Best card for under $200

[Paul7]

Don' t need dual monitor out or VIVO, just a good card for gaming.

What is your choice for best video card to buy for under $200 total...and please don't say to save for a 9700...thanks

 

[kylebisme]

there is nothing realy at $200 right now, for much less you could get a radeon 8500le or a ti4200 and for a little more you could get a ti4400, personaly i would get the radeon.

 

[NewSc2]

if you look around in FS/FT, i think you can find ti4600's for about $210 shipped~

other than that i'm sure there are new ti4400's for under $200 shipped by now

 

[ech]

Originally posted by: NewSc2
if you look around in FS/FT, i think you can find ti4600's for about $210 shipped~

other than that i'm sure there are new ti4400's for under $200 shipped by now

Man did I miss out on those deals. I haven't seen a ti4600 or anything really close to $200 for those models and the cheapest I could find a ti4400 was $195. Where did I not look?!? I ended up with a ti4200 128 MB for much cheaper and am quite happy. Couldn't justify the extra cost of the ti4400 or ti4600, but if you're looking to spend around $200 (or just below that), you might want to check out the ti4400.

 

[AnAndAustin]

😉 At the moment the GF4TI series of cards are great at this price point. Since manu matters very little for GF4TI cards and you aren't interested in features, bundles etc it would make sense to go for the cheapest highest rated card you can find. The Rad8500 is a very good card for the money and esp if your CPU is below 1.4ghz. The 4200-128MB is also very good value for money as most standard ones o/c to 4400 speeds or better. There are some enhanced 4200-128 cards (Suma Special Edition, Asus Deluxe and poss the new Abit OTES card) sport higher 4400 style default clocks and reach 4600 speeds or better! They are priced about the same as the 4400 cards though which are about as good but will fetch more when sold on at a later date. The 4600 cards are dropping, but if you wait for them to fall below $200 you should find the Rad9500 close at hand and then you'll prob end up waiting for NV28/NV30 and so on. At the mo I'd suggest a standard 4200-128 or 4400 card.

🙂 If you're interested there's a pole going along similar lines HERE.

 

[FluxCap]

I am happy with my change in plans to the Ti4400. I just hope that overclocking it to 4600 stock speeds is easy. (It will be my first time overclocking a video card)

 

[Mavrick007]

If you want you can get a MSI GF4 Ti4400 card now with tv-out and dual monitor for ~$184 at Newegg.
They dropped the price by taking off Video-In, but the package is basically the same, and the PCB is purple too! 😀

 

[FluxCap]

That is the one I just ordered. I likes me some purple.

 

[Dulanic]

That MSI 4400 is a great deal, I got myself one a few weeks ago for $1 more 😛

 

[Mavrick007]

I've had my MSI Ti4400 VIVO for months now and I didn't mind paying the extra for it, but I would have liked to have the purple pcb like on my Soltek mobo 😀

 

[Ranger8P]

I wouldn't get a ti4400. The slight extra perfromance isn't worth the extra price, even if it's sub $200. Either get a TI 4200 and OC to TI4400 or get the best bang for the buck with a Radeon 8500LE, my recomendation.

 

[Dulanic]

Originally posted by: Ranger8P
I wouldn't get a ti4400. The slight extra perfromance isn't worth the extra price, even if it's sub $200. Either get a TI 4200 and OC to TI4400 or get the best bang for the buck with a Radeon 8500LE, my recomendation.

A 4200 128MB is gonna cost you $160ish... a MSI 4440 is $185.... its well worth the extra $20-25 IMO, the 4200 128MB have slow memory. Not worth buying a 64MB card IMO.

 

[AnAndAustin]

😱 Well $110-120 for 4200-64MB, $130-150 for a 4200-128MB, 4400s (including MSI) are now quite easily found under $200 while the 4600 cards come in at $225-235. That's far more realistic, where do you shop! In fact the 4200-64MB can be had for as little as $100, see HERE

😉 I agree that it's not worth buying a 64MB card, but the 4200-64MB do use 3.6ns which gets from the default of 250/500 (core/RAM) to about 300/600. The 4200-128MB hardly use slow RAM, 4.0ns is standard and gets from 250/444 (which is only 2-3% slower than 4200-64MB @ 250/500) to 300/550 which is beyond 4400 perf, that's not slow at all. Finaly there is the enhanced 4200 -128MB cards using the longer 4400/4600 design and BGA RAM, although they use higher standard clocks and o/c to 4600 levels and beyond they do come in at 4400 pricing.