Best current budget card?

[thorban]

I've been out of the loop for a good long time, having bought a 9800 pro last year. A friend is coming over to order his computer and I'm not sure which video card to recommend.

Ideally, it would be around a $100 and support DX 9. No preference on nVidia or ATI. What are the best chipsets for all that?

 

[thorban]

Lets pretend I didn't post this after just having seen kickasscop's post above.

 

[ameoba]

of course that post recommends the GF4ti which only supports DX8 at the $100 point.

At that price point, the 9600 is the only real DX9 contender.




...of course you could always just get yourself a pair of 9100s +)

 

[thylantyr]

I just built two AMD systems for my kids for non-gaming,
but I used the old GF2 card in one and I needed another
video card to fire up the system. I found an ancient Matrox
Millenium PCI in my closet. /LOL it works for non-gaming. /laughs

I've been also seeking a $100 video card to place on one
of those systems so I can do some future gaming, but
I'm not 100% happy with the low-medium range cards that
are on the market now for DX9 support. It's sorta depressing.
The 9600 is a canablized core, the only thing that is cool is
maybe the 9600XT - but that seems to cost around $130
average. The old 9700 Pro is great, but they seem to charge
premium ~ @$170, the only thing that makes sense for gamers
is getting the newegg ~$200 9800 ?Pro? OEM if that deal is still
around...

In other words, spending $100 on card for gaming is just
a waste of $100 spent and your card will live a short life,
but spending ~$200 gives you more pleasure in the long run.

The nextgen cards should drive prices down on the current stuff.
$200 cards down to $100 <--- /hehehe ????

 

[pcMan]

i'm looking for a card to replace my oooold geforce2. i found this radeon 9200 256MB (http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=310987&pfp=BROWSE) for 80$ but from what i've heard it's really bad. i need a pci card since i dont have any agp slots and my budget is $100. should i get that radeon 9200 or is there something better? thanks!

 

[Wixard]

My home system is below, and the 9600np imo is a great card.