What video card should I get?

[PCNoob2]

Right now I have a 7600GT and I've been looking for another. I've heard that the 7600GT is practically the exact same thing as the 8600GT and 8600GTS.

Is this true?

If it is, then whats my next viable option to get a substantial increase in performance? the 8800GT?

I'd prefer to have a card in the 100-200 dollar range, btw.

 

[PCNoob2]

Sorry, forgot to mention I have 1 gig of ram just DDR, not DDR2, and my CPU is an AMD 3700+ processor. single core.

will bottlenecking be an issue for me?

 

[BrynF_UK]

the 8600 and 7600 wernt the "same" as such, just the 8600 isnt considered to be as much "bang for your buck" - the 8600 is a very good card (i should know, i have it )

but, once you get the higher-end games and the increased settings, the RAM would be a bottleneck, does the motherboard support DDR2?

 

[_-..zKiLLA..-_]

if ur still with DDR than ur gonna bottleneck eventually. just buy a new mobo. is ur skt AM2? if so id recomend this mobo

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131013
i also have this mobo and its fricken awesome, has lots of OCing capabilities

 

[LambOfGod]

if ur still with DDR than ur gonna bottleneck eventually. just buy a new mobo. is ur skt AM2? if so id recomend this mobo

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131013
i also have this mobo and its fricken awesome, has lots of OCing capabilities

the fact that his RAM is Regular DDR is not going "bottleneck his system", also (zkilla) his board is S939.. AM2 support DDR2, not DDR.

but the amount of DDR Ram may bottleneck, and with your New Card Purchase I would recommend another 1024MB of DDR Ram. Also S939 processors are cheap, pick up an FX60 for Pennies ... BUT IF YOU WANT THE MOST BANG For your buck in Games upgrade your videocard.

As far as a Videocard upgrade goes, The performance increase from a 7600GT to an 8600 series is not worthwhile.

Spend a bit more money ($180) and get a ATI 3850 512MB card.... It will blow them all way.

 

[_-..zKiLLA..-_]

well i was intending that he get some new RAM. 2gb of g.skill'll work

 

[LambOfGod]

well i was intending that he get some new RAM. 2gb of g.skill'll work

Why should he get all new Ram? He already has 1Gig, why wouldn't he continue to use that.

 

[Kage]

New ranges will be coming out soon most likely, so I'd be pushed to wait until then.
I'm pretty sure your 7600GT will last until then in terms of performance.
If you can't wait though, the 8800GT would be a nice bet, though then again, the 8600 would last as well

 

[LambOfGod]

New ranges will be coming out soon most likely, so I'd be pushed to wait until then.
I'm pretty sure your 7600GT will last until then in terms of performance.
If you can't wait though, the 8800GT would be a nice bet, though then again, the 8600 would last as well

8800GT is $250.....

unless your talking about the 256MB version which does not perform as well.....

 

[freestyler105]

I think the MSRP is actually $200, but they're marked up a lot because they're so hard to find.