New system help

Ok i will buying a new system in about a week. I would like your advice. Here is what i have. I am buying a system from cyberpowersystems.com

TURBO X-INFINITY Case 420W W/ WINDOW & LCD Temperature Display
(754-pin) AMD™ ATHLON™64 3000+ CPU
754-pin Socket) Albatron K8X800 PRO VIA K8T800 Chipset AGP8X w/LAN,USB2,&Audio
512 MB PC3200 400MHz DDR MEMORY
Seagate 80GB 7200RPM Serial ATA 150 8MB Cache
ATI RADEON 9800 SE 128MB DDR AGP 8X W/ TV-OUT & DVI - maybe need advice on the vic card
free FAR CRY™ DVD GAME
COMBO DRIVE (16X DVD-ROM & 52x32x52 CD-RW)
3D WAVE ON-BOARD 5.1 SOUND CARD
INTERNAL 6in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer
AMD ATHLON64 CERTIFIED CPU FAN & HEATSINK + 3 EXTRA CASE FANS
120 WATT STEREO SPEAKERS -already have better speakers
floppy drive
already have a monitor

price
$872.00

Now to me everything seems good, i have a monitor and i have xp home. I need help deciding what video card to get. I know i have heard bad things about the se card so i need to know what to get instead. thanks

 

looks great so far!

but you're correct.... that would be a waste of a video card in that computer unless you had plans to mod it and overclock it... but its better to just get a better card.

you can get a regular 9800 pro 128MB (be sure its the 256-bit version) for under $200 now OEM. for example, here is a Hercules Prophet 9800 Pro 128MB for $189

if you're not lookin to spend the big bucks on a top of the line card, i'd say this is one of the best ways to go.

 

ok well would it be better to get a 9600 pro 256 or a 9800 128

 

9600xt or a 9800 pro 128

 

as I understand it, you're really not going to see much of a difference between two similar cards with different amounts of memory anytime in the near future.

for the current games and the games in the near future, its not so much how MUCH memory is onboard, as it is how FAST the memory and GPU can interact with eachother.

if you're willing to spend in that area (around $200) my picks would be either a 9800 pro 128MB or a GeForceFX 5900Ultra... the latter simply because i have always been an nvidia fan and still prefer them to the radeon series, although the radeons 'perform' slightly superior if you look at the data.

 

cool ya i myself have also been and nvidia fan but heard that the radeon was slightly better and it doesn't take up two slots