Need help choosing a video card to play FEAR

[Mr Krabs]

I need some feedback on video cards. I am trying to replace my current video card because I want to play games like FEAR. I think I have narrowed it down. Keep in mind I want to spend between $100.00 and $200.00. Please give input on which one you all think would be better. Keep in mind I am not a serious gamer and dont feel the need to max my settings but do want the games to run smooth. If you think they are pretty much the same then I would probably go with the cheaper which looks like that would be the ATI. Any comments are welcomed.

NVIDIA Geforce 6600 w/256 RAM

ATI Radeon 9550 w/256 RAM

One other question. I was looking on newegg.com and saw these cards. Why are these two video cards below which appear similiar so different in price? Just curious.


ATI 100-437105 Radeon 9550 256MB 128-bit DDR AGP 4X/8X Video Card - Retail $125.00

SAPPHIRE 100577-GN-F Radeon 9550 256MB 128-bit DDR AGP 4X/8X Video Card - OEM $60.00

 

[jac006]

The 9550 is feeling its age. The 6600 would be a much better choice. You will have a video card that lasts a much longer time...

 

[mammikoura]

I'd choose the 6600GT, it's maybe like $140 and is quite much better than the 6600.

ATI 100-437105 Radeon 9550 256MB 128-bit DDR AGP 4X/8X Video Card - Retail $125.00

SAPPHIRE 100577-GN-F Radeon 9550 256MB 128-bit DDR AGP 4X/8X Video Card - OEM $60.00

The biggest difference is that the other one is Retail and the other one is OEM.
Retail comes with everything u need, including manuals and nice looking boxes etc.
The OEM is just the card, nothing else. I'm pretty sure that the OEM version doesn't even include the heatsink.

 

[jac006]

No, the OEM does. Well, for me at least. I don't know about that card in particular, but I got an OEM, my x800, and it came with the card, heatsink, drivers disc, and some cables for t.v. connection.

 

[Mr Krabs]

I'd choose the 6600GT, it's maybe like $140 and is quite much better than the 6600.

Thanks for the info. How is the GT much better? What does the GT version give you that the regular 6600 doesent?

 

[GreySteelFox]

it has a much higher clock speed and memory speed even though it has 128 mb of memory. most people think that if the card has more memory than its much better but the chipset and GPU is THE most important. the GT has a clock speed of 500 and memory of 900 that can be OC'ed to 560/1000.

 

[kev]

6600GT all the way

My PNY 6600GT plays all the games i have including FEAR on High. Its easy to overclock aswell.