Recommendation for a Video card

[jimflint1]

Well, I don't do much gaming to speak of. Mostly I do internet stuff, and some photography stuff. So could you recommend me a video card for less than $100 that would do as well or better than my current card?

Here are my specs:


Current Card - ATI Radeon 9200 SE

MB - Asus A7V8X-X

CPU - AMD Athlon XP-A, 1822 MHz (11 x 166)

Ram - 512 mb

Not sure on power supply, pretty sure its 450.

 

[MrGaribaldi]

It depends on what you want to use the card for. Do you also use it to watch movies, and want to watch HD/blue-ray discs, then I'd recommend a HD2400pro which gives good video decoding capabilities, but is rather ****ty when it comes to gaming.

Otherwise a X1650 pro is a rather good deal within your budget. It is much better for games & such, but requires more cpu power for video decoding.

 

[jimflint1]

Well, I have never used my computer to watch movies, except for youtube stuff. I'd like to be able to watch the youtube vids, however. Like I said, I don't do much gaming and don't really need to set my comp up for that--but I'd like something that would work for the occasional game.

 

[MrGaribaldi]

In that case the X1650 pro seems to be the best option...
It is an overall good performer and not too expensive..

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

The 7600GS would do great too. It's about equal in performance to the X1650PRO. Get whatever's cheaper IMO.

 

[jimflint1]

Thanks to both of you for your help! Hey, Rage_3K_Moiz, which make of the 7600GS is good? I did a search on pricewatch and there were a bunch of different cards with that in the title, made by PNY, Jaton, and a few others.

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

All of them are good. Get any one of them and you'd be set, although eVGA & XFX would be on the better side.

 

[jimflint1]

Thanks again!

 

[jimflint1]

Okay, now I have another question. I guess I should've mentioned that I'm using XP as my OS. I saw the specs on the 7600gs and it says that it's "made for Vista". Will this matter? Oh, never mind---after further checking it looks like it will work just great.

 

[MrGaribaldi]

"made for vista" and similar monikers are just useless marketing trying to make it sound more advanced than it really is.

The only cards that has some validity to that claim are the latest generation supporting DX10, as that is Vista only...

 

[Rayss523]

^ding ding ding

the only real "made for vista" product is regret, because you'll regret "upgrading" to windows Vista