What's a good cheap video card?

[MWink]

I'm upgrading a system for someone and I'm not sure what kind of video card to get. I'm looking for one that's around $100 or less. The system currently has an ATI Radeon 7000 32MB. The system will be used for occasional gaming. What do you think would be a good card for around $100 or less? BTW, I'm not going to overclock it so don't suggest that.

 

[acemcmac]

I like the 9100 series cards... they're about $60 on newegg... glorified 8500's

good luck

 

[JammingJay]

Radeon 8500/9100, or a Geforce 4 Ti4200 series are fine upgrades for $100 or less. The Ti4200 will give you faster gaming than a Radeon 8500/9100, but some would argue Radeon 8500/9100 has slightly better 2D graphics. (sharper text, etc...)

The Radeon 8500/9100 will between ($60-$90)
Geforce 4 Ti4200s will be approx ($80-$110)

Either card would make a solid upgrade from a Radeon 7000. Best of luck to you.

 

[MWink]

Thanks for the suggestions so far. Can anyone recommend a specific card from Newegg? Also, there seem to be a lot of cheap GeForce FX cards. How do they perform?

 

[Mingon]

glorified 8500's

more like castrated 8500's

 

[tallman45]

The 9100 is just a new release of the 8500Le, some like sapphire put slightly faster memory. Neither is as fast as the original 8500 but those are no longer available. For around $75 (retail version) you would be hard pressed to find a card that does as much as the 9100. It is slower than the older Ti4200 but the 9100 supports much higher resolutions and refresh rates. You may want to check googlegear, they may still have some retail versions which include software such as Power DVD

 

[RobsTV]

The 8500le/9100 runs about as fast as a Ti 200, so that is the card you should be comparing one too.
For non-overclocked cards, check out Tom's VGA charts for a good reference.

Many Ti 4200's will run at Ti 4600 speeds (overclocked, which you state you will not do today) , which is a big gain
over the speeds you could hit with a 8500le/9100/Ti 200, or even a Ti 500.

Ti 4200's fall into your price range of best card under $100, but you should look for a sale or rebate for best deal.
Check out the Hot Deals forum here at AnandTech.