Looking for new 3D card

[metroplex]

I'm not a heavy gamer but I do play a lot of 3D FPS's like Ghost Recon, America's Army, Battlefield Vietnam, etc...

I'm looking hard at the GeForce FX 5900 XT becuase it offers decent performance at a nominal price. Everything else is $300 - $400+.

My budget is under $250.

Any suggestions?

My mobo is an Abit KX7-333 (from a few years ago) so its maxed out with AGP 4x.

I'm not looking for a total system upgrade - I just want to replace a faulty GeForce 3 that I currently have.

 

[Rage187]

the 6600GT for $199 or scrape up another $20 and get a 6800NU

 

[metroplex]

I don't have PCI Express and will not be buying a new motherboard just for the video card. I may do something in 5 years though. My oldest PC is a 486DX4/100 that is in the garage used for vehicle diagnostics, so I re-use as much as I can.

Right now my GeForce 3 is busted and I cannot play any 3D games, so the computer just sits there.

 

[Schneider879]

Well the 6600gt is supposed to becoming out in the AGP edition soon but if you must have a vid. card now. I would say the 9800pro is the best price for around 200.

 

[biostud]

Originally posted by: Schneider879
Well the 6600gt is supposed to becoming out in the AGP edition soon but if you must have a vid. card now. I would say the 9800pro is the best price for around 200.

 

[fbrdphreak]

6600gt if you can wait. 6800nu for the best investment. 9800P for best bang for the buck right now.

 

[Subhuman25]

Slapping any of the latest generation video cards into your ancient set-up would be ridiculous,if it even runs.You would have a major huge gigantic gargantuan bottleneck with CPU,MB chipset & memory and prolly HD too.A plain and simple waste of money investing in a newer generation video card.
In fact a GeForce3 was already overkill in your system.Save yourself the money and just replace the GeForce3 with something the same or equivelent.
What you're planning on doing is like sticking a Ferarri engine into a wheelbarrow to try and race it on your front lawn.Makes no sense whatsoever :roll:

 

[d2arcturus]

Originally posted by: Subhuman25
Slapping any of the latest generation video cards into your ancient set-up would be ridiculous,if it even runs.You would have a major huge gigantic gargantuan bottleneck with CPU,MB chipset & memory and prolly HD too.A plain and simple waste of money investing in a newer generation video card.
In fact a GeForce3 was already overkill in your system.Save yourself the money and just replace the GeForce3 with something the same or equivelent.
What you're planning on doing is like sticking a Ferarri engine into a wheelbarrow to try and race it on your front lawn.Makes no sense whatsoever :roll:

read this: Topic Title: The Real Deal - If you want a gaming rig, spend 90% of your funds towards a videocard and not the cpu.

anyways, i agree with the 9800pro, best for the buck

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: Subhuman25
Slapping any of the latest generation video cards into your ancient set-up would be ridiculous,if it even runs.You would have a major huge gigantic gargantuan bottleneck with CPU,MB chipset & memory and prolly HD too.A plain and simple waste of money investing in a newer generation video card.
In fact a GeForce3 was already overkill in your system.Save yourself the money and just replace the GeForce3 with something the same or equivelent.
What you're planning on doing is like sticking a Ferarri engine into a wheelbarrow to try and race it on your front lawn.Makes no sense whatsoever :roll:

I agree. Unless you are planning on upgrading the entire system some time soonish, hop on ebay and pick yourself up a GeForce4 Ti4200-4600 on the cheap. If you are planning on upgrading within the next 6 months, I would wait until you can get an Athlon64 based rig that supports PCIe and go with a 6600GT. Since you don't seem to upgrade too often, going for PCIe will allow you to upgrade the video card sometime before you have to upgrade the entire system again.

 

[Cawchy87]

9800pro. it is better than the 5900xt. not to mention that the fx series blows.

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: Cawchy87
9800pro. it is better than the 5900xt. not to mention that the fx series blows.

Of course, so does a 9800Pro compared to a 6800NU, which he can buy for his $250.

http://www.newegg.com/app/View...14-122-193R&depa=0

http://shop1.outpost.com/produ...sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

this one's $265, but more than worth it

IMO, you'd have to be nuts to shell out ~$200 on a 9800Pro when $50-$70 more will get you a number of 6800NUs.

 

[kamranziadar]

POWERCOLOR ATI RADEON 9800SE Video Card, 128MB DDR, 256-bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP, Model "R98SE-C3" -RETAIL
For only $145, and i have this one you can see the speed i achieved my VGA Silencer and Unlocking all 8 pipes with Omega Drivers.

 

[kamranziadar]

This one is available at Newegg.com

 

[tungtung]

kamranziadar: A note of caution, not all 9800 SE can be soft modded into 9800.

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: tungtung
kamranziadar: A note of caution, not all 9800 SE can be soft modded into 9800.

Beyond that, a Silencer is around $30 anyway, so doesn't that bring your cost to within $25 of a real 9800Pro anyway?

I don't see the point of this- warranty voided, risk it doesn't work, possible shortened life of card, labor to install Silencer- to save $25?

In any case, a guy willing to spend $250 has better options than a modded 9800SE.

 

[uOpt]

I just bought a 5900XT and I am very satisfied. With my XP 2500+ it gets me 40 fps in medium quality Doom3 w/AA. It's just awesome.

I decided against getting a cheaper 6x00 series because if I want a GF 6 I want a model with the full number of pipelines and with 256 MB RAM, which means a 6800 GT which is $390.

In my experience,

1) yes, it pays off to have a great video card even if you have an older CPU, as long as you have decent RAM bandwith (333 MHz and up).

2) I much prefer to get a high-end, full-pipelines and high memory bandwidth model of the older GeForce Series than a scaled down model of the newer series (just lower GPU clockspeed is OK with me).

I did the same thing with the GeForce 4. A Ti 4400 off ebay made for a much nicer card that a cheapo GeForce 5/FX at the same money at the same time. I didn't get DirectX 9.x hardware acceeleration, but then those low 5x00 cards don't run these games well anyway.

Now, there is Half-Life 2 coming up with apparently has a real problem with GeForce 5/FX cards so maybe I'll come back complaining later

 

[Quasimodo]

I've been kicking around the same problem for a couple of weeks now. Do you go with the 9800SE and hope it softmods then add on an aftermarket cooler or just pay the $$ up front and get what you wanted to begin with.

Im leaning towards the latter with this one.



SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON 9800 PRO Video Card, 128MB DDR, 256-bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP -BULK -OEM

I see a great deal of discussion regarding aftermarket coolers, but from what i've seen on this card the stock cooling should be good enuf if i keep it at stock values. True?

 

[Quasimodo]

found an even better deal from cnet.com partner Only $202.38 for an AIW 9800P


ALL IN WONDER 9800 128MB AGP 8X/4X/82X