Maximum PC

I am looking at a new graphics card for my pc. I already know about the x800 and the GF6800 but what about this http://www.3dlabs.com/products/product.asp?prod=272 or for that mater any of 3d labs 512MB graphics cards. Is DDR3 better thatn 512 DDR?

Or what about the GF 6600 128MB?or x600? I am actually leanning toward the 6800 GT or x800 depends whitch I can get here in Canada. I just dont want to buy something and have it out dated.

the geforce 6800 videocards are a good choice and should last you a while. everything always gets outdated specially when it comes to technology. you can wait but when it comes time to buying your stuff, something better and faster will be out.

whether u should get an ati card or a nvidia is card depends on ur preference, and about 3dlabs, they make cards strictly for workstations so idk if theyre good for gaming

There's a lot of cards that shouldn't be put into the desktop PC arean...Wildcat, Quadro, and ATI's FireGL (if they still make them) chip'ed cards. They're strictly for work and not play (CAD, Lightwave, DCC...).

Their strong points are really good for doing work, and are hard to live without if that's your line of work. Most game designers build their games using these and have no idea if what they create is really seen or not on our "toys". Their aim is detail and not frame-rates like we lean towards. Take a look back the Sept. '02 issue starting on page 46 for a real in depth look at workhorses.

"A gaming card might be able to display the scene, but it will do so with cracks in between textures, misplaced pixels, and missing pixels. The rendering defects aren't obvious when you're rushing through an environment at 60FPS."
-This is why you usually get a card out the door to the world, then see a driver update very soon there after. Then another. And another...

"...When you're doing mission-critical design work-such as rotating a fully rendered airplane part in realtime, sub-pixel accuracy is necessary to ensure the integrity of the work at hand"
- Can you imagine making gas-turbine engines on a machine that mis-places a pixel here and there? Outputting this design to manufacturing could lead to several birds falling out of the sky...that's usually not good.

isnt the wildcat a "graphics" card as opposed to a "gaming" card

Forgot to put my $.02 down on these...

The x600 is supposed to be aimed at the budget crowd, and once the 6600/6600 GT gets out it will be too. But they aren't now, as you may have noticed. These things should drop down around $120 pretty quick. I don't know what's going to make them do this, but that is the intentions I had thought from the get go. Maybe the PCIE bus needs to get higher off the ground to push the supply & demand to spark the sales decisions.

I wouldn't consider one of these unless you're cornered into it by having only a PCIE slot to use instead of an AGP, and THEN only if you need it running. an x600 is basically a 9600, and to pay $180-200 in which they're asking is not very wise when one can still get a 9800pro for the same price.

And if you worry about being outdated, you'll end up in a delima real quick and one day find yourself sitting around with your same old stuff because you never ordered. To put it into perspective: A GF4 Ti4200 is just now facing a wall that makes it out-dated. And that's only if you play Doom3 and FarCry, as it runs everything else. So...expect any of these cards to not be "out dated" any time soon. They just won't be king of the hill very long. It's something that's plagued the tech crowd for over 20yrs. Nothing new. Just don't strive to be the best, because you'll just end up losing and broke. Sorry to rain on your parade!

There's enough arguement going around on the 6800/x800's to ponder on without my comment. So I won't add mine (Get a BFG 6800GT!)

Yeah, what the other people said...

On my Main workstation I run a 3D Labs DDC Card, and it chugs sometimes on Diablo 2, but it renders literally 5 times faster and can handle twice the on screen geometry than my gaming computer with the same specs other than the video card. The gamer has a GeForce Ti4200.

The Drivers for Workstation cards are specifically designed for DDC and CAD. Therfore these cards will not run as fast as gaming cards for gaming. Except for Quadro cards with are very close to thier gaming counterparts. They actually run games decent.

Well, graphics cards are video cards, and gaming cards are graphics cards. Gaming cards are just graphics cards designed for gaming.

Im thinking of the x600 because its cheap and has a good clock speed stock.

though I really want a 6800 or X800 i cant afford it due to other hobbies.

so a buget card should be just fine for me.

But what about saphires 9600XT with 256MB I cant find the clock speed for this card.

Its cheaper for me to get than the X600 but im not to sure about the chipset

x600's are ass, pardon my french.

Firstly, they are PCI-E only and if you're mincing around with $200 videocards, then you don't have a PCI-E/DDR2 system

Secondly, they are only Radeon 9600XT's, which were OK last year. Compared to a 9800 Pro (~$195 USD), les alone a GeForce 6800 (~$280 USD) they look pretty weak.

Depending on how tight your budget is, I'd recommend the GFFX 5700 Ultra ($150 USD), 9800 Pro, or 6800.

Actually I agree with the entire post, but would like to defend this one

There isn't anything else BUT those stupid x600's for PCIE dudes and dudettes. Well, unless you want an PCX5750...or gawd forbid an x300. I gambled hard thinking that PCIE big boys would hit sooner than they did, yet still had to settle on an x600. Oh well. Just something else to shove in a drawer in a couple weeks:p

nVidia's Quadro's and ATI's FireGL's use desktop GPU's and drivers derivative from their desktop products, so they are fine for games. I could find little to no difference in speed between the Fire GL1 and my Radeon 9700 in games.

I got a pci video card and want to know if I can put it into the agp slot.
The 3 pci slots are occupied nic,usb2.0 +sound.
The mobo has intergrated graphic. According to the mobo specs. it says that it can accept a pci card at a higher speed than the pci slot. The voltages to both slots are the same. The pci video card is nvidia 5200 128mb.
So can I technically put the card there without frying the vid or mobo/cpu?

a PCI video card isn't gonna fit in an AGP slot.

Like a square peg in a round hole...

Of course, you'll be paying more for a pro card ;P

o, thanks for your answers.

speed may be one thing, quality the same? I can't do anything worth gamming on a Wildcat. It's "old" though. Maybe 2 years?

I found a good Radon 9800 Pro with DDR 2 looks better than the X600 just because of memory size, the 6800 is a bit pricey.