Shopping for a video card.

[Dark Trepie]

As the title says, I'm shopping for a new video card.  I've been leaning toward getting an ATI of some sort and moving away from Nvidia.  Not that I've ever had any problems with Nvidia before, but I've read enough horror stories here to make me weary of getting a new one.

Normally I wouldn't be asking this.  I know my way around most hardware.  But there's something different this time that makes me want to ask for some advice.

I'm running Vista now.

I know there are driver issues out there currently with some of the cards and Vista.  And I've read somewhere that those Omega drivers for ATI that everyone raves about isn't working in Vista yet.  (I read this in an old thread in RL, so that might have changed)

So I guess I'm basically asking people to suggest a card.  Or, if ATI's drivers are up to snuff, suggest a good one that's within the $200 - $250 range.  (or possibly $300)  I shall buy an PSU with the appropriate wattage to go along with it.

[SJActress]

Hey Trepie,

Well, I'm not sure if you actually can buy the card separately (ie. not already installed in a new computer) but don't get the GeForce Go series.  Apparently, there's a conspiracy going on, and in order to get the drivers updated, you have to go to the computer manufacturer instead of Nvidia themselves.

At this juncture I would definitely go with an ATI card.

Also, here is a FAQ about cards on the BBS.

However, I will add that I have a Go Series card running Vista, and thank GOD have NOT experienced any problems (there was a BSOD once, but I'm pretty sure it's unrelated, as I can't reproduce it).

Hope that helps a little!

[LordBanxter]

I can't say much along the lines of Vista just yet since I haven't taken that plunge, but I've been running a radeon x1600 pro 512mb pci-e card for almost a year now, and I keep all settings jacked up as high as they'll go and have zero problems in sims2.  (I'll add that I only keep shadows at the half mark to cut down on lag on densely populated comm lots)  But it seems to do the trick quite nicely.  I'm sure that there's better cards out there for Vista, but since I haven't gotten that monstrosity yet, I wouldn't know.  I think I paid around 130$ for this card last year when I got it, so it should be considerably cheaper by now.

Sorry I couldn't be more help.

[ZiggyDoodle]

I went to the ATI  site [ http://shop.ati.com/ ] and it looks like they have a couple of good gamer cards that will run on Vista:  Radeon® X1650 XT 256MB PCI Express and Radeon® X1950 PRO 256MB PCIExpress.

I recall reading good reviews about the 1950 and TS2, just can't remember where. 

I can tell you that my card, the ATI Radeon X850XT will not run on Vista, per ATI.  Which is fine, since it does a nice job on my XP system and I'm not interested in upgrading just yet.

Interestingly, I was talking with a friend and he said he has heard rumblings that SP3 for XP is in the works.

[KatEnigma]

Yes, MS has confirmed an XP SP3 for about the same time as SP1 for Vista. 

Newegg has the X1950 Pro for under $150.