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My mobo is PCI-Express 16. I am pretty sure I want an nVidia as I've had the best success with them and nothing but bad luck with ATI.

I did some shopping on eBay last night and I've come up with the following potentials. I am looking for best value and decent performance. Here's what I'm looking at.


PNY GeForce 8500GT 512MB DDR2 $124
nVidia GeForce 8600GTS 256Mb DDR3 $128
nVidia GeForce 8600GT 512 DDR2 $132.98
EVGA GeForce 8600GTS 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 $229.98 w/ $20 mail-in rebate

There appears to be a tradeoff between DDR2 and DDR3 and finally GDDR3. Obviously 3 is better than two, but how much better? Is it worth getting 256 DDR3 instead of 512 DDR2 and save a couple of bucks in the deal? Or I should I just bite the bullet and get the last one?

Nevermind, I did my own research and asked around here at work. I am getting the last one.

Big difference with ddr2 and 3?

Apparently.

I am by no means an expert, I understood how it works. 3 is faster than 2, so much so that a 256 DDR3 card was $4 more than a 512 DDR2.

When I asked my woworker who is into such things he told me that the 8600GTS that I listed was the best of both worlds, the 512mb memory and the DDR3 and for a solid price. It's a midrange card and it does exactly what I need it to do.