Help with $50 video card selection

[EricR]

Hello,

A family friend wants to purchase a video card for her sons birthday (he wants more than the on-board video). Being it's a single parent home there's a $50 limit on what she can spend (I know, I know...).

Newegg has a one-day special today (10/12/05) at $45 AR for the:
eVGA 256-A8-N313-LX Geforce FX5500 256MB 128-bit DDR AGP 4X/8X

Should I jump on this one?

Anything better you can think of for the money?

Any other imput of value?

Thanks for your help!

EDIT - Must be a PCI video card!

Sorry to have caused some of you to waste your time, I should have looked into this prior to the original post.

New suggestions for PCI would be appreciated!
===================================

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:


Final Summary:

I came to this forum hoping for some quick advice so as to not botch spending this $50 (and based upon the feedback given, I would have botched it).

And the AT Graphics community response was WAY BEYOND what I had hoped for!

The end results is we have found the very BEST CARD at the very BEST PRICE!

Adding icing to the cake are the DONATIONS totaling $61.00 given towards the cost of the card ($76.00)which made buying the right card a reality!

Here is the difference you AT'ers have made:

Pre AT'ers help = Wrong and/or crappy video card consuming the mom's entire $50 birthday gift budget.

Post AT'ers help = The very best card was purchased even though it was over budget, and best of all, the mom will still have $35.00 to buy her son another gift (clothes, music, etc.)!!

Thank you all for your help, your money, your time, and for working together on this!

Thanks again!!

EricR

 

[Inappropriate4AT]

If you don't mind buying second hand I'd check the FS/T forum. You might be able to score a 9500 pro, if not a 9600 pro should be easy to pick up in that price range.

 

[mwmorph]

for that price, might as well go used. find a quality used Radeon 9600(non se, pro preferably) form the fs/t threads. Also, a 9500(non pro) will work well since with a bit of work, many can become full fledged 9700pros. make sure the 9500 has a 256 bit memory bus bus.

 

[Mloot]

You might want to check the FS/FT forums. I've seen 9500 Pros and 9600 Pros going for ~$50 there.

Here's a 9600 Pro for $55/shipped.

Here's one for $60/shipped.

Here's a Ti 4400 for $45/shipped.

I would recommend a 9600 Pro if you can swing one for a few extra dollars, but even the Ti 4400 will be a bit faster in most cases than an FX 5500.

 

[EricR]

Three replies right off the bat; I knew the AT'er would come through!
Thanks for all of the input. I hadn't even thought of buying used.

Do either or both the Radeon 9500 or 9600 support the latest version of DirectX?

Should I even worry about which version of DirectX a card supports?

Thanks again!

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: EricR
Hello,

A family friend wants to purchase a video card for her sons birthday (he wants more than the on-board video). Being it's a single parent home there's a $50 limit on what she can spend (I know, I know...).

Newegg has a one-day special today (10/12/05) at $45 AR for the:
eVGA 256-A8-N313-LX Geforce FX5500 256MB 128-bit DDR AGP 4X/8X

Should I jump on this one?

Anything better you can think of for the money?

Any other imput of value?

Thanks for your help!

PM me your PayPal address, I'll send you $25 to increase your budget on the gift by 50%.

I'll forward it to anyone who sees this and asks to make a similar donation if you give your permission.

IMO birthday gifts should be new in a box, and even if no one else helps, $79 will get you the 9600Pro new.

LMK- you'll have the money tonight.

 

[Mloot]

I believe both the 9500 and 9600 support Shader model 2.0 of DX9, but neither of them support Shader model 3.0. Only the newest ATI cards (x1800 series) and the Nvidia 6xxx and 7xxx series do. But both have much better DX9 implementation than Nvidia's FX 5xxx series. For example, in a game like Far Cry, which I believe uses SM 2.0, the 9600 Pro is about equal to/or a little faster than an FX 5950 at lower resolutions.

EDIT: One thing that I should have asked earlier is whether the rig in question is home-built or is it a name brand model? You mentioned that it had on-board video, so before you decide on which card to recommend to the family, make sure that the computer has an AGP slot. If the rig is one of the lower-end models that companies like Dell (i.e. Dimension 2350, 2400, 3000, etc), HP, and others sell, it might only have PCI slots available, which would change the situation somewhat.

 

[rbV5]

Originally posted by: Rollo

Originally posted by: EricR
Hello,

A family friend wants to purchase a video card for her sons birthday (he wants more than the on-board video). Being it's a single parent home there's a $50 limit on what she can spend (I know, I know...).

Newegg has a one-day special today (10/12/05) at $45 AR for the:
eVGA 256-A8-N313-LX Geforce FX5500 256MB 128-bit DDR AGP 4X/8X

Should I jump on this one?

Anything better you can think of for the money?

Any other imput of value?

Thanks for your help!

PM me your PayPal address, I'll send you $25 to increase your budget on the gift by 50%.

I'll forward it to anyone who sees this and asks to make a similar donation if you give your permission.

IMO birthday gifts should be new in a box, and even if no one else helps, $79 will get you the 9600Pro new.

LMK- you'll have the money tonight.

Thats a heck of a gesture Rollo, 10/10 :thumbsup:

 

[Mloot]

Heck, count me in too. I've got about $5 that's been sitting in my PP account for awhile. It's not enough for me to get anything with, but added to Rollo's, it might help you a little. If you need it, just PM me.

If you are going new, then this 9600xt looks decent for the price. It will be a little bit faster than a 9600 Pro.

 

[fbrdphreak]

Passive 9600 Pro $71:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102289

Otherwise that Rosewill is a good price

 

[Mloot]

Originally posted by: fbrdphreak
Passive 9600 Pro $71:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102289

Otherwise that Rosewill is a good price

That's a good suggestion, especially if you are going for a silent rig. Just be aware that, according to its specs, the core runs at 325mhz, which is a bit below the standard 400mhz of a normal 9600 Pro.

 

[imported_Rampage]

Originally posted by: Rollo

Originally posted by: EricR
Hello,

A family friend wants to purchase a video card for her sons birthday (he wants more than the on-board video). Being it's a single parent home there's a $50 limit on what she can spend (I know, I know...).

Newegg has a one-day special today (10/12/05) at $45 AR for the:
eVGA 256-A8-N313-LX Geforce FX5500 256MB 128-bit DDR AGP 4X/8X

Should I jump on this one?

Anything better you can think of for the money?

Any other imput of value?

Thanks for your help!

PM me your PayPal address, I'll send you $25 to increase your budget on the gift by 50%.

I'll forward it to anyone who sees this and asks to make a similar donation if you give your permission.

IMO birthday gifts should be new in a box, and even if no one else helps, $79 will get you the 9600Pro new.

LMK- you'll have the money tonight.

:thumbsup:

Tending to the poor, the needy, the orphan, the widow, and the stranger in our midst is a foundation of being a Christian.

PM me your paypal address please, EricR. We'll get this single mother's child something new in a box this year. While I'm a student at university, I'll do what I can (I do have a job ).

 

[hans030390]

You can find a Geforce 6200 around $55...hopefully 5 over isn't too much? Personally, that'd be the best card for the money...IF you're up to it, you could try unlocking the pipes on it (which MIGHT be disabled in newer cards) and making it like a 6600....now that's a deal.

So look into the 6200...agp might be able to be unlocked, pci-e, no, but still, for $50 that's probably the best card you can get.

 

[EricR]

Originally posted by: Rollo

Originally posted by: EricR
Hello,

A family friend wants to purchase a video card for her sons birthday (he wants more than the on-board video). Being it's a single parent home there's a $50 limit on what she can spend (I know, I know...).

Newegg has a one-day special today (10/12/05) at $45 AR for the:
eVGA 256-A8-N313-LX Geforce FX5500 256MB 128-bit DDR AGP 4X/8X

Should I jump on this one?

Anything better you can think of for the money?

Any other imput of value?

Thanks for your help!

PM me your PayPal address, I'll send you $25 to increase your budget on the gift by 50%.

I'll forward it to anyone who sees this and asks to make a similar donation if you give your permission.

IMO birthday gifts should be new in a box, and even if no one else helps, $79 will get you the 9600Pro new.

LMK- you'll have the money tonight.

WOW!

What an offer!!!

PM sent.

This is a good thing you're doing -- the mom works with the elderly (and is damn good at it too) but the non-profit she works for can only afford to pay her about $26,000 per year (and that doesn't go very far in this area). I know $50 was all she has for his birthday and even that is a stretch.

We help them as we can (i.e., bought her a new car) and your pitching in too is simply wonderful!

Did I say WOW?

THANKS AGAIN! <--- shouting on purpose

 

[EricR]

Originally posted by: Mloot
Heck, count me in too. I've got about $5 that's been sitting in my PP account for awhile. It's not enough for me to get anything with, but added to Rollo's, it might help you a little. If you need it, just PM me.

If you are going new, then this 9600xt looks decent for the price. It will be a little bit faster than a 9600 Pro.

WOW again!

PM sent. AT'ers are the best!

Thanks for your kind offer,

EricR

 

[Mloot]

PP has been sent. Hope the kid gets alot of gaming under his belt. He should notice a huge difference after being limited to onboard video.

 

[EricR]

Originally posted by: southpawuni
Tending to the poor, the needy, the orphan, the widow, and the stranger in our midst is a foundation of being a Christian.

PM me your paypal address please, EricR. We'll get this single mother's child something new in a box this year. While I'm a student at university, I'll do what I can (I do have a job ).

WOW x3 !!

PM sent.

Thank you Southpawuni, for putting your faith into action! Anything you can give is appreciated.

Regards,

EricR

 

[imported_Rampage]

PP sent here too.

Hopefully if our video community can come together on this, we can get this little guy and his overworked, underpaid mother a 6600GT or similar.

 

[EricR]

Originally posted by: Mloot
EDIT: One thing that I should have asked earlier is whether the rig in question is home-built or is it a name brand model? You mentioned that it had on-board video, so before you decide on which card to recommend to the family, make sure that the computer has an AGP slot. If the rig is one of the lower-end models that companies like Dell (i.e. Dimension 2350, 2400, 3000, etc), HP, and others sell, it might only have PCI slots available, which would change the situation somewhat.

Good point. We'll give them a call and post back with info on the target machine.

Thanks!

 

[imported_Rampage]

If it is indeed PCI, you have very few options.
The best is the GeforceFX 5700LE believe it or not. But hard to find like alot of good PCI cards (the radeon 9100 was very fast as well but impossible to find, also ATI is dropping support for those cards on Windows Vista so might want to avoid that if they have the ram/cpu power for that OS).
I detail that a bit in my sig for those with low end dells with PCI only. Though hopefully we can find him a 5700/LE instead of a 5200 if thats the case.

 

[EricR]

Ugh

It's an HP box with no AGP port. The motherboard info can be found here <Linky>

I don't know much about AGP boards and even less about what's available in PCI cards.

So once again it's HELP AT'ers!

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: EricR

Originally posted by: Mloot
EDIT: One thing that I should have asked earlier is whether the rig in question is home-built or is it a name brand model? You mentioned that it had on-board video, so before you decide on which card to recommend to the family, make sure that the computer has an AGP slot. If the rig is one of the lower-end models that companies like Dell (i.e. Dimension 2350, 2400, 3000, etc), HP, and others sell, it might only have PCI slots available, which would change the situation somewhat.

Good point. We'll give them a call and post back with info on the target machine.

Thanks!

$25 sent, thanks to friends I see taking up cause. This is the kind of thing "community" is about IMO.

 

[Mloot]

Uggh. Being that the kid is limited to a PCI video card, I don't see alot of sense in spending alot of $$ on a video card, when a cheaper one will do the job just as well.

A couple of years ago, I did a PCI video card review and I tried to include as many cards as I could. Being that it's a little dated, it does not include the FX 5700LE PCI, or some of the Radeon 9000 variants, such as the 9200 or 9250 PCI. Anyway, when all was said and done, the Radeon 9100 PCI basically whooped the pants off all other comers, except the FX 5600 PCI (which is very hard to find and also very expensive). The 128mb 9100 PCI is incredibly hard to find, but sometimes you run across a deal like this:

9100 PCI 64mb for $39.00 + shipping and/or tax if applicable

I've never purchased anything from Hyper Microsystems, but based on their reseller rating, I wouldn't have any problem sending them some of my hard-earned money.

The 9100 PCI will be faster than practically any other card you can get, unless you can score a 5600 or 5700LE PCI, which is highly doubtful, at least in the $50 price range.

Hope that helps a little.

 

[fbrdphreak]

With all these donations coming in, maybe a cheap AGP P4 mobo is in the works?

 

[fbrdphreak]

What type of processor is in it?