Help picking out a video card
 

I am putting together a new computer, and I have everything else I need (or on it's way in the mail) except for a video card. I've tried to keep costs down and I have been ordering parts over the last couple of months.

Now I need a video card. I don't want to spend more than $200 Canadian on one, but I want something that is the best for it's money, and will be good enough for some of the upcoming games (HL2, Doom III, etc)

I have AMD 2500+
Soltek SL-75FRN2-L mobo
512 MG DDR Ram
80 GB HDD
and other parts.

I've been looking around and this is the best one that I think is good value (Sale for $173 Cdn right now) and good for my expected needs:

SAPPHIRE RADEON 9600 PRO 128MB DDR DVI-I W/ TV OUT OEM
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...9&promoid=1001

Any advice would be helpful, thanx in advance.

Yes. That card is a great choice; for the money, the difference between a 9600 Pro and 9600XT is marginal.

Wait and save your money.

PCI Express is right around the corner.

I've read a couple articles saying 1ghz clock speed cards by the end of Q1 next year.

Yeah, for $200 Canadian I'd have to say that the 9600 Pro is the way to go.

There's no reason to wait. PCI-E will be a new technology, but even now, the performance increase isn't gonna be because of the new technology...it's gonna be because of the increased clock speed. Waiting almost a year for new cards to come out isn't worth it. They'll just be $500 new at the beginning of next year. May as well get a card now; those new cards aren't gonna be cheap for a long time.

-Lasereth

PCI express is a major step. it will make a huge diferance in speeds if you are willing to wait for it wait. its solid tech with large backing (unlike RDRAM)

It's already reported that NVIDIA and ATI won't release a PCI-E videocard that's more than 100 MHz faster than the current cards for a solid year. That's not a major step at all. They've also already admitted that the fact that it's PCI-E will have nothing to do with the increase in power for at least a year. AGP isn't outdated yet...it's simply time to increase clock speeds again, just like they usually do. Sooner or later they will run into a bottleneck, and that's why they're adapting to PCI-E now instead of later. Most tech sites believe a possible 15% increase in power over today's cards once the PCI-E cards come out over the year. That's just not enough to wait for, especially since those cards WILL be very expensive. Hell, NVIDIA has even mentioned that the first-gen PCI-E cards will come with four types, two of them being no more powerful than a GeForce 4 TI series. Only the latter two will be much better, and only by 10-15%.

-Lasereth

This guy is asking about buying a new vid card, not a new vid card AND motherboard...

I'd say the 9500 Pro, 9600 Pro, or 9700 Pro are all decent choices within that relative price range. However, the 9800's (pro and non) are coming down fast, its easy to find one for around $200 US.

Thanks alot guys...I am going to order that vid card. I will worry about PCI-E much later when my video performance becomes an issue.

Oh my god... one of my friends a few months ago went out and bought a video card without consulting me first. He made two horrible mistakes:

1. He purchased thwe video card at Best Buy (ie full retail price).



2.The video card he purchased was a 9600 SE !!!1 ARRRRRGH !!!

As long as it's not an 9600Se you should be fine.

ya dont worry bout the PCI express, Lasereth you must remember that there is more then just clock speeds. there is bandwidth between the card and the processor too.

Hey, I'm not arguing that PCI-E is useless or anything. I realize that the possibilities of PCI-E videocards are simply amazing. I'm just aguing the fact that NVIDIA and ATI have already said that none of their cards released in the next year are going to go full-steam ahead with the uses of PCI-E. ATI is still releasing AGP cards WITH the PCI-E cards with no projected impairments. It'll be over a year from now when PCI-E cards are actually better than what AGP cards can do. As of now, they're simply putting them on PCI-E to make the change and increasing the clock speed/adding more RAM. In other words, jacking up the price with their new cards as usual. :)

-Lasereth

In that price range: 9600 pro, 9600 XT, 9800 pro (if lucky), geforce fx5900xt (*very* attractive).

the 9600 pro is a good choice, but a few extra dollars will get you *just* a little bit more juice. The question, of course, is when to stop adding dollars. :)

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Dragonlich
[B] In that price range: 9600 pro, 9600 XT, 9800 pro (if lucky), geforce fx5900xt (*very* attractive).

The 9600Pro and 9600 XT should be the same price range since 9600XT was release to REPLACE the 9600 Pro. DEFINITELY get the 9600XT over 9600Pro, it is faster. May not be by a lot but the price difference is very insignificant.
Now, here's the important bit. Some brands will package the Radeon 9600XT with HALF-LIFE 2 COUPON (to redeem it for the game when it is released). The 9600 PRO does NOT have that.

ASUS definitely has HL2 coupon. Other brands will have different models (some with & some without, so can be tricky).

Do NO buy the 9800SE (or 9600SE)

For pure speed, the GeForce 5900XT is faster than 9600XT but is more expensive, but when you turn on FSAA & AF the speed difference is not so significant cause nVidia cards don't implement FSAA & AF very well. So, my advice is get the Radeon 9600XT with HL2 coupon.

also, everyone talking about pci express going to be a major leap, you will wait a little longer than you think, sure the cards might be out in say, june. but it requires a new motherboard as well, which means he'll have no comp for a while.

also the difference between pci express and agp 8 will be basically nothing for a while because it will take a while for games to be written to take advantage of the new speed.

hell, the new games are only now beginning to take advantage of agp 4, and agp 8 wont be fully utilized for a while yet, so it will take a fair while till the new slot will be any different unless the cards that go in them are better.

I just recently bought a ATI 9600 Pro, and I'm loving it! Of course I upgraded from a NVIDIA MMX 440 64mb card...

I got my 9600Pro card from newegg.com. It was refurbished so I got it for like $110. Not a bad price, and I've had no problems with it. It came in a retail box with everything included.

Hope this helps.. and good luck! =)