Need Help With Low End Graphics Card Choice

N

Neehario

Weaksauce
Joined
Jul 27, 2004
Messages
90
Hey my little bro is just getting into gaming and well the video card in his old dell is killing him. Its a radeon 7200 4x agp. I need to get a card for him that will just run call of duty (his favorite game) at a acceptable frame rate. However budget is a problem. I need something in like the $60 range or just a little more, because its going to be a christmas present for him but my $6 a hour job wont allow for much more (especially after i just put a 6800 gt in my rig).

I appreciate the help, thanks alot.
 
9600XT's were going for $69 at best buy after rebate. If they go back on rebate thats a great deal. If not you might want to get an XGI card. They're less expensive and offer good performance alternatives to Nvidia and ATI for less money. www.xgitech.com
 
hm havent heard anything about xgi, id prob like to stick with ati and nvidia, ill look into the bestbuy 9600xts.....


anybody else got ideas?
 
BossNoodleKaboodle said:
Don't immediately discount XGI. They're new but they could become big because they do things differently.
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It will be a while before XGI competes with ATI's and Nvidia's offerings, just look at the reviews of their Duo (dual GPU based on the V8). It gets spanked by the 9600XT. It would be nice though to have another company to choose from besides the two. Poor 3dfx ::sniff:: :(
 
XGI is crap.... i would never get one of those.

for 60 bucks your best bet might be to go to the for sale section and put up a wanted add.

someone might give you the hook up.

at pricewatch.com

you can get a 5500 nvidia card for 68 after shipping or a 9600 SE for 49 i think.
 
from what I have read they have a hell of alot of driver issues and their top card gets its ass handed to it on a silver.. wait nO! platinum platter by a 9600xt
 
Your best bet is, without a doubt, ebay. You'll probably be able to pick up a Ti4600 for ~$40 or so.
 
I would have to suggest a 9500pro for ATI and a ti4200 or ti4600 for nvidia. You can find the 9500pro usually cheaper than 100 dollars and the Geforce 4s for under 50 dollars and they still offer great performance.
 
Newegg has the Ti4400 and that's it. And its 200 bucks :eek: No Ti4200 or 4600.

The Ti4600 was an awesome card. I had one back in the day. Core only went to 310-315mhz be4 it started artifacting like mad. It was a PNY though so :rolleyes:
 
I would suggest ebay or look in the sale forum here, and see if you can snag a radeon 9500 pro cheap
 
Mister E said:
maybe, just maybe you could find like a used Ti4600 or something.
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This is solid advice. The mighty Ti4600 was a powerhouse in it's day, and when it comes to frame rates it's still not a bad card.
 
Take advantage of the lifetime warranty from a BFG or PNY used card....

I agree with the ti4XXX series. If you have a decent computer system, it should run admirably on recent games with some features turned off.
 
Nvidia really had a good product when it came to those Ti4xxx series cards. Everyone of them was great. Still not bad performers considering their age.
 
allright thanks alot guys... what about a nvidia 5500...... its only 50 at my best buy 128 mb.
 
Neehario said:
hm the 5700 looks damn good, thanks for the link
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No it does not. Its a 5700LE, which is 64bit, and has low low low clocks. Go for Titanium GF series, they pwn any 9600SE and 5700LE.

Edit: I see, that some are also128bit? My friend has 64bit one. :confused:
 
Another vote for the Ti4x00 series. Anywhere from a 4200 to a 4600 will be nice, most overclock to ti4600 levels anyway :)
 
Look for a used card in the FS/FT forum. They often go for $40-60 shipped.
 
SlasherDNA said:
No it does not. Its a 5700LE, which is 64bit, and has low low low clocks. Go for Titanium GF series, they pwn any 9600SE and 5700LE.

Edit: I see, that some are also128bit? My friend has 64bit one. :confused:
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no a 5700le is 128bit. look at the review i linked to

newegg said:
APOLLO nVIDIA GeForce FX5700LE Video Card, 128MB DDR, 128-Bit, TV-Out/DVI, 8X AGP Model "BLOODY MONSTER 3 GEFORCE FX 5700LE" -RETAIL
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a 5700le is a downclocked 5700, a 5700 is a downclocked 5700u with reg ddr ram. the 5700le clocks at 250/400 and everyone I have ever seen has overclocked to 450+/475. A reg 5700 is clocked at 400/500. Please read before you say false info

edit: just saw you said there are 128bit ones, lol, ok nvm, but ya 5700le is supposed to be 128bit, just some companies cut it down to 64, a real 5700le is 128bit. and they oc nicely reaching 5700nu performance levels
 
Hell I had a Ti4200 with two sticks of mismatched 256mb ram in this rig before I upgraded to a gig of kingston and a 6800 GT with 16 Pixel Pipelines and I got ~65 FPS in the CS:S Video Stress Test at medium settings....to tell you the truth, I dont get many more these days, but I think it's 'cause of my cpu...Now the vid card and ram are in my new rig and it demolishes NFSU 2
 
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