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Best PCI-E GPU sub $200

4

49erinnc

Platinum Member
Been ages since I've researched video cards since I haven't really had any complaints with my 9800XT. The 9800Pro was the best bang-for-your-buck card the last time I was shopping around...lol. However, I am finally looking to jump from Socket A to Socket 939 (64 Bit CPU). Figured I'd go ahead and jump to PCI-E as well.

What's the best sub-$200 card out there right now? I'm partial to ATI but honestly don't care as long as it's a card that will hold me over for the next 18 months. Not looking to play games at the highest resolution/settings but would like a significant jump up from my current card if that's possible for under $200.

Thanks...
 
The Sapphire Radeon X850XT is $154AR at NEWEGG, and will beat any other card under $200, including the 7600GT. The only downside is that it is power-hungry and the fan is loud, but if you use ATI Tray Tools or some other prog to control the fan speed, the noise can be tolerable.
 
yeah, i agree on the X850XT. With a huge cooler, it's very overclockable. In fact, if you push the Core to 600 mhz, you'll be around 7800GT speeds.

However, with the G73 parts from nVidia just being released, I think it would be smart to wait a while and see if prices on teh 7800GT come down from $250.
 
The x850XT is about 10-15% faster than the 7600GT in most Direct3D apps, but if you must have a single-slot solution, I suppose the 7600 GT is the best buy under $200. Prices should fall closer to $150 in the next few months for that card though.
 
X850XT - No SM 3.0 and no Purevideo or AVIVO. If you can live with those two things then the X850XT is your card. 7600GT is a very nice card also.

My real recommendation is to head over the the FS/FT forum and pic up a 7800GT for like $20 over your $200 price point. That card will pummel either one of the cards I mentioned and you sacrifice nothing in features.
 
<<X850XT - No SM 3.0 and no Purevideo or AVIVO. If you can live with those two things then the X850XT is your card. 7600GT is a very nice card also.>>

I know all geforce 6+ cards have purevideo (even the lowly integrated 6150) and it makes a HUGE difference in HD playback. I couldn't get smooth 1080i transport stream playback on a X2 3800+ until I installed the purvideo decoder.

What does ATI have? I see even the X300 has these features

MPEG1/2/4 decode and encode acceleration
All-format DTV/HDTV decoding

Is that the same thing? Do all the cards have it? Do you need to buy additional software to use it?
 
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