Video Card Upgrade....help

[Mattlock]

I believe my ATI Radeon 8500 All in Wonder is on the brink. A lighting storm hit my house and now I have no 'red' in my TV tube. I'll swap out monitors to confirm but in the event I need to updgrade my card I need some help.

Given the following, what recommendations does anyone have?

Factors:
1) I need a TV Tuner also (could be a seperate Card if I can get better card)

2) I am a novice gamer but I appreciate good graphics but dont need to overkill for $$

3) My budget is <$200.

4) My current system is an XP2100 overclocked to xp2600 with 512 Corsair RAM.

I was thinking about ATI 9600 or 9700 all in wonder but I've been out of the market for a while so I don't know the latest on graphics etc.

Any feedback is appreciated.

Mattlock

 

[Rage187]

9700 AIW sounds about right

 

[LouPoir]

Or 9800 AIW.

Lou

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: Rage187
9700 AIW sounds about right

yep, only thing really that could fit his price range and still be an upgrade from the 8500 and still get a TV tuner

 

[cw42]

get them seperate.

1. you can def get by with a 9700. I played Pandora Tomorrow, and Far Cry on it and they both looked pretty good. 120-140$

2. leadtek winfast tv 45$

in 1-2yrs you'll be wanting to upgrade your vidcard again. when you do, you don't have to worry about getting integrated tv and video. you'll be able to keep the leadtek card for a while.

 

[Cawchy87]

9800pro only gets 10-15% better proformance than the 9700pro. but that is an excellent idea if he can get both of those cheaper than the 9700aiw

 

[Cheetah8799]

9800 Pro and 9600xt cards are selling for decent prices in the FS/FT forums. The used market is kinda flooded right now because so many people are upgrading to 6800 and x800 cards.

I agree with cw42 as well, get a separate tv tuner. The AIW cards are over priced in my opinion...