buying a budget card, need some help

[shud]

I just built a nice XP2500+ box, and currently it's running on a Voodoo3 (don't laugh!). It was all I had laying around since my 8RDA+ doesn't have onboard video.

Anyway, I'm considering a few cards.

FX5200 - $72 @ newegg
Radeon 9200 128 - $79 @ newegg (Sapphire version at $81)
Radeon 9000 Pro 128 - $89 @ newegg

Obviously with a budget card, I'm looking for the best bang for my buck. I'd like to not spend over $80, but if the 9000P is substantially better than either of the other two, I'll spend $90.

I just need this to play old favorites (CS) and games that will be coming out in the future months (1024x768 is the max rez I'll use). Come Christmas time or maybe a little sooner I'll definitely be upgrading to be able to handle HL2 very well.

Thoughts?

 

[LegionX]

Originally posted by: shud
I just built a nice XP2500+ box, and currently it's running on a Voodoo3 (don't laugh!). It was all I had laying around since my 8RDA+ doesn't have onboard video.

Anyway, I'm considering a few cards.

FX5200 - $72 @ newegg
Radeon 9200 128 - $79 @ newegg (Sapphire version at $81)
Radeon 9000 Pro 128 - $89 @ newegg

Obviously with a budget card, I'm looking for the best bang for my buck. I'd like to not spend over $80, but if the 9000P is substantially better than either of the other two, I'll spend $90.

I just need this to play old favorites (CS) and games that will be coming out in the future months (1024x768 is the max rez I'll use). Come Christmas time or maybe a little sooner I'll definitely be upgrading to be able to handle HL2 very well.

Thoughts?

well if you listed any other of the new nvidia cards i would definately say ati but i hear that the 5200 is a good low end card. not sure about the difference beteween the 9000 and the 9200(might read a few reveiws) . i love my 9700 and with cat 3.4 drivers i am really happy so all in all any of those probably would be good but i would pick one of the 9xxx.

 

[Schadenfroh]

9200 = 9000 with 8x agp support

right now it is 90 shipped, see if you can haggle it down. it would be superior to 5200/9000/9200
see if you can talk this guy into lowering to 80

 

[Peter]

9200 = 9000 plus 8x AGP. Performance difference: Nada.
9200pro = 9000pro plus 8x AGP, and with a higher clock, potentially. Depending on the card maker, these CAN actually be faster than the 9000pro cards.

 

[Vonkhan]

my ex 9000pro overclocked like a beast even with stock cooling