can challenge them in that arena. Hopefully the new Radeons will arrive before the end of June. Until then, here are our current recommendations: