Which budget card should I get?

[Fardringle]

Let me start out by saying that yes, I know there are much better video cards available, but I don't need anything extremely powerful (I only play a few games and none of them even gave my GF2 MX a hard time before it finally died). However, I was given a gift card to a particular store as a Christmas present by my employer and I figured I might as well use it to replace my video card rather than keep using the really lame PCI card I have at the moment. I don't have any budget available for a high end video card, and even if I did I wouldn't get one since I plan to replace the entire computer eventually (it's old and somewhat slow with an AMD 1.4 Ghz TBird on an ECS K7S5A motherboard).

Having said that, which of these cards would be my best option? Please don't bother recommending any cards not on this list unless you can point me to one that is pretty much free, since these are the only cards this retailer stocks that are in range of the value of the gift card I have and I (read: my wife) don't want to spend any actual money on the card...

My choices are:

128 MB ATI Radeon 9200
256 MB ATI Radeon 9250
256 MB ATI Radeon 9550
128 MB VisionTek Radeon 9200SE
128 MB VisionTek Radeon 9250
128 MB VisionTek Radeon 9550
128 MB PNY Geforce FX5500
128 MB BFG FX5500 OC
256 MB BFG FX5500 OC

I'm leaning a bit towards the last one on the list since BFG is a great company and I've actually seen several fairly favorable reviews on the 256 MB BFG card (comparable scores to Radeon 9600), but I honestly don't know much, and can't find much, on the PNY card or any of these particular Radeon models that will help me decide. I'm fairly certain I don't want the 9200SE, but I'd appreciate any input on the others.


Thanks



Edit: While they are not the same brands, I just found a review here that scores the Radeon 9550 MUCH higher than the FX5500, in some tests by nearly twice the score. I also found this review that scores the Radeon 9550 very comparable to the FX7000. If these are accurate, I may go with the Radeon unless you folks are able point me to some good info to convince me otherwise. 🙂


Edit again: I just did some more research and it looks like the BFG 256MB card is 128 bit memory, and the VisionTek Radeon 9550 is 64 bit (the ATI branded 9550 is 128 bit but would actually cost me about $50 on top of my gift card), so I guess at this point I'm back to where I started, favoring the BFG, but still not sure. Please keep the comments coming! 🙂

Also, it looks like both of the Radeon 9250's at the store are PCI, so they're out of the running as well...

 

[Soulkeeper]

out of those choices i would go with the 256 MB BFG FX5500 OC and the lifetime warranty
but a GF4 ti, 5900xt, 9700/9800 would all be better due to increased mem bandwidth

 

[imported_ninex]

GF4 Ti4200 would be a great card for a budget, seeing as you can probably get one in the FS/FT forum for around $50 or $60.

Just my 3 cents.

 

[Fardringle]

That's true, Ninex, but that would also be around $50 or $60 more than is in the budget for this PC right now. The only reason I'm looking at buying a video card at all is because I have the gift card for this store, and it's a place I don't normally shop and doesn't really have anything else I want to buy with the gift card...

 

[dfloyd]

Before you get the 5500 read this:

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulleti...index.php/t-37880.html

 

[Sonic587]

I go for the ATI 9550 out of those choices.