Need Advice On Buying a Video Card

[Tenshodo]

What would be a good video card to buy around the $200 dollar range? Preferably less than 200.

Specs are

AMD 64 2.2 ghz
512 GB ram- probably going to be 1.5 gigs
ATI 9600

 

[obeseotron]

Considering you probably have an AGP system, it's questionable whether a new video card is the best move. You can get considerably more bang for your buck with a pcie video card. If you stay agp, 6800gs is your best bet. 512MB RAM is going to be a problem for new games also, but I see you are planning to upgrade that too.

 

[HamidFULL]

Do 7800GS AGP

 

[Tenshodo]

Yeah, I would but its 300 so...

I'm thinking a 6800 gt. Hows that for a bang for the buck?

 

[obeseotron]

6800gt more or less equates to a 6800gs. The GS has less 25% fewer pipelines, but is clocked about that much faster so it's pretty much a wash. Only difference would be if you were overclocking, the GT has more headroom because of the lower clock speed and will get more benefit from every extra Mhz than the GS because of the 4 extra pipelines.

A 7800GS doesn't make a lot of sense. For that money you would be better off going to pci-e.

 

[LW07]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102016
Get this X850Pro.

 

[Munky]

There's no sence in spending $300 for an AGP 7800gs when on PCIe there are cards twice as fast available for that price.

*edit: Something like a 6800gs or an x800pro should be a decent card for $200 in AGP. Both would be a big improvement from a 9600.

 

[Tenshodo]

Anyone know where I could find one? Theres like nothing on newegg

 

[henny45]

Well you could always spring for a cheap mobo with pcie and get a x1800xt 256mb pcie for around 280 - 50 (iloveati code at checkout) - 20 (MIR) at newegg. That comes out to 220 AR for a x1800xt which beats even a 7900gt on many benchmarks. Or for 200, you can get a 7600gt pcie with a free game (graw or tomb raider). IMO if you're spending 200 on a vidcard, might as well make it future proof by going pcie so you can sli/xfire when the time calls for it. But then again DX10 is coming out next year so if you plan on getting a new card that fully supports it, you'll probably need to get a new card + a new mobo with pcie anyway. I think its still a long time away tho. lol sorry about the long post, I've been window shopping on newegg for days since I'm going to be building a new rig soon and these are basically my options too. ANyway, gl.

 

[Tenshodo]

^^^^^
I know that DX 10 is coming out next year, but I really don't even care. I run a mid range sytem anyway. And Vista dosn't really intrest me.,

I'm looking for 6800 gs's but the best price I could get was a 6800 gs made by PNY at tiger direct. And I',m hesitent about it.

I tried lloking at Evga but its a bit too expensive.

Anmy reccomendation on where to buy?