buying a new vid card

[siggers]

Im looking to spend about $150 on a new video card, since my sapphire radeon took a dump. I've heard there are lots of good cards on newegg, but they look like they're mostly 3rd party manufacturers.
Could anyone point out a good card to buy? Thanks :grinthumb

 

[bluescreenNoob]

ATI Radeon 9800 non pro or 9600 pro. If you have a couple extra bucks I would go with the 9600 XT.

 

[Greeno]

i 2nd that.

 

[Seafury]

I have spent the last week reviewing some video cards. I would also recommend the 9600 Pro if you can afford the extra money.

I was lucky enough to get a good price on a used 9800 SE so I went for that. I would caution about buying a new 9800 SE though, they are about 180 US for the cheaper ones.

 

[tripleione]

Although I can't say much about the Radeon series, I would recommend that you stay away from anything but the highest of GeForceFX cards. They do not offer enough performance for the amount of money they cost.

 

[AgentX]

The 9600Pro\XT is a very good card, but if youve got the extra cash get a 9800non-pro, then you can do the bios flash and have a Pro.

 

[siggers]

how can flashing the bios give you a 9800 pro??

 

[Zer0Soul]

I just bought the 9600xt the other day, couldn't have been a better choice for the price. I upgraded from a 9000pro.

 

[somekid007]

9600xt gives you a golden ticket to hl2. shell out a few extra $$$ and get a fx5900 non-ultra or 9800non pro

 

[tripleione]

Originally posted by siggers
how can flashing the bios give you a 9800 pro??

The 9800 and 9800Pro cards are essentially the same card, except the non-pro version has lower clock speeds. By flashing the video card's BIOS to a 9800Pro version, the card will use the higher clock and memory speed of a 9800Pro as well, basically making it a 9800Pro.

There's also many other "hacks" that work on ATi Radeon cards. For example, there's a possibility to make a 9500 to a 9700 via a softmod in RivaTuner. The most recent hack is the 9800SE to 9800 mod which is why you hear so many people recommending the 9800SE.

The cards do not always like being modded into something they are not made to be. Should this happen, you'll have an unusable card on your hands.

 

[vegasgmc]

Ive seen 9600 SE's. Whats the difference in them? THey also come with HL2. But Im leary of anything with SE because it usually means a cheap card.

 

[tripleione]

Originally posted by vegasgmc
Ive seen 9600 SE's. Whats the difference in them? THey also come with HL2. But Im leary of anything with SE because it usually means a cheap card.

It's basically the same card as the 9600 except that the memory bus is cut in half to 64-bits. This reduces its theoretical memory bandwidth by half, which definately makes it slower than any of the other 9600s.

 

[Steg]

personally i would recommend the FX 5700 Ultra.
it beats the 9600XT nine times out of ten and its slightly cheaper - where can you go wrong? Yeh it doesnt come with a free single player only version of half life 2 - but anyone serious about gaming will want the SP/MP or even the collecters editon - not a stripped down version.
So thats my vote - go nvidia - buy yourself a 5700 Ultra - then overclock it

Steg

 

[SubKamran]

9600 Pro/NP/XT

nVidia isn't very good (newer games wise, I've read and researched enough to know) and you need the full DX9 support for newer games. I have a 9800 Pro and I can't say how much it rocks.

 

[Scol]

I can't really recommend @ $150 as your price point. Did you want a new retail card, or will you settle for a used or refurbished one? If so, you could get lots of goodies @ $150...

 

[schizoid77]

The 5700 Ultra is very badass....PNY makes a great HSF and it's highly overclockable.

it's only about 200 bunizzles...

 

[tripleione]

Originally posted by Scol
I can't really recommend @ $150 as your price point. Did you want a new retail card, or will you settle for a used or refurbished one? If so, you could get lots of goodies @ $150...

Actually, there are quite a few decent video cards for under $150.

Radeon 9600
Radeon 9600 Pro
GeForce 4 Ti 4200-4600
GeForceFX 5600

 

[Scol]

Out of that bunch, I'd say the 9600pro.

 

[SubKamran]

I second that one.