low-cost pixel shaders

[YKhan]

I'm about ready to upgrade my old Geforce2 GTX, with a newer card, it's
been a while obviously since I upgraded the vidcard. I haven't really
played games in a while (I'm picky about what games I get excited
about). I'm looking to upgrade to a mid-priced card with Pixel Shader
1.1 support or higher, possibly an Nvidia 6600-series or ATI X600/X700
series.

The game I'm thinking of picking up is Black & White 2, and the
requirements say it needs Pixel Shader 1.1 support. I expect the
maximum
resolution I'll be doing is 1152x864. Obviously, I want some adequate
performance, but I don't care about ultimate performance. To me the
more
important factors are these:

(1) cool'n'quiet operation, i.e. low fan noise. I don't want a chipset
that's been overclocked to high-heaven to win all benchmarks, with a
blowdryer for a fan. Last thing I need is something adding several
degrees to the whole system temperature, requiring more fans.

(2) Price/performance, what's the best bang for the buck? I want to
know
how important the following would be: 128MB vs. 256MB? Value-end
chipset
(6200/X200) vs. mid-end chipset (6600/X600)?

Yousuf Khan

 

[dawg]

Well,if you haven't upgraded in a long time,what about yourMobo and CPU.
Make sure the AGP will work on newer cards(1.5v)If that's older then you
won't get much benefit from a new vid card. Depending on your CPU and budget
I'd say a 6600GT is probably your best bet for B&W 2. That game will take
some resources. A lot od ram will help too.I'd say at least 768MB. Forget
the ATI600 and the 700 is very scarce.

 

[YKhan]

Well,if you haven't upgraded in a long time,what about yourMobo and CPU.

Well, actually that's coming too, but I didn't want to confuse the
issues, since I understand the mobo and CPU myself. It's just video
cards that are little hard to keep up with right now. I'll likely be
upgrading to a PCIe mobo and compatible processor soon enough, but it's
not what I'm worried about.

Make sure the AGP will work on newer cards(1.5v)If that's older then you
won't get much benefit from a new vid card. Depending on your CPU and budget
I'd say a 6600GT is probably your best bet for B&W 2. That game will take
some resources. A lot od ram will help too.I'd say at least 768MB. Forget
the ATI600 and the 700 is very scarce.

What do you mean the ATI's are scarce? At least a couple of stores I've
checked out have Asus video cards with a choice of either ATI or nVidia
chips, both types were in stock.

Yousuf Khan

 

[gimp]

(1) cool'n'quiet operation, i.e. low fan noise.
(2) Price/performance, what's the best bang for the buck? I want to
know
how important the following would be: 128MB vs. 256MB? Value-end

AFAIK on nVidia cards 128MB versions have faster ram than the 256MB
variants of the same chipset. i definitely wouldn't go lower than the
6600GT level if you'll be at that resolution.

the best option for a silent but decent card would be something like a
Gigabyte NX66T128VP, 6600GT with heatpipes, no fan PCIe though...
the MSI cards with fans are usually pretty quiet... a silent AGP variant
is the Asus EN6600GT, but its probably more expensive and has a pretty
bulky cooling solution:

http://www.pcstats.com/artvnl.cfm?articleID=1863

 

[dawg]

The x700 agp is scarce. At least it was.

Well, actually that's coming too, but I didn't want to confuse the
issues, since I understand the mobo and CPU myself. It's just video
cards that are little hard to keep up with right now. I'll likely be
upgrading to a PCIe mobo and compatible processor soon enough, but it's
not what I'm worried about.


What do you mean the ATI's are scarce? At least a couple of stores I've
checked out have Asus video cards with a choice of either ATI or nVidia
chips, both types were in stock.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Yousuf Khan]

The x700 agp is scarce. At least it was.

Oh you're talking about the difference in availablity between the AGP
and PCIe, I guess? That is, the x700 in PCIe is not scarce?

Yousuf Khan

 

[dawg]

Actually,both were pretty hard to get at first with the AGP version being a
paper launch only for months.
Besides,I've read some reviews on the x700. Not i.mpressed

 

[YKhan]

Actually,both were pretty hard to get at first with the AGP version being a
paper launch only for months.
Besides,I've read some reviews on the x700. Not i.mpressed

What's not impressive about the x700? In comparison to x600 or 6600?

Yousuf Khan