Under 200 bucks?

[Astu222]

New poster here,

Simple question: Best card for under 200 bucks? One that can play far cry, doom 3, and CS:Source in the 200 dollar range.

EDIT: non-PCI-X card, AGP cards only.

Sorry if this has been asked before

 

[Bazarhuu]

There are some hot deals being posted in the hot Deals forum for the Radeon 9800 Pro right now. Best card? dunno.

 

[The Green Bean]

9800pro 256megs

 

[nick1985]

Originally posted by: hatim
9800pro 128megs

fixed for ya.

 

[Astu222]

is the 9800 pro 128m better then the GF FX5900 XT?
And what do i need to be able to OC the 9800 pro to the 9800 XT that i hear so much about?

 

[nanaki333]

now just wait for people to come in saying 'spend the extra $100 for an NU or $200 for a GT, it's much better blah blah blah'

 

[Delorian]

Originally posted by: nanaki333
now just wait for people to come in saying 'spend the extra $100 for an NU or $200 for a GT, it's much better blah blah blah'

If he hadn't said under 200 I would've definitely suggested them as the new gen is far superior.

Anyhow to answer the OPs question, yes the 9800 pro 128mb is better than a 5900XT due to it's lower clockspeeds. the 9800 pro is more on par with the 5900 Ultra or the 5950 Ultra. XT is the highest class card in ATI's lineup and the lowest in Nvidia's lineup, confused yet?

Most get at or near XT speeds from their 9800 pros right out of the box, but the difference between the xt and the pros are clockspeed/core/ram. XT has 412/730 speeds, an R360 Core, and 256mb ram. Pro has 380/680 speeds, an R350 Core and either 128mb ram or 256mb ram. Also don't confuse the 128-bit versions of the 9800 pros with the 256-bit versions. These 128-bit versions are cheap crappy little cards that are crippled by their reduced memory bus. So if you want XT speeds, buy a 9800 pro and get an arctic cooler and you should get the speed.

What you were referring to is a 9800 XT bios flash on a 9800 Pro. Some 9800 pros actually come with an R360 core and can be flashed with the bios of a 9800 XT. If you want one of these, the MSI is your main choice. It can be found here but remember it still only has 128mb slower ram.

 

[Astu222]

well cash is kinda tight so im willing to spend up to about 300 bucks on upgrades for my computer. I have a Athlon XP 3000+, 512mbs of ram (pc2700) and im using a GF4 ti still. I was looking to get a 200 dollar card and a stick of ram (1x512MB; about 80 bucks). Is it better to use my money to get a NU 6800 for under $300 or go with a 9800 pro and a ram upgrade?

 

[Acanthus]

Wait for the Geforce 6600GT. MSRP $199, should be an AGP version by oct/nov

 

[WobbleWobble]

I second the 9800 Pro 128MB.

All new 9800 Pro 128MB should come with the R360 core which is the same one used on the 9800XT. However the memory used is rated slower than the XT ones so you may have some issues doing a straight flash to an XT BIOS. If I remember correctly you won't get the OVERDRIVE or thermal diode as you would with the regular XT.

This is with the built by ATI cards. Other manufacturers sometimes use different PCBs and layouts so you'll have to do more investigating.

 

[Delorian]

Originally posted by: Acanthus
Wait for the Geforce 6600GT. MSRP $199, should be an AGP version by oct/nov

It might be a while but it's worth the wait IMO unless you get a 6800 now and ram later on down the line.

 

[raanemaan]

Originally posted by: Acanthus
Wait for the Geforce 6600GT. MSRP $199, should be an AGP version by oct/nov

Good idea if you can wait that long.