Best PCI-E card under $100?

[GagHalfrunt]

Need a decent video card for a budget rig. Not much gaming, might try Oblivion or Titan Quest or something similar, but am not a person who will live or die on his frame rate in an FPS. Will be used in an Athlon 64 3400+ w/NForce4 MB socket 939, Seagate SATA drive, 1GB RAM, etc. Possibly light overclocking of both system and card, but that's not too important one way or the other. Would like to stay under $100.

Anything better in that range than the X800GTO for about $90 from NewEgg?

 

[GagHalfrunt]

(tap - tap - tap) Is this microphone on? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?

 

[Pabster]

You should be able to find an X850XT for $100 or less.

 

[Kromis]

How do you use "Bueller" in a sentence? My teacher said it multiple times before but what does it mean or used for?

 

[hans007]

i'd probably say the x850xt.

best nvidia card is probably the 7600gs . there area a few 7600gts out there for just over $100 at maybe $110-113 after rebartes. might wanna look into those as the x850 xt is a dual slot card, uses a lot of power, isnt sm 3.0 compliant etc.

 

[Ike0069]

Originally posted by: Kromis
How do you use "Bueller" in a sentence? My teacher said it multiple times before but what does it mean or used for?

Sarcasm? I can't tell.

 

[dreddfunk]

I'd second the two recommendations you've gotten. The 7600 is a newer card that won't require a direct hookup to your PSU but, at least in Oblivion, it lags behind the x850xt (http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2746&p=7) in the Oblivion Gate Benchmark (a very taxing benchmark of the outdoors setting) though it does fine in the other settings of Oblivion (in-town and dungeon).

I've got an x850xt and I'm happy with it. It has a lot of raw power. However, it is a dual-slot card and the fan can make a lot of noise.

I haven't seen any benchmarks for Titan Quest but the x850xt will run Oblivion a bit better than the 7600 series. The trade-off is that you're getting an older model card without SM3 support.

 

[evenmore1]

The X850XT is $120 at Newegg so it is a little over your budget. As is a 7600GT ($112) after MIR

If you are looking for something in the $90-$100 range there are a few options:

Leadtek 7300GT GDDR3
PowerColor X800GTO
3D Fuzion 7600GS
Sapphire X1600Pro OC Edition Essentially a X1600XT
X1600XT Not sure on this one. I don't like Open Box

It's a tough decision. I would go with the X800GTO. The 7300GT is supposed to outperform the 7600GS and the X1600Pro is better than the 7300GT (on one review, however it was with GDDR2 for both). The X800GTO is better than both. So the X800GTO is the best buy. It doesn't have SM3.0, but it doesn't matter that much until you have a powerful enough card.
Proof of Performance

Edit: The X850XT and 7600GT are great cards though. If you can afford to go over budget, then get those. It will be well worth it.

 

[dreddfunk]

Yeah, the x850xt is $120 right now at newegg. Periodically, I've seen a $20 rebate for the Sapphire card bringing it down to $99, which is why it came to mind for someone looking at a $100 card.

 

[mamisano]

Also, check out the FS/FT forum, I am sure you can find a nice deal on someone trying to unload one of the above mentioned cards.

You can also look to see if anyone is selling an X800GTO2 - one that can be unlocked and overclocked to X850XT-PE speeds

 

[Kromis]

Originally posted by: Ike0069

Originally posted by: Kromis
How do you use "Bueller" in a sentence? My teacher said it multiple times before but what does it mean or used for?

Sarcasm? I can't tell.

Lol, sorry. I'm pretty sure it has something to do with Ferris Bueller. Never seen that movie so...yeah. Someone tell me!

And now, to contribute to this thread...

The 7600GTS at newegg is almost close to $100 ($114.99 AR) but then newegg jacked up the price by $10 I think! :|

 

[Ike0069]

Originally posted by: Kromis

Originally posted by: Ike0069

Originally posted by: Kromis
How do you use "Bueller" in a sentence? My teacher said it multiple times before but what does it mean or used for?

Sarcasm? I can't tell.

Lol, sorry. I'm pretty sure it has something to do with Ferris Bueller. Never seen that movie so...yeah. Someone tell me!

And now, to contribute to this thread...

The 7600GTS at newegg is almost close to $100 ($114.99 AR) but then newegg jacked up the price by $10 I think! :|

Yea, it's from the movie.

Ben Stein is a teacher and in his famous monotone voice, he calls role. For whatever reason, this has become the signature quote from that movie.

 

[Kromis]

Ahh, thanks for clearing that up for me, mate!

 

[evenmore1]

LOL I love that movie!!

Anyways, get the X800GTO. Great performance!

 

[fireandicefuel]

for around a $100 I got my eVGA geforce 7600 GTS 256 mb gddr3 pci express 16

 

[Kromis]

Originally posted by: fireandicefuel
for around a $100 I got my eVGA geforce 7600 GTS 256 mb gddr3 pci express 16

Like I said in my previous post (if you had been reading), newegg jacked up the price by $10 so yeah...