The super-budget card

R

rustbucket

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(Skip to the last couple lines for the actual question, if you don't want to read a long, rambling post)

Howdy all - I'm looking for a new video card. I don't generall do gaming, but occasionally fire up CS or something similar. Mostly, I use my computer for day to day tasks, with some photoshop thrown into the mix.

Problem is, my motherboard crapped out. So I need a new motherboard. Which means I need new RAM. And I figure, since I'm going this far, why not upgrade my system to something semi-modern.

So I've got a Mobile Athlon, motherboard, 1gig of ram soon to be on the way. I want a video card that won't suck, but I don't have a lot of money left over from these other unexpected purchases... Soooooo....

What can I get for 50 bucks? 100? At what point is it actually worth purchasing - IE - will play almost anything out there (and maybe Doom 3 on really low settings). I'm way out of the game when it comes to hardware, and all the reviews I've read are just confusing me more... Any help would be appreciated.
 
$100? Get a Ti4x00 card. If you can squeeze in a few more dollars, look for a 5900XT 9800Pro.

On the used forums, you can find awesome deals :)
 
9600xt isnt a bad deal either if you can scrape up another $40, you can get em for about $140 on newegg.com.

I just saw doom3 running at 1024x768 at medium last night on that card (friend), looked nice and ran smooth.
 
Honestly, I know how tight a budget can be, but for gaming experience you may want to scrape as much dough as you can. I think for $200 you can pick up a 6600GT which is very awesome price vs performance. Obviously if you dont have the cash, you'll need to go lower. I wouldn't consider any video card below the GF5 series or the ATi 9600 series.
 
Just came to mind, for less than $100 I got my friend a new 128bit 9550 from Sapphire. It's basically a sorta castrated 9600pro :D
 
Newegg has a Sapphire 9600Pro for $110. Much better than a 9550 or 9600 non pro.
 
kurt454 said:
Newegg has a Sapphire 9600Pro for $110. Much better than a 9550 or 9600 non pro.
Click to expand...

I really wish my budget included a card like that... Anything in the sub $100 arena that doesn't suck? I'm really not a serious gamer, this is more of a crime of oppurtunity than anything else - I'd probably be at least halfway happy with the built in video on some motherboards... So what's a couple baby steps up from that?
 
Scour the forums for a ti4200... or get a 9550.. but make sure it's 128bit! (i think the 256mb ones are)
 
I beleive you can also get a Rosewill Radeon 9600 non pro 128bit card from Newegg for $78. You can also get a 9550 with 128bit memory for $64.99 .If you are absolutely constrained to $50, and don't care about gaming just get a Radeon 7000 for $30. Great 2D. Better than onboard video.
 
kurt454 said:
I beleive you can also get a Rosewill Radeon 9600 non pro 128bit card from Newegg for $78. You can also get a 9550 with 128bit memory for $64.99 .If you are absolutely constrained to $50, and don't care about gaming just get a Radeon 7000 for $30. Great 2D. Better than onboard video.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the information everyone! I'll have to ruminate for a little while, but I think I'll be going with either the 7000 if i decide to sideline gaming, or the Rosewill 9600 if I don't. Just need to decide... I don't suppose it just being cooler is a good justification for purchase?
 
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