best card for the $$$

tmh88tmh88 Pittsburgh / Athens, OH
edited March 2005 in Hardware
Hey guys i just wanted your opinions on a new video card. I need it to be agp, not pci express. Im looking to spend $220 at most. thanks o and I will primarily be using it for gaming. I have an nvidia gforce fx 5700 le right now, and I'd like to be able to put the game video settings higher, so i want a new card. thanks for any opinions

Comments

  • lemonlimelemonlime Canada Member
    edited March 2005
    Probably the best bang for the buck right now would be the Nvidia 6600GT cards. I'm pretty sure they would fit in your price range, and would perform much better than your FX 5700. Don't let the 128mb ofmemory deter you, as the older midrange FX cards had 256mb as a bit of a marketing ploy. Even with half the memory, it is much faster DDR, and overall you should see a very noticable improvement.

    Another card that may be your best bet is the vanilla 6800 (128mb non-ultra model). They are easy to find, but price-wise, they may be a little higher than you are willing to spend. Many of them have been successfully modded to 16-pipe cards, and have good tweaking potential.

    On the ATI side of things, the 9800 pro still performs great for the $, I've seen some of them on ebay for as low as $130-140. The X800XL is ATI's best bang for the buck card, but they may be closer to the $300 price tag, and they are also very difficult to find, especially in AGP versions.
  • edcentricedcentric near Milwaukee, Wisconsin Icrontian
    edited March 2005
    I haven't run either card, but if you can belive what you read the 9800pro should out run the 6600GT in most games.
    New they are both just under the $200 point.

    The next step is big. A plain 6800 is ~$250 and an X800 and a 6800GT are both just north of $300.
  • tmh88tmh88 Pittsburgh / Athens, OH
    edited March 2005
    thanks guys. My cousin just got the 6600GT and I loaded some games onto his computer like halo, counterstrike source, half life 2, farcry and unreal 2004 and that card is without a doubt 100x better than mine. I'll probably just go with the 6600. thanks for the help
  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian
    edited March 2005
    I saw 9800 pro's 256bit at newegg for like $158 yesterday
    look still there http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=property&DEPA=1
    once you go 256 bit you won't go back!
  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian
    edited March 2005
    I just read an article that says the 6600gt is the best bang for the buck ...go figure!
  • edcentricedcentric near Milwaukee, Wisconsin Icrontian
    edited March 2005
    That article is prob based on the price of the 9800pro being $195.

    The amount of ram is less important than the data path width.
    The 256 bit data path is a benifit.
    Not hte same can be said for the amount of ram.
    On these cards there doesn't seam to be any advantage to 256 MB vs 128 MB.
  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian
    edited March 2005
    Yeah I agree ...although I've never owned a 6600gt. I think mtgoat owned one but he sold it and bought a 9800 pro. Quite possible it could just depend on what you're gonna use it for also. I'm sticking with my 9800 pro though.
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited March 2005
    csimon wrote:
    Yeah I agree ...although I've never owned a 6600gt. I think mtgoat owned one but he sold it and bought a 9800 pro. Quite possible it could just depend on what you're gonna use it for also. I'm sticking with my 9800 pro though.
    Never did own a 6600GT but did own a 9800 Pro. I was considering a 6600GT to replace the 9800 Pro when I went to PCI-e but had second thoughts as I really wanted more. In terms of raw speed and performance in OLDER GAMES the 9800 Pro wins. But as soon as you get into the newer games the 6600GT equals or betters it. Sure the 9800 sounds like it should be better due to it being a 256 bit part but the cores of the newer cards wins out in the end. If I was staying AGP and had a 9800 Pro I wouldn't change but if I had a 5700 Le I might consider it. But in the end it still isn't the Earth shaking chnage you would expect and would also weigh in the factors of a possible upcoming system change first as it would really suck to buy an AGP card then in less than a year decide to go for a new board that had PCI-e! But if you are happy enough with the system you have and know it will be with you for a while then I would save up a little more cash for either a 6800 (plain), a 6800GT or an X-800 of some sort.
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