Price Guide, January 2006: Video Cards

Introduction

We would like to welcome you to once again another weekly edition of our infamous price guides. This week we are looking at ultra high-end cards all the way down to low-end video cards. As we do with all our other price guides, we would like to remind you to check out our handy RTPE for up-to-the-minute prices and rebates on all of the products you're looking into purchasing, including video cards. Don't forget that you can now search the RTPE by entering a UPC code, which makes finding products you're looking for faster and easier. It also notifies you of the percentage of tax that may be applicable based on which state you live in and how much the component costs (note that if you're going through a corporate firewall, the state may be incorrect).

The GeForce 7800GT cards appear to give the best bang for the buck this week and the X1800XL's are not far behind. We're also noticing that the X800XT cards are slowly diminishing from the market, while the X800GTO/ GTO² and the 6800 GS are still great mid-range options. By the way, purchasing a single high-end card and hoping to purchase another one for an SLI setup down along the line is a bad idea. We suggest either going with a single higher performing card or two cards for SLI right off the bat.

We'd like to begin this week's guide with the ultra high-end cards...and we're off!

Ultra High-End Graphics

At the moment, you can easily find a 7800GT going for about $300. We're seeing the eVGA GeForce 7800GT 256MB [RTPE: 256-P2-N515] on sale for $300, minus a $20 mail-in rebate (MIR), bringing the total price down to $280 (excluding shipping). Please be aware that this $20 MIR is valid until January 31^st. We're also noticing that eVGA has been including a free copy of Quake 4 with a small selection of their 7800GT cards. For instance, you can submit your information to eVGA for your free copy of Quake 4 if you purchase the eVGA GeForce 7800GT CO SE 256MB [RTPE: 256-P2-N516] going for $300. For more details on this promotion, check out eVGA's information page.

The best price we are seeing this week on a 7800GTX is $460.00. Both the eVGA GeForce 7800GTX ACS3 256MB [RTPE: 256-P2-N527] and the eVGA GeForce 7800GTX EGS 256MB [RTPE: 256-P2-N525] are going for this price. The only difference we're noticing between the two is that the ACS3 variant comes with the core clocked at 470MHz while the EGS variant comes with the core clocked at 450MHz.

Because the 512MB 7800 video cards are on pre-order, they will not be generated into the pricing table below. Nevertheless, our RTPE is picking up on five variants which is an increase over the only card we saw from BFG in our last guide.

Do take notice that each card comes with a different bundle than any other. Some may include a number of games, DVD playback software, video editing software and different sets of cables and dongles. The point here is for you to choose the bundle that will best suit you and your interests.