VERY Cheap PCI Express x16 card to run HL2/CS:S???

[Loki1]

I'm I'm building a very low budget gaming rig and I need a graphics card with PCI Express 16x that will be able to run both HL2 and CS:S pretty well since that's pretty all I'll be playing, w/ exception of a little WOW and Guild Wars.

My budget for a card is NO MORE than $70. Yes horrible I know. I've been looking at all the cards on newegg but no idea which one to get. Some one help!!! plz, thanx a lot.

 

[Soccerman06]

Wait for the R520 low end next month.

Otherwise the 6600 if you can scroung up another 30-40 bucks and get a Nvidia 6600 or if you must stick with your price range and have it right now, get the ATI X550

 

[HDTVMan]

Wow thats tough.

Radeon X600?

Wish you could muster up enough to get a Nvidia 6600 even non GT.

Might try e-bay first.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

ATi X550, probably not much faster than a 9200.

 

[Unkno]

if your only playing source games (HL2, CSS) then get the current ati generation cards, they SHOULD (i'm not sure since they are low end cards) perform around 10fps more than nvidias when playing source games

 

[Soccerman06]

any one of these would be fine at minimal resolution

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102565 X550

or

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814122210 6200TC 256

or

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814122223 6200TC 128

 

[deep122]

I'm looking for a PCI Express video card as well, although I can spend around $120. Are there any decent cards I could buy now, or should I just wait awhile? Right now I'm stuck with a really crappy Radeon X300 SE that came with my Dell. Ugh...

 

[HDTVMan]

Originally posted by: deep122
I'm looking for a PCI Express video card as well, although I can spend around $120. Are there any decent cards I could buy now, or should I just wait awhile? Right now I'm stuck with a really crappy Radeon X300 SE that came with my Dell. Ugh...

6600GT for just a little more. Will last you possibly all the way through 2006.

 

[deep122]

Thanks...I was actually looking at the 6600 GT cards as well as X800 vanilla. I'll still have to wait a bit to get either.

 

[Loki1]

Lol, im hella tempted about the ebay idea - anyone have any experience with bad cards off ebay?

 

[coomar]

there was an x600xt on ebay that finished for 55 US, thats probably the best you can do for sub 70

 

[Loki1]

Another option: I think the best solution is waiting for the R250, any ideas about release date? and pricing? cuz I'll definitely need to finish my computer by the beginning of september.

 

[Soccerman06]

Originally posted by: deep122
I'm looking for a PCI Express video card as well, although I can spend around $120. Are there any decent cards I could buy now, or should I just wait awhile? Right now I'm stuck with a really crappy Radeon X300 SE that came with my Dell. Ugh...

Well the answer to that question is questionable. The R520 is suppose to come out in mid August, pritty much the same time Nvidia releases their mainstream card. Now this is considering both of them dont do a paper launch. As I've said many times before, wait for the new GPUs to come out before you make a descision.