by congo » Mon Jan 16, 2006 1:42 pm
Yes, the 6600GT is the one to get, not the plain vanilla 6600. I've been recommending the 6600GT as a MINIMUM specification for quite a while now, because the price is affordable to most people and it's performance is adequate. Saying that, I would recommend a 7800GT (not a 7800, 7800GTX or any other version!) to anyone who wants a real performer at a reasonable cost. The 7800GTX is a considerably better card than the 7800GT, and should be prefered if the price is right, but most 7800GTX's are quite expensive for the general public.
Contrary to popular and mistaken belief, the amount of ram on a video card has little to do with performance. Perhaps that impression was carried over from the days of old when ram amount actually dictated the power of a card, or from onboard video chips "sharing" a set amount of system ram, where an increase usually helped a little on those inadequate rigs.
Nowadays, cards are manufactured with lots of ram to SELL INFERIOR RAM and increase profit margins. Don't get caught buying a second rate card with additional amounts of poor ram fitted. Unfortunately, ram amount is used as a marketing ploy and this practice is misleading, dirty, sneaky and underhanded.
If you see a bargain video card, more than likely you have cause for alarm, beware.
The video card is possibly the single most important piece of hardware in a PC used for gaming/simulation. It's worth the time and money to get it right.
Video cards should be selected on a number of criteria which requires careful research. Most people don't have the time or knowledge to do that research and make buying decisions based on marketing hype and buzz words.
Many in these forums read about how great a 6600GT is and rushed out and bought a plain 6600 because it was cheaper, next thing you hear is them bagging the poor 6600 cards when they find their card sucks.
Read the fine print. Buyer beware.
Capt. Farhan, the 6600GT is always "available". Your place of purchase stocks the inferior 6600 because the distributor tells them the profit margins are higher when selling that card. Your supplier is in it for the money with little regard to the quality or care to you, their customer.
You also state that you have a PCI version of the card. Be specific please so no more mistakes are made, (ie. 6600GT or 6600),
is you card a PCI or a PCIe version? IF it is the former, as you stated, then you are using a computer with the wrong graphics interface and no video card will help.
Last edited by
congo on Mon Jan 16, 2006 1:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Mainboard: Asus P5K-Premium, CPU=Intel E6850 @ x8x450fsb 3.6ghz, RAM: 4gb PC8500 Team Dark, Video: NV8800GT, HDD: 2x1Tb Samsung F3 RAID-0 + 1Tb F3, PSU: Antec 550 Basiq, OS: Win7x64, Display: 24&