Well my old GEforce MX440 just isn't cutting the mustard anymore so I managed to scrounge up a few bucks for a new videocard. I'm looking to find something in the $100-150 range. What card do you guys recommend for me, and where should I go to get it?
You sir, are a hideous hermaphroditical character which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman.
Nordic Warrior
I'd take a look at the newer Radeon cards. This summer I bought a GeFX 5200 Ultra for around your price and it didn't really deliver. You won't be able to get top of the line but you should be able to get something decent. According to PriceWatch.com you could get a Radeon 9700 128MB for $159 and a Radeon 9800 128MB for $138 (this one sounds kinda goofy). I'd check out the 9700 route though.
Sausage-in-training
Those are most likely underpowered off-brand cards. Anything not made by ATI or one of the bigger ATI vendors (Asus, Sapphire, etc) is to have problems. My advice for ATI cards is to buy ATI for the best build quality and performance.
Radeon 9600 XT (what I use, performs excellently in UT2004, Halo PC and HL2 beta) - $173
Radeon 9600 - $148
For the money, I recommend the 9600 XT.
Ok, what about the GeForce 5700? Are those decent? I see those for a good price here:
http://www.pricewatch.com/1/37/5884-1.htm
Or is a GeForce Ti4800 better?
Also I'm sure those are off brand as well... should I avoid off brand nVidia's as well?
The 9600 XT would be really nice, but it's a bit higher then I'm looking to spend. Although it looks like Pricewatch has a Sapphire 9600 XT listed at $149 which is possible.
Will I get more bang for my buck getting a 9600 card, or getting a GeForce 5700 or Ti4800?
You sir, are a hideous hermaphroditical character which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman.
Nordic Warrior
I've heard good things about the Geforce 4800's but I'm not so sure about the 5700, although I think they're worth the money. From what I've read the offbrand GeForce cards are less of a gamble then the Ati ones but you might want to go with the opinions of somebody who's tried them before.
Ice
I think a Ti4800 is just an updated version of the old Geforce 4 series. Not exactly what I'd be spending my money on currently. Go to www.tomshardware.com and look up his "VGA charts" it compares tons of video cards.Originally Posted by bbobb
Eh?
I'd just wait a week or two when Nvidia's new cards arrive. Prices will go down.
Between your 3 choices, the 9600XT is the right choice. The Ti4800 is just a Ti4200 with AGP X 8 and the 5700 just can't compete with the 9600XT on most games. If you truly prefer Nvidia, try to find a 5900XT. It's far and away the best price/performance value for an Nvidia card.
Drivers on either side are somewhat on the wonky side at the moment so that shouldn't really matter at the moment. In the end it really depends on what game you're playing.
Sausage
Tom's VGA charts:
http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/20031229/index.html
If you just want to skip all the bs, and just want a good card for your money:
http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/...charts-17.html
New cards are about to ship? I guess I'll wait then if that's true.
You sir, are a hideous hermaphroditical character which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman.
I use the Radeon 9600 SE, you can find it for about 129.99 and it wont be able to run games like Far Cry ( HL2, Doom3, I'm assuming ) with everything maxed out without getting choppy as fuck, but it'll run em on medium settings and still look beautiful, It can run Halo at a very high resolution with any slowdown.
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