Video Card for the poor of us

[bsewen]

I have seen a lot of posts about video cards but not one for those of us that are poor (or to cheap to spend $250 on a card). What is the best card for under $200? GeForce FX 5700 is only $92, I am sure the Radeon 9600 XT and 9800 are better but are they significantly better to justify the expense. I am sure the 9800 pro 256 is the best of the "cheapies" but it is at the $240 mark which is pushing it for me. I know I am being cheap, but how about some advice for those of us that are cheap.

 

[f|uke]

You can get a 9800pro for around $200. Best card you can get without going to the 'top of the line' x800/6800.

Oh, and this belongs in Hardware Discussion.

 

[ScRaTcH-A-HoLiC]

I have seen a lot of posts about video cards but not one for those of us that are poor (or to cheap to spend $250 on a card). What is the best card for under $200? GeForce FX 5700 is only $92, I am sure the Radeon 9600 XT and 9800 are better but are they significantly better to justify the expense. I am sure the 9800 pro 256 is the best of the "cheapies" but it is at the $240 mark which is pushing it for me. I know I am being cheap, but how about some advice for those of us that are cheap.

If you get a 9800pro make sure its the 256 bit version, thats the good one.

 

[giant384]

u think ur poor because u can only buy a 9800 i can only buy a fx 5200

 

[diluted]

I have a 9600XT, it runs HL2 and CS:S very well, though I can't play in High texture detail because the loading times are horrendous and it stutters. ;( But I think that may have more to do with the fact that I only have 512MB of RAM.

 

[toxikneedle]

get a 6600 GT agp it outpreforms the 9800 pro and its same price.

 

[Koshibb]

dood i got a geforce 4 ti and it runs like a dream....it is one of the greatest most stable cards out there....no problems at all with any games also and i am playing with high models and details and shadows and shit...also with 1024 x watever u know the usual....

gl man and stay cheap

 

[Calm_Blue_Ocean]

I have a 9600XT, it runs HL2 and CS:S very well, though I can't play in High texture detail because the loading times are horrendous and it stutters. ;( But I think that may have more to do with the fact that I only have 512MB of RAM.

I'm in the same boat (same card, same memory). I am quite pleasantly surprized by how the game runs but I intend to up my memory as well. The XT has a built in overdrive feature (the chip is overclocked depending on temperature). Not sure it makes a huge difference, but it certainly doesn't hurt.

 

[[46] pushit [2]]

...The XT has a built in overdrive feature (the chip is overclocked depending on temperature). Not sure it makes a huge difference, but it certainly doesn't hurt.

is the overdrive feature automatically enabled? or is there anything that I need to do manually to "activate" the overdrive? btw, upgrading from 512-->1 GB is the best move you can make for RAM without having to buy a new video card or processor? however, 768MB to 1 GB sadly doesn't make much of a difference... :|

 

[Zelnaga]

9800Pro is the cost effective cards

But it sure heck cant run max details. Also cant use the water pixels to reflect everything.

 

[bsewen]

Thanks for all of your responses. It helped a lot. Here is what I have come up with, maybe it will help someone else out there...

The 9800 pro 256 is by far the best of the lower end cards. Of course it is running on pricewatch for $250 so it is pretty high for lower end cards. I have decided on the 9600 XT 256 card running around $125. I couldn't find any benchmarks with HL2 so I used one with Far Cry which is pretty intense (http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041004/vga_charts-09.html). The 9600 XT 256 did fairly well and a lot better then the lower end GeForce cards. I have 768 MB of memory so hopefully it will be fine. If it sucks, I will get the 9800 pro in 6 months when it is $125. Hope this helps and thanks again for your responses.

 

[doomed - uk]

I have decided on the 9600 XT 256 card running around $125. I couldn't find any benchmarks with HL2 so I used one with Far Cry which is pretty intense (http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041004/vga_charts-09.html).

9600 XT is benchmarked for HL2 here:

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2281&p=1

Newer cards are benchmarked here:

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2278

 

[Latin_Jones]

You can get a 9600XT for $135 bucks. You can also get a radeon 9800SE for a little less than that and I think it's about the equivalent.