#4, bluvg/n4cer
We do get to test/build a lot of rigs, and here's what I use, where and why:
Base System Builds and Work PC's for staff are dual DVI using Nvidia 8600 GT - this is he sweet spot and we use them to drive dual 19" DVI LCD's per system. With the latest WHQL drivers, this set up and Vista 32 bit is every bit as good as XP - despite running at very high resolutions per screen. We run Windows Vista Ultimate.
My office workstation uses an ATI FireGL V7350 with 1 GB GDDR, and it is butter smooth with Vista - n4cer is correct, ATI's drivers are a bit more evolved, but not by much and not in all cases. I do a great deal of green/blue screen editing on this station [Serious Magic (sucks that Adobe bought them!)] so the card helps as I can control it as much as I need to.
My home office WS uses 7600 GT's as do all other home systems, less laptops which use discrete ATI Mob vid cards. All systems run Vista Ultimate.
For media systems [custom cases and even into specialized cabinets], we use Nvidia and a fanless heat sink - previously 7600 GT's but now 8600 GT's
For gaming rigs we use 8800 GTS mostly - we have had great success with them. There are so few gamers we sell to that can afford SLI right out the gate, so we don't do many such rigs.
The laptops we build use Nvidia - again, discrete video at 256 MB - we do use FX, and NVS based GPUs. These have proven to be excellent.
I would definately go for the 8600 GT. I like and use PNY's bundle [boxed retail - as we do for all rigs we build (no monkey models and no BS push back on RMA's etc....)]. These have proven to be excellent cards and we love them for WMC systems we build up on Vista Ultimate driving pro series 65" Panasonic true-color/black plasma displays. The image is stunning. We don't use baked in ports, but go for dedicated ports we add via modules that support HDCP for HD video. Surprisingly, the 8600 GT looks better than more costly 8800's and much better than any ATI card so far.
Last bit. Your main board is absolutely vital - of all those we tested for Vista, go for the Vista Certified ASUS P5B variants - they have some lower end models and some great higher end versions. We standardized on this board for all mid and full tower systems we build. [again, boxed retail - NO/NO monkey models].
Finally, we love gamers and HD media enthusiasts. Gamers are the stuff - I personally feel that they built and drive what the PC is, or should be. Even casual gamers, who also are into writing and playing music [most posting here do some of that], also push digital HD media, video etc... but they all are some kind of gamer - even if it is just to see if they can support gamers - like I do, because I suck at games [bad]. That said, I just have not seen the issues a lot of people have reported in recent months ref Nvidia drivers and Vista. Early on, yes, but not in the last few months. I assess things have moved along well.
This post was edited by lketchum on Thursday, July 12, 2007 at 00:49.
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