I just want to play Doom 3 at 1280X1024 with high detail settings. I was thinking about a 9600XT 256 meg because I can't seem to find 9800Pros with 256megs anywhere. (My video card needs to have 256 megs because I wanna be able to tell my friend that my video card has twice the ram of his sh**y laptop) Honestly tho, do I need anything more powerful? LIke a 6600 GT. It's only like 50 bux more canadian and it seems to be quite a bit beefier. Suggestions?

"I just want to play Doom 3 at 1280X1024 with high detail settings. I was thinking about a 9600XT 256 meg" In most cases, the 9600XT 128MB card is faster than the 256MB version. Although it's a decent card, it's hardly high end anymore. "I can't seem to find 9800Pros with 256megs anywhere" You must not be looking very hard. The 9800Pro is another decent buy older card...256MB means nothing though. "My video card needs to have 256 megs because I wanna be able to tell my friend that my video card has twice the ram of his sh**y laptop" Now there's convoluted logic for you! "do I need anything more powerful? LIke a 6600 GT" The 6600GT only comes in a 128MB version, so if you get one, you won't have any bragging rights. You don't say what card you currently have but your system definitely needs more RAM. 512MB isn't enough for high end gaming...you should have at least 1GB (2 x512MB) running in dual channel mode (if your board supports it). This space for rent

1280x1024 with high settings, with AF and AA is a setup that you'll hardly achieve even if you buy a 6600gt. Free

"The 6600GT only comes in a 128MB version, so if you get one, you won't have any bragging rights." Newegg has 4 different 6600GT cards with 256MB Michael J

"Newegg has 4 different 6600GT cards with 256MB"....true that. However they are all PCI-Express flavor, and this guy is looking for an AGP card. Newegg has the 6600GT on sale for $139.00-$20.00MIR = $119USD ($140.00 CDN). I agree; computing.net does need an edit button.

Seriously, I have a 6600GT (about 20% faster than a 9800 in ID games) and it will not cut what you want to do. On a 3200 64-bit amd it will do Doom 3 at 1024-Med ok. Quake 4 800x600 low (still not pefect). Look higher!

Then get the 256MB Geforce 6800Ultra or Radeon X850XT PE, problem solved. TMP-Man Asus A7V classic rev 1.05 Athlon XP 2100+ @ 129x17 = 2195Mhz 1.81v 768MB PC133 RAM @ 129Mhz 2-2-2 40GB 540RPM + 120GB 7200RPM HD 128MB Geforce FX5200 128bit 276/515