I'm upgrading the new Dell to take advantage of the PCI 2.0 bus for video rendering and gaming. All of the choices use the same chip, benchmark closely and for all I know could be made in the same place, but is one better than another? The main consideration is driver compatibility and manufacturer support, mounting space and power requirements are handled. Any other recommendations besides these appreciated. TIA...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...me=Top+Sellers

 

dude theyre all the same card. same card with a different brand name on it. a geforce is a geforce.

 

Oh, so they all use the same Nvidia drivers too?

 

Bob, this is mine, the top one from your link.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130337

EVGA is one of the better brands to go with.
Superclocked from the factory.

That is one of the better gaming cards out too.

 

Bob, you can use any new Nvidia driver you want, but I am still using 169.28 from the Nvidia website.

Do not use the drivers on the CD, they are most likely old.

There are newer beta drivers, and I think new stable drivers, but 169.28 is well proven.
Mine games perfectly with them, hence I will not be updating them for quite some time.

 

While its true they're all the same "chip," I personally would stick with XFX or BFG. I have good experience with products from both companies; they both have good quality construction with heavy heatsinks to make sure the card stays nice and cool.

 

All of the cards he linked have the same clock speeds, memory and chip.

 

Yes they do, but EVGA is known by reading all the PC mags out that they take a little extra care in how they are built.

The other two brands are good too, but ask just about any hardcore gamer and they will tell you they have less trouble with EVGA.

 

Ha, well I consider myself a performance-oriented gamer, and I'd have to say I've had the least trouble with BFG.

It's all comparing grains of sand, but don't go with ECS or MSI in my opinion.

 

Thanks for the tips. I ordered this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150267

I liked the reviews, slight overclock, free COD4, transferable lifetime warranty, $20 rebate and Bill Me Later so I don't actually have to pay for it until September.

Corey, great tip about drivers. I'll use the one you suggested, thanks.

 

good choice! i have a xfx 7900gs, and ive had it for about a year and have had no problems with it.

ps. any one play any bf2??

 

Good deal Bob.
xfx would have been my second choice if EVGA was not available.

When I built my new gaming PC over Christmas, I was going to get a xfx 8800 GTS in 640 mb, but it turns out after doing some research the 512 MB model blows the 640 MB one away in tests.
It is a better CPU in the 512 MB ones than the 640 MB one.

They had the EVGA in stock, so I went for it.

 

I didn't see the 169.28 driver at the Nvidia site.

When I selected the model number, PVT88GYDD4, the 169.21 driver came up:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_169.21_whql.html

But when I go to the XFX site and enter the model number, they link to yet another, 169.32:

http://www.xfxforce.com/web/support/...ductCode.jspa#

The new card will be here today, not that I'm anxious or anything. So which driver should I use, and what sequence worked best for installing the card, Nvidia or XFX? I was going to uninstall the current Nvidia driver, install the new driver, power down, swap cards, power up and go. Sound about right?

 

You can run the 169.32s.
There should be an archive on Nvidias site for all drivers.

Also I know there is an independent site that keeps all back files and also beta files that Nvidia has not even released to the public yet.
The site below is where I get mine from.
They have the 169.28 there for Vista is 32 and 64 bit.

http://www.guru3d.com/
http://downloads.guru3d.com/Videocar...Vista_c32.html