Graphic Card Selection

[azrael]

I want to but a graphic card but I am having hard time chosing one. Should I be more concerned by bit rate whether 128 bit or 256 bit, or should I be more concerned about the engine clock and memory clock rates? Asus Extreme N6600GT Silencer/HTD has a high engine clock (500 MHZ) and a high memory clock (1GHz - 500 MHz DDR3) but it has a memory interface of
128-bit. On the other hand I found Asus Extreme N6800LE/HTD has a rather lower engine clock (350 MHZ) and a lower memory clock (600 MHz - 300 MHz DDR) but it has a memory interface of 256-bit. Could you help me with that?

 

[vnf4ultra]

I would say go for the 6600gt of the two. Even though it's 128bit, it's higher clock speeds make up for it. Both cards have 8 pixel pipes. A 6800gs might be a good consideration as well though, it's much faster(it has 12 pixel pipes and 450/1050 clocks, and is 256bit) than either 6600gt or 6800le, like this.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130271

 

[azrael]

Thanks for your advice I think I will stick with N6600GT. However I checked the card you adviced and it seem better than the N6600GT and it has defenetly a lower price - very low compared to ASUS N6600GT. Is it because ASUS cards are so expensive? I trust ASUS very much thats why I looked for ASUS graphic card in the first place but I didnt know that there is such a huge difference. Is ASUS worth the price difference?

 

[vnf4ultra]

Asus does make good cards, the one you're looking at, the 6600gt (this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814121545 )
Costs more because it has a special cooler on it that is silent, where a normal card has a fan and makes a little noise. So if you need silence, go for the asus silent card, but if you care more about performance, then the 6800gs is faster.
Side note, the free program "rivatuner" can change a graphics card fan speed to make it quieter on many newer cards.

Evga is a good brand, they have a lifetime warranty on many of their products, and I think their 6800 gs would qualify for the lifetime warranty.

Here's a benchmark that has both the 6600gt and 6800gs in it.
http://guru3d.com/article/Videocards/308/13/

 

[azrael]

Ok thank you. I reilized that I am comparing the price of the eVGA card in the address you gave with the price of ASUS card in my country. Now that I compared both from the web and I found out that there is not much of a difference between the prices of the cards. I think I will stick with the ASUS N6600GT. Thanks again for your advices

 

[Eko]

go for Leadtek

Whatever you choose from NVIDIA, take in consideration the performances the Leadtek GPU's have. Some of them are overclockable, some of them are already "born overclocked".
I have at home an "Extreme Edition" 6600GT TDH Leadtek, PCI Express.
Normal 6600GT's: 500 GPU / 1000 Memories
Leadtek 6600 GT TDH Extreme Edition: 550 / 1120.
I modified the cooling system: Arctic VGA 6 for GPU and I bought some passive heat spreaders for the memories.
Results: 585 / 1300 :evil: which is better than 6800 on res. lower than 1280x1024.

But at this hour, I'll go for the 6800GT, try to unlock some pipelines
Good luck!

 

[YellowC4S]

If you want the 6600 I would suggest staying away from Asus. I would also stay away from anything from ATi or running a card with ATi's chipset.

 

[azrael]

If you want the 6600 I would suggest staying away from Asus. I would also stay away from anything from ATi or running a card with ATi's chipset.

I thought ASUS is a reliable brand. Why do you say that I should stay away from it?

 

[Quack 4]

Go for Leadtek

Whatever you choose from NVIDIA, take in consideration the performances the Leadtek GPU's have. Some of them are overclockable, some of them are already "born overclocked".
I have at home an "Extreme Edition" 6600GT TDH Leadtek, PCI Express.
Normal 6600GT's: 500 GPU / 1000 Memories
Leadtek 6600 GT TDH Extreme Edition: 550 / 1120.
I modified the cooling system: Arctic VGA 6 for GPU and I bought some passive heat spreaders for the memories.
Results: 585 / 1300 :evil: which is better than 6800 on res. lower than 1280x1024.

But at this hour, I'll go for the 6800GT, try to unlock some pipelines
Good luck!

I agree, the Leadtek 6800GS is a very good performer as well. Overclocked from factory already. I have been using this card so far in my system and am very happy with it playing quake 4 and BF2. With my X-Fi plati, I get very engrossed in my gameplay .

Good luck with your choice!

 

[spartanslayer]

I have an EVGA 6600GT and I love it! EVGA has a lifetime warranty. However, I recomend squeezing out the cash for a 6800GT. They are really good!.