Best Video card price/performance 100-200$ AGP

[GZFant]

A friend of mine needs to get a new vid card ASAP!

His Radeon 9800 blew up or something and he's been having problems lately
so he is leaning towards Nvidia for this round.

I told him either a 256mb 6600GT for around 170$
or a BFG 6600GS for 220$ if he can spend a little extra

I can't come up with any more options, just wondering if you guys might have a little more insight

Thanks

 

[impemonk]

Tell your friend to get a 6600GT. Seems to be the cheapest and best choice vid card to get.

 

[nJett]

I had to make a similiar decision recently, because my system is relatively slow (AthlonXP @ ~1900+ speed) I wound up going with a LeadTek 6600GT ($143 w/shipping from NewEgg). From everything I've read anything beyond that is going to bottlenecked by my CPU. I also went with the 128mb version because, again from what I've read, anything beyond that is pretty pointless and doesn't really get used effectively. Also, I believe the 256mb versions may come with slower memory (1.6ns vs 2ns?). My card should arrive today or tomorrow so I'm about to find out It's replacing a ti4200 that has served me well for a few years now but since my favorite CS1.6 server died I decided to make the leap into Source and the FPS just doesn't cut it - with everything cranked down to the lowest settings it's playable but it still totally chunks out when the action gets heavy.

 

[evilsaint]

You can pick up a BFG 6800GS for around $200, unlock the extra four pipelines, OC the f*** out of it, and it'll probably be the best performance for the value, AGP wise, not even considering the lifetime warranty. That's depending on how averse he is of ATI cards though, as an x800GTO or x850Pro will have just as much, if not more, unlockable power, and be around the same price.

 

[aka1nas]

If he is considering ditching the rest of his system in a year or so, then go cheap for now and get the 6600GT. If he is going to want to hang on his AGP rig for longer than that, the 6800GS.

IOW, if you need a short-term replacement that will play current games adequately, the 6600GT is a good value. If you need a card that will tide him over for the forseeable future, than the 6800GS is a better "investment".

 

[v8envy]

AGP, man. X800GTO/X850Pro is not an option for agp-land. The x850 no longer sells for $200, they're up around $400 or so.

Forget the 256 meg 6600GT, get the 128 meg version. While the 128 meg version isn't guaranteed to be faster than a 256M, it's a sure bet it won't be any slower. In other words, getting a 256M card you run the risk of getting one with slower ram that WILL be slower than a 128M version, and it's unlikely you'll see even a 1fps improvement with the 256M if you get one with equivalent speed ram.

The 6600 simply doesn't have the graphical oomph or the (128 bit) memory bandwidth to efficiently use 256 meg for high res FSAA. If you use highest detail textures you'll chunk along at single digit FPS, but not because you're swapping textures to system ram -- because you've got a coffee stirrer sized pipe to your RAM for the texture ops in the first place.

If you're willing to take the gamble, the 6800GSA unlock/overclock may get you pretty darn close to a 7800GS for 2/3 the price of admission. But it's an enormous YMMV.

Also, see if you can 'fix' the old card. 6600GT is more of a sidegrade than an upgrade. A lot of 9700/9800s are failing right around now because the fans are dying and the cards are overheating. A new fan may be all you need.

 

[GZFant]

yea, I am not sure what is wrong with his card. I told him to try and look at the temperatures he is getting. He opened up his box and dusted it out. He said the problem didn't occur as often anymore.

I think he will probably go for the cheaper card since he wants a new mobo and proc. Somethin around 700mb RAM and 1.5ghz AMD

anyway, thanks for giving me some good advice. I linked him to this thread so he could read and decide for himself.
Thanks again