Budget video card recommendation

[nycguy6789]

My job just went under, so I was able to pick-up a bare-bones 2.6 GHz P4 from the company. I think it only has 256 RAM, but I'm going to upgrade to 512.

Regardless, it's not a top of the line computer, so I'm not looking to upgrade to a top of the line graphic card. I'm looking to spend $150, at most, but would ideally like to spend around $100.

From the research I've done, it seems like the ATI Radeon 9600 is a decent card, but it's a few years old. The e-VGA GeForce 6600 seems to get positive reviews as well. I'm not a heavy gamer but am interested in picking up Doom 3 (realizing that I will not have a system capable of running the game at anything close to its top settings).

Any thoughts on the two cards listed above or alternate recommendations would be appreciated. Thank you.

 

[mwmorph]

6600gt is $150. 9800pro is $100.
6600gt-$144
http://www.newegg.com/OldVersion/app/vi...desc.asp?description=14-130-220&DEPA=1

9800pro9$105 used)-around 10-20% slower
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=45&threadid=1596061&enterthread=y

dont bother with a 6600. it's slower than a 9700pro which is 15% slower than a 9800pro

btw, Im asuming you have AGP.
9800pro will be good at doom3 at 10x7 medium. 6600gt should do doom3 at 10x7 ultra settings or 12x10 medium-high

btw, you should really go for 1GB ram if you plan to game, and in general Windows XP runs smoother at 1GB. Ram is cheap. There was a sale last week for a 512mb stick of Kingston DDR ram for $17.99. FS/T forums has 512mb DDr ram for around $30 too.

 

[Munky]

The 6600 vanilla is not a bad card if you OC it, it usually can get as fast as a 9800p. But if you're not into overclocking, then a 9800p is a good choice for ~$100. Either one of those is a significant improvement over a 9600p.

 

[nycguy6789]

The 9800 seems like a good choice, but I'm not sure if I also want to buy a new power supply (it currently has a 250W supply). Any budget recommendations that don't require an upgrade of that too?

 

[crazyeddie]

9800 Pro will run fine on a 250-watt power supply. It comes with a seperate power tap not because the card is overly power hungry, but because some motherboards had problems supplying proper voltage to it across the AGP bus.

The 9800 Pro is a bargain at current close-out pricing and the money you save versus a 6600 could be better spent on extra RAM.

 

[ch33kym0use]

id tend to use a geforce card on a budget but thats me, use whatever you like

 

[Soccerman06]

I love my old 9800XT, its just an OC 9800Pro. Get the 9800Pro, its a very good card.

Or you could wait for the 7800/7600 series comes out in August and look at the cheapest version, it should perform better than the 9800Pro

 

[nycguy6789]

ATI's website "recommends" a 300 watt power supply. I don't have too much else in the computer - DVD RW, CD-ROM (which I could remove), SB Live 5.1, network adapter, 1 Gig RAM.

Do you think the 250 watt power supply will be sufficient?
(I contacted ATI, haven't heard back yet)

 

[kmmatney]

If its a decent power supply you should be OK with the 9800 Pro. The 6600GT is best for Doom3, but the 9800 Pro is the best overall bang for buck. I had a 350 Watt PSU and had to get a new one for my 6600GT.