Best card currently for $150 or less?

[Washoe]

Any suggestions? I've been out of the video card loop for awhile. I have a 1900xtx, which I'm content with, but I need something for the wife so she can play EQ2 with me. She'll be running on 1680x1050 res

Thanks!

 

[Catfit]

Hi. You will probably get some great advice on this. You may want to consider a new offering from NV that seems to be coming out in December according to digitimes, the 8400GS. I do not know anything about the 8400GS Except that it will be 65 nm and new (G98).

The article also has some news about NV using UMC to fab this gpu in addition to TSMC.

Text

(I hope that worked)

 

[MarcVenice]

Wtffluff ? ATI HD 3850 256 ALL the way. Use it yourself, pass the x1900xtx to her. I know its 30$ over budget, but it will be a nice stepup instead, performing twice as fast as a 8600gt.

http://www.ncix.com/products/i...0Internal%20Use%20Only

 

[bryanW1995]

ignore the newbie. 8400gs sucks for gaming.

give your wife the 1900xtx and guy yourself a 3850. it's 185 shipped but well worth it. anand did a 3870/3850 review the other day. According to their stats, 3850 has 90% the perf of 2900xt at 1680x1050. Alternatively, you could wait a couple of weeks and see if 8800gt 256 drives down prices on 3850 a little bit. This is currently the best time in years to be looking for a midrange card, lucky you!

edit: dammit marc!!! you beat me to the punch!

btw, I just upgraded from 1950xt to 3870. This new "midrange" of amd cards is an enormous improvement over their old high end, much less x1k series.

also, newegg doesn't have black box, but they also don't have the "1-3 week" delay warning at the top of their page. either way, however, 3850 is probably the way for you to go.

of course, with the 3870 so cheap, you might wanna just upgrade it a little bit more to that. maybe tell the wifey something like "honey, I love you so I'm going to spend an extra $75 to get you the same great performance that I currently have on my computer". :evil:

 

[BadRobot]

I would really try to scrounge up another 35 dollars and get the 3850. It is significantly better than other cards close to its price range.

 

[AzN]

I suggest you give the 1950xtx to your wife and you get 3850 for yourself. It's $35 over your budget though.

 

[happy medium]

Sell the wife and 1900xtx and get a 8800gtx.............?
Na.... get the 3850:laugh:

 

[memories2002]

If you absolutely must stay below the 150 mark, look at the x1950GT for 113 and 130 on the egg, or the 7900GS OC from Foxconn for 120.

 

[Washoe]

Thx all for the suggestions. I am taking a look into that 3850 now.

 

[cubeless]

looking at the benchies it seems that, at 1680x1050, a 256mb 3850 card may not be all that pleasing...

not trying to start a fight, but i have just found that, having built a number of 'econo' systems for my kids' friends, an 8800/320 is fine @ 1440x900, but really starts to drag in some things at 1680x1050... going to a 8800/640 solves this nicely...

but certainly it seems that under $200 3850 is what you get... although some of the 1950pro deals in the $150 range are tempting, especially for what the op says he plays...

 

[BoberFett]

Originally posted by: Washoe
Any suggestions? I've been out of the video card loop for awhile. I have a 1900xtx, which I'm content with, but I need something for the wife so she can play EQ2 with me. She'll be running on 1680x1050 res

Thanks!

Hehe, I just built my wife a new PC for EQ2. She's running 1680x1050 at High Quality settings and the Foxconn 7900GS I used does pretty well at that res. It bogs down a little bit in Neriak, now and then, but otherwise the framerate is really solid. You can find those at Newegg for $120, not sure if the $20 rebate is still on or not.

If you don't mind spending a bit more, the recommendations for the 3850 are pretty solid, based on recent reviews.

Edit: BTW, what are the specs on the rest of her machine? In my experience, most EQ2 slowdown is from lack of main memory, not the video card. When things do grind a little in Neriak for her it's usually because it's swapping to disk. Once the graphics resources are loaded, the framerate smooths out. Even with 2GB her machine has trouble in some areas and I just don't think a better video card would do much.

 

[RussianSensation]

Originally posted by: cubeless
looking at the benchies it seems that, at 1680x1050, a 256mb 3850 card may not be all that pleasing...

not trying to start a fight, but i have just found that, having built a number of 'econo' systems for my kids' friends, an 8800/320 is fine @ 1440x900, but really starts to drag in some things at 1680x1050... going to a 8800/640 solves this nicely...

What game exactly does 320mb 8800GTS start to suffer in at 1680x1050? I played call of duty 4, unreal tournament 3, bioshock, supreme commander and every single one of them ran smooth at 1920x1020 at high settings. I'd much rather turn every single setting to Very High than turn on 4AA to be honest. But at 1680x1050 it should have no problems at all. The only 2 games I can think of where it would be slow is World in Conflict and Crysis (but what card isnt?)

Tom's chart seem to agree with my findings.

1920x1440 average frames
8800GTS 640 = 40.6
8800GTS 320 = 39.8

OP, if you are going to spend $150 definately consider HD 3850 for $180, or wait for 8800GT 256mb for a couple weeks.

Also you can find 8600GTS for about $110. However at that price I'd rather get X1950Pro.

 

[HeroOfPellinor]

I'm seeing 8600GT DDR3 cards for $85.

 

[cubeless]

don't play the games myself, but the small animals tell me that coh and supcom start getting low frame rates once they busy up with a 320 @ 1680... and u can't look at average - you have to look at min, since that's when u get killed...

 

[bryanW1995]

would you like to put any other particulars on this? the 3850 will absolutely destroy anything cheaper than it right now. what's the OP supposed to do, get an 8800gt? he'll be on back order 2wks and spend $300.

check out anand's 38x0 article: http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3151&p=7

on average, 3850 gives 90% the performance of 2900xt. that's misleading, however, since it's actually much closer at the OP's resolutions: 97.9 % at 1280x1024, 93.2% at 1600x1200, 90.1% at 1920x1200, and down to 80.3% at 2560x1600. Realistically, how many people will ever use a 3850 at 2560x1600 anyway? at 1680x1050 you're probably looking at 95% of 2900xt performance for what, 1/3 the price? It is highly likely that the gap will only narrow and/or close completely as time goes by and amd introduces driver optimizations, too, while 1950pro/2900xt/7800gs/etc are all dead ends.

 

[daveybrat]

I totally agree with all of the 3850 votes on here. Why buy a mediocre card for the wife when you can give her your great card and get a nice upgrade yourself. That's the american way!!

 

[taltamir]

buy a used 7900GS video card on ebay, currently 70-90$... performance wise it goes like this:
From lowest to highest:
8600GTS - 100+$
7900GS - 70-90$ on ebay
HD3850 -179$
8800GTS 320MB - 320+$ on ebay, 350+$ stores
2900XT - 450$
HD3870 - 225$ if you find one in stock
8800GTS 640MB - 380$ ebay, 450$ stores
8800GT - 280$ if you find one in stock
8800GTX - 600+$
8800Ultra - 700+$.


OR buy yourself a 3870, sell the 2900XT on ebay, and buy your wife a 7900GS, HD3850, HD3870... and break even paying no money

512MB XT sold on ebay for 300$
http://cgi.ebay.com/ATI-AMD-HI...VWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[hans007]

7900gs is pretty much impossible to get on ebay for $70. its more like $95 honestly. a 7900GT is maybe $110.

 

[newschool]

Originally posted by: bryanW1995
ignore the newbie. 8400gs sucks for gaming.

hes talkin about the new 8400GS that will use the new architecture G98 wich is an upgraded version of the 8800GT's G92. I dont think that will sucks.

 

[nullpointerus]

Originally posted by: newschool

Originally posted by: bryanW1995
ignore the newbie. 8400gs sucks for gaming.

hes talkin about the new 8400GS that will use the new architecture G98 wich is an upgraded version of the 8800GT's G92. I dont think that will sucks.

The x in 8x00 indicates the relative strength of the card compared to other cards in the 8000 series. Therefore, if nVidia introduced a new 8000 series card with strength close to the 8800GT, it would be named something like 8800GS. The fact that the new card is to be called 8400GS indicates that the card will perform below the current 8500, which is pretty awful for gaming. That's why people are calling him a newbie.

 

[daveybrat]

Originally posted by: taltamir
buy a used 7900GS video card on ebay, currently 70-90$... performance wise it goes like this:
From lowest to highest:
8600GTS - 100+$
7900GS - 70-90$ on ebay
HD3850 -179$
8800GTS 320MB - 320+$ on ebay, 350+$ stores
2900XT - 450$
HD3870 - 225$ if you find one in stock
8800GTS 640MB - 380$ ebay, 450$ stores
8800GT - 280$ if you find one in stock
8800GTX - 600+$
8800Ultra - 700+$.


OR buy yourself a 3870, sell the 2900XT on ebay, and buy your wife a 7900GS, HD3850, HD3870... and break even paying no money

512MB XT sold on ebay for 300$
http://cgi.ebay.com/ATI-AMD-HI...VWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Try reading the OP's original post again, slowly this time so it sinks in for you.

He has a Sapphire X1900XTX, not a 2900XT. So he won't be breaking even on anything.

He's still best to give his wife the X1900XTX and buying himself a better card.

 

[nyker96]

add $20 and get 3850, it's leaps and bounds faster than anything in that price range of 150-200.

 

[bsix]

The 3850 is a solid recommendation, looks like they have stock right now. If Nvidia does come through with a decent quantity of 8800GT 256MB in 2 weeks then this really is the card to get at < 1600x1200 resolutions. If should be quite a bit faster than the 3850 for $179-$199. I would wait for this card.