Currently have on board graphics, nvidia 6100. Looking at this card from newegg

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143104

BFG geforce 8500GT $39.99 after rebate.

System
AMD athlon 64 3500+
2.2 GHz
2 gig dual channel memory

So, I'm looking to free up the memory the onboard graphics use and also have a few higher resolutions to choose from if ever decide to go to a larger monitor. Currently run a NEC 70GX2 17inch lcd that I love, but damn some of those widescreens are real tempting.


Pluses I see are..
BFG and lifetime warranty (I here they actually do stand behind their product)

DirectX 10 so compatible into the future (no hurry to go to vista but at least it's there when I want to)

Seems damn cheap for BFG quality at $40 after rebate. And with BFG I am assuming the rebate will actually come. Also looked at the rebate form, it's very simple. Not one of those where you need your complete life history and if one things missing you don't qualify. Just name and address, copy of receipt, and model # cut out from box.


On the PC I almost exclusively play text sims (ootp, fof, ehm, fm) so top of the line is not needed. The only graphics games I play occasionally on the PC are Rome TW, and Combat Mission. With a ps3 and 360 in the house I don't see that changing in the near future.

Opinions?

Currently have on board graphics, nvidia 6100. Looking at this card from newegg

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143104

BFG geforce 8500GT $39.99 after rebate.

System
AMD athlon 64 3500+
2.2 GHz
2 gig dual channel memory

So, I'm looking to free up the memory the onboard graphics use and also have a few higher resolutions to choose from if ever decide to go to a larger monitor. Currently run a NEC 70GX2 17inch lcd that I love, but damn some of those widescreens are real tempting.


Pluses I see are..
BFG and lifetime warranty (I here they actually do stand behind their product)

DirectX 10 so compatible into the future (no hurry to go to vista but at least it's there when I want to)

Seems damn cheap for BFG quality at $40 after rebate. And with BFG I am assuming the rebate will actually come. Also looked at the rebate form, it's very simple. Not one of those where you need your complete life history and if one things missing you don't qualify. Just name and address, copy of receipt, and model # cut out from box.


On the PC I almost exclusively play text sims (ootp, fof, ehm, fm) so top of the line is not needed. The only graphics games I play occasionally on the PC are Rome TW, and Combat Mission. With a ps3 and 360 in the house I don't see that changing in the near future.

Opinions?

BFG makes great cards. The 8000 series from Nvidia is outstanding. With the rebate and your gaming preferences I think its a great deal.

Combat Mission, is that CMBB or CMAK?

BFG makes great cards. The 8000 series from Nvidia is outstanding. With the rebate and your gaming preferences I think its a great deal.

Thanks for the reply. It almost looked "too good" so I thought I better check in here before I pulled the trigger.

Combat Mission, is that CMBB or CMAK?

CMBB. I don't play it often but every now and then I get the itch and play a scenerio. It's something I'd love have more time to play but my text sims monopolize most of my gaming time.

Just curious, looking for more opponents for PBEM.

I don't think you can go wrong with this card. $40 after a rebate???

even without the rebate it would be a nice card

Ok, thanks again for replies. I did order the card last night, did I mention it also has free shipping:D

While waiting for it to arrive I have been looking into installation procedures in the manual provided online by BFG. Through a google search I found my nvidia 6100 onboard does not automatically disable when a new card is put in. As a matter of fact it appears it continues to work in conjunction with the new card giving the ability to run up to four monitors, something I certainly don't need. I wonder too if the card is active but with no monitor connected is it still using some RAM?

So I will want to disable the old 6100 and went into the bios to poke around. What I found was "primary graphics adapter" set to PCI express preferred. So I'm guessing that while the computer is using the onboard the PCIe would be picked up as the primary hardware but leave the onboard active?

So the bios does not give the option to disable the onbaord. Now I'm looking at "device manager" to disable the card. It's here where I'm wondering about the BFG manual. Under device manager it also gives the option to uninstall the onboard drivers, something I thought you had to do. BFG manual says nothing about uninstalling onboard drivers it only says to uninstall if replacing another card. So do I uninstall the onboard drivers? The rest seems pretty straight forward but this driver thing is a little confusing. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks.

One reason this may be cheap is that the 8800GT card is considered "the" card right now, which drives down the price of everything else.

"
Pluses I see are..
BFG and lifetime warranty (I here they actually do stand behind their product)"

One thing to note, if you send in the rebate, you have to send in the UPC, which you need to prove you bought it when you use the warranty.... IE, rebate voids warranty (pretty standard with rebates)


I've got a BFG Geforce 7600GT, IIRC. They make great cards.

"
Pluses I see are..
BFG and lifetime warranty (I here they actually do stand behind their product)"

One thing to note, if you send in the rebate, you have to send in the UPC, which you need to prove you bought it when you use the warranty.... IE, rebate voids warranty (pretty standard with rebates)


I've got a BFG Geforce 7600GT, IIRC. They make great cards.

but if the card craps out a year later , he's only out 40 bucks which ain't bad.

One thing to note, if you send in the rebate, you have to send in the UPC, which you need to prove you bought it when you use the warranty.... IE, rebate voids warranty (pretty standard with rebates)

I'd love to see evidence of this. I've had cases where hardware broke and I did not have proof of purchase, but they used the serial number to see if it was still within warranty from date of manufacture. So sometimes you lose a bit off the warranty, but with hardware you pretty much never give up your right to that warranty.