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What is the best $100 video card out there?

M

markjs

Senior member
I want to spend about $100 on a vidcard and expect it to last a year. I already have an ATI Radeon 8500LE 64MB, so I want to go noticeably better than that.

Please note that I have a maximum of about $125 to spend and would much rather spend $100 or so, so make the price guideline strict please!

Thanks in advance!
 
Well now I'm confused (again) and a little bit frustrated. I just asked that question and was told to pass on the 4200...

See this thread.

Everyone says the Ti 4200 is a great card if you can get it for ~$80, but that ain't happening. I've looked and the closest new card I've found from a half-way legit dealer is about $115. For $120 I can go to newegg and get a FX5600 Ultra (both 128mb).

Sounds like I'm gonna just have to pick something and stop reading about what people have in their own boxes or how they think this card or that card sux at this game or that.

Sorry for the vent....
 
Well I have been told that the 4200 is faster than the FX 5600 but that feature wise with all the quality settings maxed and the AF and AA on that the 5600 Ultra is a better card. Correct?
 
Originally posted by: ErmanC
Well now I'm confused (again) and a little bit frustrated. I just asked that question and was told to pass on the 4200...

See this <a class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=31&threadid=1239625" target=blank>thread</A>.

Everyone says the Ti 4200 is a great card if you can get it for ~$80, but that ain't happening. I've looked and the closest new card I've found from a half-way legit dealer is about $115. For $120 I can go to newegg and get a FX5600 Ultra (both 128mb).

Sounds like I'm gonna just have to pick something and stop reading about what people have in their own boxes or how they think this card or that card sux at this game or that.

Sorry for the vent....
Click to expand...


4200 > 5600

i was browsing newegg a couple days ago in the refurbed section. they had a 128 meg chaintech for $69. and a ti-4600 for $112. i dont know where the heck you have been looking man....price watch/newegg refrubs/FS-FT are your friends.
 
Originally posted by: markjs
But again I asked which is a better card with AA, AF and all settings maxed?
Click to expand...

you wont be able to play new games with those settings on EITHER a 4200 or a 5600. once again i suggest, as well as 99% of AT, that you get the 4200 over the 5600
 
Originally posted by: markjs
But again I asked which is a better card with AA, AF and all settings maxed?
Click to expand...

$100 Radeon 9600 256MB, new. But a 4200 will probably be faster, and, in the end, all the effects in the world won't make up for a choppy framerate.

If you do go with a 4200, don't pay more than $70, IMO. A 4400 or 4600 would be worth around $100, though. I'd buy used, as you're only looking to get a year out of the card. The likelihood of it going bad on you in one year should be slim, provided your case temp isn't ridiculously high.
 
You can get a Sapphire 9600 128MB for $101.

It will be generally a lot faster than a 4200 if you want to run some AF. But a little slower without. I would think the 9600 should be able to run at least some AF a lot of the time and give half decent performance.

 
going from a 8500 LE to a TI4200 isn't much of a jump. I've got a regular 8500 128meg radeon and my friend has a TI4200 128 meg and we have switched cards around and did alot of testing and the 4200 is only about 5-10% faster on both of our systems (including 4x AA) and the 8500 LE isn't much slower than my regular 8500.
 
The $100 price range is a tough one. Really the only cards in that range or the TI cards and the 9600. If you could save a few more $ and get a used 9600 pro for around $130 you would be much better off. especially with AA and AF
 
I agree, anything for about $100 now isn?t really going to be much of an upgrade. A 9600 is only a little faster than a 8500 without AA/AF.

I think it would be better to put off an upgrade and save a little more for something better. For a decent upgrade you would have to go for a minimum of a 9600XT ~ $150. That will allow you to use IQ enhancing features like AF and AA. I think usable AF is probably the most important new feature on the new DX9 cards (to clean up those blurry textures.) I don?t think there?s any point in upgrading to a solution that won?t allow you to at least use some of the IQ enhancing features most of the time.
 
I just hate to go ATI. My last two cards have been ATI and both have had some issues with games that run fine with Nvidia cards. Too bad it costs so much to get something decent made by Nvidia. I'll prolly go that route and get the 9600 pro. Unless I get a card with VIVO in which case I may go as low as a GF4....decisions decisions!
 
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