Which video card to buy for around $50 or less?

[Fardringle]

I apologize if this has already been asked, but I did several searches and even the FAQ's and various benchmarks I have seen really only list cards over $100 as "Low End".

I need to replace the video card for a computer that only runs a few older games and performance in the newest FPS games doesn't matter at all.

The system in question is an Athlon 1.4Ghz with 1GB of PC2700 DDR running on an ECS K7S5A motherboard. (Not only do I not need a high end video card, I doubt the system would really handle one anyway.. ) The RAM is overkill for the rest of the system, but I got it extremely cheap at the time.

I was using a GeForce2 32MB AGP card and frankly, even though it was a bit slow at times, it was satisfactory for most things I play. The card failed recently so I was forced to toss in an awful old PCI card that won't even play simple games until I am able to replace the GF2.

My budget for replacing the video card in this system is about $50 (I MIGHT be able to go a bit higher for something significantly better than the $50 market, but not by much, and definitely not more than ~$75...).

With that said, I would really appreciate any suggestions on what model (and brand, if appropriate) would give me the best overall results in that price range.

Thanks in advance for the help!

 

[vanish]

i would suggest a geforce4 mx440 or 420 (if you can find one) and if you can't, then opt for an mx4000. All three options should be at least under 70 bucks, if not 50 (if you find the right one).

 

[ScrewFace]

You should be able to get a 128MB Radeon 8500 for around $50 and it's far superior and much faster than the GeForce4 MX 440. It also supports PS 1.1 and VS 1.1 whilst the MX 440 is a Direct 7 (Hardware T&L only).

 

[tigereye]

Ti 4200 can be had for $50-55 shipped from the FS forum. Don't think you could do better than that in that price range.

 

[Fardringle]

Thanks for the quick replies! This definitely gives me something to work with.

Just out of curiosity, in reference to the first reply, what is the difference between the MX440 and the MX4000?

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: Fardringle
Thanks for the quick replies! This definitely gives me something to work with.

Just out of curiosity, in reference to the first reply, what is the difference between the MX440 and the MX4000?

Essentially nothing. The "MX4000" is an 8xAGP version of either the MX420 or 440 (can't remember which). There are also MX440-8XAGP variants out there. The increased AGP speed does nothing even for really fast cards, and is completely useless on something as slow as a GF4MX.

A GF4MX would be a pretty cheap replacement for the GF2 (and it performs about the same). A GF4Ti card would be a big step up in performance.

 

[touchmyichi]

the 5500 OC was only 30 at frys today after rebates

 

[ponyo]

Check this thread for new Radeon 8500LE and 9100 for all under $50

Hot Deal

 

[jiffylube1024]

Originally posted by: Fardringle
Thanks for the quick replies! This definitely gives me something to work with.

Just out of curiosity, in reference to the first reply, what is the difference between the MX440 and the MX4000?

The MX440 is three digits of suckage; the MX4000 is four digits of suckage. They're basically the same card otherwise.

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: Naustica
Check this thread for new Radeon 8500LE and 9100 for all under $50

Hot Deal

This is probably your best bet, unless you can find a GF4 Ti in the same price range.

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: Naustica
Check this thread for new Radeon 8500LE and 9100 for all under $50

Hot Deal

Disagree. 8500 based cards had flakey issues with running at retail speeds, drivers, and AF if I remember right.

GF3 is just as fast, way more stable, etc..

$59 for Asus at a good vendor, 8.97 resellerrating

Trust me on this one Fardringle, I had both and know which one I'd go back to. The 8500 is no R300 on the driver/easy to use front.

 

[ponyo]

Originally posted by: Rollo

Originally posted by: Naustica
Check this thread for new Radeon 8500LE and 9100 for all under $50

Hot Deal

Disagree. 8500 based cards had flakey issues with running at retail speeds, drivers, and AF if I remember right.

GF3 is just as fast, way more stable, etc..

$59 for Asus at a good vendor, 8.97 resellerrating

Trust me on this one Fardringle, I had both and know which one I'd go back to. The 8500 is no R300 on the driver/easy to use front.

Rollo, when was the last time you used Radeon 8500? Yes, Radeon 8500 had lot of driver problems in the beginning just like all ATI cards back then. ATI's drivers sucked back then. They are much better now. If you're early user of 8500, you never saw the card at its full potential. Radeon 8500 works great with current Catalyst drivers for Windows.

As for AF, you can actually use AF on older games and still get playable framerates unlike Geforce 3 and 4 which pretty much dies when you enable AF. Radeon 8500 is faster with AF on than even Geforce 4 on older games. Plus Radeon 8500 has better movie playback and desktop image quality than Geforce 3.

Allstarshop is very good vendor with over 9.0 lifetime resellerratings. Both cards are good budget cards and the OP can pick from ATI or Nvidia cards. But don't say Radeon 8500/9100 are unstable flakey cards because they are not. My wife is currently using my old Radeon 9100 and it's rock solid card.

 

[nRollo]

The 8500 was ATIs best the last time I used it Naustica, it wouldn't run at stock speed for me and many others, and had many issues besides that.

You are right that I haven't used one in a very long time, and they could have improved.

 

[HappyNic]

I got the 8500 when they first came out,, most if not all run fine at STOCK speed of 275/275., just a few might be defects because of the ram used. It was only the drivers that most people new to ATI got problems with. That's were Rage3d came in, There was lots of changes in the driver at that time too, and it got better and better. With every driver update the card got alittle bit more proformance power,, after a couple of years those little bit add up.. AS of right now,, the ATI 8500 is a pretty good card.
If I was to choose a GF3 or a 8500,, I would pick the 8500 in a hard beat. Even with the GF4ti (which came couple of months later) i'll still need alitte time to choose which one depending on what i'm going to do most.



You can try checking out the forsale forum,, I got one for a friend just a month ago for about $35. The seller was "kitkit201" He's a great seller/trader,, you can check if he still has one left.

Oh stay away from MX cards.

 

[Sylvanas]

the 8500 has really picked up after some good driver releases, id opt for a 8500 if i were you.

 

[The Green Bean]

take the 8500LE for 30$!!!

 

[OS]

Originally posted by: Rollo
Disagree. 8500 based cards had flakey issues with running at retail speeds, drivers, and AF if I remember right.

GF3 is just as fast, way more stable, etc..

$59 for Asus at a good vendor, 8.97 resellerrating

Trust me on this one Fardringle, I had both and know which one I'd go back to. The 8500 is no R300 on the driver/easy to use front.

The 8500/9100 series are great these days, no problems. I still have mine. Plays farcry and ut2k4 at 1024 decently. Halo is decent at 640. Doom 3 gets by at 640.

I was playing with a black friday 128 MB GFX 5200 today and it was easily half the speed of my 9100.

 

[yhelothar]

Originally posted by: tigereye
Ti 4200 can be had for $50-55 shipped from the FS forum. Don't think you could do better than that in that price range.

agreed!
4200 will smoke anything suggested in this thread.

 

[Sonic587]

Originally posted by: OS

Originally posted by: Rollo
Disagree. 8500 based cards had flakey issues with running at retail speeds, drivers, and AF if I remember right.

GF3 is just as fast, way more stable, etc..

$59 for Asus at a good vendor, 8.97 resellerrating

Trust me on this one Fardringle, I had both and know which one I'd go back to. The 8500 is no R300 on the driver/easy to use front.

The 8500/9100 series are great these days, no problems. I still have mine. Plays farcry and ut2k4 at 1024 decently. Halo is decent at 640. Doom 3 gets by at 640.

I was playing with a black friday 128 MB GFX 5200 today and it was easily half the speed of my 9100.

Former 9100 Pro (rebadged 8500, IIRC) user here. That thing was just as stable as the GF4 Ti4200 I currently own. Worked great with latest Cats/Omega's. ATI has come a long way with their drivers.

You could pick up a Ti4200 64MB off the FS/FT forum, however. I'd go for that with your budget.

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: HappyNic
I got the 8500 when they first came out,, most if not all run fine at STOCK speed of 275/275., just a few might be defects because of the ram used. It was only the drivers that most people new to ATI got problems with. That's were Rage3d came in, There was lots of changes in the driver at that time too, and it got better and better. With every driver update the card got alittle bit more proformance power,, after a couple of years those little bit add up.. AS of right now,, the ATI 8500 is a pretty good card.
If I was to choose a GF3 or a 8500,, I would pick the 8500 in a hard beat. Even with the GF4ti (which came couple of months later) i'll still need alitte time to choose which one depending on what i'm going to do most.



You can try checking out the forsale forum,, I got one for a friend just a month ago for about $35. The seller was "kitkit201" He's a great seller/trader,, you can check if he still has one left.

Oh stay away from MX cards.

Pffft. Rage3d.

HappyNic I have been building my own computers for over a decade, and working in IT/IS for seven years. I've put in more video cards than most people who don't do it for a living.

The 8500 retail was a POS when it came out, and the evidence was all over Rage 3d.

I had a 300w PSU, a 1600+ on a Epox 8KHA+ back then. Toms hardware had just got done selecting the 8KHA+ as their Editors Choice.

I fdisk/formatted to start my 8500 adventure.

I tried new bios for the motherboard and video card.

I tried multiple driver revisions for both.

I replaced my powersupply with an Antec 430w True Power at $100 cost to myself. (bear in mind this is a rig that my GF3 ran flawlessly on)

The "wonderful" 8500 wouldn't run at stock speeds, I had to back it off 25MHz (per Rage 3d suggestion) and it still hung on me. Did I mention this is in a full tower case with 4 fans, in a cool room? (so no heat issues)

Then the good folks at ATI and Rage 3d suggested my motherboard was the problem. I said,"BS. It ran my GF3 and V5 fine. I'm not replacing it to run your POS hardware."

Here's where it gets good- I bought a GF4, uninstalled the ATI drivers, popped in the GF4 and it ran fine, just like the GF3 and V5 before it.

Go figure.

You can tell me all you like about "user error" and "drivers", put I think my story pretty much speaks for itself.

 

[MDE]

Rollo, can you read? The drivers are perfectly fine now. How freakin old is the Radeon 8500? There's one in my Dad's system and it runs FLAWLESSLY with Catalyst 4.7 drivers IIRC (haven't needed to update them). I'd take either a Ti4x00 or 8500\9100 for a $50 budget.

 

[overst33r]

i got a 9250 the other day im happy with it.

 

[RussianSensation]

Having played on 4200 and 8500, I can without a doubt say that 4200 is faster in 3d gaming, but its 2d quality is inferior to the 8500.

8500 is a decent card, and will be faster than 9100/9200/9250 (or any of those versions in SE varieties).

Of course in newer games, this means 640x480 in doom3, HL2, Far Cry at 800x600 tops.

GeForce 4 Ti4200 128Mb DDR AGP w/TV-Out & DVI - $56

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: MDE
Rollo, can you read? The drivers are perfectly fine now. How freakin old is the Radeon 8500? There's one in my Dad's system and it runs FLAWLESSLY with Catalyst 4.7 drivers IIRC (haven't needed to update them). I'd take either a Ti4x00 or 8500\9100 for a $50 budget.

MDE- I cannot read, only type. My mom read me your post, so I had to respond!

What I was pointing out to HappyNic, MDE, is that I know how to change drivers and install/troubleshoot hardware. He seemed to be calling me a nooB of some sort, so I explained that I'm not and probably really did have problems with the 8500s.

As noted in my post above that:

You are right that I haven't used one in a very long time, and they could have improved.

 

[uOpt]

Originally posted by: MDE
Rollo, can you read? The drivers are perfectly fine now.

Oh cool. When exactly did they implement/activate Fog Tables in their Direct3D drivers?