hey im buying a new video card and i currently have a msi 6600gt 128 and im looking at a 7900gt 256. well my question is whats gonna be better a older high end 7 series or a mid to low 8 series. specs on the old are a tad bit better which is why im going twards the 7900gt and toms hardware says its the best bang for the buck in its price range also the ati 1950xt is also suggested. any ideas?

edit and im running pci-e but no sli

The main reason for switching over to an 8000 series would be for the DX10, but without a top of the line everything, you probably won't be able to use it anyways. I just got a brand new computer with an 8800 GTX, and it starts to get choppy playing DX10 games. I'd say get the 7900 for now. Eventually the price will come down on the 8000 series, but who knows when, and you can keep waiting for something new forever. I'd get the 7900 with the knowledge that in a year or two, you'll need to upgrade in order to play new games.

I actually build crazy gamer comps. And have used mostly all of the video cards.

The 8800 series is superior in every way to anything built before it. Because of driver issues it is possible that it could be rough in a game but that is not the cards fault. All it requires is the correct driver.

Also now that they are available for around $250 they are a excellent deal (320mb version)

now that said, I like the pict of the X1950 better than any of the 7series Nvidia cards.

So if money is a issue and you are not planning on ever getting Vista get a x1950
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161093

And if you can afford it the 8800 is impossible to beat at this date
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130082

remember these cards will need their own power connector and will add more heat to your case so make sure your cooling is good.

opps my bad it the x1950pro no the xt so between the 7900gt and x1950 pro which would be a better card, id like to keep the card for a year at least.

I would go the x1950 pro if it was the HIS 512 version.

HIS (the one that uses the good cooler) is a better card than the rest, also has faster memory. They are called the IceQ 3 versions.

If you can get a XT that is even better

For deals sometimes i look at Neweggs "Open Box" section.

If I were in your situation I'd buy an 8800GTS 320mb version.

if i have 300 bucks i would. but i can get the 7900gt for 104 after rebate.

is ur current videocard integrated or is it in a slot.

i have a geforce6150 integrated on asusVM motherboard, i have it running at 512mb, i have 2gs of kingston ddr2ram,and a x2 proccessor never had a problem running any dx10 app.

current video card is a pci-e msi 6600gt its a bit old but i got it for a steal and it was ment for a get me by until i got a better card. i mostly just wanna play testdrive unlimited and might and magic 5 and dirt. i wanna play dirt the most.

I just recently built my new rig. I went with a 7900GS just because i had already blown most of my money on the motherboard. I had a certain amount of money set aside for the motherboard and video together. So it would have been

Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 with a 8800 640 MB. (i don't really see the point of a 320. Unless you really don't game with really high resolutions and textures or your strapped for cash. and it is 80$ or so more. If your gonna spend a ton of money on a video card splurge some more and use far more of the potential of the core.. I don't mean the GTX there is a point where you are paying for a pointless premium. )
Or
Asus P5WDG2 WS Professional with a 9700GS.

I made the 2nd choice and have not been disappointed. That card can handle all the games i play
Fear Combat -Almost full settings
Wolfestein: Enemy Territory (and soon to be Quake wars as well)
War Rock
I just finished playing Halo 2 (i had it on medium and i got headaches from it rendering slowly so i went to lower details.And it'* on XP! I couldn't probably BARELY run it on vista.)
Call Of Duty 1+2
Battlefield 2142 (the demo anyway! LOL)
of course the occasional round of quake 3 with the bots and the original Unreal Tourney.
and i only tried it on UT2003 cuz i never play it.

In the end i know i will get an 8800 but not now, They will have to drop in price. Especially seeing as there are no directx10 games and i don't have vista. (and will NOT get it. I had the beta.....'nuff said.) Now i can't say i know anything about the games you want to play so i can't say how the 7900 will fare but heck. Most video cards now a days have so much power now, So long as you spend about 130$ (for the one i bought) or more you really can't go wrong. However that is MHO.

Rubix