Looking to upgrade Video Card-Cheap

[sjgmoney]

I currently have a Nvidia GeForce2 mx/mx400 64mb card (PCI) and I'm looking to upgrade. I don't need anything crazy as I don't play a lot of the heavier duty games out there but I know my card is pretty weak. (and with a better card I'd maybe pick up BF2 or Farcry etc)

Couple of questions:
1. From what I've read here by searching other people's questions I should get at least a 128 MB/128 bit card, is this correct?

2. My current card is a PCI, I have an open AGP slot as well, what is better?

My system is a Pentium 4, 1.9ghz, and I currently have 1gig of ram.

The cheaper the better of course with a cap of about $100 is all I'm looking to spend. Thanks for any input.

 

[kyparrish]

9700 pro's are going for ~$100 or less in the for sale/for trade forum. AGP is MUCH better than PCI.

 

[coomar]

agp has a lot more bandwith available than pci, that is why there aren't powerful pci cards, get a used 9800pro or 9700pro

 

[Kogan]

If you want to wait a month or two and don't mind shopping around, try to get an AGP geforce 6600gt. These are near twice as fast as all other $100 cads at the moment and hopefully should be under $100 soon.

Currently they're $165 new and as low as $135 used/refurbished (look at newegg's refurb site). But with the geforce 7 series comming out/being announced soon, their prices should start to drop.

But if you need one now, a 9800 pro would be nice if you can find one for $100 or less.

 

[sjgmoney]

Thanks for the input guys.

 

[Tu13erhead]

This might be a good choice:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp...ctCategoryId=cat01151&id=1113953684817

 

[sjgmoney]

Maybe I can become an escort to buy it!!!!!

 

[Acanthus]

Id get a 6600 vanilla, or 9700pro/9800pro, or if you wanna be really cheap a 6200 (make sure its 128bit, and not turbocache)

 

[sjgmoney]

How about a 9250 that I see on newegg for real cheap, 128 Megs, 128 bit, for like $40, how big an improvement are those over what I have? how about the 9600, how big an improvement will I see with that?

Thanks for the answers guys, probably very newbie-ish for most of you but I know very little about video cards.

 

[Pete]

A 9250 should be a decent upgrade, a 9600, slightly better. A used 9700P/9800P is the best you can do for under $100, but your CPU will limit almost anything you throw in there (probably even the 9250). BF2 or Far Cry will really appreciate a 9700P/9800P, compared to the other cards.

Check out the many CPU scaling articles at Anandtech (and elsewhere: Firingsquad, THG, Gamespot Hardware) to see how much of a bottleneck a 2GHz P4 will be. You can probably go as far back as Anand's UT2K3 CPU Scaling article and still see your CPU being a considerable bottleneck. Though newer games (and their newer effects) will lean on the video card more, the CPU is still important.

 

[RussianSensation]

Teh Winner

the cpu will limit you like Pete said. However, with Far Cry and BF2, you'll be 90% videocard limited. So a 9800Pro is the perfect fit without being overkill.

 

[sjgmoney]

Originally posted by: RussianSensation
Teh Winner

the cpu will limit you like Pete said. However, with Far Cry and BF2, you'll be 90% videocard limited. So a 9800Pro is the perfect fit without being overkill.

That looks like a real good deal, thanks.

 

[gac009]

whats an "ultra lite" 9800pro?

 

[Pete]

"Lite" typically means no software and possibly no hardware bundle, though it can sometimes mean a crippled card. The "Ultra" in this case seems to be a random superlative added to the card's title, much like Gainward slaps an "Ultra" onto basically of their cards--it's just descriptive bling.

 

[hans007]

i'd assume you only want to spend like $100 or so, 9800 or 9700 pro would be your best bet probably.