What vidio card

I want to update my video card, at the moment i have a
Nvidia 6600gt,
what one will be the best from the following 2
Nvidia 7600 GS DDR 2 138 bit
Nvidia 8400 GS DDR 2 128 bit

I run windows XP
1G ram
2.3 Intell prossesor

I have no problems running SL i just want to update my video card, the cards are realy all thats in my budget.

PS I will be getting 1g more ram

Thank you
Michelle

welll ....

7600GS vs a 6600GT (non overclocked)

the 6600GT

raw 500mhz (i could have sworn this was 450 but whatever)
the memory runs at 500mhz + DDR (effective 1ghz)
does 2000 mpixels per second
does 4000 mtexels per second
supports 8 pixel shaders
and can transfer 16gb per second

the 7600GS

raw 400mhz
400 mhz memory clock +DDR
does 4000 mpixels per second
does 4800 mtexels per second
supports 12 pixel shaders
and can transfer 12.8gb per second

now the 7600GS has a lower clock speed, and cannot transfer as much data in and out of the gpu as what you have, with applications like SL it would most likley be slower than what you have, because SL uses alot of transfers for the tons of large textures inworld altho with an assumed 128mb of ram you might need to do it 2x as much , the clock speed means it can handle more polygons at a higer rate (think 100 prim hair with thousands of polys)

altho in applications like quake 4, you would get a faster screen fill (great for super fast flying missiles) and more detail in the shadows and lighting with the 7600GS, becuase those games are generally less poly intensive, and they are professionally produced so your texture load is generally low, also they use alot of realtime rendering effects, something unheard of in SL which fill rates are important to


now onto the 8400GS

its basicly the exact same card as the 7600GS (50 mhz faster gpu) but with one MAJOR differance, the memory bus is only 64 bit, the other 2 are 128 bit, CHOKE! that drops your transfer rate down to 6.4 gb, half of the 7600GS dont even bother with this one, if the 7600 is already getting a possibility of being slower in SL you dont even want to see what this would do

personally what i would do is hold out alittle bit longer, dubble your money and either get a 7900GT (not GS) or a 7900GTX or one of the higher end 8000 series, 8600GT +

just to let you know tho, i run with a overclocked 6600GT, from BFG, and an older system, sill using the ol athlon XP 2200 + (oc to 1.9 ghz) 2 gb ddr 400 (which is old and slow now) and blast tru SL in most situations

and as for games like quake 4, full deathmatch server 70 solid fps @ 1280x1024 full blast detail, its a good card

I am running an Xp 2700+ thouroghbred-b. and also an Nvidea 6200. However the 6200 has been hacked via Riva Tuner to give me the same number of pixel pipes as a 6800. The card is also significantly OC'd.

Before SL this girl liked to shoot things (still do sometimes). I had the help of a very techy freind when I set up this system. Still I only average around 20 FPS in SL.

I will probably be upgrading this year, but the Athalon XP's were a great chip and still do well.

yea, they were good, but i still love my thunderbird, that little 1.3ghz heater is quite impressive in its performance and was my primary cpu till 2005, course now im on the 2200+ oc 100mhz and my parents use a 3000+ and they both fly

over the 4th i went over to the parents house and took great pleasure hearing my uncle saying "thats the same comouter from 2 years ago? its still faster than my brand new one"

high quality parts, some tinkering what can i say, maby ill replace that old radieon 9200SE in theirs sometime, bump up some photoshop points *evil laugh*

back to fps with the OC 6600GT 63 fps in my workshop, fully loaded sim right infront of me 26fps, way up in the sky well ...

http://www.cheesefactory.us/evil laugh.jpg

If you have Pci-E facilities on your MB, value for money, I would go for a 7900GT or 7900GTX, I use the 7900GT its quiet, gives me an average of 20-100+ fps with eye candy turnned on and at only 40USD from ebay, a great buy.