8800, 9600 or 9800?

I'm upgrading my graphic card, currently GeForce 8500 GT (;d). I'm thinking about one of the above cards, but I don't know which one is the best, that is - not too expensive, but the most powerful of them all.

Note - 8500 GT costs $75 here, just to let ya know. The cheapest 8800 I've found was something around $110-120 and 9800 was a bit over $140.

Where is "here", and how much does the 4850 cost at your location?

Also you may need to be more specific regarding the model of the 8800 and 9800. I'm guessing its a 8800GT and 9800GT?

Yeah, 8800GT and 9800GT. GTXs cost a bit much.

"here" is craptastic Poland where everything costs twice as much as in, for instance, Spain or London.

The cheapest 4850 costs... $190. So at least $50 then the cheapest 9800GT.
The most expensive 4850 costs $310, I might as well buy the most expensive 9800 GTX+ for $330. At least with GeForce I know what I'm standing on.

All cards 512MB of course, I don't want to waste cash on 1GB's

Well the 9800GT is essentially a rebranded 8800GT. The only differences being:
-Tri SLI support (not really relevent to your situation)
-Some are 55nm rather than 65nm. Therefore less power consumption, better overclocking.

Probably better to get the cheapest 8800GT at around $110 or $120 than spend $30 bucks to buy a rebranded card.

Only other option is 4830. Performance is about the same as a 9800GT/8800GT, maybe a little better.

Although I'm guessing the 4830 will be more than both the 8800GT and 9800GT in Poland. If this is the case, just get a 8800GT.

Thanks. Although it's strange what you are saying - 9800's are much cheaper than 8800's here.

The cheapest 9800 I could find is 420ZŁ (1 ZŁ = 0,3 USD, or 1 USD ~ 3 ZŁ) and the cheapest 8800 is 470 ZŁ. That's not a big difference in USD, but in Poland it's... something. The only 8800's cheaper than 9800 are 8800GS, but they are a bit weaker, I think.

I haven't checked, but I doubt they have any of those features in Poland. If they don't, just get the cheapest regardless of brand.

all nvidia chips, regardless of manufacturer, follow nvidia's specifications and use more or less the same parts. there is actually VERY little quality differences between them. any manufacturer that tries to cut corners usually gets cut from nvidia's list very quickly.

Make up your mind - are they cheaper or not!

Get which ever one is cheaper - from a good brand.

I have a 9600GT (the XFX one, it comes overclocked) and I play every single game maxed, including Crysis, for example. It's the first time I feel happy with a graphic card. I was able to buy a 9800GT for the same price and I chose the 9600GT because of good reviews.

statistical probability. if a good manufacturer has a 0.10% failure rate, and an average manufacturer has a 0.20% failure rate, you'll find twice as much reports of the average manufacturer's cards failing. this is will make it seem as if the average manufacturer is a lot worse if large volumes of cards are involved.

however in a card by card basis, the chance of getting a dud card from either manufacturer is almost the same. if the OP gets a dud card, he can easily send it back for a replacement. the rule of thumb for electronics applies here also: if the component does not fail within the first few days of operation, then it's good and will last a fairly long time.

9800 gtx its worth it ,i have a 8800gt bought last year and it costed me more than what the 9800 gtx costs right now,anyway either 8800 gt,gtx or 9800 gtx,id go for the later,and hehe Faer is right Evga and XfX all the way hehe

Apparently, I didn't notice the cheaper 8800's were out of stock. And today after 11am they removed them from the list of products ;p Probably that's why they were out of them - they were cheap.

Guess I'll go with the 9800 for 430zł, then sell my old 8500GT for 150zł (yeah, something about $50 - bad cards are cheap here, so non-technical people like my father buy them). Thanks for the tips everyone. I wish USD was still 2zł, then I could buy a nvidia card for $170 and save almost a hundred zloty.

well, if you can justify paying a small premium for that 0.10% difference, by all means go ahead. is ~$15 worth the infinitely smaller chance of getting a dud? that's for you to decide.

btw, that "something" is called margin of error. sure, a quality manufacturer might have better manufacturing process. the real question is, does it actually matter that much? for the most part, no.

lastly, remember we're not exactly comparing cards of different brands. the comparison between nvidia card board partners is similar to that of a toyota manufactured in ontario to, say, one manufactured in michigan. they are both toyotas, and will be nearly identical in almost every way. ditto with nvidia graphic cards.

I think what moriz is trying to say is that the difference between manufactures is so small that is it statistically negligable. How do you know a certain manufacturer has a .1% higher chance of failure? Have you tested 100k cards from everyone to check? If you know someone who has please tell us. But even then it won't matter, because with each new model the reliability between manufacturers could flip flop every time (and often does). Unless you have direct access to the manufactures data on the % of cards that were defective (and I know you don't, because giving out numbers on such a deficiency would be industry suicide) all you have to go on is superstition. If you DO get a bad card its probably going to fail within a week if it works at all, and in that case you are entitled to a refund/replacement regardless of what the warranty may be. At least, that is true in the US, whether is it the same in Poland is something I am don't know, but I would expect that there is some equivalent consumer protection laws there.

not to mention, the $15-30 difference actually does not go to quality assurance (all nvidia board partners are legally required to do that). it actually goes to the monstrously huge lifetime warranty. that's basically all you are buying by going for evga and xfx.