after a nvidia 5500

[pontifex]

what is the next step up from a nvidia 5500 video card?
my friend has the 5500 and he is thinking about upgrading but he can't spend a lot. i'm not sure what he's looking at spending though. i know he got some circuit city and best buy gift cards for xmas. i looked at their sites and they really don't have much to choose from and i know he is going to want to buy it from one of these places.
it needs to be an AGP card too.

i'm not sure what to tell him...

 

[cirrhosis]

What's his budget?

 

[cubby1223]

Might suggest a 6600GT, they're down to ~$120 now.

Heck, I just put out $80 for a pci FX5500... I know it's a lot, but it was cheaper than a motherobard + agp FX5500 upgrade.

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: cirrhosis
What's his budget?

i'm not sure...not much i can tell you that.
he has a $200 gift card for best buy and a $100 gift card for circuit city. i'm not sure how much extra past the gift cards he wants to spend. probably very little.

 

[KoolDrew]

The X700 is around $100 and would be the bare minimum you'd want for any serious 3D gaming.

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: cubby1223
Might suggest a 6600GT, they're down to ~$120 now.

Heck, I just put out $80 for a pci FX5500... I know it's a lot, but it was cheaper than a motherobard + agp FX5500 upgrade.

i was thinking 6600gt too. where did you see it for ~$120? best buy still has them for up over $200. he also got $60 in cash for christmas too, so maybe if i can find one for ~$120 he might go for it. i'm thinking that the 6600 gt would be his bet price and performance wise.

 

[ribbon13]

perhaps he could sell one of the cards in the FS/FT forum and use the cash + other card to buy something nicer?

 

[imported_Kiwi]

Originally posted by: pontifex
what is the next step up from a nvidia 5500 video card?

Almost anything is an upgrade, really. The FX 5500 is roughly equal to a Radeon 9200, so even a Radeon 9600 is a step up, although not a huge step. The original 128 Bit, "pre-TC" GF 6200 was fairly good, also about the same as the Radeon 9600 Pro (Tom's Hardware rated it higher than the X-series card that uses the same GPU as the 9600 Pro -- the X300? X600?) Not sure where the X700 fits, probably in between the 6200 and 6600, but not as inexpensive.

The best of the true mid range cards continues to be the nVidia GF 6600 GT, although there are still Radeon 9800 XT's available that will run it a close second, and be a couple of dollars less to buy. Up around $200, there are several X800 ATI options, and the GF 6800 plain is between the 6600 GT and the X800 GTO's.


😎

 

[cubby1223]

Originally posted by: pontifex
i was thinking 6600gt too. where did you see it for ~$120? best buy still has them for up over $200. he also got $60 in cash for christmas too, so maybe if i can find one for ~$120 he might go for it. i'm thinking that the 6600 gt would be his bet price and performance wise.

Well, not going to find prices that cheap at Best Buy or Circuit City - most on-line retaillers, like Newegg, have 6600gts at $130, with a few having rebates taking them down to $120. Looks like the agp cards are an additional $10 over the pci-e cards.