Need a budget AGP card

edm

Senior member
Mar 7, 2000
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I'm looking for a decent budget card (sub $100) for my brother who just purchased a new PC. He's currently using the onboard video, but it does have an open AGP slot. He is mainly looking for something to watch movies on his TV, surf the internet, and maybe do some light gaming.

Would the 9600 XT be the best option? I'm looking at this one.

His specs are 3ghz p4 512 RAM.

Thanks :)
 

imported_Kiwi

Golden Member
Jul 17, 2004
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(I'd thought that) That is/ (was) a decent price for a lower midrange, or upper low range card. Nearly anything other than a Radeon 9250 or MX 4000 makes the typical IGP look silly by comparison, and even those awful things are better than an Intel IGP.

(Via an edit at 11:00 AM -- P.S. I guess I wasn't keeping good track of 9600-anything pricing; the appropriate card to look at is more like this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a...10&ATT=14-102-510&CMP=OTC-pr1c3grabb3r

The 9600 XT is "too slow" to benefit from more than 128 MB's of onboard RAM for anything fast moving, such as a game. There are products, including video editing programs, that will put the slow RAM to work if there is more than 128 MB's. So what is going on with Sapphire here is wasting your additional $20 on RAM that you won't use. Therefore, I wasn't quite right in my initial response, was I?)


:eek:
 

DAPUNISHER

Super Moderator CPU Forum Mod and Elite Member
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Aug 22, 2001
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Originally posted by: edm
I'm looking for a decent budget card (sub $100) for my brother who just purchased a new PC. He's currently using the onboard video, but it does have an open AGP slot. He is mainly looking for something to watch movies on his TV, surf the internet, and maybe do some light gaming.

Would the 9600 XT be the best option? I'm looking at this one.

His specs are 3ghz p4 512 RAM.

Thanks :)
Used 9800Pro for $70 or if new, grab a 6600 or 1300, both are better and have newer feature sets for about the same money. May even find a hot deal 6600GT or 1600Pro for a little more after MIR. That 9600XT is a joke for that price.