Deciding on a new video card

[JustinGB]

There's been so many new video cards.. i have no which one is which! Last time I bought a video card was when a Gerforce 2 was fast. So anyways, I need some help. What is a good video card for the $50-100 price range? I know that's not much but that's all i can spend.
can someone also explain or make a chart of which card is betteR? like gerforce fx5200, ati pro 9500, or something.. i have no idea when il ook at the stores

thank you Merry xmas!

 

[CCW]

I wouldnt touch any of the GeForce FX series unless its the 5900U or 5950 which are both way out of your price range. The FX5200 runs at the same speed as a GeForce 4 MX440 except it has DirectX 9.0 support and the other features of the FX Chipset. It is also is a chipset that puts out a lot of heat. The FX5200 Ultra and FX5600 are not worth the money, the GeForce 4 Ti4200s provide better stock performance, support DirectX 8.1 and if your into overclocking, overclock very well. Many of them will overclock to Ti4600s with little effort and 20,000 3DMarks has been attained with a Ti4200. Im not sure of the current conversion rate but if its within your budget, get a Ti4200 and if not look out for a GeForce 3 Ti500 or GeForce 3 but not a Ti200. The MX series or GeForce 4s are re-vamped GeForce 2's and not worth the money at all.

Craig

 

[ptwearnhardtfan]

I agree with CCW. Either the Ti4200, or perhaps an ATI 8500. Both cards still perform decent.

 

[CCW]

I forgot about the ATi 8500, its performance is between the GeForce 3 standard and GeForce 3 Ti500 so is a good candidate and will do well with most games.

Craig

 

[Falcon-K]

i would probably get a ti4200 for that amount, its not dx 9 but for the amount your willing to spend none of the dx9 cards would utilize anyway.

 

[Overclocker550]

ti4200s rarely do ti4600 speeds since tsop ram maxes out around 600

 

[JustinGB]

ah ok, lots of great information and advice Thanks a lot, the lowest i could find a ti4200 is for $100, which is not bad, I could afford it. However, I did'nt find any of those ATI 8500's

 

[CCW]

ti4200s rarely do ti4600 speeds since tsop ram maxes out around 600

An old thread but it will give JustinGB a chance to see roughly what people are getting for overclocks here.

Mine is doing 287/620. The 620 was obtained with no extra voltage to the memory and with some thermalTake aluminium heatsinks epoxided on using Arctic Alumina Epoxy.

Craig

 

[Overclocker550]

dude. ti4600 speeds are 300/650
300 on the core is much easier than 650 on the ram, but theres special ti4200s such as the albatron turbro

 

[CCW]

Special means Overclocked out of the box, LoL

 

[Alacritan]

ATi Radeon 8500: Allstarshop.com - $75 w/ free shipping
ATi Radeon

I know the Radeon 9000 Pro sounds better, but it's actually a step down in performance, despite being about the same price. I would recommend a Radeon 9600 non-pro, but I can't seen to find any reviews of non-pro cards. It's like no one reviews a card until the Pro or Ultra version comes out. I though Beyond3d would at least have it, but apparently not. I can't recommend a Geforce4 or FX though. You can get much better cards for your money. The 8500 is a good card, but save another $50 and you can get MUCH better.

 

[JustinGB]

which card ould that be?

 

[Alacritan]

$50 more gets you either a Radeon 9600 Pro or 9600 XT depending on manufacturer preference. You can get a 9600 Pro for $150 that's more than twice as fast as the 8500, same deal with the 9600 XT, except slightly faster. Don't get a Powercolor 9600 Pro though, because they are slower than the rest of the 9600 Pro's. That's why they're $20 less, but way slower.