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Video Card Lineup

I think you would just be better off trying to find a nice used 8800.

7200gs is a definite no go.
 
Are you referring to the 8800gt? How much do they usually go for? I'm looking to spend no more than $30 on a video card.
 
ClearM4 said:
The video cards you listed are not really for gaming.
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Even for minimal, non graphic intensive gaming? I'm thinking more along the lines of the Civilization or Age of Empires type games, not something like Crysis.
 
The 9500GT is faster than the 4550, and the 4650 is faster than both, so I'd go with ClearM4's advice. It's worth the $8.
 
courtney01 said:
I think it's a 1440x900.




Isn't the 4550 DDR3?
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Some of the 4550 cards are DDR3, some of them are DDR2. But even the DDR3 cards have roughly the same bandwidth as the 4650 DDR2 because the 4550 has a 64-bit memory bus.

The 4650 also offers DDR2 and DDR3 models, although the reference design is DDR3. Manufacturers make DDR2 versions of cards because they think their customers are stupid, and it saves a buck or two.

But DDR2 has not been a workable memory for gaming since the days of the GeForce 7600GS. Now, we really need the extra bandwidth DDR3 and GDDR5 bring us.
 
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defaultluser said:
Some of the 4550 cards are DDR3, some of them are DDR2. But even the DDR3 cards have roughly the same bandwidth as the 4650 DDR2 because the 4550 has a 64-bit memory bus.

The 4650 also offers DDR2 and DDR3 models, although the reference design is DDR3. Manufacturers make DDR2 versions of cards because they think their customers are stupid, and it saves a buck or two.

But DDR2 has not been a workable memory for gaming since the days of the GeForce 7600GS. Now, we really need the extra bandwidth DDR3 and GDDR5 bring us.
Click to expand...

The 4550 I linked to in my OP is definitely a DDR3, so should I get that over the 9500GT which is DDR2? The ranking that evilsofa referred to shows the 9500GT is better, but I don't know how reliable that list is.
 
courtney01 said:
The 4550 I linked to in my OP is definitely a DDR3, so should I get that over the 9500GT which is DDR2? The ranking that evilsofa referred to shows the 9500GT is better, but I don't know how reliable that list is.
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If those are your only choices, get the 9500GT. Reasoning:

The 9500GT with DDR3 is about 50% faster than a 4550 with DDR3.

And the performance drop going from DDR3 down to DDR2 on the 9500GT is between 10-30%

So, you'll be better-off going with the 128-bit DDR2 card, even if the difference is only a little.
 
To give you some actual useful gaming figures ...

I have both a 9500GT (paired with a C2D E7300 in my HTPC - think it's DDR2) and an HD4550 (in my server paired with a Q6600).

Both are capable of playing Guild Wars at reasonable resolutions (1280x800, 1440x900 respectively) with 4xAA at >30 FPS (usually 60FPS with vsync and triple buffering). The HD4550 is about equivalent to my old X1800GTO in GW.

Heat/power use the 4550 and 9500GT are similar (4550 is probably a little lower, but I use CoreAVC with CUDA in my HTPC, hence the 9500GT in there).

For you needs either would do the job, but I would still recommend getting the 4650 or even (if possible) the a 4670 if there is minimal extra cost as the extra capability is well worth it.
 
magao said:
TFor you needs either would do the job, but I would still recommend getting the 4650 WITH DDR3 or even (if possible) the a 4670 WITH DDR3 if there is minimal extra cost as the extra capability is well worth it.
Click to expand...

Fixed that for you.

And yes, I'm serious. The 9500GT is already *somewhat* limited by DDR2. If you buy a 4650 or 4670 with DDR2, the performance will be only slightly faster tha the 9500 GT DDR2.

Nearly all the 4650 cards in the wild today feature DDR2, and even some of the 4670 cards have it.
 
No, the HD4650 with DDR2 is much faster than the HD4550. (in raw FPS about double or more)

The HD4550 only has 80 stream processors and 64bit memory interface.

The HD4650 has 320 stream processors and 128bit memory interface.

Another words, even when the HD4650 is ram half the speed of the HD4550 it still has the same memory bandwidth and 4x the stream processors.

The 9500GT with DDR3 ~= the HD4650 DDR2

The 9500GT with DDR2 is probably half way between the HD4550 and HD4650 DDR2.
 
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