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Budget gaming card

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Goateh

Member
Joined
Apr 27, 2003
Alright, heres the deal...

My mate atm, has a gf2 mx (32MB SDram). And I'm thinking of getting him a better video card for his bday, but i'm not made of money :)

His board is a p4s333, 4x AGP board and Celeron 2.4ghz. I know what just about anything out today would kick the bejesus out of his current card, but I'm wanting cheap and bang for the buck, I was looking at a 9600se as they're cheapish. But the cheaper the better.

Goateh
:sn:

edit:: Oh, and no overclocking :)
 
Don't get any card that ends in "se" at least if they are from ATi, but if your getting a budget card you could get a geforce 4 ti4200 which are less then $100. When are planning to get this card and how much are you planning to spend?
 
9500pro.

or 9700pro, i saw brand new ones on ebay for $115.

all depends on how good a friend you are. ;)
 
You have a 9500 Pro in your siggy, get a new 9800 Pro for yourself and give your mate the old one.
 
I would say for a budget card, the following would work...the 9500p's and 9700's and stuff are probably mid-range....but I do recommend them if they want good gaming performance, it's cheaper to upgrade vid card right now, then get a meciocre card, then a little later need to up CPU power to compensate.

For budget:
8500le or 9100 (same card)
ti4200

don't get a 5200 or 9200 or 9000, the cards I mentioned are usualy the same price and much faster (they don't have DX9 but the cards that can do DX9 will do it at dismall fps so it's worthless).

Also I'm not sure what type of deals you can get in NZ, but a 9700np or p might be had for cheap because of people upgrading to X800's and 6800's
 
Hey if you can find a 9500pro or a 9700pro for the money your willing to spend definately go for it as it is overall better then the ti4200, but if you get the ti 4200 it will still be a major upgrade from the geforce2 mx, trust me I had one and it made the fx5200 which I got to replace it feel much faster.
 
you guys have been really helpful :)

But the 9500/9700 series is definately out of the question, why? Because over here they still retail for about $300. Well I guess my best option would be a 9200, 5200 or maybe even an mx400. Even second have I see 9500s and 9700s going for over 200$, something I just afford/don't want to spend :)


What about a geforce3 ti200? Are those any good?
 
Goateh said:
What about a geforce3 ti200? Are those any good?

ti200 would be a good step up from the mx, but not a HUGE step up, and would still have a pretty hard time with todays games.

a ti4200 i would say is the best bet, if it costs too much, i'd say just shop around. you'll see one pop up dirt cheap, every once and a while i see them around $60 american.

if you can't get a ti4200, try and find a 8500. that would be the next best thing, and if you can't find the regular 8500, then a 8500LE would do. if you STILL can't find one cheap enough, then start looking at ti500-200's.
 
did you look for the ti4200 or the 8500le(9100) did you look for those? As mentioned above don't get the 9200 or the FX5200 and the gf4 mx400 is supposed to be just as fast as a gf2. The gf3 ti200 would better then his gf2 mx.
 
Yeah I did look for the 4200s and 8500, the 4200s are still al ittle expensive, even $60 american would bring it up to ~110NZD (I _think_), and I just couldn't find the 8500s. And yes the mx400 is supposed to be as fast, ast he 64mb ddr mx400. This is one of the first gf2s to come out, 32mb SDram and its just a plain mx :(
 
with a 8500 or a ti500 he would get dx8 support at least.

a ti200 would be OK, slower still tho..
 
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