Recommend a Graphics Card

[nicksharp]

I suggest you to get a ATI radeon x800xl, AGP version, and for two-three years you will be ok. This video card is more powerful than NVIDIA counterparts, and it's cheap too. I think on E-Bay with a bit of luck you could get a fairy price.

[Jito463]

I just ordered in a new PCIe video card and mobo from Newegg last Tuesday (three-day shipping and it shows up 6 days later!). Upgrading from a 6600GT AGP to a 6800GS PCIe. Not a huge jump, but at least now I'm on PCIe for future upgrades. And as pumpkinsoftruth said, you don't need an Ati to play HL2. I run HL2 at 1280x1024 with my nVidia card with no problems whatsoever (well, until this last update anyway, but that's unrelated to my video card).

[LooDos]

I just ordered in a new PCIe video card and mobo from Newegg last Tuesday (three-day shipping and it shows up 6 days later!). Upgrading from a 6600GT AGP to a 6800GS PCIe. Not a huge jump, but at least now I'm on PCIe for future upgrades.

indeed this isnt a huge jump. its kinda waste of money imho...

And as pumpkinsoftruth said, you don't need an Ati to play HL2. I run HL2 at 1280x1024 with my nVidia card with no problems whatsoever (well, until this last update anyway, but that's unrelated to my video card).

nVIDIA has only had promblems in HL2 with GeForce FX 5xxx cards.

[Jito463]

That's not entirely true. In x64, there was a problem in the "Our Benefactors" level that causes a CTD whenever you use the physics gun to throw one of the plasma balls at an enemy. There was actually one other way to cause the CTD, but I can't recall it at this time. I don't know if it was fixed yet either, or not. Btw, the upgrade from the 6600GT AGP (which was OC'd from 500/900 to 589/1100) to the 6800GS PCIe netted me about a 40% increase. At stock speeds on the 6600GT, it's almost a 60% increase in speed. Not a waste of money from my perspective.

Now I just need to move my Zalman VF700-Cu to my 6800GS and start overclocking (well, overclocking more as it's factory overclocked already to 485/1100). Once I do that, then the difference should increase even more.

[Valecaruacaruccio]

I think that the best solution to join last games and not get our budget crying is buying an ATI 9800 pro...(256 mb)AGP... i've that and i've bought it a year ago... it works perfectly with new games like prince of perisa t2t... half life 2, quake 4 and fear.... the price at the time was about 150 euros.... try to compare my hardware with yours.....
CPU-athlon xp 3000+
RAM-1024 mb kingston
moth. b.-asus a7n8x
video card-ATI Radeon 9800 pro 256 mb agp....
keep in mind that if u want to buy new hardware the latest cards are very expensive.... get a look to the older version that costs less....
WAILERS 4ever!!!!!!

[Jito463]

The thing that I'm not thrilled about with most of these 256MB cards is that they use DDR RAM instead of the faster GDDR3 RAM. I won't buy a video card anymore unless it has GDDR3 RAM on it. The speed difference is enough that it's always worth the slightly extra premium required. 128MB of GDDR3 is equal to - or faster than - 256MB of DDR. And the 256MB of GDDR3 on my new card is even faster still. On top of that, my card with the GDDR3 cost about the same as what you paid for your 9800 Pro, so it's not a bank-breaker either.

[Ptolomeus3]

Iґm purchasing now a NVidia GeForce 7800 GT (Retail) PCIe x16, 20 pxiel pipelines and SLi. It has 445/1070 MHz, 256 MN / GDDR3 for 300 . A bit more expensive but should be good for the next couple of years.

[LooDos]

the GForce 7800Gt is a very good choice!
PS: do u buy 2 of them, coz u wrote SLi?!

[confused_daddy]

looking for advice on cheap video card

I currently have a standard system: 2.8 celeron with 512 ram and no video card. I don't do much that requires good graphics performance( i play low requirement web based games) but my son recently received a game for christmas that wont run on the system. It requires support for pixel shading v 1.1. I basically only want to buy what i'll need so he can play this game without breaking the bank. Of course i understand that sometimes its better to spend a few bucks more than the bare minimum for better performance. If anyone can reccomend a good card that will support the pixel shading and give decent performance without the bleeding edge pricetag I would be very appreciative. Thanks in advance.

[LooDos]

i'd reccomend u to buy a ATi Radeon 9600Pro or the 9800er...
they are quite cheao and have a good enough performance for older games... (but also for newer ones if u dont play with max details)...

[Ptolomeus3]

the GForce 7800Gt is a very good choice!
PS: do u buy 2 of them, coz u wrote SLi?!

No no, I buy only one of them.

[LooDos]

i just want u to know that every gf since 6xxx series support SLi.
except the low budget versions (like 6200tc).
so maybe it depends on your mobo...

[ange1]

yeah i'd just buy one, and then when it drops buy the other lol

[kragnin]

Graphics Card Updgrade - Advice Needed!

Thanks in advance for all helpful replies!

I need to upgrade my card for games, primarily. I'm trying to fit my current system and stay within a budget while maximizing performance (isn't everyone?).

Here's my current specs:

CPU: Intel Pentium 4 3.1 GHz
Graphics: nVIDIA GeForce FX 5200, 128MB (AGP, I believe)
RAM: 1024 DDR-SDRAM

Email me directly and post replies here. I've always used nVIDIA products, but am open to other recommendations.

Thanks!
Matt

[Underheaven]

...

kragnin, I moved your post here.