Help choosing ATI card

Looking to purchase a new ATI card and wondered which would be a smart buy. I have been looking at the the following cards in the X1600XT family.

1.) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102668

2.)http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102657

3.)http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161160

4.)http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814131319

Also what the heck is the difference between #1 and #2? one ends with -retail and the other ends iwth -OEM. #3 is a very large card, I am sure it would take up 2 slots and not sure I want to do it.


My eMachine computers specs:
.- processor: AMD Athlon 64 3500+, 2.2GHz, Venice S939
- cache: 128kb primary, 512kb secondary
- memory: Slots A0,A1 have 512MB each; A2,A3 are empty
- moboard: MSI RS480R2 (MS-7093)
- chipset: ATI Radeon Express 200
- BIOS: Phoenix LTD 6.00 PG 04/29/2005
- disk: 200.3GB useable storage
- CD/DVD: TSSTcorp CD/DVDW TS-H552B CDROM Drive
- network: Realtek RTL8139/810x Fast Ethernet NIC
- software: Windows XP Media Center, SP-2 (build 2600)
The system comes with a TV tuner card and IR remote.

I have upgraded my PSU to a 450watt one so power shouldn't be an issue.

Thanks for any advice/help on these cards.

I like #3. You'll never hear it running and your case temps will drop cause it exhausts out the back.

Diff between OEM and retail is OEM you don't get the games and shit. Buy retail.

I do not see the point in buying the X1600. You are better off to get the X1800 or even the X1900. Yes they will cost a bit more but, they have more pipelines. (More future proof.) The X1600 only has 12. I read a review on it and it was said that the X800 series is faster because it has 16 pipelines to the X1600's 12.

I would shop around some more is my opinion....

Gosh, I don't think I can come up with the extra cash to buy the x1800 right now. I am a gamer but not a "hard core" gamer. I don't own HL2 or Doom 3 or BF2 so I don't need the best card there is.

The reason I was looking at the x1600 was the price point and it has the model shader 3.0 that everyone seems to think future games will use. I was looking at the x800gto but people told me to stay away from them because they do not have the shader 3.0 I'm so confused

I looked at the x1600PRO's and they are cheaper and some even have 512mb. Would the PRO be better than the XT??

I personally don't know the full story on those cards....but I know this. You get what you pay for. They had to "drop" something to make that PRO cheaper.

I'm thinking the PRO lines may be something the various manfactuers come up with on their own. The high end of an ATI line for all of the X series as far as I'm aware has always been XT. In the case of the X1900, I think they added another X (XTX).

Between the cards linked up top, I would agree with Serafita. The XT is the most powerful model of a particular series, plus the dual height design allows for a much better cooling solution. I would only caution if one is considering going Crossfire in the future to make sure the motherboards PCIe slots are far enough apart to accomadate two dual height cards.

thanks guys for the input.

I was thinking about #3 also, especially after reading the reviews of other buyers on some of the cards, they complained about heat issues. Since I am using my eMachine stock case I was worried about heat. I will most likely go with the HIS brand. Ill let you know when I get my new card