Help with video gaming performance.

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Ok guys,I've got a query.I'm not a pc novice,however I am a novice basically to video cards.I currently have a AMD Athlon XP 2800+,dual channeled 512MB Geil Golden Dragon 400MHZ ram,dual 120GB Western Digital SE hdd's with RAID 0,TDK 440n DVD+/-RW,on a DFI LAN Party NFII Ultra rev.b with an antec 420watt true power psu,and a Sony SDM/HS53 15" LCD monitor.I am currently using a GeForce FX5600XT video card because of nVidia's dirty name game and I want to upgrade.I have about 275-285 bucks to play with and I was wondering which would be the better option,getting another 512MB of RAM and a Radeon 9600XT video card,or going big with a PNY GeForce 6800 standard which I found for 285 bucks.All help would be appreciated,thanks guys.

Jason

 

i would go for the 9800 if i was you, look on ebay or pricewatch.com for good deals on them

 

Right now, the problem with the 6800 cards is that they are still brand new and very buggy. My local gaming cafe has FX 5950 ultras in the machines and they work very well, but are a little pricy. I am planning on spending between 260-280 for a 9800 Pro, with 256 MB onboard memory from ATI.

 

If you act quickly, I believe that it's Best Buy that has the 9800 pro on sale for 179.99 after rebates this week, until 7/24. Thats the cheapest I've ever seen it, and I bought mine on newegg about 3 weeks ago for ~224.00. It works great though, so if it helps, I'd go with that, as long as you don't mind waiting for the rebates. I also found the 9800pro AIW for 199.99 at CompUSA I think

 

Yeah I would check out newegg for computer stuff. Someone here at MG showed me a link to it and I was amazed at how low the prices for stuff there was.

 

thats not worth the extra $$$ since the 256mb models do not give that much of a performance boost over the 128mb [http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20031229/]

 

Go to newegg and you wont be disapointed they refunded me for my bum 5900 ultra 8 months later for full price since they dont make them any more and I bought a x800pro for 20 extra dollers. Also on read the customer reviews in newegg because if your into the sorta thing ive heard that they have been making cheaper cards such as a regular 9800 with 9800pro and xt parts and you can unlock them with a bios flashing.

 

So I finally am getting the video card,but ironically,as per usual I am ending up with none of the above as for what I started looking at.I figured I'd just save my money but then my friend fried one of my two WD 120GB hard drives and gave me 140 bucks to replace,I checked Pricewatch and found a Maxtor 200GB SATA to replace it with,so now I'm selling his brother my remaining IDE 120GB WD and the RAID card and my video card for 130 bucks,which I will promptly use to replace my video card with a Radeon 9600XT 128MB card w/HL2 coupon.

Thanks for the suggestions though guys.

 

Sounds good, but don't pay more than $220 for it because you can get a Radeon 9800 Pro (a good amount better than a 9600XT) with a HL2 coupon for that price here:

http://www.allstarshop.com/shop/product.asp?pid=9226&sid=WUQBQ02PXLMB8KQJMVFEMH2VGTDN6QLC