$150 price range?

eblade · November 29th, 2006, 10:31 PM

Looks like I'll be upgrading the a PCIe board here in the next week or so, and was curious what sort of cards I'd be looking at in the 150 range or so, and how do they stack up? Any opinions?

**Regeneration** · November 29th, 2006, 10:48 PM

7600GT or some used card from eBay.

eblade · November 30th, 2006, 05:15 AM

is that something that, as a guy who's trying to be hardcore

, i'm probably going to be happy with for a while, ya think? I think that's what we got in the other computer, maybe a 7600, but i think a 7600GT. My computer has seen a Radeon 9600, 9550, and a GF6200 in the last 4 months, but i'm not sure it's fair to judge the current run with those boards.. I know, obviously, that it'll blow my old ones away, especially when coupled with an AMD 3200+ instead of an 1800+ (overclocked to 2100+) ..

I've tried to do some comparison research between all the cards, but it actually seems pretty tedious and difficult to do so - Wiki has a huge amount of info about the specs on NVidia, and the ATI specs seem impossible to find gathered altogether ...

**Regeneration** · November 30th, 2006, 06:18 AM

X1950PRO is a great card and pretty cheap (200$).

Unixlord · November 30th, 2006, 12:21 PM

Actually: Radeon X1950PRO vs. GeForce 7900GS @ TweakTown
The 7900gs has more potential then the x1950 pro and it's cheaper (181$). Both are above your stated budget.
Your best bet is to get the cheapest 7600gt you can get your hands on and overclock it. They overclock very nicely.

eblade · December 9th, 2006, 08:30 AM

I am going to have to check the box for the model of what we got for the gf's mom, i blew her box up trying to fix a faulty fan (oops!) and we upgraded her all around to whatever i could grab off the shelf at a reasonable price. I coulda swore that we picked up a 7600GT w/ 512MB PCIe for like $150, but the place that we got it at isn't showing any 512mb cards for less than $350 .. i know damn well we didn't spend $350 on a video card for a $350 barebones

Hope I didn't get a killer deal that I won't be able to repeat, cuz I want one...

oops, found in their sale flyer...
they have both a 256mb and a 512mb 7600GS for 159 ..

how's that?
probably going to be driving it with a pretty basic AMD 3200 or 3300+, and hoping to get another 3-4 years out of it like we have these...

kYdizzle · December 12th, 2006, 05:00 AM

what applications were you looking to run o the new card?
most apps will work with that card, but i doubt that you will get 3 -4 years out of it

with DX10 and Vista just around the corner you'll probably need to upgrade before then.

i would not buy that 512mb 7600GS for 159 any way, you could get a far better card for a marginally more expensive price like the 7900GS.

eblade · December 12th, 2006, 05:30 AM

well, i'm seeing reviews that say you can pick up the 7600GS for under $130, but the cheapest i've seen of them online anywhere is $139, and the cheapest retail i've seen is the $159, and those are all 256mb cards except for the sale on that 512mb.. I think I've decided I'm going to stick with NVidia, I just need to find something. Or, should I maybe just get a 6600 PCIe, to hold me over until the DX10 cards start coming out? Although I have no intention to upgrade to Vista unless it becomes mandatory to run things :|

CoolZone · December 12th, 2006, 08:42 AM

i also recommend you to get the 7600GS

Nexu · December 12th, 2006, 03:30 PM

7600GS is like a bit faster than 6600GT but slower than 6800GT. In that case i would rather go for this:

e-VGA 7600GTS $113
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130054

Pop a quality GPU fan on it:

Artic Cooling Accelero X1 $21
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835186001