Ok, here's the deal. Yesterday was my birthday and I got some best buy gift certificates. I want to buy a new video card but I can't decide which one to buy. First of all, ATI or nVidia and then which one from which company. I have about $100 to spend. Maybe more, but not much more. I was thinking the PNY GeForce FX 5200, cuz it's only 99, but it dones't seem to be liked much. Why? I'm upgrading from an nForce(embedded mobo) Geforce 2 MX200/MX400 equivalent. Thanks for your help.
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money for best buy - new video card
- Thread starter natkroll
- Start date
- Joined
- Aug 8, 2002
- Location
- San Jose, California
there are about 1.5 million posts that are exactly like this... please use the search button.
Heres a shortcut to a thread that may help
http://forum.oc-forums.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=195590
Heres a shortcut to a thread that may help
http://forum.oc-forums.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=195590
- Thread Starter
- #3
thank you for your kind reply. i used the search feature and i didn't find anything that related to best buy's selection. also, to research every card from best buy on this forum would take several weeks. i thought it would save time by asking people to look at best buy's selection and ask their opinions about the cards. I thought this seemed like a unique enough post because i didn't find any other posts regarding the wide selection at best buy.
The wonderful link you gave me is a thread full of people complaning about members not using the search button and the supplied link on that thread is to a biased recommmendation page made by one individual, so it doesn't seem to help me. the price posted are also totally different than those at best buy.
thanks so much for your help.
The wonderful link you gave me is a thread full of people complaning about members not using the search button and the supplied link on that thread is to a biased recommmendation page made by one individual, so it doesn't seem to help me. the price posted are also totally different than those at best buy.
thanks so much for your help.
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2003
- Location
- New York
Well, Theres not much choice
I was at best buy yesterday, And for the money ya have, the 5200 Is the only choice ya might have. The ONLY other choice i found Was the ATI 9200 That was A few bucks more i think?
Either way The $100 Choices are ALL about the same Performance wise.
Me, Im gonna wait till September or so before i go and Get The 4800, 5900, or the 9800. I think the $199 price tag at best buy for a 4600 was A bit Crazy. So i will buy on line, and go for a Custom Brand card. MSI, ABIT, ECT ECT......
Harry
I was at best buy yesterday, And for the money ya have, the 5200 Is the only choice ya might have. The ONLY other choice i found Was the ATI 9200 That was A few bucks more i think?
Either way The $100 Choices are ALL about the same Performance wise.
Me, Im gonna wait till September or so before i go and Get The 4800, 5900, or the 9800. I think the $199 price tag at best buy for a 4600 was A bit Crazy. So i will buy on line, and go for a Custom Brand card. MSI, ABIT, ECT ECT......
Harry
- Joined
- Nov 9, 2001
- Location
- London, Ont
I'd get the ATI Radeon 9200 if you can afford it. It's better than the GeFroce FX 5200.
- Joined
- Jun 16, 2001
I didnt think the link was biased. But then again, I could be biased about that lol.
If you are willing to wait every couple weeks Best Buy has a sale on 4200s for like 100$. Imho that is the best idea for you. The 5200 is crap compared to the 4200. Well actually, it depends. With newer games and older games the 4200 is faster.l However the 5200 Ultra (dont even consider the non ultra) can be good for playing games like QuakeIII and Ut with AA and Aniso without a large fps drop. I would stick with the 4200 though.
If you are willing to wait every couple weeks Best Buy has a sale on 4200s for like 100$. Imho that is the best idea for you. The 5200 is crap compared to the 4200. Well actually, it depends. With newer games and older games the 4200 is faster.l However the 5200 Ultra (dont even consider the non ultra) can be good for playing games like QuakeIII and Ut with AA and Aniso without a large fps drop. I would stick with the 4200 though.
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2003
- Location
- New York
Well going from Integrated junk
To ANYTHING else is a huge step in performance! I Remembere the price of the 9200 Was $99 So that would be my choice. Right now i Have a 4200 64mb With a P4 HS+Fan(HUGE LOL Funny looking too). And i love it for now. But when I put together a new Deal After summer and i give my kid this Puter, Im gonna go BIG on the Processor And Vid card. Will stick with the Gigabyte boards though, I like this one.
Just a quick question, Im only gonna go 2.6 Gig Processor then, Ive NEVER owned a AMD. Would a Athalon XP (Highest one besides the 64) Be worth the switch?
Harry
To ANYTHING else is a huge step in performance! I Remembere the price of the 9200 Was $99 So that would be my choice. Right now i Have a 4200 64mb With a P4 HS+Fan(HUGE LOL Funny looking too). And i love it for now. But when I put together a new Deal After summer and i give my kid this Puter, Im gonna go BIG on the Processor And Vid card. Will stick with the Gigabyte boards though, I like this one.
Just a quick question, Im only gonna go 2.6 Gig Processor then, Ive NEVER owned a AMD. Would a Athalon XP (Highest one besides the 64) Be worth the switch?
Harry
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2002
- Location
- Phoenix, AZ USA
funnyperson1 said:
Since you are adverse good advise like this ^^^^ and the guide that is biased toward price/performance then get the 5200. You will love it.
- Joined
- Aug 8, 2002
- Location
- San Jose, California
Look man I have toilettes that clog less than this forum does. To many people asking the same question every hour. Check out some reviews, most people around here are very polar so you may get bias just from posts.
Of course... not all reviews are "Fair and Balanced"
I reread the link I posted... I have no idea what your talking about when you say bias... did you even look at http://oc3dmark.octeams.com/cardguide.html ?? they have a great guide there...
also the 5200 Ultra is ... well ok... I wouldnt call it a dx9 card.. since it probably couldnt run a dx9 game with any quality and be playable.
under 100... ti4200 128... or look into the 9200... see which one is fastest... and then.. buy it.
Of course... not all reviews are "Fair and Balanced"
I reread the link I posted... I have no idea what your talking about when you say bias... did you even look at http://oc3dmark.octeams.com/cardguide.html ?? they have a great guide there...
also the 5200 Ultra is ... well ok... I wouldnt call it a dx9 card.. since it probably couldnt run a dx9 game with any quality and be playable.
under 100... ti4200 128... or look into the 9200... see which one is fastest... and then.. buy it.
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2002
- Location
- Phoenix, AZ USA
Here is the straight poop. Best Buy is way over priced and your stuck buying there, right?
The best youy are going to do is a Ti4200 if you can get it for $99 like funny said and which he also put in his guide as a very good buy. Which is not biased because for around $120 oe less the Ti4200 is the best without question.
If you can't get that the then you would do best to spend the money on CDs, games or something like that because you are going to pay too much for a card there. The 5200 and the 9200 aren't very good when you can go to newegg and spend $63 for an 8500le 64 mb that will crush both of them and have that $100 to spend on something else.
Your kind of between a rock and a hard place. So if you can find one of those deals for a $100 Ti4200 you will be sitting pretty otherwise there probably isn't a very good deal at Best Buy unless they have the 8500le for under $100 or a GF3 for under $100. If they don't you may want to consider Newegg.com refurbs or the 8500le Made By ATI w/ 64 mbs of ram. I know some people don't like to purchase online or don't have a credit card, but its worth mentioning.
Good luck. I hope you can find a deal on a Ti4200.
ps Post in the cyber deals for a deal on a Ti4200 at Best Buy and those guys may know how often they go on sale like that.
EDIT: can you see why posting something like this 5 times a day gets a bit tedious. I know yours is more specific and am not bagging on you (thats why I didn't post a link to my search thread). Just explaining that thats why we may have been a bit curt in previous posts and I apologize.
The best youy are going to do is a Ti4200 if you can get it for $99 like funny said and which he also put in his guide as a very good buy. Which is not biased because for around $120 oe less the Ti4200 is the best without question.
If you can't get that the then you would do best to spend the money on CDs, games or something like that because you are going to pay too much for a card there. The 5200 and the 9200 aren't very good when you can go to newegg and spend $63 for an 8500le 64 mb that will crush both of them and have that $100 to spend on something else.
Your kind of between a rock and a hard place. So if you can find one of those deals for a $100 Ti4200 you will be sitting pretty otherwise there probably isn't a very good deal at Best Buy unless they have the 8500le for under $100 or a GF3 for under $100. If they don't you may want to consider Newegg.com refurbs or the 8500le Made By ATI w/ 64 mbs of ram. I know some people don't like to purchase online or don't have a credit card, but its worth mentioning.
Good luck. I hope you can find a deal on a Ti4200.
ps Post in the cyber deals for a deal on a Ti4200 at Best Buy and those guys may know how often they go on sale like that.
EDIT: can you see why posting something like this 5 times a day gets a bit tedious. I know yours is more specific and am not bagging on you (thats why I didn't post a link to my search thread). Just explaining that thats why we may have been a bit curt in previous posts and I apologize.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2002
- Location
- Phoenix, AZ USA
http://forum.oc-forums.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=197803
Here you go hopefully someone will have some useful info for you.
Here you go hopefully someone will have some useful info for you.
- Joined
- Mar 14, 2003
dude, heres what you do.
go to best buy, follow someone around who is about to buy alot of ****.
approach them when they go into line and say look, i got gift cards, I DONT WANT THEM, I WOULD RATHER HAVE CASH, if you are paying for whatever youre buying with cash, I will trade you straight up for cash, use the gift card to pay for part of a purchase and give me the cash after you buy it. this way they wont get all paranoid youre trying to screw them. go wait for them after the register.
find a hot girl buying CD's or something, thats what I did. We got rid of two $100 gift cards and a $50 gift card doing this, it took about 30 minutes.
Just make sure its not obvious, best buy probably has something against doing this.
go to best buy, follow someone around who is about to buy alot of ****.
approach them when they go into line and say look, i got gift cards, I DONT WANT THEM, I WOULD RATHER HAVE CASH, if you are paying for whatever youre buying with cash, I will trade you straight up for cash, use the gift card to pay for part of a purchase and give me the cash after you buy it. this way they wont get all paranoid youre trying to screw them. go wait for them after the register.
find a hot girl buying CD's or something, thats what I did. We got rid of two $100 gift cards and a $50 gift card doing this, it took about 30 minutes.
Just make sure its not obvious, best buy probably has something against doing this.
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2003
- Location
- Atlanta, GA
I say save a little more money and get a R9600 Pro when and if BB ever gets it. Trust me, you will be much happier.
- Joined
- Jun 9, 2002
- Location
- Ft. Myers, Fl.
Stay away, far away from the non-ultra 5200fx. I can't tell you how many people thought they were upgrading when they bought this card, only to find it it is horribly slow with today's games.
I'd reccomend a GF3 or R8500/9200 in that price rnge. Both are far superior than the fx5200. If you happen to come accross a Ti4200(NOT geforce4MX- stay away from that as well) for around $100- grab it and run for the door, it's a great card.
I don't feel like dragging up a million links to reviews as I have done in the past, as this question has been asked a bout 1.49 million times, but I hope this helps...
Enjoy,
~Swine
I'd reccomend a GF3 or R8500/9200 in that price rnge. Both are far superior than the fx5200. If you happen to come accross a Ti4200(NOT geforce4MX- stay away from that as well) for around $100- grab it and run for the door, it's a great card.
I don't feel like dragging up a million links to reviews as I have done in the past, as this question has been asked a bout 1.49 million times, but I hope this helps...
Enjoy,
~Swine
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2003
- Location
- S.E. Texas
Ok, first off, Happy Birthday a little late. I just went to the best buy web site, and, I wasnt impressed with most of their video cards. I understand that you only have a limited amount of money(gift certificates) and probably dont really want to hear about the higher priced cards. Ok, that said. Heres what I personally would do if I had the same dollar amount in gift certif.s . I would add as much money as I could economically stand and buy the best card I could get. I would prefer the ati 9500 or 9600 card and would go as low as the Fx 5600 ultra. If I was going to buy one of the new nvidia cards I wouldnt get it if it wasnt an ultra. I think a very good card is the Gf 4 Ti4200 card I had one and it preformed very well for me. I recently upgraded to an ATI 9700 Pro card and theres a serious difference there. Anyway, thats my 2(or maybe 3) cents worth, Hope it helps.
- Joined
- May 25, 2003
- Location
- Irving, Tx
i say find prices on the net and take them into the store and get them to price match something. they sometimes will do that if you are an *** about it. or, sell your store credit to someone (a friend or customer in the store) for like $5 less than what it is, then order one online for a good price.
