Budget card question - How much do i need

F

fatlaxg30

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 20, 2005
Messages
204
I am finally upgrading from my old Dimension 8100 which I believe had a Geforce4 in it. I was wondering what are the cheapest cards I can get and still notice a big difference in performance. I am not a big gamer at all so I dont know what I need exactly. Is it even worth it for me to get a 6600 or can i go even lower and get like a 5200? i dont want to spend much, but i dont want to get a card and immediately think it sucks (my new build will be agp by the way)
 
A 5200 does not outrun the Geforce 4 Ti series. The MX 4 440 it would, just barely. The 6600 vanilla or the 6600GT is where you need to be at as a minimum for modern games.
 
I second the picks for the ati x700 or nvidia 6600 depending on what camp you perfer. Your looking at just under $100 buying online. Buying a cheaper card would be wasting money and you should just stick with the video card you have now.

Actually after checking prices at newegg the ati 9600 pro is about $70. Thats a great price for this card. It still runs new games with decent settings/quality.
 
I'd spend another 50 and get a 6600.
A 9600pro barely runs new games. 640x480 low-medium for games like F.E.A.R. and likely Oblivion and COD 2. Actually it may not even run COD 2. The card will be useless in another year.
 
fatlaxg30 said:
what do you guys think about a sapphire 9600XT for $70?
Click to expand...

For all practical purposes that card is no better than the 9600Pro. It's got higher clocks and that's it. I had a 9600Pro running at XT speeds. I can tell you first hand that it doesn't play games like Far Cry very well at all. You've got to run things on medium detail at 800x600 and 1024x768 MAX and forget about AA and AF. It is simply not going to happen with that card. Not unless you like slides.

Seriously, you've got to get the 6600 vanilla or the X700Pro at the very least. Those cards are really the bare minimum that you can get and play everything. You can run all current games at high detail, although you won't likely be able to break 1024x768 for most games and AA and AF are simply for the most part out of the question.

These days, if a video card didn't cost around $150-$200 it is almost useless for games. That is considering new pricing. For older cards, that are used you might could find a awesome deal for less.
 
thanks its just hard to justify any more than like $75 if i'm not even sure i'll ever play a game on the thing and i think its going to be a good budget build so i dont want to spend more on the video card than i did on the cpu+mobo (clawhammer 3200+epox 754 = $135) we'll see what i can find used
i bought the vanilla 6600 from woot for $75 but need that for my new htpc should have gotten two. if anyone got one and wants to sell lmk
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top