Best Bang for Buck Viedo Card

[newParadigm]

Excactly what the title says.

I was wondering what the best video card is without going overboard (like as in not ATI 9800XT or GF 5950 U)

Thanks,
newParadime

 

[Matthias99]

bang/buck evaluation

I'd lean towards a 9600Pro at the midrange, and a 9700Pro or 9800NP (if you can find one used) in the higher-end cards. The 9800Pro at ~$200 is also a pretty good deal.

If you like NVIDIA (and/or don't care about AA/AF performance), a used Ti4200/4600 or a FX5900/5900SE/5900XT are your likely best bets. I'd take the 9800Pro myself. Of course, all this might change in a month or two when the next-gen cards hit the street.

 

[Todd33]

~$100 Ti4x00
~$150 9600XT
~$170 5900XT/SE
~210 9800 Pro

 

[CaiNaM]

Originally posted by: Todd33
~$100 Ti4x00
~$150 9600XT
~$170 5900XT/SE
~210 9800 Pro

i agree these cards are arguabley the best card for their pricepoints, however i'd toss out the 9600 and ti as "best bang for the buck", as while they are cheap, they really do not compare anywhere near in terms of performance compared to the 5900se/xt or 9800p.

latest inquirer rumor is the 5900xt is gone, so when those are gone, the 9800p will be the undistputed winner for it's $210 pricepoint and awesome performace.

will be interesting how the next gen midrange cards pan out in price/performance ratio.

 

[Todd33]

Bang for the buck does not say anything about the price itself, you have to pick a price point and then find the best buy. If your budget is $100, you cannot recommend a 9800 Pro can you?

 

[newParadigm]

Sorry, I was looking at Between $150 and $225 Maximum.

I'd like to keep ther price down as the card is for a PC i'm building fora freind.

THanks for all the suggestions tho.

 

[newParadigm]

That BangBUck Eval. @ Toms Hardware is great.

fBucks Who woulda thought. Makes sense tho.

I think that based on that eval i will go with either the 9700, the 9800(NP or Pro) or the 9600XT.

 

[Todd33]

Except the fbucks are not based on real street prices. It has the 5900XTs at like $270. If you re-did the table with real prices it would be a good measure.

 

[CaiNaM]

Originally posted by: Todd33
Bang for the buck does not say anything about the price itself, you have to pick a price point and then find the best buy. If your budget is $100, you cannot recommend a 9800 Pro can you?

no, best "bang for the buck" implies the most performance relative to the cost of the card. for example, if the 9800xt provided 3x the performance for 2x the cost, it would be the best "bang for the buck" even tho it cost $400 compared to $200. the reason it's a crappy value is it costs 2x but provides 0-10% improvement over the $200 card, making the $200 card a much better "bang for the buck"..

and why the 9800pro is not the best "bang for the buck" at $299, but it certain can be argues it is at $210.

that's a different question than "what's the best card for $100".. make sense?

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: Todd33
Except the fbucks are not based on real street prices. It has the 5900XTs at like $270. If you re-did the table with real prices it would be a good measure.

They're $213 in the table, actually (but who's counting). Of course, you can get a 9800Pro for less than $275 (the price they quote for one) now, too. While the prices are no longer quite accurate, proportionally they haven't changed all that much.

275 / 213 ~= 1.29

210 / 170 ~= 1.25

 

[ponyo]

You can't beat IGP for bang for buck when building a new PC.

 

[kyparrish]

9800 pro ~ $210

 

[biostud]

Originally posted by: Naustica
You can't beat IGP for bang for buck when building a new PC.

zero divide by zero does not give bang

 

[Pete]

IMO:

<$100 GF4Ti 4200
~$125 9600P
~$175 5900XT/9700P
~$210 9800P

For anything more expensive, you'd basically be throwing money away by not waiting for NV40 and R420 (launched mid-April, hopefully on sale by mid-May).

 

[CaiNaM]

my "refurbished" 9700pro arrived from newegg.com today, and works like a champ. great card for $130 (shipped), and despite the "oem, card only" tag, it came in retail box with dvi adapter and accompanying hardware, and all the software, including 7 games. quite noticeably faster than the 9600pro (sold for $129 on ebay) which it replaced in my third pc. now that's "bang for the buck". w00t!

 

[newParadigm]

Did it really come iwth the retail stuff?

Cause if it did i think ill get it.

Thanks for let me know about that,

Although I may just renigg the whole system if I go A64,


Thanks all the same,
newParadime O_O
V

 

[CaiNaM]

Originally posted by: newParadime
Did it really come iwth the retail stuff?

Cause if it did i think ill get it.

Thanks for let me know about that,

Although I may just renigg the whole system if I go A64,


Thanks all the same,
newParadime O_O
V

yea, it did.. but it's very YMMV. while they ALL say don't expect any accessories, many do come in a retail box, except those the specifically say "refurbished oem" in the description - those were oem to start with, and will come bare.

with the other however, you may or may not get them.. i've heard the same on newegg mb refurbs. some come with everything, others don't. it's rather the luck of the draw. still, $130 shipped is a very reasonable price imo., especially if you just need something to hold you out for 6mo to a year till next gen cards are reasonably priced, and there are more than a couple games which actually benefit from ps2 shaders.

at this point, running ps1.1 precision in something that uses a bit of dx9 shaders - farcry for example, does not have a significant impact on IQ. subtle differences certainly, but nothing significant to detract from your enjoyment of the game. imo, it "looks" very good whether you're running 1.1 or 2.0 shaders.

 

[htmlmasterdave]

Originally posted by: Matthias99
bang/buck evaluation

I'd lean towards a 9600Pro at the midrange, and a 9700Pro or 9800NP (if you can find one used) in the higher-end cards. The 9800Pro at ~$200 is also a pretty good deal.

If you like NVIDIA (and/or don't care about AA/AF performance), a used Ti4200/4600 or a FX5900/5900SE/5900XT are your likely best bets. I'd take the 9800Pro myself. Of course, all this might change in a month or two when the next-gen cards hit the street.

People actually read that horribly Intel biased site anymore?

 

[newb54]

Best bang for you buck would be waiting until April 26th then buying.

 

[Lonyo]

Originally posted by: htmlmasterdave

Originally posted by: Matthias99
bang/buck evaluation

I'd lean towards a 9600Pro at the midrange, and a 9700Pro or 9800NP (if you can find one used) in the higher-end cards. The 9800Pro at ~$200 is also a pretty good deal.

If you like NVIDIA (and/or don't care about AA/AF performance), a used Ti4200/4600 or a FX5900/5900SE/5900XT are your likely best bets. I'd take the 9800Pro myself. Of course, all this might change in a month or two when the next-gen cards hit the street.

People actually read that horribly Intel biased site anymore?

Intel don't make real graphics cards, so what does it matter if it's Intel biased?

 

[RussianSensation]

This is the best bang for the buck videocard hands down Radeon 9800 non-pro for $173

It's speed is equivalent to Radeon 9700Pro which costs at least $10 more and it overclocks to 9800Pro speed no problems. And it costs $40 less than a 9800Pro. And it is faster than 5900xts.

check out the comparison in performance Here

 

[CaiNaM]

Originally posted by: RussianSensation
This is the best bang for the buck videocard hands down Radeon 9800 non-pro for $173

It's speed is equivalent to Radeon 9700Pro which costs at least $10 more and it overclocks to 9800Pro speed no problems. And it costs $40 less than a 9800Pro. And it is faster than 5900xts.

check out the comparison in performance Here

based on your logic, your opinoin is hard to argue with, however the digit-life article is whacked in some respects imo.. the 9600pro is the 6th,4th, and 1st "best value" in the various comparisons? that card is a POS in performance compared to anyting in the 9700+ 5900+ class... i suppose if you just can't scrounge up $160 for one of the other cards.. but still...

i do applaud them on their thouroghness tho.. lots of info there... i just don't agree with some of their conclusions

 

[RussianSensation]

Originally posted by: CaiNaM

Originally posted by: RussianSensation
This is the best bang for the buck videocard hands down Radeon 9800 non-pro for $173

It's speed is equivalent to Radeon 9700Pro which costs at least $10 more and it overclocks to 9800Pro speed no problems. And it costs $40 less than a 9800Pro. And it is faster than 5900xts.

check out the comparison in performance Here

based on your logic, your opinoin is hard to argue with, however the digit-life article is whacked in some respects imo.. the 9600pro is the 6th,4th, and 1st "best value" in the various comparisons? that card is a POS in performance compared to anyting in the 9700+ 5900+ class... i suppose if you just can't scrounge up $160 for one of the other cards.. but still...

i do applaud them on their thouroghness tho.. lots of info there... i just don't agree with some of their conclusions

Oh you are 100% correct. They chose 9800Pro as the best value card regardless of price range which is of course unrealistic for someone only willing to spend $100. But the reason why I did use that article was to show the performance of the 9800 non-pro, which is very respectable for its price.

 

[newParadigm]

Is the difference between the 9800Pro and NP only Speed? (Analagously my XP 1700 is Runing as fast as a Barton 2500+ Plus but its not as fast because of the different core.)

Are there more features in the Pro than the NP?

Will a 9800NP @ Pro speeds perfomr almost the same as a true 9800 Pro Card?


Thank all for the advice,
newParadime

 

[CaiNaM]

yes.

no.

yes.