Best $90 card?

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Antoneo

Diamond Member
May 25, 2001
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I'm trying to get a fully featured and compliant DX9.0 card (mainly for VMR9) and would love to get some more help in making a decision. I've been out of the video card loop for a while now.

Is the $90 price range for a video card one of those places where spending a little bit more would be much better or spend a bit less and save up for a better card? I originally started with a $60 budget for a DX9.0 compatible card but came to the realization that I would be only getting a used Ti4200 in that range. Only dx8.1. So I upped to $90 and only came up with a Sapphire 9600 with passive cooling. But I see used 9600xt's for a bit more, about $105 shipped used, but with active cooling. Am I taking a risk with used/refurbished ATI cards since people are testing their luck with softmodding?

Any nVidia cards worth considering? Let me know where to go for the best value (but not too high, I've gone over budget a bit already).
 
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swi7ch

Junior Member
Dec 31, 2004
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I'm putting my 9500Pro up for auction on ebay as soon as I can get some pics of it taken. Looks like their going for $75. I never modded or overclocked it. I just replaced it with a BFG 6800 from BestBuy. Actually I bought it to upgrade my linux box from it's GeForce 2MX but it plays CS:Source so good I'm using it to replace my 9500 Pro. Now i'm still looking for a GeForce 4200 - 4600 card for my linux box :/
 
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swi7ch

Junior Member
Dec 31, 2004
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I finished HL2 and Doom3 on this 9500Pro then played CS:Source almost everyday. I'll have had it for exactly 2 years in January.
 
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BlindBartimaeus

Golden Member
Jun 8, 2002
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Refurbs are a roll of the dice...got some great deals...more frustration than it is worth. I send back about 70% of the stuff. I would think a used XT would be a good deal for about a hundy.

What type of games are you going to play? That would make suggestions a lot easier though. ATI isnt very good at playing DOOM III unlike swi7ch's experience. Read the internet and it is quite obvious. If you are not going to play HL2 or mods...I would go with a 128 bit 5200 and overclock the beejebbers out of it. I would go with a rosewill 256 meg card for 79 bucks.

JMO though

Keep in mind that anything higher end I like ATI, I have owned a 6800GT and was not really impressed.
 
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rocketman14

Member
Aug 29, 2004
95
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you can get a new 9600XT for 85 at the ati web site. i wanted to get a 6600GT but they're in the 220 range right now so i just decided to save quite a lot of money and get the 9600XT.
 
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wmansfield

Member
Oct 31, 2004
135
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0
Originally posted by: Antoneo
I'm trying to get a fully featured and compliant DX9.0 card (mainly for VMR9) and would love to get some more help in making a decision. I've been out of the video card loop for a while now.

Is the $90 price range for a video card one of those places where spending a little bit more would be much better or spend a bit less and save up for a better card? I originally started with a $60 budget for a DX9.0 compatible card but came to the realization that I would be only getting a used Ti4200 in that range. Only dx8.1. So I upped to $90 and only came up with a Sapphire 9600 with passive cooling. But I see used 9600xt's for a bit more, about $105 shipped used, but with active cooling. Am I taking a risk with used/refurbished ATI cards since people are testing their luck with softmodding?

Any nVidia cards worth considering? Let me know where to go for the best value (but not too high, I've gone over budget a bit already).
Click to expand...

If it turns out anything like the Sapphire 9600 Pro I have, you're better off with something else.
 
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CraigRT

Lifer
Jun 16, 2000
31,440
5
0
Originally posted by: rocketman14
you can get a new 9600XT for 85 at the ati web site. i wanted to get a 6600GT but they're in the 220 range right now so i just decided to save quite a lot of money and get the 9600XT.
Click to expand...

that's a good deal....
 
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Antoneo

Diamond Member
May 25, 2001
3,911
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I'm not much of a gamer, I just want a chance at playing Half Life 2/ CS:S at 1280x720 on my HDTV, with good visual goodies and a decent framerate. That's about as far as I would go with gaming. But more of my concern is to eliminate VMR9 tearing during the playback of DVDs or other video files. The 9600xt looks temping hrmm...
 
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