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best budget card?

B

brad-

n00b
Joined
Jan 6, 2005
Messages
48
i am replacing my father's old graphics card which cant play newer games. he has about a 2 year old Dell P4 and i was thinking something along the lines of the radeon 9800SE for $130 or the 9800Pro for $180. Would there be any major benefit to shelling out the extra 50? The only difference i saw was that the 9800Pro model i was looking at had 256mb ram as opposed to the SE's 128.

Do you guys have any other suggestions, advice, or comments?
 
A 9800Pro w/ 256mb for $180 is a very good deal, and you will definatly see a huge diffrence in the performance between the two. Make sure the computer has an AGP slot though, as most low end Dell comps don't have one.
 
Do you have a link to that card? $180 for a 256mb Radeon 9800 Pro is an incredible deal.

Thanx.

Adam.
 
9800 se's are not gaming graphics cards, most have 128bit ram and some have 256bit ram but still both have half the pipes enabled than the 9800pro (half the horse power). add that onto the fact that they all have slow or damaged ram on them... just get the 9800 pro.

~Adam
 
CleanSlate said:
9800 se's are not gaming graphics cards, most have 128bit ram and some have 256bit ram but still both have half the pipes enabled than the 9800pro (half the horse power). add that onto the fact that they all have slow or damaged ram on them... just get the 9800 pro.

~Adam
Click to expand...

And you can pick up a used one for a pretty low price too.
 
Not the biggest fan of ATI
But its true :eek: :p

9800Pro is the best bang for the buck budget card :D
 
Its a sign of the times that a $180 card is considered 'budget'. It used to be the case that 'budget' was under $100; midrange was $100 - $300; and high end above that. :eek:
 
dexx said:
Its a sign of the times that a $180 card is considered 'budget'. It used to be the case that 'budget' was under $100; midrange was $100 - $300; and high end above that. :eek:
Click to expand...

Yeah, thats pretty messed up. The only thing that can be reasoned to it, is that Modern/current Games require the technology of those cards. Anything lower would suck, at least eye-candy-ily graphically.
 
6600gt would be good too. you can pick them up on newegg for under 200 bucks. same price range as that 9800 pro but better performance
 
Aris said:
6600gt would be good too. you can pick them up on newegg for under 200 bucks. same price range as that 9800 pro but better performance
Click to expand...

err... they're all pci-express, not AGP.
The AGP versions are all about $30 over 200
 
That card linked (the 256 meg 9800 "pro") is not a true pro as he said above. That card has a 128-bit ram bus interface, dont buy it.

~Adam
 
A 9800 Pro is a radically better performer than a 9800 SE. However, 9800 Pros cost as much as a 6600 GT now, which is much faster, unless you can find a used one.

There are alot of bullshit 9800 Pro knock-off variants out there. Just get one made by ATI themselves.
 
Not to beat a dead horse but I also urge you strongly to forgo the card in the link. The 9800's selling under 200.00 are all 128bit memory controller versions.

I love my 9800pro but I don't really understand why they have not gotten any cheaper.

With the 6600gt offering much better performance at a slightly lower price point, there is no reason to buy a 9800pro right now.

The best bang for the buck on a capable ATI card right now has to be the 9600xt at about 160.00. The higher core clock, and memory speeds makes up for the 128bit memory controller and fewer pipes.
 
ncantador said:
Not to beat a dead horse but I also urge you strongly to forgo the card in the link. The 9800's selling under 200.00 are all 128bit memory controller versions.

I love my 9800pro but I don't really understand why they have not gotten any cheaper.

With the 6600gt offering much better performance at a slightly lower price point, there is no reason to buy a 9800pro right now.

The best bang for the buck on a capable ATI card right now has to be the 9600xt at about 160.00. The higher core clock, and memory speeds makes up for the 128bit memory controller and fewer pipes.
Click to expand...

But for about 40 more you can get a 6600GT, which blows it out of the water, it really is a pity that there is no competition in ATi's house at the moment, but hopefully that happens sometime soon (*crosses fingers*)
 
ScHpAnKy said:
But for about 40 more you can get a 6600GT, which blows it out of the water, it really is a pity that there is no competition in ATi's house at the moment, but hopefully that happens sometime soon (*crosses fingers*)
Click to expand...

I agree with you, at about 200.00 the 6600GT seems to be the card to go with.

The X800 XL was looking very good but yet again, it didn't show up as promised before x-mas, what did show up last week were the x700 pcie cards (WTF?!), and nothing in AGP flavors from ATI. I'm really disappointed with ATI right now.
 
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