Low-End Graphics

Nearing completion of this week's video card price guide, we'll be taking a look at the low-end graphic card options.

For the price of the AGP version of the X1300, we would suggest that you go with a 6600 GT. You'll get a much better bang for your buck in doing so. For the PCI-e users, we would recommend that you look into the X700 cards, which are going for about the same price as a PCI-e X1300 and offer more compelling performance.





These new GeForce 7300 GS graphics cards were created to replace the 6200 TurboCache cards. Price and performance-wise, they're not doing such a bad job at all. If you haven't already done so, do check out Josh Venning's recent article on the eVGA 7300 GS.





This wraps up with week's video card price guide. Join us again next week when we take a look into the world of storage media! Thanks for reading!

Mid-Range Graphics
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  • dstigue - Wednesday, March 8, 2006 - link

    The 7800 GT that was listed with 512mb as quoted "It's a fairly large card and is not at a very friendly price tag either, going for about $820...yikes!" is actually 2x7800 gts on one board with 256 mbs for each. Why would it be so big? Why so expensive? Did none of this ring a bell? Even the name dual as in EN7800GT DUAL/2DHTV/512? I don't mean to rib ya but come on your supposed to be a techie.
  • JarredWalton - Thursday, March 9, 2006 - link

    Fixed. :)
  • rrcn - Wednesday, March 8, 2006 - link

    Although Jarred already did, I'd also like to personally thank you all for your comments and suggestions, and am sorry for the late response.

    If time allows, I will add the X850 cards to the guide this time around, if not, then expect to see them in our April video card price guide. =)

    Since I see that readers here actually do want to see more advice rather than just good bargains, I will be sure to have more of that in there next time.

    The reason the X800 XL is still considered high-end is due to its price point. We mainly use the prices to determine what categories the cards would fall into.

    I will also contact our RTPE administrator, if no one else has already done so, and have him add the BFG 6800 GS to the RTPE.

    Again, thanks for all the comments and keep them coming! =) It really helps us know what you guys are thinking and what you want to see.


    Haider Farhan
  • JarredWalton - Wednesday, March 8, 2006 - link

    Thanks for the comments, everyone. There's a fine line between respecting NDA and leading our readers astray. I've added a bit and commented a bit just to clarify things. Cheers!
  • DigitalFreak - Wednesday, March 8, 2006 - link

    I can respect that, but the 7900 launch is one of the worst kept secrets in the history of launches... :-)
  • JarredWalton - Wednesday, March 8, 2006 - link

    Well, I would have mentioned it, but then Haider could have written this article last week and it just got posted. Since he updates these Price Guides once a month for each segment, two weeks before the launch and two weeks after isn't so bad.
  • TheCanuck - Wednesday, March 8, 2006 - link

    Just bought the 6800GS at Chiefvalue.com for $197.99 with free shipping. Best deal I've seen so far: http://www.chiefvalue.com/app/productdetails.asp?s...">Link

    All the retailers are trying to screw over AGP users with these higher prices. There's no reason AGP should be $30 to $40 more than PCI-e.
  • kmmatney - Wednesday, March 8, 2006 - link

    Great pirce on the AGP 6800GS, as well. I guess AGP cards can be more expesnive do to the PCI0AGP bridge chip that it requires. More likely its supply and demand, though. I'm sure they sell a lot more PCIe cards than AGP.
  • yacoub - Wednesday, March 8, 2006 - link

    It's definitely funny seeing the X800XL called "high end" considering it can barely run modern games at 1024x with everything turned up. I would recommend revising the section titles or pushing everything down a level (X1800 series could be 'high end', X800 series is 'mid-range' or whatever is the next level down.)

    I have an X800XL and I can't wait to get a better card so I can actually run games like NFS:MW and FEAR at 1280x1024 with everything high, which I can't currently do with the X800XL.
  • etriky - Wednesday, March 8, 2006 - link

    Just an FYI. The Asus 7800GT 512MB card is their dual processer card. Still freakin expensive though.

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