Best Video Card for Upgrade???

[jaroddog]

Okay, I just sent my Rosewill ATI Radeon 9600XT back to newegg to get it replaced. It looks like they're out of stock right now, so chances are that they will give me current value refund (newegg's policy). This works out to $89.99. If that's the case, I'll be picking out a new video card. I would be willing to spend about $20 more for the video card (about $110 total). What would my best option be for a gaming card around that price (AGP, of course)? Can you give me some links? Right now my system includes AMD Athlon XP 2800+ and 512MB of RAM. I figured this is still a system worth upgrading to get my by for a year or two. What do you think? (I'll probably add a gig of RAM sometime, too)

 

[PUTALE]

for around 100ish. I would say 6600 or 6600GT is a good choice.

 

[werty316]

Well if you are a gamer teh 6600GT is the bare minimum. Best bang for your buck.

 

[cyrax]

6600gt is a wonderful choice, but i looked it up on tiger direct and the lowest i'm seeing it for is $130. you could play the waiting game and buy after the holidays. this ways stuff will go down and you will have more choice.Ati still has a few cards to ship.

 

[jaroddog]

I'm not really in a hurry, I've got a trust GeForce2 MX 200 in my pc right now. :grinthumb I can wait until after the holidays if it comes to that. It may be a while before newegg processes my RMA. They've got an eVGA 6600GT for $120 after rebate at zipzoomfly.com, but it looks like the rebate might expire before I can even get the card (i'm sure I'll need the bar code to send in)... So, do you think I can do this good if I wait until after the holidays (also, what do you mean by "ATI still has a few cards to ship)???

 

[PUTALE]

I think the price of the card will drop but not that big unless there's new cards coming out.

Some ATI cards that's good are x800 lines but they are generally more expensive. For the price range, I would definitely recommend 6600GT over x700.

 

[barney_3d]

i agree dont get the X700 ( i did )

 

[Federelli]

Undoubtly, get a Geforce 6600 GT, as said, it's the minimum thing you can get, which is actually worth something.

 

[JimL]

for that price range i would recommend an nvidia 6800gs, can't beat it for under 200

 

[maypo52]

Also looking to buy new video card

Hi All,

I was looking at the Nvidia GeForce 6600 (I am not a gamer) just for video editing. While shopping around, I noticed that there are many different names associated with Nvidia i.e. eVGA, Leadtek, Gigabyte etc.
My question is this; are these the same exact card with different retailers names, or is there a difference between them? If so which is the morereliable brand? Any suggestions wecomed.

Thanks

Mark

 

[PUTALE]

Hi All,

I was looking at the Nvidia GeForce 6600 (I am not a gamer) just for video editing. While shopping around, I noticed that there are many different names associated with Nvidia i.e. eVGA, Leadtek, Gigabyte etc.
My question is this; are these the same exact card with different retailers names, or is there a difference between them? If so which is the morereliable brand? Any suggestions wecomed.

Thanks

Mark

SINCE nvidia does not make their own card, they would have to rely other manufacture to make their cards, Ie evga, leadteck, gigabyte, etc

Some manufactures will have cards that comes with overclocked, different fan/heatsink, etc. The general underlying core is the same for all the cards of the same type, ie all 6600 will have the same pixel shadder, etc. The real differnce just a bit of overclocking, maybe the software/game that comes, heatsink, and warranty.

Among the makers, I would suggest go for a bigger name for the warranty, such as evga or xfx or bfg. XFX and BFG covers their cards for lifetime, so if case you ever encounter any problem, you can get it replaced or fixed.

 

[jaroddog]

Again, do you think my system is worth upgrading (I'd like to squeeze another year of gaming out of it)?

 

[Arcanum]

Hey,
well I think you can survive one more year on that,
just get atleast a 6600GT, they have a few at
new egg for ~110$.

For your price range, you wont find anything better,
I think that'll be enough for you to make one more
year playable... however, dont expect high details
or anything, and mostly because you have 512MB of
RAM. Most of today's games will be frequently swapping to hdd
with that amount of memory, even at medium details.

If you could get 6600GT and another 256 or 512MB of RAM,
I think you should have no problem gaming for another year
(not in high details, mind you).

However, after that, you'll just have to upgrade the whole system...

 

[PUTALE]

i would say it's worth it. the 6600GT is a good card for a budget oriented system. 6600GT will be enough for some of the current games and maybe few of the future games. For 100, i think it's not bad upgrade for a system if you plan to keep your current setup for a year. BTW, I would also consider upgrade the memory to 1 gig, as that would also help as well.

 

[jaroddog]

Sounds good, just a couple more questions. 1) where can I find an agp 6600GT for $110? ( I guess I haven't seen that one.) 2) I'm planning on getting another gig of ram (bringing my total to 1.5 gigs). Do you think the next generation mobos (post-939 socket) will support DDR or DDR2? Because right now, I'm wondering how sound an investment another gig of DDR 400 would be?

Thank you

 

[PUTALE]

newegg has a 6600gt agp for around 120 after rebate:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814135186
so is zipzoomfly:
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=322698&affiliate=pricewatch

check pricewatch for more store and price info.

As for the memory.
the future will be in ddr2. amd should have ddr2 cpu coming out sometimes in the mid of next year. As for now, DDR1 is probably officially hanging on to the last thread of life. It should be almost dead by the end of next year, i think.

If you think that your current memory is still good for the system, then I would say keep it and save that money for future upgrade. it all depend on how long you plan to hold on to the current system and what to do with it and how much you are willing to wait to upgrade. (is your mobo running dual channel if it does then you need 2 sticks of same specs, ifnot, you can get fairly cheap 1 gig memory around 70ish, you could also check on online forums to find some cheap deals.

 

[werty316]

AMD's next CPU the M2 will use DDR2 which should be released sometime in April of next year I think. As it stands I like DDR1 more even though DDR2 has higher speeds but higher timings hinder its performance. I will eventually switch to DDR2 but my Patriot XBLs will last a while.

 

[vnf4ultra]

Among the makers, I would suggest go for a bigger name for the warranty, such as evga or xfx or bfg. XFX and BFG covers their cards for lifetime, so if case you ever encounter any problem, you can get it replaced or fixed.

Evga also has lifetime warranty for most products.
http://www.evga.com/support/lifetime/

To answer the op, the best you can get now is a x700 or a 6600, but even those aren't easy to find for $110.
Here's a 6600 that's close your budget.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814135164
And here's an x700
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102584

I think the 6600 isn't that bad, if you don't mind turning down some of the settings, and running at a lower screen resolution(800x600, or 1024x768).
Getting a 6600gt would be the best choice if you can afford the extra cost.
In that case, I'd get this.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130220

 

[PUTALE]

YES evga do have lifetime warranty but only on certain products only. Otherwise, it's only 1year (without register) or 2 years with registration.

 

[jaroddog]

I really like the idea of the eVGA card, but I noticed their memory was only running at 900 whereas some of the other cards are running at 1000. How much will this effect performance?

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

I really like the idea of the eVGA card, but I noticed their memory was only running at 900 whereas some of the other cards are running at 1000. How much will this effect performance?

Not too much IMHO. 100Mhz doesn't affect performance too much, only about 3-8% change I reckon.