the best gaming video cards?

[Blue Stealth]

All true, however to add to that, I would strongly suggest not buying a current duel GPU single card setup if you don't run an extremely high resolution. The next gen of cards should be on the market late this year and will be vastly superior for less than you would pay for one of the duel GPU cards now.

Of course if you've got the cash go for it, but from a economic standpoint, if you dont play on a 40"+ screen, there should be no need to spend so much on a card. The 4870 or 260 are very nice options for less than half the price

*Edit. Btw Blue, very nice rig. If I hadn't built this one just 6 months before i7's came out I would have gone a very similar setup.

thx buddy. also, i did not pick up he had a huge screen.

-Blue

 

[Miiikey]

i just want a nvidia video card there can drive tf2 and dods on high

 

[jaxory]

Yeh... well that's a given. I assumed everyone would pick up on the fact that you won't be likely running a 40" screen at anything less than a very large resolution.

Large screen most often = large resolution.

I'll be more clear next time.

Not necessarily. It basically ends at 30" monitors (generally 2560x1600), if you're running something at 40", it's generally a TV, and except for a very small miniority, you won't be running more than 1080p (1900x1080), which might need a dual GPU graphics card, but in most cases, you'd be fine without if you bought a more recent high end single GPU card.

Anyway, on to the question, according to the Benchmarks, your best bet right now would be the GTX295. Of course, that's definitely not the biggest bang for your buck. For something as simple as TF2 and DoD:S, really any card (within reason, don't buy the cheapest of the them) from the 8 or 9 series on the Nvidia side would run both fine, and 3xxx and 4xxx on the ATI side.

 

[Dave of Defeat]

personally i think they both have great graphics cards. It really depends on the type of graphics card your getting.

 

[JMango]

I might have to get a new card too and the stupid people at Best Buy always tell me what to get and it never seems to work any better then my previous card. Thats what I get for not knowing a lot about computers.

 

[Kaine]

Not necessarily. It basically ends at 30" monitors (generally 2560x1600), if you're running something at 40", it's generally a TV, and except for a very small miniority, you won't be running more than 1080p (1900x1080), which might need a dual GPU graphics card, but in most cases, you'd be fine without if you bought a more recent high end single GPU card.

Anyway, on to the question, according to the Benchmarks, your best bet right now would be the GTX295. Of course, that's definitely not the biggest bang for your buck. For something as simple as TF2 and DoD:S, really any card (within reason, don't buy the cheapest of the them) from the 8 or 9 series on the Nvidia side would run both fine, and 3xxx and 4xxx on the ATI side.

Well we may differ on what acceptable FPS is, because no single card plays most of the "high demand" games at 1900 x 1080 let alone 2560 x 1600 at what I would call acceptable FPS.

My earlier statement stands (at least from my perspective of acceptable FPS). Sounds like were saying the same thing, your just nitpicking my post *jokes btw*

personally i think they both have great graphics cards. It really depends on the type of graphics card your getting.

I've had several friends work at places like that knowing absolutely nothing about computers and are forced on a daily basis to give advice. Much better off asking on here

 

[jaxory]

Well we may differ on what acceptable FPS is, because no single card plays most of the "high demand" games at 1900 x 1080 let alone 2560 x 1600 at what I would call acceptable FPS.

He's not wanting to play high-demanding games, he said TF2 and DoD:S, neither of which are that demanding. Besides, I'm assuming that he doesn't play at that high of a resolution anyway. Even then, with my 4890, I get acceptable FPS on most games running at 1900x1200 with my settings maxed out.

 

[Kaine]

He's not wanting to play high-demanding games, he said TF2 and DoD:S, neither of which are that demanding. Besides, I'm assuming that he doesn't play at that high of a resolution anyway. Even then, with my 4890, I get acceptable FPS on most games running at 1900x1200 with my settings maxed out.

Nitpicking my post

Several of my post I suggested there is little to no reason to buy a duel GPU card from an economic standpoint or if you don't play a very large resolution with a very high demand game. I even suggested 2 of the most cost effective cards

Console ports don't count. Games like TF2, Fallout3, L4D or the many other low demand games can be played by far from top end cards. Nobody gets acceptable FPS (40 MINIMUM although I prefer higher) with a single GPU on a high demand game such as Crysis at such a large resolution.

Anyyyyyyway's back on topic, again the 260 if your nvidia or the 4870 1 gig if your ATI are very affordable choices. The lowest I would go however if money is a big issue is a 9800 (8800) or the 4830. Duel GPU card setups would have to be the 295 from nvidia or the 4870X2 from ATI, both are fairly even cards, each has its list of games it performs better in.

That little list should get you what you need based on budget and personal preference.

 

[Blue Stealth]

Nitpicking my post

Several of my post I suggested there is little to no reason to buy a duel GPU card from an economic standpoint or if you don't play a very large resolution with a very high demand game. I even suggested 2 of the most cost effective cards

Console ports don't count. Games like TF2, Fallout3, L4D or the many other low demand games can be played by far from top end cards. Nobody gets acceptable FPS (40 MINIMUM although I prefer higher) with a single GPU on a high demand game such as Crysis at such a large resolution.

Anyyyyyyway's back on topic, again the 260 if your nvidia or the 4870 1 gig if your ATI are very affordable choices. The lowest I would go however if money is a big issue is a 9800 (8800) or the 4830. Duel GPU card setups would have to be the 295 from nvidia or the 4870X2 from ATI, both are fairly even cards, each has its list of games it performs better in.

That little list should get you what you need based on budget and personal preference.

yup there are only a few games where you are going to need dual GPU's to crank out those frames, and a few I can list are Crysis, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. SoC and Clear Sky, GTA IV, and Empires Total War.

You should be fine with a single GPU

-Blue

 

[Miiikey]

okay thanks

 

[Rukus.]

My 9800gt runs all source engine games at cap frames (max) usually 60 on most games like tf2 and cs

The cap frames for source is 300. Which is something like a gtx 280 would do.