Need a budget video card

[Script917]

I am building a computer and have every thing decided on except the video card. There are so many of them that my head just starts spinning. I don?t really play any games; the games I do play are like SimCity and stuff like that. So I don?t need anything that has allot of graphics capability, I do however want to be able to stream video to my TV and I want it to be decent quality. Other than that I just need moderate graphics capabilities. I?m looking to spend $100.00 and around $125.00 ish is my max. Truthfully I would like to spend less than both numbers stated since my machine has run so much over budget already. I need suggestions, thanks in any help. If you suggest something that is a number, please specify a brand because all of them seem to share numbers for some reason, perhaps some one could clear up why they do that?

 

[Gnosis]

Any old GeForce 2 or 3 will do just fine.

Look around and try to find a good second hand example.

Good Luck!

 

[nick1985]

grab a cheap geforce 2 for like 20 or 30 bucks somewhere.

 

[Delorian]

Originally posted by: nick1985
grab a cheap geforce 2 for like 20 or 30 bucks somewhere.

I loved my old GeForce 2 Ti, you can catch em on ebay for around 20-30

 

[carlosd]

Get a new Radeon 9200SE for US$40.

 

[Peter]

If you want good TV-out, your minimum choice would be a Radeon 9200SE w/ SVideo output. There's an Elitegroup one for around $50; I have one of those and am happy with it. The next step up are 9550SE and 9600SE, which are DirectX 9 hardware. If you want to max your budget out, use a plain 9600. Always choose a model that has DVI, VGA, and SVideo - don't go with the cheapos that have no DVI and just standard Composite TV-out.

 

[Script917]

How about this guy here? Its at the top of my budget, I figure having a little graphics power is ideal just incase I find a game that I like to play.

Does this meet all the criteria you suggested as far as the video streaming?

 

[heartsurgeon]

radeon 9200

newegg

<$50

fanless - makes for a very quiet computer!!

 

[Delorian]

Originally posted by: Script917
How about this guy here? Its at the top of my budget, I figure having a little graphics power is ideal just incase I find a game that I like to play.

Does this meet all the criteria you suggested as far as the video streaming?

256mb of ram on a 9600 is useless esp. on a 9600np. Something such as a 9500 pro on ebay or even a 9600 w/128mb ram would be a better deal.

 

[mlt001]

I have an ECS R9200 128MB DV with vga, dvi, and vivo. I bought it not too long ago from Newegg for about $52. A pretty decent budget card if you do not need DX9. Seems to have disappeared from Newegg's inventory for some reason but you may be able to find it somewhere else.

 

[nitromullet]

Care to be a guina pig? Go XGI.

http://www.newegg.com/app/view...=14-145-092&amp;depa=0

Forum with review link and discussion here.

Link to Review

 

[selfbuilt]

I'd recommend against an old GeForce 2 ... good gaming cards in the day (I had 2 of 'em), but the 2D quality was poor on some makes (and I doubt it's improved with age .

A Radeon 9200 with VGA/DVI connectors should fit the bill nicely, and is still quite cheap as others have pointed out.

 

[tecslave]

Try a Geforce FX 5500 128MB TV-out, DVI. I just got one for about $58 from www.compgeeks.com, and it is the "best bang for the buck" card you can get. It plays every game I have WAY better than the Geforce 2 Pro it replaced. Even "Painkiller" runs smooth as silk at 1024x768.

Unlike some of the other "mainstream" cards out there, the Geforce FX 5500 has a 128 bit memory bus, which means that it is not crippled by low memory bandwidth.

I would much rather have a Geforce 6600GT, but it will be quite some time before I even consider upgrading my system.