Looking for a good card, need help, im on a budget :(

[xJonnyBoyx]

I was told by a guy that ATI was the way to go. All my other friends say its gforce4. and the battle rages on.
The bad part is im on a tight budget, I can only go up to $160 or a couple dollars over.
Now the reason I ask is because I have doubts about radeon. Although the guy that knows alot, says ati is the way to go, and to get a 9600 pro, but I have bad experiences with radeons. The one I have now, an ATI Radeon 9000 Pro (128mb), totally sucks for modern gaming, and often crashes my system. If you could bear with me and see why i have this distrust with Radeons. My other friends say a GeForce Ti4800 is good too, and radeons are not as good as they say, blah blah,but thats why I am asking you. So Now I ask you ( ) What would be a better video card for modern gaming (warcraft, halo, counter strike, half life 2, mostly fps), and doesn't exceed my budget. A link to a good price or something would be great too.

Also, if it isn't much harm, what would be a good motherboard for a 2.4 ghz intel p4 processor, I have a standard intel mobo right now.
Thanks in advance.

 

[modedepe]

I understand your distrusts, but the 9600 pro really would be the best card for that price. As for the mobo, an abit is7 is a good choice if your processor is one of the "c" revisions.

 

[nimo]

I'm currently using a 9000pro (counting away the hours till my 9700pro gets here) 9000pro isn't bad card but it all depends on what you mean by "modern games"
After all it was designed to compete with the MX

On your current budget your choice is ATI 9600pro or nvidia fx5600
and the 9600pro is better

given your budget you can buy the 9600pro now or save 30$ more and get
a 9700np

 

[xJonnyBoyx]

Originally posted by: nimo
I'm currently using a 9000pro (counting away the hours till my 9700pro gets here) 9000pro isn't bad card but it all depends on what you mean by "modern games"
After all it was designed to compete with the MX

On your current budget your choice is ATI 9600pro or nvidia fx5600
and the 9600pro is better

given your budget you can buy the 9600pro now or save 30$ more and get
a 9700np

Modern games is a broad statement, I mean graphics wise, not ultima online or something with 5 year old graphics.

And whats the difference on a 9700np

 

[nimo]

9700 8 pipelines 256bit memory
9600 4 pipelines 128bit momory

if you are buying for the long run the extra 30$ is worth it