Price Guides, August 2005: Video Cards

Mid-Range Graphics

Usually at this point, we speak of a NVIDIA 6600GT recommendation with remorse that ATI has nothing competitive to offer price/performance-wise in this $100-$200 segment. However, this time there's an interesting card showing up in channel from ATI marked "X800". The X800 uses the same ATI R430 graphics core as the High End X800XL, but only has 12 pixel pipelines instead of 16, which doesn't seem to hurt it very much while demolishing NVIDIA's 6600 GT and ATI's very own X700 Pro along the way - the two main cards that used to occupy this price segment.

Today, we found an MSI X800 PCIe for $145 [RTPE: MS-8997-01S] after rebate, though the usual price hovers around $175. X800 is without a doubt the best price/performance deal in graphics cards and will play all your games just fine. Unfortunately, this card is only recommended in PCIe, since the AGP version is $80 more expensive.

Our chart below includes all the X800 cards, but you can see just the X800 cards on the Pricing Engine.



Again in response to the launch of the 7800GT, NVIDIA has dropped the price on the regular 6800 to an MSRP of $199. Most cards are still above MSRP for now (with many including mail-in rebates), but they should fall below $199 shortly. The choice between 6800 and 6600GT becomes rather interesting now, with prices and performance being very similar. The 256-bit memory interface of the 6800 usually wins out in our book, although the PCIe cards actually have slower RAM than the AGP models. AGP users will find the XFX 6800 especially interesting, as it is now $155 [RTPE: XFX 6800 AGP].

With tumbling 6800 prices, what happens to the 6600GT? If it remains close to $200, there's no point in getting one over the 6800. Not surprisingly, it has fallen to around $150, continuing to fill the middle ground between the 6600 and the 6800. eVGA has deals for about $130 and $139 after rebate on their PCIe and AGP models, respectively [RTPE: eVGA 6600GT PCIe and eVGA 6600GT AGP].



Filling in the bottom of the Mid-Range sector, we can't really recommend GeForce 6600, Radeon 9800 Pro, or X600 Pro/XT anymore because the price/performance offered isn't very attractive. However, if you're looking to spend $120 or less on a video card, the X700 Pro (PCIe only) has become an an excellent choice. The Connect3D model is the clear winner, having fallen to just $99 [RTPE: Connect3D X700 Pro]!