Three newbie video card questions.

[genEus]

Hi, three questions here from a newbie. All help appreciated.

1) I'm a very *very* casual gamer, but recently wanted to try Singles - Flirt Up Your Life, which came out a few weeks ago, and also GTA Vice City... I don't want to spend more than $60-$80 or so... So I have seen that the ATI 9200 Pro goes for about the same as a 9600SE but I'm not sure how the expensive version of one may compare to the cheap version of the other. That's my first question.

2) What would you recommend for this price range and whether a refurbished card is very risky or not.

3) I want DVI output for my LCD, but that will limit my options in choosing a card. Is DVI noticeably better than VGA output for LCD displays or should I not bother?

Thanks all!

 

[Delorian]

$60-$80 is a pretty limited range, I'd say go for a 9600, which retails for about $95 or so. This would be a much better deal, you might get one refurbished in your price range, but it is rather risky w/o any manufacturers warranty & @ newegg (if that's where you're looking) it's only a 2 week exchange period.

If you go refurbished, here is a good Ti4600 for $80
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-122-142R&type=Refurbish

Good Luck with your decision

 

[spazo]

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec.hmx?scriteria=AA19470


They also have a combo with ut2004 or Far Cry for ~$95 making it the better buy.

 

[spazo]

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec.hmx?scriteria=AA19470


ti4200 with far cry

ti4200 with ut2004

Oh and the speeds for this particular ti4200 are 275/600 so it is basically a ti4400

edit: sorry for the double post
edit 2: Included the links for the bundle with far cry and the bundle with ut2004.

 

[Concillian]

In your price range, the #1 thing you want to be sure of is that you get 128 bit memory bus width. Below $100 is a tough market and there aren't really any GOOD cards. As was said, the plain radeon 9600 (NO suffix, these are 64 bit cards) is about the bottom end for a gaming card.

ALL of the 64 bit memory cards absolutely and without exception SUCK at games.

Beyond that, most of the cards in your price range will perform similarly. You may as well get a GeForce4 MX 440. Sure the Geforce 5200s will support some of the new pixel shaders and such, but they don't have the performance to really use them. Benchmarks really don't have the other cards any faster than a GeForce4 MX 440, but they support more features. The GF4MX should play the games you list well enough for a casual gamer.

The other route is to go used or refurbished, and in that case try for one of the following:
GeForce 4 Ti 4200
GeForce 4 Ti 4400
GeForce 4 Ti 4600
Radeon 9500 Pro
Radeon 9700