Ben's Bargains

15% off MP3, GPS, storage, and select software coupon code D$?HDV$KGRJ?D6 [Exp 1/28]

20% off XPS ONE 20 and XPS ONE 24 $1699+ coupon code $9C5LZD$LN5LV1 [Exp 2/5]

$300 off $2399 XPS M1730 Laptops coupon code NCGD?0QBMX6DLH [Exp 1/8]

20% off $1299 Studio Laptops coupon code DWT79HX3X4BG40 [Exp 2/6]

CompUSA.com BFG GeForce GTX 280 Video Card OC Edition $304 Discuss (13)

Buy.com Diamond All-in-Wonder Premium HDTV TV Tuner $144 Discuss (2)

Buy.com AVerMedia AVerTV Hybrid NanoExpress Tuner $66 Discuss (5)

Buy.com XFX PVT98GYDLH GeForce 9800 GT 512MB $100 Discuss (5)

Wow, what a deal! But it costs nearly as much as my desktop.

#1 If you have a $500 desktop, this deal is not aimed at you.


For the rest of us, this is a decent deal.

lol, yeah. Don't even bother buying this if you don't have a very high end cpu.

this thing has more ram then my computer.

I'm not seriously considering this upgrade but if you configure a DELL without any special deals or coupons, you can get a Core2Duo with 1gb ram and 160gb hd for around $600. Isn't that considered a high end computer right now? I have a 1-1/2 year old P4 3.0 (cost around $450~500 at the time) but can't get myself to pull the trigger on any graphic card upgrade because it costs too much to upgrade to a top end card. Now that the 6800GT and 7800GT are coming down in price, I am considering getting those if I can get a deal for under $100. What is considered a high-end computer and do these cards really need that much processing power to utilize it to the fullest? I would love to see a detailed response from Dave_C as he loves to contribute the technical details but we'll see if he's in the mood.

wtf do you need 640 MB for a video card at this point? maybe in 2008 ill buy one for 60$ when it will be useful.

For all the smack some people talk about people buying new consoles every time they come out, I'm sure there are people who burn 5x the money on gpu upgrades. $500 every 6 months for the best model.

I got the 8800 GTX about 3 days after it's announcement and had to pay the glorious price of almost $666 from newegg. It's fast, runs cool and is relatively quiet. The game that was coming with it for free had all kinds of bugs, so if you're thinking that's making it any kind of "deal", think again. The card however is incredible.

that is true, and I used to work with Nvidia too but nonetheless, this is an awesome deal.

Agreed, these are great prices compared to the others found out there.
Anyone know when other Direct X-10 cards are coming out? (to lower prices more!?)

I'd wait. The initial G80 (8800) is like the NV3x (FX) -- first generation, large die size, not optimized yet. These G80 (8800) probably won't do DX10 much faster than the G71 (7900) can emulate it , just like even the NV30 (FX5800) couldn't do DX9 much faster than NV28 (Ti4800) could emulate it. The next batch of G8x (8600/8900) products will be to the G80 (8800), much like the NV43/45 (6600/6800) were to the NV3x (FX) -- about 2-3x faster, with all the "nexgen" goodies.

The current G80 (8800) are 90nm features sizes, and the next G8x will be 65nm or possibly even 45nm, and far more optimized. Even the G73 7600GT can best the G70 7800GT now, and the G71 7900GT is much better than it, and beats the G70 7800GTX too. Even the "crippled" G71 7900GS can match the 7800GTX (I have both), so I'd wait 6 months.

If you need something "just for now," go for a sub-$100 7600GT or near-$50 7600GS. If you want to get within 25-50% of the 8800, the sub-$150 7900GS is quite a buy too. Wait for the G81+.

deeznuts must not be a gamer or just really stupid... cause this video card will scream... why do you need a good video card? cause with games that are getting more graphically intense, you need one so you dont bog down playing at like 15fps. I guess he is still running his Geforce 4600 playing tetris or some other girly game.

As for the guy talking about a Core Duo.. depends on what CPU you get from that line up... if you get the top of the line one, then yeah, its a good deal, but you wont find that one for that cheap for a whole machine.
Ill still stick with AMD, cause Intel is still a bit buggy at times... they spend more on advertising than they do on R&D.
AMD has a quad core out now that is looking quite promising for the gaming world.

TheBS, Why would you tell someone to get a 7600 video card? unless they are going to run it SLI. I wouldnt go less than a 7900 series video card in SLI mode for some of todays games.

Ever heard of updates from Nvidia? When the 7950GTX came out, it was good but it wasnt great, until NIVIDIA came out with new drivers for it and its running like a champ now. Im sure with new drivers... the 8800 series will blow away things more and more as they keep tweaking it.
Im thinking about getting two of these 8800 GTS to run in SLI mode, im sure i would get 100fps on alot of games, granted.. you cant see it go that fast, but it sure does help when you are playing online, along with the help of the Killer NIC card which rocks and i highly recommend getting for those hard core gamers out there that have $250 to blow for better network performance.

plazma you must be a virgin and/or live with your parents. Put down your sims video game and get a real life.

Holy crap! I have had yet to see an 8800 GTS under 400. This is a sweet deal for any gamer. So what if it's CPU-bound? Most gamers have pretty fast CPUs anyway, and this card will still be the best thing around, even if you don't have an uber-fast, quad-core CPU.

"wtf do you need 640 MB for a video card at this point"

You do know that Unreal Engine 3 was designed for 512mb cards, right? According to a leak, Gears of War is around the corner for PC, not to mention Unreal Tournament 3...

"You do know that Unreal Engine 3 was designed for 512mb cards, right? According to a leak, Gears of War is around the corner for PC, not to mention Unreal Tournament 3..."

Nerd did you know your pencil was made for women, not to masterbate to Unreal 3? Soon you will be masterbating to Gears of War! Just make sure mom doesn't come in!

"Nerd did you know your pencil was made for women, not to masterbate to Unreal 3? Soon you will be masterbating to Gears of War! Just make sure mom doesn't come in!"

Wow, you're trying to start a flame war on bensbargains.net... who's the nerd here, again? Maybe you fall into the category of the geek stereotype which you just described, but there's no need to project your insecurities onto anonymous online users. I actually was initiated into the world of PC hardware/gaming by fellow teammates on a state-championship football team, for which I played linebacker. I no longer live at home, and haven't used the word "pencil," in that sense, since the third grade. Please, for the sake of the people who actually want to learn useful information about this card, keep the elementary insults on the DL. For example, people wanting to have a system that can run Unreal Engine 3 games would benefit from the knowledge that it was designed for 512mb cards. On the other hand, they'll only lose braincells by reading your self-proclaimed witty insults. Thanks.

plazma wrote:

Ill still stick with AMD, cause Intel is still a bit buggy at times...

Ironically, this is true. AMD's compatibility with the i686 ISA is better than Intel, and their interconnect platform is far more stable. Intel is still "learning" all that Digital-AMD learned over 5 years ago.

plazma wrote:

AMD has a quad core out now that is looking quite promising for the gaming world.

Not really. AMD's 4x4 (which should be named "2x4") isn't even well designed for a LGA-1207 (Socket-F) platform server, much less gaming. AMD shouldn't have even bothered. I mean, it really doesn't take advantage of the partial mesh HyperTransport interconnect at all -- even the nVidia nForce Pro 2200+2050 design for dual-Socket-940 did that.

They were stupid to go with UMC as a foundary, and they're still ramping up with IBM to 65nm and lower. Hopefully their core redesign will bring good things in late 2007. They still have the I/O and, hopefully to bear fruit for graphics in 2007, direct HTX interconnect advantage over Intel. But so far, that's only panned out for high throughput I/O or clustering with Infiniband HTX, no graphics yet.

So until then, other than for high throughput I/O servers (where AMD just roasts Intel), Intel has the computational end, especially for non-precise, "lossy math" SSE/gaming (although I'd still stick with AMD for engineering/scientific precise FPU or its FPU-based SSE).

"I actually was initiated into the world of PC hardware/gaming by fellow teammates on a state-championship football team, for which I played linebacker."

Wow your so cool bluesdealer did you score 4 touchdowns for polk high?

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