Need a solid Video Card (got one)

[Enix]

I am trying to find a nice and solid video card from newegg, but the reviews are always so contradicting, because well, im sure most of the people giving bad reviews are complete retards when the card has 100 other people saying its great.

I am looking for an nvidia card (AGP, 128-256MB) that will handle a bit of gaming, nothing like running Fear or Hl2 on maximum settings though. I just want a stable cheap card ($30-$55)that will allow some gaming and 3d modeling.

I know there are a lot of very knowledgeable people here, so could ya help me out a bit? I was looking to buy from newegg (because I need this before next weekend ).

 

[Spunky]

http://www.compuvest.us/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductID=188686&CategoryCode=VGA_CARD

I've never bought from there though, so you may want to read more about it before you buy anything.

 

[Zeonix]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Description=GeForce+6200&x=0&y=0

Same thing, except on newegg.

 

[Pemalite]

Anything above a Radeon 9600 or Gefoce 6600 Would be fine, even, God forbid anything Higher than a mid ranged Geforce FX. (5700 or higher).

Personally If I was on a tight budget I would do my best to get A Geforce 7300 or 6600
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...E&DEPA=0&Description=GeForce+7300+AGP&x=0&y=0

 

[Dokutayuu]

Radeon 9800 worked for me until my fan failed and killed it.
It can run HL2 well and I've used it in the Fear demo.

Don't go for the SE model, pick pro. SE has half the pipelines.

 

[Pemalite]

Yes, but the Radeon 9800SE can be modded into a 9800 Pro.
http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=101&pgno=0

But even a 9700 or a 9500 Pro would work (They both have 8 pipelines).
And with a softmod, Its worth a shot, As it can be reverted.

 

[Barney's_Soul]

I am trying to find a nice and solid video card from newegg, but the reviews are always so contradicting, because well, im sure most of the people giving bad reviews are complete retards when the card has 100 other people saying its great.

I am looking for an nvidia card (AGP, 128-256MB) that will handle a bit of gaming, nothing like running Fear or Hl2 on maximum settings though. I just want a stable cheap card ($30-$55)that will allow some gaming and 3d modeling.

I know there are a lot of very knowledgeable people here, so could ya help me out a bit? I was looking to buy from newegg (because I need this before next weekend ).

Get a 6600GT, 7600GS, or even a 7300GT would do wonders for you.

 

[Dokutayuu]

Yes, but the Radeon 9800SE can be modded into a 9800 Pro.

As by Omega but it won't be as quick (PRO is slightly quicker)


Perhaps a good ebay is in order? I got a nice Radeon X1950 XT for ?100. You could find a similar bargain cheaper down.

 

[Enix]

I think im gonna go with a 6200a, because my budget was dropped to under $45 and this isn't exactly going to be my long term system (hopefully getting a whole new one that supports pci-express later on this year).

I chose this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814141051

It was either this or

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121542

But the biostar one has slightly better specs than the asus for the same price (the shipping on the asus card is a dollar more), and the asus one has some complaints about the color messing up from the cheapo cable.

 

[Devion]

DO NOT get a Geforce 6200. It's genuine CRAP.(If you do get it, I will stone you to death, blasphemer)

That said, I think you should really consider Geforce 6600, 7300GT or ATi's Radeon X700, X13/400.

 

[Enix]

I already said that i cant afford that atm, the cheapest 6600 is over $80, and I dont have room in my budget for that right now. You can't call the entire line of Geforce 6200 crap if (i am assuming) you have only tried one or two of them with bad luck, because many others have nothing but good to say about this budget card.

 

[Devion]

I already said that i cant afford that atm, the cheapest 6600 is over $80, and I dont have room in my budget for that right now. You can't call the entire line of Geforce 6200 crap if (i am assuming) you have only tried one or two of them with bad luck, because many others have nothing but good to say about this budget card.

I'm talking about peformance wise. But if you prefer me to lie to you, oh well, it's not my money.

I haven't tried one myself(As in owning one), but I know that the peformance of the Geforce 6200 is just to cry about. ATLEAST buy a Geforce 6200 with 128bit memory interface and not the 64bit.

 

[Enix]

Price is the important thing here, performance second (because im poor). I dont have much to spend on one, so I have to go with what is available to me for now. I am currently stuck with a 16mb onboard video chipset(VIA none the less), which barley does what I need it to do, so basically any card will do, and this is the best I can find for under $45.

Plus this card is fanless, so I dont have to worry about my fan going out and burning up like my last one did...

 

[Pemalite]

Eh, the 6200 isn't a bad card, but its not steller either, But what will hamper it would be the 64 bit memory bus, But with some over clocking of the memory you should see a decent improvement. Infact I want one for a HTPC machine, But I have a S3 Savage3D for that for the time being.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102609
If you could afford that you would be sitting pretty for awhile! Perhaps borrow some money off someone?

Also If you could find one, Grab a Radeon 9550! If it has a 128bit memory interface, it would wipe the floor with the 6200 64bit.

 

[frsrblch]

A solid graphics card? Aren't they all solid?

*bu-dum-tish*

For that price range, you could find a used 9800 Pro on eBay, but gl getting it by next weekend. And yeah, I've heard that those 9800 SEs can be soft modded to to Pro speeds with the Omega drivers.

 

[Barney's_Soul]

I already said that i cant afford that atm, the cheapest 6600 is over $80, and I dont have room in my budget for that right now. You can't call the entire line of Geforce 6200 crap if (i am assuming) you have only tried one or two of them with bad luck, because many others have nothing but good to say about this budget card.

Dude......god save your soul......that grfx card is about equivlent to a TNT2 in performance......expect the TNT2 had a 128 bit interface!!!!!!!!!

 

[Pemalite]

... I doubt that. The Geforce 6200 has 4 pipes and I think 3 vertex units.
To find out of the total memory bandwidth just multiply the memory bits to the memory speed for instance 64X500Mhz (For the Gefoce FX 5200) Which equates to:64000 or 6.4gb.
The TNT 2 had 128* the M64 had 64*
The TNT was running at 150Mhz*128 = 19200 or 1.92gb.
On the other hand...
The 6200A biostar card has 533Mhz memory
so 533*64 = 34112 or 3.4112Gb
Overclock that and you might be able to hit the 4gb barrier

My Old laptop with the Mobility Radeon 9700Pro had 600Mhz memory (300mhzx2)
so 600*128 = 76800 or 7.68gb. It used to be clocked at 210mhz but over clocking was the norm to do any decent gaming on the machine.
so if it was 210*2=420*128=53760 or 5.3760Gb. so 2.7gb of added bandwidth just by over clocking from 210 to 300 mhz

The 6200 should play Half Life 2 fine, at medium quality, A friend has a Celeron 2.2 gigger, 512Mb of ram, and a Radeon 9200SE with 64bit memory and is playing Half life 2. And the 6200 Is a much more capable card than a castrated 9200.

 

[Enix]

That will make me a little more confident on my purchase. Because everyone I ask online tells me "OH GOD NO!!!YOU CANT DO ANYTHING WITH THAT!!"...Well I could do everything I wanted to do on a Geforce 3 and then later a Geforce 4 blew my mind (maybe i'm just easily impressed). So I seriously doubt that this fairly newer card will be a disappointment, since it is more powerful than any card I have ever owned and not to mention cheaper...
I am not a real big "next-gen" game player, but I do like to play CS: S occasionally. The only games I really plan to play with this is Halo and GTA3, I just enjoy older games more. HL2, Doom3, Fear, and Farcry don't really tickle my fancy . Besides, my old Geforce 4 ti4200 ran HL2, Doom3 and Fear pretty well, I could run them all on medium settings and get 20-35 fps on each.
Trust me, I appreciate the help, but you have no idea how irritating it is to hear that every card I choose under $45 is crap and useless, just because it's under $100. I just don't think people get the idea I am not going for a hardcore gaming card here, and there are things called a strict budget. I just want something that won't die on me in a year and be able to support my basic needs (3Dstudio max, Halo, GTA3, MGS2: S, UT2004, HL, and CS 1.6)...

Anyway, on a lighter note, my birthday is in 2 weeks, so if I can stick it out a bit longer, my budget might increase a bit .

[edit]

I do want to add that I still dont want to spend over $100 on a card, because I do plan to upgrade to a system that supports PCI-Express in the near future.

 

[Barney's_Soul]

... I doubt that. The Geforce 6200 has 4 pipes and I think 3 vertex units.
To find out of the total memory bandwidth just multiply the memory bits to the memory speed for instance 64X500Mhz (For the Gefoce FX 5200) Which equates to:64000 or 6.4gb.
The TNT 2 had 128* the M64 had 64*
The TNT was running at 150Mhz*128 = 19200 or 1.92gb.
On the other hand...
The 6200A biostar card has 533Mhz memory
so 533*64 = 34112 or 3.4112Gb
Overclock that and you might be able to hit the 4gb barrier

My Old laptop with the Mobility Radeon 9700Pro had 600Mhz memory (300mhzx2)
so 600*128 = 76800 or 7.68gb. It used to be clocked at 210mhz but over clocking was the norm to do any decent gaming on the machine.
so if it was 210*2=420*128=53760 or 5.3760Gb. so 2.7gb of added bandwidth just by over clocking from 210 to 300 mhz

The 6200 should play Half Life 2 fine, at medium quality, A friend has a Celeron 2.2 gigger, 512Mb of ram, and a Radeon 9200SE with 64bit memory and is playing Half life 2. And the 6200 Is a much more capable card than a castrated 9200.

I'm just incredibly dissapointed, even the 8600 series top card will have 128 bit interface!!!

 

[Pemalite]

Actually the 128bit interface for a mid ranged card (the 8600 series) is a little bit long in the tooth, the 128 bit interface IMHO should be 128, Mid 256, High 368-512.

And the good old Geforce 4 Ti serhose cards performed exceptionally well for ages!
The Geforce 4 Ti 4200 was faster than most Geforce FX's and is about 10fps slower than a Geforce 6 6200 in Unreal Tournament 2004. ^.^

Still the Geforce 4 Ti series performed worst with AA and AF, And wasn't Pixel shader 2.0/3.0 capable.

Still hope you are happy with your purchase If your doing a whole system upgrade later on... You can still get an AGP card, and a PCI-Express board with AGP ^.^ Allowing you to take the card to the next machine!