I have $115 and I need a video card...

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bobsaget

Supreme [H]ardness
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I have $115 to spend and I need a new video card, as you can tell from my sig. :(

What video card would you reccomend for this amount of money?

I will just be gaming, no video editing or anything. I don't play games in much more than 800x600 res (but I like to have eye candy turned up)

thank you
 
www.pricewatch.com and check www.resellerratings.com before you order from a vendor. Someone else is going to list www.newegg.com so I might as well get it out of the way. ;) http://www.newegg.com/app/ListProduct.asp?DEPA=0&submit=list&catalog=48&description=&sortby=20&order=0 <--- all newegg cards sorted by price

Your budget is really close to a 9600 Pro (about $124 shipped on pricewatch) and that should last you a while. If you're going to spend over $100, it may as well be for a card that's usable for a while.

If your budget is really fixed at $115, look at a regular 9600 (not SE or EZ, around $100 pricewatch), a Radeon 9500 (around $115 pricewatch) or a FX 5600 Ultra ($115 pricewatch).

The relative speeds of the suggestions above are: 9600 Pro > 5600 Ultra > 9600 > 9500. IMO, spending the extra $9 for a 9600 Pro is worth it.
 
Originally posted by pxc
The relative speeds of the suggestions above are: 9600 Pro > 5600 Ultra > 9600 > 9500. IMO, spending the extra $9 for a 9600 Pro is worth it.
Click to expand...

the 9500 is better than the 9600.
 
Originally posted by jamestime88
the 9500 is better than the 9600.
Click to expand...

I don't think 9500np's are better than a 9600np. Unless of course you get a 9700 pcb, but that's a whole different game.
 
Originally posted by jamestime88
the 9500 is better than the 9600.
Click to expand...
In most cases, yes. With the 9500 hacked it is a different story, but it's not guaranteed. I guess I should have swapped them above. Picky, picky. :p

The 9500 runs at 275MHz (4 pipelines enabled in the R300 core) with 540MHz memory and the 9600 runs at 325MHz with 400MHz memory. With FSAA/AF enabled the 9600 is generally about equal to the 9500, without FSAA/AF, the 9500 is faster.

Anyways, I was mostly trying to push him towards the 9600 Pro even thought it was slightly more than his budget.
 
well I looked at the 9600pro's at pricewatch.com, and it is $125. then I found a 5600XT that was only $96.00. My friend has a 5200Ultra and it plays Halo and other games just fine for my expectations.

I might go with a 5600XT, since my budget is very tight.

The games that I will be playing will be...

GTA Vice City
Unreal Tournament 2003/2004
Halo (at low resolutions 800X600)


Do you think this system will run these games smoothly with the 5600XT and the system in my sig?

thanks
 
I really don't think you will be happy with the 5600XT. Spend just a tad more and get the 9600Pro. You will be happier. This coming from an Nvidiot too :)
 
I guess I wouldn't want to have to upgrade in 6 months if I went with the 9600Pro.

Maybe I will get a 9600Pro for now, and then get a job this summer and get an R420. Sound good?
 
Don't underestimate the 9600 Pro, it's an awsome card. Can run resolutions up to 1280x1024, maybe even 1200x1600.

Go with the 9600 pro, you'll be very pleased with it and the graphics on UT2k3/2k4 will looks great. Same thing for GTA and Halo. It will run ALL modern games.
 
Good lord, do not get a 5600Ultra, I can't believe someone here actually said that. Get a regular 5700 if you want Nvidia. It has several pixel and vertex shaders that are twice as fast as the 5600 in DX9.

If you want ATi a 9600 (as long as its not SE) would be good.
 
9600 Pro is far above the 5600XT, XT means gimped up when it comes to Nvidia cards. Nice plan...buy a cheap card and then wait for the next gen to come out. Really cbf thinking about next gen til they are released then we will see who comes up with the goods. Why speculate when you can sleep ;)
 
Originally posted by bobsaget
Maybe I will get a 9600Pro for now, and then get a job this summer and get an R420. Sound good?
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THAT, my friend, sounds like a plan.

An alternate course of action would be to tweak your MX within an inch of its life and keep saving up your cash. $200 plus/minus 10% is about what you're going to spend for a card that's not two-thirds of the way to obsolescence.

Personally, the absolute minimum I'd buy right now would be a 9600XT or 5700Ultra and I'd prefer to start at a 9800 (not SE) or 5900 (also non-SE).

If you absolutely must buy something now, flip a coin between the 9600 and 5600. Don't get anything with an SE or XT tacked on in your price-range, though. Those identifiers mean "slower" unless you want to spend more money on a 9600XT.
 
Originally posted by bobsaget
well I looked at the 9600pro's at pricewatch.com, and it is $125. then I found a 5600XT that was only $96.00. My friend has a 5200Ultra and it plays Halo and other games just fine for my expectations.

I might go with a 5600XT, since my budget is very tight.
Click to expand...
NO! If you absolutely have to spend $115 or less, go for the 5600 Ultra (400MHz core, 800MHz memory = 12.8GB/s bandwidth) on pricewatch instead. The 5600XT is pretty slow (235MHz core, 400MHz memory = 6.4GB/s bandwidth), much slower than the 5200 Ultra (325MHz core, 650MHz memory = 10.4GB/s, but no fp color compression and missing other bandwidth saving features).

Originally posted by bobsaget
I guess I wouldn't want to have to upgrade in 6 months if I went with the 9600Pro.

Maybe I will get a 9600Pro for now, and then get a job this summer and get an R420. Sound good?
Click to expand...
Yes! That's a better option, even though it's $10 over your price range. It will probably last you longer than 6 months, too.
 
Hal|9k said:

"An alternate course of action would be to tweak your MX within an inch of its life and keep saving up your cash. $200 plus/minus 10% is about what you're going to spend for a card that's not two-thirds of the way to obsolescence."
____________________________________________________
I have to get a new card now. Something is seriously wrong the MX400. After 10 min. of gaming, it freezes up. I think it is a heat issue. And also, to be honest, i'm sick of <25 FPS on Halo (with all of the eye candy turned off and at 640x480).

I think that I will be getting the 9600Pro. Thanks a lot for the input!
 
I know that it isn't out yet, but do you think that this system in my sig + 9600Pro would play HL2 and Doom3 with low resolutions?


thanks again...
 
Originally posted by ZenOps
Good lord, do not get a 5600Ultra, I can't believe someone here actually said that. Get a regular 5700 if you want Nvidia. It has several pixel and vertex shaders that are twice as fast as the 5600 in DX9.
Click to expand...
The 5700 is much faster than the plain 5600 (which no one recommended), but the regular 5700 is bandwidth starved from just 500MHz memory (8GB/s).

The NV36 does have more raw vertex and pixel shader power than the NV31, but in real game benchmarks (in playable resolutions) the difference is much less due to the difference in memory bandwidth. A big exception is in the case of DX9 games (TR:AoD, for example) where the NV36 finally has a decent, although not great level of mainstream DX9 performance for NVIDIA chips.

Discounting less than a handful of games that fit in that category (and even fewer games that don't have DX8.x fallbacks), the 5600 Ultra isn't a bad card overall for the price. A little more money and much better cards are of course available.

Originally posted by bobsaget
I know that it isn't out yet, but do you think that this system in my sig + 9600Pro would play HL2 and Doom3 with low resolutions?
Click to expand...
Both games should be playable at 1024x768. http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NDc0LDI= and http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=1863&p=8 ... probably a little better at 800x600.
 
I can't say what card is the best, but I'll just assure you that the 9600 Pro is a great little card. It overclocks well, and just make sure you don't put any pennies on it like I did.

:rolleyes:
 
I don't know where you came up with the 115 but go back where you got that money and collect more then when you get to 200 dollars get a 9800pro or 5900xt.
 
for that money, you should be able to get a 9600pro, and that will be your best bet
 
For that money he should be able to start up a small business. It's been done before you know? Then he could get the latest card.
 
Mow a lawn, shovel some snow, stand on a street corner - do whatever it takes to get that extra ten bucks. Get a 9600 Pro and don't look back.
 
Originally posted by Duckzilla
Mow a lawn, shovel some snow, stand on a street corner - do whatever it takes to get that extra ten bucks. Get a 9600 Pro and don't look back.
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Amen...
 
Save another 20 bones and get a 9600 pro xt, check on pricewatch or go straight to newegg. Watch out for cheap a** brands.
 
Originally posted by [H]ymae
Save another 20 bones and get a 9600 pro xt, check on pricewatch or go straight to newegg. Watch out for cheap a** brands.
Click to expand...

He could save himself some money and flash XT bios to the card once he gets it. I know a lot of people who are doing that and the card works fine after that.
 
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