Graphics Cards.... (Again, I know)

[superkully]

I'm looking for a Graphics card around ?100-120.

Looking at a 9800 Pro, but was wondering whether different manufacturers using the same chipset from ATI make better cards than other manufacturers using the same chipset. e.g. is the 9800 Pro from Sapphire better than the 9800 Pro from Connect3D?

Anyone bought a card for this much lately? Anyone got good things to say about NVidia at this price?

[Tom Salter]

All cards are built upon a standard reference base, so they are all pretty similar. Only things that change from manufacturer to manufacturer are heatsink/fans, and bundled software. Best to check out the best deal - what's the point in paying ?40 more for a bundle of software you're already getting.

9800Pros probably the best card at the price range you're looking at, what card have you got already? If you already have a 9700 (for example) then there's not much point in upgrading.

[superkully]

A 9200SE at the moment, so this would seriously push up the solitaire FPS.

I'm tempted by the 5900 XT mind, especially with PCZone writing a very gushing review about the XFX 5900XT.

[Tom Salter]

I wouldn't touch last gen nVidia cards - they were generally noisy, ****e image quality, and not that great at all.

For ?140-ish, you can't go wrong with a 9800 Pro.

[$c8t@]

another vote here for radeon 9800 pro

as stated above the performance difference between manufacturers are minimal, i've had both a sapphire and a connect 3d and performance was very very similar

$c8t@

[csuzw]

Any idea when the 6600s are coming out - from what I've heard they are going to be roughly $200 in the US so that might work out in your price range over here. They should beat the 9800 pros easily. Also how do the ATi X300/X600s fit into the scheme of things?

Sorry if there are more questions than answers here but I think they are worth finding answers to before committing to a new card given that we are just entering a new generation of gfx cards.

[superkully]

I hadn't heard of these 6600's before, unfortunately I don't have PCI-Express so I'll have to wait for the AGP version anyway. But wait I will.

Many thanks for the replies BTW!

[superkully]

Been having a butchers and x300/x600 are PCI-Express only, which is a shame.

[csuzw]

I'm pretty sure the 6600 will come out as AGP at the same time or before the PCI-Express version. You can't get PCI-Express 6800s at the moment as far as I'm aware.