OT: Recommend a "Best Bang" $50 Video Card??? | Forums

[swambast]

Hi everyone, thought I'd reach out here to the community for some ideas. Replacing my Dad's old Geforce 2 MX as a surprise with something just within the $50 price range...particularly so he can play his Tiger Woods golf games.

What would you suggest? What about something like:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Custra...82E16814102410

-or-

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130197

Well, thanks so much for any ideas!

[-HH-Quazi]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ATI-RADEON-9700-128MB-MEG-TV-OUT-WI...QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.com/ATI-9700-128mb-AGP-VGA-Video-card-D...QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem


Here are a couple cards with twice the pixel pipes in the same price range, just in case you would be interested.

But I did experience going from a MX420 to a 9600XT in 2003 and the difference was like night and day.

While I was surfing eBay looking for those links above, I did notice new retail 9600XT's running at $60. If you want to get him a 9600, get him the 9600XT. The 9600XT I bought may have had only 4 pixel pipelines, but its' clock speeds of 500\500 really picked its' performance up.

As for your question, the 9600 with the link you provided should play that game fine, I would think. Not sure about the 5500 though.

[dieg777]

Hi - the 5500 and 5700 were not great cards - Id go for the ATI 9600. Be aware that if you decide to switch to ATI you should be careful about cleaning out all the nvidea drivers prior to installing the ATI as the 2 different driver sets could conflict. Use a drivercleaner like

http://www.majorgeeks.com/Driver_Cle...nal_d3214.html

take care only to remove video files as some driver cleaners will strip out motherboard and sound drivers if you have nvidea chipset and onboard sound on your motherboard- read the readme carefully !!!!!

[swambast]

Hey guys, what do you think about this one:

SAPPHIRE 100575L-RD Radeon 9600XT 256MB 128-bit GDDR2 AGP 4X/8X Video Card - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102600

Looks like a good price after rebate ( about 60 bucks).

Or Quazi, is that 9700 the better way to go??? I see the 9600XT has more memory, but I am not at all familiar with the ATI line of cards (pixel piplelines, Mem speeds, etc.) - so what do yout think everyone?

[swambast]

Well, ran out of time, and went for the SAPPHIRE 100575L-RD Radeon 9600XT 256MB 128-bit GDDR2 AGP 4X/8X Video Card - hopefully it was a good choice, really am not quite sure. Oh well, thanks for your comments anyway!

[dieg777]

Im sure the card will be an improvement, however how big an improvement will depending on the overall specifications of the machine you are adding it to.

I think you have got a good card for your money. Iv got one in my old computer and paid around $200 for it 2 years ago.

PS like your line under your sig- a fellow Clash fan ?