Whats the best money/performance VideoCard

AnotherGuy

Senior member
Dec 9, 2003
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Hi everyone.
I am about to buy a videocard from $100 - $140.

This is an upgrade from a Geforce2 MX200 32mb. That is so ooooooold right? I was thinking to get an ATI radeon 9600 Pro, but i donno if its gonna be compatable with my also old motherboard which is an AZZA Via KT133A chipset, 200/266 MHz FSB Socket A, 4x AGP. So is this new ati 9600 pro 8x going to work with my mobo, or u think i should get a new mobo with a new processor, and faster RAM ? Right now i got a AthlonXP 1600+, 512MB pci133.

Not too good on the budget.... thats y just wanted to upgrade just my video card actually.

Or u guys think i should get another vid card... like a GeForce Fx or something?

Thanks...
 

AnotherGuy

Senior member
Dec 9, 2003
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Thnx for the reply.

But is 9600 pro the best vidcard for its money.. $140, and will i see major results with the new card when i play games... cz i kinda lag sometimes when i play online. I play Americas Army... but that could also be from my Dial up connection. But as in general... i think i should see some difference in gaming with my new vid card... shouldn't I?
 

JimRaynor

Golden Member
Sep 3, 2003
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Yeah there should be a difference. The radeon 9600 pro is probably gonna give you the best bang for your buck.
 

JimRaynor

Golden Member
Sep 3, 2003
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Either that or a ti4200 if you can find one for cheap. They are getting increasingly rare, so the price for retail ones seems to have gone up. You should be able to find one on the for sale/trade forum for a good price though.
 

AnotherGuy

Senior member
Dec 9, 2003
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Well ti4200 if im not wrong is a directx 8 and doesnt support directx9 games i think... so forget that :), i aint buying somewthing that is already out of bussness. Its a good card but still... not worthy.
I was also considering the radeon 9600 XT $170, but thats like another 30 bucks comparing to 9600 pro
 

modedepe

Diamond Member
May 11, 2003
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A ti4200 will play dx9 games, but it will be in dx8 mode, so it isn't necessarily "out of business" :)

I'd probably get the 9600 pro though.
 

DaveSimmons

Elite Member
Aug 12, 2001
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Originally posted by: AnotherGuy
Oh i thot it wouldn't be able to even run the directx9 games... hmm thnx for the info
nope, a gf4 ti4200 will run Doom3 and HL2 when they're out, though not as nicely as a 9800 pro. People are selling used gf4's in FS/FT forum so you might check that in addition to newegg.com
 

AnotherGuy

Senior member
Dec 9, 2003
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hmm what's up with this newegg.com... everybody using it..
Myself i like Pricewatch.com... its like u find everything there.... n cheap
 

DaveSimmons

Elite Member
Aug 12, 2001
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Originally posted by: AnotherGuy
hmm what's up with this newegg.com... everybody using it..
Myself i like Pricewatch.com... its like u find everything there.... n cheap
The lowest price is often a shady company with horrible service. newegg charges low prices on most everything and you can trust them to not scam you or deny you a return of a defective product.

If you must go for that lowest price, look up the company at resellerratings.com before placing the order.
 

AnotherGuy

Senior member
Dec 9, 2003
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U are more than right about that... But pricewatch itself is not a company... Different wellknown computer companies post their best deals in this website, and pricewatch has nothing to do with u or the item u buy. Its just a reference website.
All the great companies like MSi, Asus, ATI, Sapphire, Nvidia, Albatron.... n sooo many more i cant list em all... bring their deals in this website. And im telling u... i havent found a better computer related website... a lot of great deals there.
Check it out www.pricewatch.com
 

Bitdog

Member
Dec 3, 2003
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Have you considered upgrading you MOBO and MEM ?

I put together two identical AMD 1.6 ghz computers (real close to identical)
One ASUS board had 256 meg DDR (using a VooDoo 3 16meg vid)
the ESC used 256 meg SDRAM p100 (my old memory)
and the speed difference was quite noticable.

Even though the ESC had the best graphics card (Nvidia mmx 400 64 meg) it was quite a bit slower.
I saw an AV7333 Asus mother board for $10 reburbished and Corsair PC3200 mem 1 gig for $152
and that upgrade would be about your $140 price range and should make a noticable difference for you.
The MOBO has an AGP also.

It's just an idea any way,
since putting money into a PCI video card doesn't seem like that good of an idea these days.

www.dumpinggoods.com doesn't have a very good reputation handling problems that arise,
but the prices for a quickie cheap fix for you might be worth looking into ?

 

xSauronx

Lifer
Jul 14, 2000
19,582
4
81
if you use pricewatch, you _must_ use resellerratings.com before you buy from anyone. if they dont have a good rating, dont spend money with them.

newegg has *awesome* service and very competitive prices

if you do check pricewatch, you'll see newegg there alot as one of the lower priced sites.
 

adams828

Senior member
Nov 29, 2003
486
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anotherguy, the point everone is trying to make is that while yes, you can find "amazing prices" from name-brand manufacturer's on pricewatch, the company that posts that "amazing price" is in most cases either a shady company that will end up ripping you of or.. well that's probably it. the reason people reccomend newegg is that they offer some of the best prices, along with good, fast service, and usually free shipping as well.



anyways, back to the original post.. i am in the same boat myself, and so far it seems that a 9600 pro seems like the way to go if you want a card in that price range right now. of course, you know if you wait just a little longer, you'll get something better ;) sigh...
 

Megatomic

Lifer
Nov 9, 2000
20,127
6
81
Yes, we are all familiar with pricewatch, yes we have all looked at it. But in the end we turn to a small group of online vendors for the vast majority of our purchases.

newegg.com
zipzoomfly.com (formerly googlegear.com)
bestbuy.com
svc.com

There are others but most of the time you see people buying from those places.

And back to the point of the thread. If I was you, I'd go for a 9600 Pro. I had the pleasure of using one for a while, it was a stable, fast, quality videocard. For the price it's an amazing piece of gear.
 

stncttr908

Senior member
Nov 17, 2002
243
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76
Go for the 9600 Pro, but definitely consider a new board and some DDR memory in the near future. You're not going to get near the performance with that new card as you would with say a KT266 board w/512MB of PC2100 memory due to the low bandwidth of the SDRAM you're currently using.

Also, I doubt the 9600XT is worth the extra schillings. All it is is a higher clocked version of the same card if I recall.
 

Overkast

Senior member
Aug 1, 2003
337
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0
I absolutely agree... get a 9600 Pro.

I got one... it's fabulous (I upgraded from a Ti4400). Trust me... stay away from the Ti series. The chip on mine only lasted 1-1/2 years and then it blew... so I had to get a new video card (and I paid like $300+ for that Ti4400 at the time... I'm pissed because of that).

The 9600 Pro comes with a 3-year warranty, and the product is solid-as-hell anyway in terms of performance.

Get it. You won't be sorry.
 

AnotherGuy

Senior member
Dec 9, 2003
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thanks for ur answers... But if any1 looking at this thread again... would u better get a 9800SE or 9600pro.. considering they r at same price range.
 

robcy

Senior member
Jun 8, 2003
503
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With a max budget of 140, your best bet would be a vid card upgrade. Avoid the 9800SE, the 9600PRO is a great card for the money, and will defenitely give you a much needed preformance boost.

I use pricewatch alot, but I also check the retailer rating before I provide my CC# to any company.

 

MadRat

Lifer
Oct 14, 1999
11,960
278
126
Originally posted by: Overkast
Trust me... stay away from the Ti series. The chip on mine only lasted 1-1/2 years and then it blew... so I had to get a new video card (and I paid like $300+ for that Ti4400 at the time... I'm pissed because of that).

I've had the same luck with Nvidia since the Riva128 core was replaced with the TNT cores. The Riva128 cores I originally had are running in machines that I gave to relatives. Only have one TNT-family cored card left in the mix, and its a Gateway pull based on the TNT2 Ultra. Gateway's version ran with the memory settings and core speed retarded lower than most of the other mainstream TNT2U cards out there which probably explains why it survived. And the original GeForce cores, oh my.... all dead within a year.