Question: Nvidia 9800 GT

[The Drogue]

So I wanna get a Nvidia 9800 GT. Is it great for gaming? If not, what is the best gaming card 150 dollars or under?

P.S. When I say great, I mean running Team Fortress 2 on all high with minimum lag

 

[GBear]

ATI 5770s are around that price range and will beat the 9800 GT.

 

[PewPewBangBang]

Yea the ATI 5770 is $160 i believe and it will be the best card in that range. It beats an ATI 4870 but falls short behind the ATI 4890. All much faster than a 9800gt. If you overclock the 5770 you will see the margin between the 4890 and 5770 decrease significantly due to the 40nm process and low temps allowing high OC's for the 5770 supposedly.

 

[reflex99]

as a rule of thumb i always look at the tom hardware list of "best graphics cards for the money"
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-graphics-card,2404.html

 

[JunK]

that list isn't taking into consideration the 5000 series right now
i'd say pick up the 5750 - the difference between the 5750 to the 5770 might not be worth it if you're really limited in funds, but the 5750 will play anything you throw at it, especially if you overclock some (which it can supposedly do very well)
it also comes with the new technology that will be coming into play in the future, so you'll be set there, and the benchmarks will improve once it gets the driver support under its belt

 

[PewPewBangBang]

Yea for your budget you could get either the 5770/5750 which seem to be the best options. A overclocked GTX 260 like the GTX 260 black edition is crazy fast but once again, it'd be better to invest in newer tech.

 

[JunK]

plus good luck finding a gtx 260 for 150 bucks

 

[PewPewBangBang]

plus good luck finding a gtx 260 for 150 bucks

True, they run more in the 4890 price range yet the 4890 is much faster.

 

[Stormrider^]

I'm going with everyone else here. Get either the HD 5750 or the HD 5770. Looking at the tests, it is a beast. I'm going to whip up a chart here found off a Finnish tech site that tested both the HD 5750, and the HD 5770 along with the HD 5870.

 

[torzak]

If your wanting to save money get the 9800gt. I have a PNY 9800gt 512mb I got it for $90 with a $15 mail in rebate. I can run TF2 at maxed settings around 60 fps 1600x900. If you want to spend the $160 for the 5770 then get it, its the best in that price range. If your just gonna be playing Team Fortress 2 and other valve games you wont really need anything better than a 9800gt unless your wanting to run it at a really high res or at some crazy frame rate over 120fps.

 

[reflex99]

that list isn't taking into consideration the 5000 series right now

"as a rule of thumb"
meaning not necessarily correct always because prices are subject to change and new parts can be released

he/she could wait 7 days and look at the updated list

 

[JunK]

ya he/she definitely could do that - i think those cards will be pretty high up on that list too tho - cause heres the thing...you can go ahead and buy that card or whatever if you're needing to upgrade now - or you could wait until the price drops for christmas or something like that if you're ok to stay with your current card until then.
but i don't see the point in buying a 100-120 dollar card that will get you not even close to the performance this 130-150 dollar card can give you - plus the new technology so you won't need to upgrade again for another couple years

 

[PewPewBangBang]

ya he/she definitely could do that - i think those cards will be pretty high up on that list too tho - cause heres the thing...you can go ahead and buy that card or whatever if you're needing to upgrade now - or you could wait until the price drops for christmas or something like that if you're ok to stay with your current card until then.
but i don't see the point in buying a 100-120 dollar card that will get you not even close to the performance this 130-150 dollar card can give you - plus the new technology so you won't need to upgrade again for another couple years

Agree except for the part of not needing to upgrade for a couple years, it depends more on the type of games your going to play and your resolution/setting/ etc.... but you will mainly upgrade your GPU like every year and a half i believe if your into computer and stuff......enthusiasts upgrade like every time theres something new lol.........i generally like to upgrade everytime they come out with the next generation, im running an ATI 4000 series and i plan on going 5850x2/5870x2 by christmas.

But i agree, the 5770 is the way to go as of right now as for price/performance, blows away the 4870 and all, just lags behind the 4890 and prob the GTX 275.

 

[JunK]

ya for now, until you overclock it and in a couple months when newer drivers come out

but ya the not upgrading this is i guess a personal matter - im still using a 8600 gt which is getting aged now, but it only cost me 40 bucks and i couldn't justify myself (with the games i play) to upgrade...until now. im picking up the 5750 cause its all i need - and i'll be able to get a couple games that i was some what interested in playing, stalker clear sky, far cry 2, l4d/l4d2. but thats all i'll personally need for a couple years im sure

 

[PandaBear]

Agree except for the part of not needing to upgrade for a couple years, it depends more on the type of games your going to play and your resolution/setting/ etc.... but you will mainly upgrade your GPU like every year and a half i believe if your into computer and stuff......enthusiasts upgrade like every time theres something new lol.........i generally like to upgrade everytime they come out with the next generation, im running an ATI 4000 series and i plan on going 5850x2/5870x2 by christmas.

But i agree, the 5770 is the way to go as of right now as for price/performance, blows away the 4870 and all, just lags behind the 4890 and prob the GTX 275.

Where have you seen the 5770 blowing away the 4870? From everything i've seen the 5770 performs on average about 10% slower than than the 4870. I believe that is largely due to it's 128 bit memory interface.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-5770,2446-4.html
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3658&p=4

With that said, if I had to chose between the two, i'd definitely get the 5770. Even though it is slower than the 4870, the benefits of having a DX 11 card, Eyefinity, lower power consumption, etc, make it a much more attractive buy imo.

But, at this point in time, as good as the new ATI 5000 series cards are, i'd still hold off on buying them until Nvidia releases their GTX 300 series cards. I'd do this for a couple reasons: First, they could perform better. Nvidia has the benefit of releasing their product second, so they have more time to fine tune their product and make additional improvements. Second, just as we have seen intel becoming more competitive with addition/pricing of their core i5 CPU's, we may see Nvidia do they same with their GTX 300 series. And if you tie that in with my first reason, we could possibly see Nvidia release a card that is priced the same as the 5770 but performs better than the 5770 AND the 4870. And of course along with the benefits of DX 11 and the rest of the benefits of their next gen card. This not only relates to just the 5770, but the entire 5000 series. The new 5000 series cards are awesome, no doubt about it. But when it comes to ATI and Nvidia, i never commit to one or the other until i've seen what both companies have to offer.

 

[PewPewBangBang]

Where have you seen the 5770 blowing away the 4870? From everything i've seen the 5770 performs on average about 10% slower than than the 4870. I believe that is largely due to it's 128 bit memory interface.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-5770,2446-4.html
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3658&p=4

With that said, if I had to chose between the two, i'd definitely get the 5770. Even though it is slower than the 4870, the benefits of having a DX 11 card, Eyefinity, lower power consumption, etc, make it a much more attractive buy imo.

But, at this point in time, as good as the new ATI 5000 series cards are, i'd still hold off on buying them until Nvidia releases their GTX 300 series cards. I'd do this for a couple reasons: First, they could perform better. Nvidia has the benefit of releasing their product second, so they have more time to fine tune their product and make additional improvements. Second, just as we have seen intel becoming more competitive with addition/pricing of their core i5 CPU's, we may see Nvidia do they same with their GTX 300 series. And if you tie that in with my first reason, we could possibly see Nvidia release a card that is priced the same as the 5770 but performs better than the 5770 AND the 4870. And of course along with the benefits of DX 11 and the rest of the benefits of their next gen card. This not only relates to just the 5770, but the entire 5000 series. The new 5000 series cards are awesome, no doubt about it. But when it comes to ATI and Nvidia, i never commit to one or the other until i've seen what both companies have to offer.

Yea i probably exaggerated a bit lol.......it depends on the game too, they perform equally pretty much i guess. The 5770 scales in CFX really well from what i've seen. But yea either way the 5770 is the way to go, the overclockability of the 5770 is amazing tho so that should put it ahead of the 4870 in terms of speed in most games.

 

[soLitary]

I've got this, buy it i play everything extra high and antialiasiing 16 or whatever. GET IT!

 

[The Drogue]

Thank you for your feedback guys. Helped me out alot. I am gonna see what my parents can get. I just spent all my money on a few new games xD

 

[The Drogue]

Oh, and demonik what do you have?

 

[Knollex]

I have an ATI Radeon HD 4850 1GB and it's awesome. Good price, great performance.