video card recommendations
 

I'm going to be building an new PC soon. I'll use it for editing, DVD authoring, and of course HL2, and doom 3.

What video cards would you guys recommend? I would like to spend less then 200, what's the most bang for the buck these days?

Thanks...


-happymaan

If HL2 and Doom 3 are significant reasons for the PC, you're probably better off biting the bullet, spending a chunk more and grabbing a ATI Radeon 9700 All in Wonder.

It'll give you some of the best graphics out there - and will help tremendously with the DVD authoring and editing, as well.

I just bought this card a couple weeks ago, and am just way impressed with what it offers. I definitly will be happy playing HL2 when it comes out. I see no need to buy nvidia products anymore if ATI keeps this juggernaut going.

The GeForce FX 5900 and ATi 9800 are great cards for the above mentioned games, unfortunately the prices don't match your criteria (I think, which currency are you in?). I'm heading off in an hour to order my GFX 5900 :D

I wouldn't be purchasing a GeForce FX 5900 right now. NVIDIA shipped a cubic asslode of faulty ones out to various big-name manufacturers. I got two of them and had to RMA both of them back. It's a great card if you get a good one, but good luck if you try for it.

Under $200.00? I'd get a Radeon 9800 128 MB. The cheapest ones are right under two hundred bucks. That, or save some money and get a GeForce 4 TI 4600 or Radeon 9500 Pro.

-Lasereth

All about 3dfx gear. Still great if you don't game

I think that the quality of NVidia stuff is good. You'll hear stories of unreliable cards on both sides of the fence. I had a friend who had to RMA a Radeon 9800 Pro twice, first because of instability problems and again because the fan fell off and the chip fried itself. I think the GeForce cards in the same class as the Radeon 9800 are pretty good.

Another thing is those sub-$200 Radeon 9800's are probably 9800 SE's. The SE means 4 pixel pipelines instead of 8, and lower clockspeed than the "normal" 9800's... significantly less performance. Might as well get a Radeon 9600 Pro and save the $$$, it'll only run you like $120-130. Seems like cards jump from the ~$140 range to ~$250 anyway, so you can either get a cheap, moderately good card, or pay up the nose for a better one, not much in between.

I just ordered a MSI FX5600. I went off of Toms Hardware. Should be arriving any day now.

If your are interested in ATI Cards go for the Sapphires!!! They make their SE cards capable of running at the Retail speeds and some even ship a the retail speeds out of the box.

Easy way to save some money and get a great card!

I just ran this pc for the first time today and the Radeon 9800 thats is it makes me drool.

All you ATI users!!!

Goto www.rage3d.com and download the ATI drivers and the Control Panel from there!

Also get the Rage 3dTweak utility to set up your card settings for different games and appz.

The drivers there are usually the best ones, and the community knows their sh!t! Plus they are not just mindless ATI fanboys! They admit when Nvidia does somethign cool or ATI something stupid.

I never said that the NVIDIA FX 5900 was a bad card, I'm simply letting everyone know that there ARE a TON of bad cards out right now. Not bad as in performance bad, I mean bad as in they are fucked up. They are broke. That doesn't mean the card sucks; it simply means that a bunch of broken cards were shipped.

Yes, you're right about the SE's. They do suck for the price. But I did find a few places selling the regular 9800's (non-SE) for only $235-240 which is still a DAMN good deal for the price.

-Lasereth