[childeofmalkav]

I have some problems regarding choosing a video card. I have 4 choices and I just cant choose between them... my main issue is between these two:

Leadtek nVidia GeForce 9500GT 512MB DDR3

and

Leadtek nVidia GeForce 9500GT 1024MB DDR2

basically I cant choose which one is more beneficial for me as a Casual gamer / Video editor, 512 DDR3 or 1024 DDR2

Other video card I have considered is:

Twintech nVidia GeForce 9500GT 512MB DDR2 (assuming Leadtek is a bad manufacterer)

and a: Twintech Nvidia GeForce 8500GT 512MB DDR2 in case 9500GT will end up being a worse GPU (depending on your recommendation)

my expectations of the card is to run somewhat modern games under atleast low without too much FPS hickups, I would like it to be reasonably quite (not ultra quite but not like my former card that sounded like im at an airstrip that forced me to turn up the volume) and finally stability also it would be great if the card will have a overclock potential in the future.

Also, some of those cards are PCI Express 2.0 rather then a usual PCI Express... will it matter? (I dont know if my MB supports PCI Express 2.0 and dont remember its name to check... but considering its age I doubt he supports PCIE2)

Thanks in advance

P.S.

i'm a casual gamer with a very limited budget so you can drop the x600 and higher series off the list, even though they are much better.

EDIT:

Also, just a small question of curiosity... how well would each card can run games like GTA4\Fallout 3 on 1024x768 / 1280x1024? (e.g. would there be any FPS hickups on Low or Medium Settings)

EDIT 2:

Does someone happen to know if GeForce 9500 needs an exteral power source?

[Thor.]

Have you considered a 9800gtx2, they have come down in price alot, check newegg or tigerdirect, they are great cards as i have 2 myself. The one with the 1gd of nvram.

[childeofmalkav]

I have considered it and it does fit my budget but unfortunately neither Newegg or TigerDirect do shipment to my country... and pretty much all other companies don't do it either. even Amazon and Ebay have problems shipping stuff here (what little they do ship is both crappy and only slightly less then the store price) so all those sites aren't an option my only option is the local vendor (and those bastards use this fact to raise the prices ) I can only get those I noted above.

[Hateful_kat]

Look for some reviews on both cards, and see which performs better in the games you're most likely to play.

[childeofmalkav]

Sorry to bump this old post, but I still need some help :/ I have yet to choose a card and now I have two more choices in the list, a Geforce 9800GT or Radeon 2900HD Pro (http://www.gecube.co...p?prod_id=68118 - to be more exact)

I looked for reviews and benchmarks, but I only found two completely separate benchmarks on two separate system(so im unsure if the diffrent is really in the card or the rest of the specs)

http://www.xbitlabs....ro_9.html#sect0

http://www.guru3d.co...s-technology/12

Judging by them it seems 9800GT has the lead, but I find it odd considering the 2900HD Pro has 512Bit interface while the 9800GT has only 256Bit.

anyone happens to know which one is better?

[t3hf4ll0ut]

Hands down 9800GT. I've only used ATI cards once and when I did... lasted me 2 years and that's it.

[Hateful_kat]

The Radeon 2900HD is now two generations old. It's a weak card by comparison to the 9800GT.
Under no circumstances should you get that Radeon model.

[childeofmalkav]

thanks for the assistance but I now have another question (sorry for bugging you all)

earlier in my search for the cards, I left out the 8800GTS (http://eu.msi.com/in...mp;prod_no=1154 - this model to be more specific, its a G80 not G92) because it only has 320MB Ram and all the games I play say "512MB Minimum", but now a friend told me it doesnt really matter for me because I play games at a low resolution (1280x1024 Max, usually its 1024x768) and that the 8800GTS is stronger then 9800GT, is it true? will I really be able to play new modern games (including those released in the next year) with only 320MB Ram?

[Thor.]

Edit

Don't get he 8800gts 320mb of ddr3, i had a pair myself and they are weak cards, even in sli. I suggest go with the 9800gt.

man the 8800gts gave me nothing but trouble, stutter lagg you name it.

[childeofmalkav]

ok, then it seems pretty much everybody suggest 9800GT, so I guess I'll take it.

thanks for the assistance everybody