New Video Card

C

Corbin

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 5, 2008
Messages
509
My friend just got a new computer from fry's. It has one PCIe x16 slot on it and he needs a video card for average gaming. He is playing on a 17" CRT monitor and is planning on going to a 19" LCD soon. He need a card for around 50$ (after rebates or discounts) and would like to be able to play wart fps's (COD4, Battlefield 2) and maybe guitar hero / light RTS's (AOE 3) with resonable frames. So any advice would help for the card.
 
I wouldn't buy anything less than a 9600GT for gaming at all currently, can be had for around 110-120.

$50? meh, your getting into crap territory there.
 
Well what about the 8600gt thats on newegg for 50$ after rebates. Wouldn't that work? I have a one that's a little better (512mb) and it play COD4 fine (without AA or AF) But we don't all need great graphics do we?
 
i vote pay $30 or so more and get a 8800gs, its the ONLY budget budget card id consider
 
You could always try buying a used video card for around 60 bucks thats more decent then the 8600 or 2600 line. Like others have said I wouldn't settle no less then a 8800 GS.
 
I hate when someone tells me to go over my budget, but these guys are right, if you want to play cod, bf2, gh3 ect with at least 30fps with decent quality go for a 9600gt right now. typically its about $115.
 
Ok, similar question, different cards.

The 8800GT and the 9600GT have about the same specs by the numbers, with the 8800GT slightly edging the 9600GT. They are also similarly priced at newegg. However, I have also seen the specs on the different cards not exactly match the specs given in the above links (such as core clocks are higher, Memory Clocks are higher because of DDR3 usage, etc.)

The only game I need this much power for is Oblivion, Half-Life2 runs beautifully on my 7900GS (BFGTech). I never plan on going to Vista. Once XP runs out or I get familiar enough with Ubuntu, that's where I'm headed.

My question is, would you rather have the 9600GT or the 8800GT? It seems [H] has opted to not use Oblivion in their testing for the past few months, so I can't get a good feel between the reviews they've done.
 
8600GT will run things pretty well. I play 2142 on a 8600GT at 1280x900 with everyone on medium/high, 2x AA and it's fine.
This is the laptop version also.

I was really afraid the 8600 would stink it up really bad when I got this laptop (I'm used to high end) and I am rather happy with it. For what it is, it does the job as long as you are expecting to play at 1280x1024 or less.
 
50$ budget is too low for the games he wants to play, and for that price range , GeForce 86xx is not so good either.I suggest your friend wait for newer GeForce 9500GT with paying a little more.
 
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