Looking for a budget video card

[DarthRaphael]

So many chipsets and manufacturers, how do I choose?

I'm looking for a budget card, spending no more than $150.
I want a Geforce4 chipset to compliment my nforce2 K7N2-Delta L.

Here is the short list of features I'm looking for:
AGP 8x
128Mb or higher
DirectX 9 support???
A red PCB would be nice, but not necessary
ramsinks on the card would be nice also.

The catalog of cards on newegg.com makes my head spin, please help!

 

[Carnival Forces]

Asus 9600SE or Pro or XT (depending on how far you can streatch that budget)..

 

[fugu]

for starters you can read some reviews at places like www.hardocp.com and www.anandtech.com

for 150 i'd go with a radeon 9600 Pro

 

[WuzFast]

150 is a bad place to stop, for just a little more money you can get more performance and a game (thats actually out). You said you wanted Nvidia so:

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProdu..., 0, 0, 0, 0, 0&keywords=&minprice=&maxprice=

 

[xxaaqq]

"Here is the short list of features I'm looking for:
AGP 8x
128Mb or higher
DirectX 9 support???
A red PCB would be nice, but not necessary
ramsinks on the card would be nice also."

If you want a Geforce4, you may be able to find AGP 8x, 128MB, a red PCB, and maybe some ram sinks, but I don't know about that.

But if you want DirectX9 support, you'll need the Radeon 9600 Pro.

As far as performance, the Geforce4 Ti4600 and Radeon 9600 Pro are fairly close with image quality settings turned off (AA and AF) in DirectX7 and DirectX8, but the Radeon 9600 Pro has DirectX9 support, and handles those image quality settings much more gracefully.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-156-010&depa=1 Everything but Ram Sinks for $147 shipped. It's a Retail Transcend Radeon 9600 Pro with 128MB. Beware the Pro EZ models, as they ship with significantly slower memory - - 2/3rd the bandwidth.

 

[DarthRaphael]

Thanks for the help so far.

Yes, I do hit the reviews but there is so much to sort through.
And yes, I think I can fudge the budget a little.

I asked for a Geforce based card because there have been many issues with MSI boards and ATI chipsets. nforcershq.com and MSI's forums have long threads on it.
I may be able to get away with the Radeon 9600 chipset though.

How about manufacturers? I know there are some I need to stay away from like Powercolor and Saphire because of my mainboard. Any others?

 

[Biggie]

pairing a geforce chipset with an nforce 2 chipset does ansolutely nothing. You want DX9 so go with ATI. 175 for 9600 XT is the best ive seen. Or 200 for 9800 at most stores, or i got my 9800 pro for 250 shipped from ATI