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Sufficient card for $70

A

adamadekat

Gawd
Joined
Aug 12, 2004
Messages
527
My little sister needs a video card to play The Sims 2 on our old computer and I'm tired of letting her use mine all the time...so she saved up $70 and I look on newegg, but don't know which one to choose.

If you guys have a good suggestion thx.
 
For just The Sims 2, pretty much anything would work. It can, apparently, even run on a GF2 MX.

Realistically, the best card to get at the price is a GeForce 4 Ti4200. You can't get a *real* 9600 at that price, and 9600SEs or 9550s are actually slower than GeForce FX 5500s (believe it or not - they are REALLY CRAPPY CARDS). You definately don't want one of them if you can avoid it. While they will still play the game....it's kinda a ripoff.

Anyway, this site has a BFG Ti4200 for $68 shipped, which is an awesome deal. I mean, really, REALLY awesome. That's a killer card for that price. Plus, it's the BFG model, so if it ever breaks, they replace it with the current-gen card of equal capability (IE., the Ti4200 was the third-fastest nVidia card at release - a replacement for it today would be a 5900xt, and in a few month months, the 6800nu would be the RMA replacement for it). Unfortunately, I don't know anything about the retailer at all.

If brand is less of a concern for you, you can find plenty of Ti4200s on eBay for the price range you are looking for. The key, of course, is to be patient. Might take a few weeks for an auction to end at the price you want for the card you want. For older cards (like this), eBay is usually the best deals, but it's not an instant gratification thing.
 
CastleBravo said:
Full 9600 (not SE or any crap like that) for $72.99

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-289R&depa=0

http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041004/vga_charts-05.html
Click to expand...

Actually, that's $73.99 - you have to include shipping.

It's not a bad card, though, really. If your sister ever plans on playing any DX9 games (like the linked Aquanox above), it might even be useful. Sims 2 is not. It's more DX7/DX8 hybrid, like Call of Duty or Unreal Tournament 2004, or Battlefield Vietnam, which you'll note all have the Ti4200 outperforming the Radeon 9600.

Seriously, if she IS planning on DX9 games in the future (errr...Half-Life 2, Far Cry, or Vampire: Bloodlines are basically it for popular ones. Oh, and Everquest 2.) the 9600 would be a better choice. Otherwise....
 
The 9600 is the way to go IMO. My friend has a 9600 non-pro 128MB card from GexCube and it plays Doom 3 on his XP1700+ with only 256MB of ram at medium settings pretty damn well. it only dips below 25fps or so only a few spots during big firefights. Definately impressed me for card that he somehow go new for like 68$ (It had an SE sticker on hte box, so I belive they shipped him a better deal than what he paid for)

Nevertheless, good cards.
 
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