What is a good, affordable, video card?

[BaconIsGood4You]

My current graphics card is a GeForce 4 MX 440, and while it has served me well, I'm looking for an upgrade, which will probably happen in the summer.

I've been doing some preliminary searching and have found some really varying results.

For example, the Pine XFX GEFORCE FX 5200, a card that supports DirectX9 and has 128mb, is $65 while the MSI GeForce FX5900XT-VTD128, which has DirectX9 and 128mb, is $180. I do realize that the 5900 is quieter and faster, but how much? Is it really worth the extra $115?

If you know any good cards that are less than $200, I would greatly appreciate it if you would let me know since I am a hardware n00b and the reviews online are outdated for the older cards, so I cannot compare.

 

[Ames]

Try the 6600 GT.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-139-171&depa=0

 

[Hazar]

a card around $200 would be the 9800pro

I just made the jump from where you're at to this

I can't say how much better it is

the 6600 should be a good card too.

 

[Asus]

I would either get a 9600(Pro/XT) or 6600(GT) depending on your price.

The NO-NOs (ones you want to avoid) would be Nvidia's FX cards, ATI cards that end with SE and Nvidia cards that end with LE.

 

[duffers20]

I would say the 6600gt 128mb card is the best midrange card out just now, and if you have a pci-express SLI motherboard, then you can buy one Sli enabled 6600gt now and then one in teh future!

 

[[AciD ZerO]]

i got an ok one. looking for a better one though. its a Radeon 9250

 

[oni_666]

Some people hate the FX cards, but personally I love mine, It's had its day though, But still runs HL2 at max settings, coupled with my other components.

If you can, get a 9800 Pro, while the card is a little long in the tooth now, it is still one of the finest cards ever produced, Really nothing has come out, that has had the same sort of impact as this card.

Considering the next gen cards have been out for a while, The 9800 Pro is one of the only older cards that manages to even return a decent score in 3dmark 05, Since the advanced shaders & instructions used in this benchmark, are supported by this card, all the next gen cards, But not the FX range, Thats why an FX card gets about half the score of a 9800 Pro in this system killer benchmark.

Stay away form anything SE or LE though, these are cards that use slower memory with usually 64 or 128 bit memory controllers, while most other cards use 256 bit.
The difference in memory bandwidth, and therefore framerate and performance is phenomenal.

And to answer your first question, the 5900FX is about 4-5 time faster than the 5200FX.

And lastly don't be fooled by how much memory is on a card either, Most cheap 256mb cards use 5ns memory (equal to corsair XMS ram speed), while fine for ram, it is abysmally slow for graphics card ram, and is crap for overclocking.

4-5 ns ram is usually found on FX 5200's, while a card like the FX 5900 (or FX 5900XT) will have 2.2 - 2.6ns ram.

 

[destrukt]

I would either get a 9600(Pro/XT) or 6600(GT) depending on your price.

The NO-NOs (ones you want to avoid) would be Nvidia's FX cards, ATI cards that end with SE and Nvidia cards that end with LE.

agreed 100% but check the price of 9800 Pro/XT because they are coming down quite a bit.

 

[duffers20]

I would either get a 9600(Pro/XT) or 6600(GT) depending on your price.

The NO-NOs (ones you want to avoid) would be Nvidia's FX cards, ATI cards that end with SE and Nvidia cards that end with LE.

The 9800pro's seem to be about £120 to £130 and the 6600GT AGP cards are about £130 - £160 so if you can afford it, I would go for the 6600GT. I have seen benchmark results and the 6600GT performs alot better than teh 9800pro, which unfortunately is starting to show its age.

 

[Sieg]

The cheaper the worse,save up some money and get a 6800 ultra.

 

[Asus]

haha

Yeah, the FX's aren't as bad as getting an LE or SE but they are a half assed product when it comes to DX9. Everything else about it is fine. I was actually going to get one when they first came out but then more and more DX9 results came out and I ended up getting a 9800 Pro, thankfully. Although the 6600GT is a little better and at the same price point.

 

[WaryWolf]

imo it's worth getting a 5200 over a geforce 4 mx, that's about the only situation i could see a FX card being worthwile though.

having said that, my fx 5200 with 64-bit memory interface ran cs:s fine at 1024x768, the benchmark was 45 fps with all settings on low.

btw Asus, what kind of overclock do you have on that 3000+ atm? i just got one myself (a newcastle core) and i may be looking for some free performance

 

[zorro]

i would get a 9600 xt its easily overclockable and affordable
the card price is about 150-200 depending on where u buy it.
i have one and its very good.
it can easily handle half life 2

 

[ilovemetal]

i have a 9600xt also but i only payed 120 for it, its an amazing card and very affordable... zorro how do u overclock it?

 

[Asus]

imo it's worth getting a 5200 over a geforce 4 mx, that's about the only situation i could see a FX card being worthwile though.

Very true. Also over the 9200.

btw Asus, what kind of overclock do you have on that 3000+ atm? i just got one myself (a newcastle core) and i may be looking for some free performance

Currently at 2.3GHz (from 2Ghz). I can go up to 2.4 but I perfer it to be as stable as possible.
Stock heatsink + Arctic Silver 3 FYI

It's the current revision of the Newcastle core, last I checked.

 

[bryanf445]

imo the fx5200 is not that bad of a card, sure if you can save up for a better one that would be the obvious answer. But my brother and my friends comp run halflife 2 fine with it.. sure it doesnt look as great, but it still looks very nice.. some people complain about how the water looks but it still looks better then any water in any other game at dx8.. just what i think of the card...