Which Video Card

Hi,

I am building a PC and am using an OC'ed ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe w/ and AMD XP 2500. I was looking at the Gainward Video cards b/c I have heard a lot of great thing about them. I was leaning towards and GeForce FX 5600. However, was not sure if the money was worth moving up to the ultra and so forth. I do not mind spending a little extra but was hoping to keep it below $180. What are pples recommendations.

Thanks

Well I cannot speak specifically about the gainward FX5600 however I have a gainward GeForce4 Ti 4200 golden sample and I love it to death. I have the core o/c to 280 and my mem o/c to 550. It runs just a stable as the default settings. In fact the card comes with the software to do the o/c ing and a button that will automatically overclock it to a safe level .. but higher then the standard. You are still able to bring it up quite a bit. My bro has the MSI FX5600 and it is a rock solid card as well. Very fast and has no problems with all the games out there right now. I think the FX5600 is a good mid-high end card and gainward is a great card maker.

Hope this helps

The fx5600 is outgunned by comperable ati's (9600), or the fx5700, both of which can be had well under $180. The new 9600 xt will also come with factory OC ability, w/o voiding warranty. Check out http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/20031229/index.html for a comprehensive review of how many cards perform.

So nVidia 5600 vs ATI 9600, the latter is definetely the one to choose, with no comparison at all ?

Pretty much. Look at the link I posted. The 9600 (especially pro) is better.