Near $200 vid cards, which to buy?

[DrBosk]

I'm looking to buy into the $200 price range soon, which is going to be a hot market in the next few weeks. I'll be upgrading from a 9500 pro and I'll have to keep this card for about 1-1.5 years, so its a fairly important decision. New or used makes little difference to me, most likely I won't be able to get a x700 or 6600GT used any time soon, so assume new. 9800 pro, 128 or 256mb versions are valid too. If you have any other suggestions besides these feel free to add them. I figured this would be a good topic to add because I'm probably not the only one looking at these. If there is already a post about the midrange card comarison, sorry for the repost. Thanks for your opinions!

Edit: Mobo uses AGP not PCIe

 

[bamacre]

I'd go x700 or 6600GT over the 9800pro. You'll have wait a little while for these to hit agp, if that's what you are looking for.

Price are bound to drop on the 9800pro soon, down to about $150-175 range. A few "hot deals" I think have popped up at those prices already. This is for the 128MB 256-bit card.

 

[Chopstick217]

Go with the 6600 GT

 

[ksherman]

from what ive read, the 6600 GT sounds sweet

 

[SneakyStuff]

I 3rd the 6600GT, it looks quite impressive 🙂

 

[Cawchy87]

buy a 9800pro used. then sell it when it starts to get out of date and pick up a cheap 6600GT. I think that will save you money. but if you just want to buy one card, the benchmarks for the 6600GT look impressive.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: Chopstick217
Go with the 6600 GT

 

[Pete]

I'm aiming for a 6600GT, too, for higher KOTOR speeds, the 8xS AA mode for older games, speed equal to or greater than a X700XT (and noticably faster than even a 9800P in certain games, like Halo and Far Cry), and the fact that it'll probably be available first in AGP form. If it launches at $200, it'll be tough to beat.

 

[mitchafi]

It's so sad to see the 9800 Pro dethroned already as the best midrange card. Oh well, it was still the best $200 I ever spent.