[techie4fun]

[quote name='coastie65']
>

bmccune12 said:

The GT, GTS, and GTX stuff, are primarily mods done to the card that affect the over all performance. I generally stay away from the GS stuff, although some have been good ( PNY 7600 GS ). What you need to be concerned with is the bit transfer rate ( 128 bps) and shader ( 2.0 or better) as well as some other specs that don't come to mind at the moment. I didn't do my homework once and purchased the wrong card for what I was doing. The 9600 GT should serve you well. As your mobo is x16 and not 2.0 x16, the card will only operate at the x16 level, but will give you performance none the less. The three brands you listed are good although i have never used BFG and am currently using an EVGA 8600 GT. coastie

Wow . I was off!

[coastie65]

techie4fun said:

Wow . I was off!

Not necessarily. I haven't gone into these things in a great deal of depth, but clock speeds may play a part in it as well, as far as standard speeds go. Then there are the factory OCed models that have previusly been mentioned. coastie

[rtfire1]

Coastie, you got that right on.

[bmccune12]

Now all is answered I think, so many different things for what seems at a glance to be so simple of a upgrade. In my field, construction, all is preety well defined for you without too many side roads. This is so or can be rather complex that one wrong step could go down a bad path. Term knowledge very helpful as well as a place like this to test your own thinking.



Thank you all agin for a very informative thread, I have added tons of bookmarks from here and ones I have found on my own, NOW to order all.... after I re read all this one more time.....



Thanks to all....:x

[coastie65]

You are very welcome and we are happy to help. Yeah, it can seem daunting when doing a system upgrade. I just check out the Motherboard and see how far I can push it then push. As for the video card thing, I'm a gamer, so I do want the performance, so i usually strike a happy medium between what is offered and my budget. The 8600GT I put in here turned out to be a good choice all around. I am now considering if I want to up it to one with 512 Mb of ram onboard. I have 256 Mb at present. I am weighing the cost as opposed to any performance boost there may be. Again, it is our pleasure to help. coastie

[mphenterprises]

Hi Bmccune and welcome to the PCWorld Communities. :D




Since you have this Discussion marked as Answered, please mark the two posts that you feel were most helpful and the one post you feel gave you the correct answer.

[rgreen4]

You commented that Coastie was the one replying the most. This is due primarily because he is a gamer and understands more about the board than most of us. I have learned a bit as well.