[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Richer

I think we need to put a few things in perspective.

Lets say right now, video card "A" plays a kickbutt game at 60fps (frames/sec), but video card "B" plays the same game at 80fps but costs 100 bucks more, which card are you going to get? Many hardcore-ists will say "g0 f0r v1de0 c4rd 'B' d00d!!111!!!". However... in reality, can you really tell the difference between 60 and 80fps? In reality, we can't even tell the difference after 30-40fps. Now, the same hardcore-ists will say "bu7 d00d!1! V1de0 c4rd 'B' w1|| l4s7 l0nger!!11!!". Yeah... ok, by how long? By the time video card "A" is obsolete, video card "B" will be obsolete soon after.

What I'm trying to say is, even if the 14% speed boost is true, the average user won't notice it. With current computer tech now, I would stick with an good overall chip and save my cash... because being able to process a video in 9 minutes, rather than 10 just isn't worth the extra dough. Unless of course, you only need to spend relatively small amount of money... then by all means go for it!



-Richer

ok lets put this in perspective.. I could care less about frame rates as I don't plkay games. what I do do, is a lot of photo and video editing, soooo for video editing do you need a vid card with a good hardware encoder... no but it sure makes life easyer. also with the 1 gig of rame you can manipulate large files and not lose any speed while changes are being made ect... no for you final point of not spending any more money than you need to.. well I am probably one of the cheepest buggers you'll meet when it comes to computer.. heck I am still running a 900 mhz athlon cuz I can't justify the 600 bucks to up grade (just bought a new monitor ) so my theory is and always was when it is finaly time to upgrade get the fastest stable set up you can for MB, Chip and ram and then you won't have to upgrade if for a long time. so by spending and extra 200.00 on a 800 buck build could potentialy be a savings of 500 bucks over 3 years.

Steve