Best Video Card Price to Performance

[stingray1381]

Opnions please. I have a 3200+ Athlon, 1Gig of ram and and Geforce 4 4400 video card. I want to upgrade the card to play the lastest games such as Doom 3, HL2, Fary Cry, etc(Until Far Cry, I hadn't been having many problems running most games with everything turned on). What is the best price to performance ratio there is for a video card? Also, should I wait until the new Nvidia and ATI cards around, so they can drive down the prices? I'm wondering what effect the new cards will have on the prices of the 9800 pros and 9800 XTs of the world. Thanks

 

[ForceCalibur]

The best price/performance hmm...

Well, looking at raw frames/dollar number kind of skews it (because there are diminishing returns), and actually the Geforce 4 MX's would probably win, but if you consider the threshold for good FPS and features.. I'd go with:

Radeon 9700 NP. Bought one myself for 90 dollars shipped on Ebay.

 

[Avalon]

9800pro for $200 or an x800 pro for $360 at compusa.com using promotional code "convertible" will get you some hefty performance for the money and run your games nicely
you could wait for the geforce 6800 GT, but I don't know when that will be available, and right now the two cards I mentioned above will do the trick for you
if you're willing to gamble, you can even get a powercolor 9800SE at newegg for $150 and softmod it to a 9800pro...that's probably the biggest bang for the buck you can get

 

[stingray1381]

Will the release of the latest generation push the 9800XT down in price? Also, since the latest generation is so much faster than anything before it, is it worth biting the bullet and buying one of these new card?

 

[Strk]

The 9800 Pro for 200(after a rebate) is the best deal right now.

 

[Strk]

Originally posted by: stingray1381
Will the release of the latest generation push the 9800XT down in price? Also, since the latest generation is so much faster than anything before it, is it worth biting the bullet and buying one of these new card?

It should drive the price down, but it is hard to say how much. My guess is that it will probably drop to about 300.

 

[Axon]

9800 Pro.

 

[Broadkipa]

G-Force 5900XT, great value and good perfomance, gets my vote.

 

[VIAN]

9800 PROOOOOOOOOOO O O O

 

[agent2099]

9800 pro for $200

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: Avalon
9800pro for $200 or an x800 pro for $360 at compusa.com using promotional code "convertible" will get you some hefty performance for the money and run your games nicely

the x800 pro doesn't come close to the 9800pro in terms of performance per dollar. It's still way too expensive.

 

[James3shin]

98pro or 5900xt

 

[Steg55]

Yeh, I would go with the 5900XT and a hefty cooling fan for tweaking headroom, or a 9800Pro and an Artic VGA Silence and overclock the life out of it

Steg

 

[ForceCalibur]

Do you guys even READ? He asked for the BEST Video card PRICE/ PERFORMANCE. The Radeon 9800 Pro cannot even come CLOSE to Radeon 9700 PRO/NP. Read and enlighten: http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/20031229/index.html

 

[CaiNaM]

so?

i have a 9800pro, 9700pro, and 5900nu & ti4600.. my opinion is at current (new) prices, the 9800pro ($199) is easily the best "bang for the buck", and is certainly worth the $30 higher price over the 9700pro.

 

[jim1976]

Originally posted by: CaiNaM
so?

i have a 9800pro, 9700pro, and 5900nu & ti4600.. my opinion is at current (new) prices, the 9800pro ($199) is easily the best "bang for the buck", and is certainly worth the $30 higher price over the 9700pro.

Definately agreed. That's the best performance ratio. If you're willing though to play at high resolutions such as 16x12 with some AA/AF the new DX9 games and you're able to spend some $$$ more, then I would wait for a while for 6800GT or a X800pro.

 

[ForceCalibur]

Excuse me. I bought my Radeon 9700 NP for 90 dollars shipped. 140 Dollars shipped for a Radeon 9700 Pro. Can't get a Radeon 9800 Pro for less than 180 shipped. If you go by like newegg prices, then you might as well throw money away anyway.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Not the 9700. I would go with a 5900XT (The one i have has VIVO ) or a 9800PRO. Either way both cards are awesome.

 

[CaiNaM]

Originally posted by: ForceCalibur
Excuse me. I bought my Radeon 9700 NP for 90 dollars shipped. 140 Dollars shipped for a Radeon 9700 Pro. Can't get a Radeon 9800 Pro for less than 180 shipped. If you go by like newegg prices, then you might as well throw money away anyway.

new 9700pro for $140 where?

 

[howdyduty]

Recommend a card with 256bit mem interface such as 9700/9800, or 5900 series or better card.

 

[Pete]

Benchmarks of X800P and 9800XT on an XP3200+, to give you an idea of how the two generations perform on your CPU.