OT; Best Graphics card to buy $200 - $350

[Vorkapitan]

Hi All,

I need your help in deciding which brand would be the best choice for me in the $200 to $350 price range. When would be the best time to buy?

Also what do you use. I am currently using ATI Radeon 9800 - 128mg. Been very happy with it so far....until now. Some new games are now starting to stutter.

I am using Asus MB with AMD 3600+ chip / 1 gig mem Corsair.

Joe

[Gizzmoe]

Does the board only have an AGP slot or also PCI-Express?

[Vorkapitan]

my MB has PCI and AGP !

[SUBMAN1]

He is talking PCI-E, Not PCI!!! If you have AGP then you don't have PCI-E. Best card for that kind of money hands down is the NVidia 7800 GS. It performs similar to the 7800 PCI-E version, runs about $250, and has HDR as well. No other AGP card performs as well.

-S

[Vorkapitan]

Thanks Subman,
I was also leaning toward NVidia 7800 GS. If I was to spend a few $$ more, what would your next choice be?

Joe

[Gizzmoe]

Originally Posted by Vorkapitän

If I was to spend a few $$ more, what would your next choice be?

Well, there is no better card for AGP. If you have money left and still use onboard sound get a real soundcard, like a Soundblaster Audigy 4. You gain a few FPS, it uses less CPU resources than an onboard card.

[SmokinTep]

Originally Posted by Vorkapitän

Thanks Subman,
I was also leaning toward NVidia 7800 GS. If I was to spend a few $$ more, what would your next choice be?

Joe

I had a Radeon 9800 pro which recently died. Picked up the Nvidia 7800 GS, 256 MEG, for about 350.00. What a huge difference.

[Fritz Fraghof]

Actually you can get 7600GT and 7900GTs (mucho fasto) in AGP varieties now.

[SmokinTep]

I think mine is a 7800GT OC

[SUBMAN1]

Originally Posted by Fritz Fraghof

Actually you can get 7600GT and 7900GTs (mucho fasto) in AGP varieties now.

Where?? I have not seen such a board, nor can I find a site to suggest that anything else but the 7800 GS exists. The 7800 GS should be faster than a 7600 GT by the way.

-S

[scandium]

Originally Posted by SUBMAN1

He is talking PCI-E, Not PCI!!! If you have AGP then you don't have PCI-E.

Not so. The Asrock 939Dual-SATA2 (ULi 1695 chipset) motherboard accepts both AGP and PCI-e video cards (even at the same time). There may be others as well, but this one has been on the market for at least 6 months.

Editted to add: He mentions his board is Asus, but Asrock is an Asus company and they may be offering these boards under the parent logo as well by now (not sure since I haven't followed hardware trends since upgrading 6 months ago).

[SUBMAN1]

Originally Posted by scandium

Not so. The Asrock 939Dual-SATA2 (ULi 1695 chipset) motherboard accepts both AGP and PCI-e video cards (even at the same time). There may be others as well, but this one has been on the market for at least 6 months.

Editted to add: He mentions his board is Asus, but Asrock is an Asus company and they may be offering these boards under the parent logo as well by now (not sure since I haven't followed hardware trends since upgrading 6 months ago).

That is true. I did see a board a while back that had both. THey are rare though. More likely than not though, he doesn't have PCI-E. That was back when they were making crutch boards like this though.

-S

[MENTAT]

Why not ATI?

[SUBMAN1]

Originally Posted by MENTAT

Why not ATI?

ATI doesn't have a comparable board to the 7800 GS for AGP. Best they have is the x850 XT. All of their x1800's and x1900's are PCI-E only.

-S

[MENTAT]

So, PCI-E board is a must than. My poor wallet