What new graphics card?

[buksida]

Considering an upgrade and have been trawling through the charts over at Toms Hardware to see what gives the best bang for the buck. Just thought I'd post here to see if there are any gamers on these forums and what they use. Currently running a 7300GS/256DDR2/PCIe which is adequate but looking for something with a bit more punch.

Have narrowed it down to a few of these:

8600 GTS
7800 GTX
7900 GT
X1800 XT
X1950 Pro

I'd prefer an ATi card as the TV out setup using Forceware is a friggin nightmare (still don't have the 7300 working), it takes a few minutes with Catalyst.

Would it be best to go for a DirectX 10 card since the newer games such as BioShock will soon demand it or stick to a more powerful Dx9 one?

Thoughts appreciated

[NooNoo]

Bioshock seem to be into nVidia in a big way... with a DX10 recommended card.

What else do you want to do with your new video card apart from TV out?

[buksida]

What else do you want to do with your new video card apart from TV out?

Essentially just gaming and TV out for now, not limited just to Bioshock so should be capable enough to handle all releases for the next 12 months or so.

[NooNoo]

did you read this? Seems to me you just need to look at how much you want to spend...

[jaimicook]

I am using a pair of Radeon X1950 Pro 512 Meg cards in Crossfire config, and I'm as happy as if I had good sense.
Jim

[TechZ]

All the releases for the next 12 months?

Nothing less than the HD29xx from ATi or 8600/8800 from NVIDIA then.

Whats the rest of your PC setup like?

[slgrieb]

Hard to say what is enough card. If you want to spend the money, it doesn't hurt to go top of the line, but you should also remember that ATI and nVidia are still working on a 6 month development cycle, so today's high end, high dollar card is going to be midrange in a year. Looks like you've read Tom's buying guide, and I can't add much to it, except to say if you haven't looked at Anandtech's DX10 performance evaluations, you should.

Current DX10 cards, even the big guns, seem to struggle to provide good performance, and many games still look nearly as good in DX9 as DX10. For less money. Personally, I buy in the mid- to upper-midrange on everything. I'd do the X1950 Pro.

[Loopy]

You say you can't get the tv out working.
Did you try downloading and installing the correct multimedia WDM driver from Nvidia's website? I had the same problem, and downloading the WDM driver and the latest version of the Nforce drivers fix it.

[buksida]

Thanks for the responses.

I may add another Gig of RAM to the one thats already in the box (which is an AM2 3800).

Tending to go towards the X1950pro as I really do prefer the ATi cards, TV problem solved as the spare machine now runs the movies from my old 9600pro. Though it would be nice to get the Nvidia cards working!

Yes, tried latest Forceware.

[Loopy]

Yes, but did you install the multimedia driver?
Which Operating System do you have?

[buksida]

So you have to install a driver AND Forceware ? I thought it was all in the same bundle.

OS is XP-SP2

[Loopy]

So you have to install a driver AND Forceware ? I thought it was all in the same bundle.

OS is XP-SP2

Yes, you do otherwise the TV functions are NOT enabled.
Here's the link to the necessary driver http://www.nvidia.com/object/wdm_geforce_4.13.html