Where can I find a video card better than the banshee for cheap?

[RSI]

I don't have any money, but I will be working weekends and maybe during the week, this summer coming up very soon. So where can I find a video card that'd be faster and better quality (in ALL areas please) than my current 16MB PCI Banshee? I have an AGP slot, the motherboard is an FIC VA-503+ and I use an AMD K6-III+ processor with 256MB ram.

What card would you suggest?

 

[Mookow]

ATI Radeon LE, then flash it to a straight DDR

 

[RSI]

how fast would that be? how much does a radeon LE cost typically, in east Canada?

 

[wyvrn]

Check out the anand review comparing the ATI and Geforce cards. www.anandtech.com 😀

 

[RSI]

Oh sh1t thanks, I never thought of checking ANANDTECH.com!!!! 😀

 

[Mookow]

If you successfully flash it to a DDR Radeon, which most LEs handle fine, it performs at or about a GF2 in 3D, but mops the floor with any GF2 at 2D. It is priced at about $80 US shipped from Newegg.com.

 

[RSI]

Thanks, interesting.

ATI Radeon LE AGP 32Mb DDR OEM $119.99 - PCCanada

Damn. Not EXPENSIVE, but still... 120 bucks! 🙁

I paid about around $180 for my Banshee and it was TOP of the line when I got it...

 

[Mookow]

Dude, the P200 MMX my dad got from Gateway was top of the line (I used to go to school and brag about it!) when he bought it.

 

[RSI]

Good for the P200MMX.. my point was that $180 got you top of the line back then, and now $180 gets you very FAR from top of the line.

 

[Mookow]

point taken. At least top of the line CPU's are coming down. I think it might have something to do with no real competition (yet, Radeon II/Kryo III may change that) for NVidia (sic), while AMD and Intel are running neck and neck.

 

[RSI]

Exactly.. The CPU prices are doing alright, let's hope the video market will take a plunge some time soon too .. something similar to the ram prices would be nice 🙂