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Now I need a Mid Range card

J

J22

Member
Thanks everyone for the input on my previous post about a cheap video card. Since I waited until the last minute, I think that I will have to give my friend my Gainward GF4 Ti4200, and then buy myself a new card (never a bad thing!!). So, the new challenge is to find the best one. Are any of the FX cards worth the money ($150-175) or better than the Ti4200/4400's? If not, I could pick up an older/used Ti4200 or Ti4400. Then there is always ATI to consider.

Fire away!
 
If you're set on nvidia and don't mind overclocking, this one at Newegg comes with Call of Duty - 5900SE.

If you're willing to give ati a shot, the 9800 Pro is a great card and has the best performance of anything $200 and under.

Doobie
 
Somewhere in the $150-$175 range
Click to expand...
Please learn to read, guys. If he says this range, please give him something to work with in his range. If you feel that he absolutely must spend an extra $25 over his range just to get a 9800 pro that he may not want, then please just suggest that as a secondary consideration, and that only, and give him something solid in his current range to consider as well. That'd be more helpful.
Yes, the 9800 pro is a great card and excellent bang for the buck, but I'm not going to tell you to get it unless you suddenly come across $25 lying in the street.

You can get an Nvidia Geforce FX 5900XT for around $170. If you can overclock it, the more the merrier. Performance is near that of a 9800 pro.

Or, if you're feeling lucky, you can get this card here
It's a Powercolor 9800SE. If you use Omega drivers with it as opposed to ATI catalyst drivers, it will enable the card to run as an 8 pipeline card, as opposed to default 4 pipeline card that the SE cards run at. This will effectively make it a 9800 pro, for $154 shipped. Problem is, is that not all the SE cards can run with 8 pipelines without artifacts. About 65% will do it. If you feel bad about taking a chance, don't. If the 8 pipe unlock fails, you're back to ATI catalyst drivers and looking at a card that performs like a 9600XT. Just something to think about.
 
The best sure buys are the 9800 Pro 128-bit cards (Evil Sapphire for that naming!) or the GeForce FX 5900XT. In this case, the FX would actually be superior, because the 9800, while not too bad for the price, is being starved like a P4 on SDR SDRAM.
 
Well it's not like we weren't paying attention Avalon. It's just a shame not to recommend a card that is so much better and only runs you $25 more. I know 25 clams is a nice chunk of change when you're on a budget, but it sounds like he doesn't upgrade often and a 9800 Pro is the best bet near his price range that will help him stay future-proof. If you can come up with $175, you can come up with $200 if you save for a few more days. 😉

J22 - Here's a new Hercules 9800 Pro that will probably go in your price range and Hercules made some terrific 9800 Pros. I've heard Herc is out of the video card business, but the seller gives a guarantee on it. The auction ends in less than 3 hours so hurry if you're interested.

Doobie
 
The Powercolor 9800 SE is a pretty good buy. Most can softmod, and even if it doesn't, you still have a pretty good card.
 
i would suggest u get a 9700 pro or a 9800 non -pro. i got a powercolor 9800np for 173 shipped from newegg and i have overclocked it up to pro levels. but i clocked it back down cuz its damn hot in my room.
 
Doobie, I apologize for sounding irritated. I noticed you did offer the OP a card in his price range in addition to advising him to get a 9800 pro if he could. That's something I like to see more. What irritates me are these 9800 pro bots who just spit out "9800 pro" everytime someone asks for a video card. They don't say why you should get it, and often times it's out of a person's price range. It would be nice if they said that if the person in question HAD the extra money, it would be best to spend the extra money and get a 9800 pro. Imagine if everyone just told him to get the 9800 pro without saying more, and he was on an unchangable budget, and he finds out the card is $200+. Or even worse, he finds the 128bit card, and then is surprised with the lack of performance. All because a few posts didn't elaborate when giving advice.
 
NP Avalon. I see where you're coming from and I didn't want to be lumped in with the 9800 Pro bots. 😉

J22, there was a post floating around about a new Hercules 9800 Pro at Hyper Micro for $195 shipped and thought you might be interested. It has copper heatsink/ramsinks and has a blue pcb and blue led on the fan. Check it out if you can stretch your budget a bit. 🙂

Doobie
 
Originally posted by: Avalon
Somewhere in the $150-$175 range
Click to expand...
Please learn to read, guys. If he says this range, please give him something to work with in his range.
Click to expand...
I don't think anyone misread his post, it's just that the 256bit 9800pro is sooo much faster than anything in the 150-175 range. And if he goes refurb, it is in his price range, of course refurb is a whole 'nother can of worms...
 
There are a number of refurb 9800 Pro's you can pick up on newegg in this range. I did, I ended up RMAing the card to ATi since mine was actually defective, but most of the Refurb stuff works out of the box. It's a gamble but one I think is well worth it considering the retail warrenty. That most always applies.
 
Try for a cheap 5900xt and overclock it if you want. Other than that get a 5700ultra if you like nvidia or a third-party 9600XT. 200 dollars at retail for an ATI 9600xt, insane!🙂
 
9800/9700 Pro: ~$170
5900XT, just a hair below a 9800: $175-$195. Right at your price range, and they are good all-around cards.
9800 Pro: above your price range, but worth it IF YOU CAN GET THEM.
 
I've seen used 9700Pro's for 125 to 150. This card isn't that old and still rocks. A year ago, most guys would have killed for one. It's not dead yet. Beats the 9800se.
 
Originally posted by: Cawchy87
5900XT

9700pro
Click to expand...

I agree with this. 9700pro i just saw on pricewatch for 165ish and a 5900xt keeps going from 153 (last wk) to 175ish (this wk). These cards are like 10-15%% slower then the 9800pro and are much cheaper. (at the 160ish price level)
 
Originally posted by: Marsumane
Originally posted by: Cawchy87
5900XT

9700pro
Click to expand...

I agree with this. 9700pro i just saw on pricewatch for 165ish and a 5900xt keeps going from 153 (last wk) to 175ish (this wk). These cards are like 10-15%% slower then the 9800pro and are much cheaper. (at the 160ish price level)
Click to expand...
Yes, but get Gainward or Leadtek if you go NVidia. It may be $10-20 more, but once you see a monitor running one of the others (MSI is OK, but given prices, Leadtek is a better deal), you'll see how worth it it was. Also, most Leadtek 5900XTs ship with 2.2ns RAM, so you should be able to get the RAM to 900MHz out of the box, no flashing, no nothing, and the NVidia cards are more RAM bandwidth hogs than the ATis, so that helps a lot. Gainward garuntees higher GPU speed, but many people are finding it hard to get to or beyond 800MHz on the RAM, so it's a wash.

Personally, my purchase has been decided by a penny. Heads Sapphire 9800 Pro, tails Leadtek 5900XT. It landed on heads. So have fun when Doom3 comes out and your NVidia card beats mine all to hell 🙂.
 
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