Dear fellow gamers..I was looking for some feedback on a decent video card
for gaming. Something around 100 bucks. Any tips would be appreciated
Pain out
for gaming. Something around 100 bucks. Any tips would be appreciated
Pain out
Gaming Video Cards
- Thread starter Purple†Pain
- Start date
decent card for 100 bucks... that will be difficult...
two things first:
1) is it AGP or PCIe (aka PCI Express)? they are not compatible with each other so check which one goes in your system. google up some pics of AGP slots if you're not sure.
2) with both ATI (radeon) and NVIDIA (geforce) the first number is always the generation number, and the others are model numbers. example: a geforce 7800 is a 7th generation nvidia card, and the "800" means it's the high-end part. an 8400 is a low-end part of the eighth generation, much slower than the 7800. google up some tests (comparisons on anandtech or tomshardware for example) to see how a card performs.
one more thing: memory is overrated. more is always better, of course, but an 8400 with 1024MB will not even get close in performance to an 8800 with 512MB.
right now the best deal are ATI's 3800 series. they were supposed to be high-end cards but failed to perform as well as nvidia's offerings, so they have all the nice high-end features at rock-bottom prices. here are two you should consider:
Premium Link Upgrade
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the 3870 is simply a faster version of the 3850, so if you don't have the extra $25 you can get the 3850 and overclock it a little...
there are cheaper cards like the radeon 3600-series or nvidia's 8600, but they offer much less performance for only a few dollars less since they were always intended to be mid-range cards. here is a comparison test:
Premium Link Upgrade
if you still have AGP the same basic rules apply, the higher the model number the better; but since AGP was phased out some time ago you will have to make do with older cards.
if you have more questions just ask.
two things first:
1) is it AGP or PCIe (aka PCI Express)? they are not compatible with each other so check which one goes in your system. google up some pics of AGP slots if you're not sure.
2) with both ATI (radeon) and NVIDIA (geforce) the first number is always the generation number, and the others are model numbers. example: a geforce 7800 is a 7th generation nvidia card, and the "800" means it's the high-end part. an 8400 is a low-end part of the eighth generation, much slower than the 7800. google up some tests (comparisons on anandtech or tomshardware for example) to see how a card performs.
one more thing: memory is overrated. more is always better, of course, but an 8400 with 1024MB will not even get close in performance to an 8800 with 512MB.
right now the best deal are ATI's 3800 series. they were supposed to be high-end cards but failed to perform as well as nvidia's offerings, so they have all the nice high-end features at rock-bottom prices. here are two you should consider:
Premium Link Upgrade
Premium Link Upgrade
the 3870 is simply a faster version of the 3850, so if you don't have the extra $25 you can get the 3850 and overclock it a little...
there are cheaper cards like the radeon 3600-series or nvidia's 8600, but they offer much less performance for only a few dollars less since they were always intended to be mid-range cards. here is a comparison test:
Premium Link Upgrade
if you still have AGP the same basic rules apply, the higher the model number the better; but since AGP was phased out some time ago you will have to make do with older cards.
if you have more questions just ask.
I got the ATi Radeon X1950Pro Agp 8x 512mb on the Msi K8T Neo2 v2.0 Mainboard with an AMD Athlon64 4000+ Socket 939 @ 2,4Ghz with 1,5Gig of Ram, and I play every Game without Problems, nothing is overclocked, all normal.
But now I want to buy 1Gig of Ram then I have 2Gig and a Dualcore AMD Athlon 4200+ X2 with 2x2,4Ghz on Socket 939, I dont play much so i dont need a High-End gaming Computer.
_____________________________
The newrer Card Like the 8xxx from Nvidia or newer Tahn an ATi X1950pro are all Pcie,
If I had a Pcie Sys i would take the 3870.
I **** on Nvidia, Nvidia sucks, ATi Rocks, The same with Intel, Intel Sucks AMD Rulez
But now I want to buy 1Gig of Ram then I have 2Gig and a Dualcore AMD Athlon 4200+ X2 with 2x2,4Ghz on Socket 939, I dont play much so i dont need a High-End gaming Computer.
_____________________________
The newrer Card Like the 8xxx from Nvidia or newer Tahn an ATi X1950pro are all Pcie,
If I had a Pcie Sys i would take the 3870.
I **** on Nvidia, Nvidia sucks, ATi Rocks, The same with Intel, Intel Sucks AMD Rulez
Thanx guys!
