out of these cards which would you buy?

[billmaudio]

hey guys,

Thanks for all the help before, I am getting really close to upgrading my system. I decided on getting a q9400 quad core ( i figure it will be good for gaming and will help out with my audio work ), upgrading the ram to DDR2 1066 ( that's the fastest I can get with my mobo, currently i have 800 ), and a GTX 260. I have a 550w power supply with 2 12v that combine for 33A

The gtx260 is where I am stuck and i was hoping to get some opinions from you guys. Of the ones listed below, which would you get? Keeping in mind that I play at pretty low resolutions ( 1440x900 ), so I am not taxing out the card

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143189
- this card is $200, and it's in stock

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127464
- this one has a faster core clock, is $215, but I am not sure about MSI.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130433
-this one is $225, also a fast core clock, and I really like EVGA, but it's really hard to find as it's sold out most places

I guess my question, with my current set up and the lower resolution, will clock speed really be that much of a factor? And if not, should I just go with the $200 card, or is it really really worth the extra $25 on the EVGA and waiting for it to finally get in stock again. Or is MSI a really good company and I should go with that?

Thoughts?

[bob saget]

I have had BFG and EVGA video cards, both worked fine. Never had MSI....

[CaptNKILL]

Wow! What happened to the prices!?

A GTX 260 was $160-$170 just a few months ago.

Now they're the same price that I paid for mine over a year and a half ago. :wtf:

[Revs]

Yeah, it seems the time to buy was about a month ago. They were £110 in the UK at one point, now they're back to £150+. They'll come down again soon enough.

billmaudio, just get the cheapest one. The stock cooler fan is best IMO as it blows the warm air out of the case and cools pretty well anyways. Unless you wanna get the EVGA so you can do the upgrade thing. But the MSI cooler would heat up your case very quickly unless you have really good air flow. When I'm gaming a can turn the heating off in my room :p

[Thunderbolt56]

MSI is a good reputable manufacturer. I've only had one MSI GPU and that was about 3 generations ago, but it was a good card.

I'd also recommend getting the GPU app called EVGA Precision regardless of which manufacturer you choose. (it will work with non EVGA cards too ;) ) and will allow you to possibly get some free performance through some slight overclocking.

Unless you plan on putting a stout OC on that CPU, any one of the flavors you've listed will be a good match for it. I'd get the cheapest...and the upsaide is, it's in stock.

[musman]

With EVGA you get a transferable lifetime warranty. The EVGA Precision program is nice. I never really got much of a performance increase overclocking my 285. Something like 2 FPS in Crysis.