Need a new budget card...

M

MattyC

Gawd
Joined
Mar 13, 2007
Messages
797
On the next Intel price drop I will be taking the mobo, ram, and processor out of my current rig (sig) and dropping it into a new case to replace my ancient dying LAN comp as I upgrade my main.

Basically this is a computer that my friends play on here on the weekends and sometimes I haul with me to LANs, so I am not looking to put anything great into it. Right now I am leaning towards the BFG GeForce 6600 GT OC that is on TigerDirect right now for under $30 http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2884782&Sku=B52-7866 . The 6600 cards are ancient now, I know, but at least I know it is a solid card for very little cash. Any suggestions on other cards? Would any of the cheaper 7xxxs be worth looking into? Anything from ATI that can compete?

As for what it would be running, nothing too demanding. Generally Source games are the highest end things we LAN due to people playing on laptops etc. I know a regular 6600 GT can handle everything we run (though sometimes it gets choppy) as that is what was in my old LAN PC, so anything on par or better than it would be fine.
 
$80ish would be the cap and I would like to stay as far below that as possible. This computer doesn't see daily use so I am not willing to dump a ton of cash on it.

As for games? DoD: Source, CS: Source (and the old versions of both), WoW, Age of Empires 3, C&C Generals, UT2k4, and good old StarCraft are the most popular on LANs. Might see a SupCom game every now and then, but those are rare due to the fact that a lot of people play on laptops and older systems that struggle enough with some of the above games.
 
It would be PCIe. That is what I was thinking. The 7600 would probably give more performance (at least if that GS comes anywhere close to the GT which I do have experience with), but after looking at benchmarks it does not appear to be worth the extra cash. Thanks for the links though!
 
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