Video Card Suggestions

[legend of zelda]

Well,as you all know, it's Christmas:santa:, so i'm going to buy a new video card because i'm sick of this piece of crap i have right now. But, i'm not too sure in what to get. I want one that can support all the graphic effects and run games fast, because what i have now can't. I think to support all the graphics effects i'd need a radeon 9000 series or higher or a nvidia fx series or higher. I'm not to sure on that though. Anyways, i was just wondering if anyone has some suggestions. I can only afford something around $100 - $150 though. Thanks, and I know... i'm poor as hell.

 

[Clements]

GeForce 6600 or 6600GT fits in the budget.

 

[legend of zelda]

Where at? All the ones i've seen at fry's electronics were $200 or higher

 

[Clements]

Online retailers found via Pricewatch, you can buy a 6600GT AGP for $140.

 

[legend of zelda]

Thanks, i'll go check it out. By the way that was a very quick response.

 

[legend of zelda]

I just looked at the one you were talking about and it's out of stock. I'll just look for another one.

 

[DaStinger]

Personally I'd recommend an ATI 9600 or 9800 (XT or PRO if possible) I have a 9600XT im sure you can find em for around 150

 

[xneoangel]

You can try to find the 6600 or 6600GT at another store or try to get a Radeon 9800 PRO, its also a good card altough the 6600GT is better.

 

[snyper256]

Yeah, nVidia's 6xxx series is amazing for the price, I think you should try your best to find one. eBay's always a reliable choice. Retail stores that aren't online always jack up the price to insanity levels compared to online retailers.

 

[legend of zelda]

That's true, but you still have to pay shipping, and plus i hate shopping online. Okay, getting to the point, I went to Fry's Electronics today and I found a 256MB Radeon 9600XT and a 256MB GeForce 6200OC both for $150. They both sound good but I don't know which one to get. Which is better?

 

[arnalion]

The 9600XT is better but it's not worth the price. Buy a 6600GT instead if you wan't a card that you can have a little while. The 9600XT isn't a good card anyway but if you wan't a little more budget card then 6600GT go for Ati Radeon X700PRO, both the cards are better then 9600XT

 

[gandalf]

RECOMMENDATION!
NEVER NEVER NEVER, buy an low-end card with 256MB ram, it´s total waste and pure marketing, with 128MB it´s ok
256MB and more for an x800GT/6800 and higher cards

and for your computer....better an ATI 9550 128MB (not "SE") or an GeForce 6200 AGP 128MB (with 128-bits memory ram, not 64-bits) not higher, because will be a wate of power (too much video card for that pooor CPU)

I´m talking about your comp specs that you have in your signature

 

[DaStinger]

With that system no matter what you get your CPU is going to be a bottleneck after. As far as the 9600 or 6600 it all depends on your intent. Do you plan on running must apps in DirectX or in OpenGL? Personally i prefer opengl (ATI) but its all preference and both will work great in comparison to the GF2 MX. I used to have one of those .

 

[deftonesmx17]

With your system specs I wouldnt buy more than a $50-70 cheapo.

Like this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102409

arty:

 

[Doomulation]

But it's nice to have when you finally get around to update your cpu, isn't it? Don't waste money on an inferior card and you'll likely have to upgrade the card again when upgrading cpu.

 

[legend of zelda]

exactly, doomulation. I am planning to upgrade my motherboard, cpu and memory after the video card, probably to an AMD Athlon 64. That's gonna be around $300-$400, so that's not gonna happen for a few months though.

 

[raksmey1309]

exactly, doomulation. I am planning to upgrade my motherboard, cpu and memory after the video card, probably to an AMD Athlon 64. That's gonna be around $300-$400, so that's not gonna happen for a few months though.

Ur PC r very old.U must change it.

 

[deftonesmx17]

exactly, doomulation. I am planning to upgrade my motherboard, cpu and memory after the video card, probably to an AMD Athlon 64. That's gonna be around $300-$400, so that's not gonna happen for a few months though.

Except for it would be pointless for you to have an AGP card with an AMD 64 system. The Nforce3 boards are nothing short of problematic. Put it this way. You buy a medium to nice AGP card now and then you upgrade to a AMD64 system. Then later you want to buy a great card. Well, soon AGP will be hard to find. At that point you would need a PCI-E motherboard. Well now you have to buy a new mobo that supports PCI-E. So why not just either buy a cheap gfx card now and upgrade fully later ($68 is really cheap) or fully upgrade now.

I say if you are going AGP don't bother wasting your money on a great card.

 

[Clements]

He could buy the Asrock 939Dual-SATA2 and have both a AGP8x and a PCI-E slot, and offers nForce4 comparable performance with better onboard audio.

Also, decent nForce3 Motherboards are really cheap anyway, might as well get an nForce3 Ultra such as an MSI Neo2 Platinum. By the time the video card is outdated, S939 will be long gone.

 

[deftonesmx17]

might as well get an nForce3 Ultra such as an MSI Neo2 Platinum.

Woah, that is one of the most problematic nforce3 boards there is. The BIOS's are not compatible with very many brands and types of ram. The chipset overheats due to the minimal amount of thermal paste on it. The chipset fan does not hold very well and doesnt even gain contact on most boards. Cool n quite does not work 90% of the time. You have no control over the chipset voltage. The CPU voltage is always under what you set it at. Example, it has options for up to 1.55v. But if you set it anywhere from 1.425-1.55v it will only boot and run at about 1.42v. If you leave it at default, it will boot with about on 1.36v and your system will crash all the time. This board also does not like 9800's very much. I'm going to stop as this list would be endless.

Did I mention that I had this board before? It is only good for people who want to spend their life on help forums with threads of over 150 pages.