What's the best sub $200 video card on the market right now?

[Skooter]

Lookin for a middle of the line upgrade...I usually lean towards nvidia because of their superior drivers, but will consider ati given good reasoning. thanks.

 

[Harabecw]

I don't think the "nvidia has better drivers" arguement holds anymore.
Either a Radeon 9500Pro or 9600Pro.

EDIT: Oh I forgot. get a Radeon 9700 from newegg for $199 if you can

 

[K63]

Always helps to know how you plan to use it...

 

[selfbuilt]

Also, what card are you upgrading from?

 

[Skooter]

I've got a 32MB Geforce 2 GTS right now...I plan to use the new card for gaming, possibly planetside right now.

 

[Doh!]

Radeon 9700 for $199 sounds good, very good.

 

[Mingon]

geforce 3 - seriously cheap, good driver support and money in your pocket to get a hooker

 

[ironique]

 

[ironique]

9500 Pro or 9700 non-pro. More "future-proof" and handle current games a lot better. Plus better framerates with AA and Aniso enabled than any DX8 card out there.

Sorry about the double post, ignore.

 

[bluemax]

Originally posted by: Doh!
Radeon 9700 for $199 sounds good, very good.

Hear, hear! BY FAR the most video card for $200.

If you must, a GF4 Ti4200 for $110 isn't bad either.
Then again, a Radeon 8500/9100 comes awfully close to TI4200 speeds for only $60-70.

 

[selfbuilt]

I second bluemax ... it all comes down to how much you are willing to pay. If you don't want AA/AF, a Ti4200 or Radeon 8500/9100 (high-end GeF3 equivalent) are great buys right now. The Radeon 9500pro/9700nonpro is the best at the high end of your price range, and would last a lot longer than the other other choices.

 

[railer]

That future proofing is awfully expensive. What's the point? Get a GF4 for $100, or an 8500 for $75 or so.
Next year when you NEED it, you can have your 9700 pro for $90.

 

[yhelothar]

i don't think the "nvidia has better drivers" arguement holds anymore

yeah it still holds... ati still has soo many incompatibilities with many games... a lot more bugs in games than nvidia...
my radeon 9500 crashes in rtcw and C&C generals with catalyst 3.2 drivers... when i updated to catalyst 3.4, those two games works fine, but now my UT crashes..

tons of headaches..

nvidia has far superior drivers..

not to mention ati cards aren't compatible with several motherboards, and cannot be used with a PCI video card, and the list goes on..

yes and most of the times when you switch from nvidia to ati.. you need to reinstall windows just to get any functionality.. even if you did uninstall for the nvidia drivers, used detonator destroyer.. etc.. bs..

 

[bluemax]

Could also be a case of PEBKAC....

I've never had a problem with the ATI drivers, then again, I haven't had an nVidia card in this machine for ages either so I'm not getting any driver conflicts. Maybe now would be a good time for you to back up your important data and reformat.... start clean and fresh like the morning dewwww.......

 

[MercenaryForHire]

$100 for a Ti4200. $150 for an R9500. $200 for an R9700.

Take your pick.

- M4H

 

[FluxCap]

Sorry, but Generals crashes with 3.2 drivers? It is your system, hate to tell you because a friend and I have been playing Generals since release and nary a crash...ever. He has 9700 Pro and I have a 9000. Also, our friend has been playing for 2 months straight with 9500 Pro. You may need to examine the rest of your system.

BUT, I will have to slightly agree that ATI is till not perfect. The texture problems in Battlefield , while small, are annoying when flying an aircraft. ATI should be there soon on driver quality, or I hope.

 

[SoylentGreen]

I got open box gi4200 from newegg for 89 shipped. Works great.

Not as good as the bestbuy 128 deal people got, but I missed that one.

 

[SilverTrine]

I blamed ATi drivers for crahes in games, but it turned out to be my PNY memory got stability errors with my picky chipset (AMD 761).
I'd say most of the stability problems with AMD systems are because of ram errors. Its not like the BX days where all PC100 and PC133 is basically the same and works without a hitch, these days some systems dont like some ram.

Run memtest to see.