Best bang for the buck

[Kalisperas]

I'm looking to upgrade the video cards in both my computers, but upon hitting up Newegg, I came to realize how far behind the times I am. The last time I did any research on vid cards was when I bought my current GeForce 7800GT, and it was pretty much brand new at the time. I'm looking now, and I don't even recognize the names of the cards, or have a clue how they compare to each other.

My question is basically, what's considered the best bang for the buck these days, assuming a budget of under $150?

I have the same question about my second computer, except I don't need anything super powerful in that one, I'd just like an upgrade from it's current Radeon X1650Pro, for the occasional game I play on that machine. For that computer I'm looking to spend no more than $50-60 or so.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

 

[yh125d]

Some good deals are 9800GT for ~$120, 9600GT for $75-85 AR, or on the ATI side, 4850 for $130-150 AR, or 4670 for $70 AR

Probably the best bang for the buck though is HD4830, for $80 AR (http://www.newegg.com/Product/...?Item=N82E16814131129)

 

[AstroManLuca]

This should bring you up to speed:

http://www.tomshardware.com/re...raphics-card,2118.html

One thing to consider is looking at a Radeon 4870 512MB for around $165 after rebate. Great deal. For some reason the 896MB GTX 260, supposedly equivalent to the 4870, is around $240-$250 AR, which is more even than the 1GB Radeon 4870 (~$220 AR).

 

[Kalisperas]

Originally posted by: AstroManLuca
This should bring you up to speed:

http://www.tomshardware.com/re...raphics-card,2118.html

One thing to consider is looking at a Radeon 4870 512MB for around $165 after rebate. Great deal. For some reason the GTX 260, supposedly equivalent to the 4870, is around $240-$250 AR, which is more even than the 1 GB Radeon 4870 (~$220 AR).

Wow...that chart really puts my current cards in perspective...

Edit: Another question, looking over some of these cards in Newegg, how big of a deal is manufacturer? I don't even recognize some of these names, are there any I should blatantly avoid?

 

[Creig]

Originally posted by: yh125d
Some good deals are 9800GT for ~$120, 9600GT for $75-85 AR, or on the ATI side, 4850 for $130-150 AR, or 4670 for $70 AR

Probably the best bang for the buck though is HD4830, for $80 AR (http://www.newegg.com/Product/...?Item=N82E16814131129)

Actually, the 4850 can be found for $110 AR right now. That might place it as the best bang-for-the-buck deal currently offered.

http://promotions.newegg.com/N...est/index-landing.html

 

[Denithor]

That 4830 for $80AR above is hard to argue against. The next step up is this 4850 for $130AR. And I doubt the extra performance is worth the extra $50, especially on a 19" LCD.

How about this - grab the 4830 for your main rig and just move the 7800GT into your old rig? Or is your old rig AGP?

 

[Kalisperas]

Old rig is AGP, but I'm planning on getting it a new motherboard at the same time as the new cards. I'd thought about just moving over the 7800GT, but it's not much of an upgrade from the X1650. I figured if I could get something better than the 7800GT for under $70, I might as well. If I can't get a significant upgrade for less than that, though, it's not really worth it.

 

[zodder]

I have a x1950 Pro AGP card that I'm not using if you'd be interested in that. LMK.