Yet another Vid Card Thread

Ok Ok i know there have been a million "what videocard should i get" forums but There are some specific cards that are available for ok prices at a microcenter right around my house and i want to know which is the best buy.

So this one is a cheap-o card i know but it doesnt seem too terrible:
The Xtacy 9200 8x AGP card powered by ATI\'s 9200Radeon 250Mhz VPU 256Mb DDR 400Mhz mem
2048x1536 max res
VGA, DVI-I & Tv Out
4 Rendering Pipes
for 99.99

a Radeon9600SE 128 meg 8x card for 89.99
a Conqueror FX 5200 Plus(GeForce) 128Mg DDR 4ns PCI card for 80 flat
or
an e-GeForce FX 5600XT 128Mb w/ TV out and DVI-I for 99.99

If there are any others that dont cost a lot more than 100 bux or are under 200 bux Then please tell me. Either that or tell me if none of these are worth it at all.

I was just checking because they were cheap and the cheapest card that i knew was good was the AIW Radeon 9600 128Meg for 200 flat and the e GeForce FX5700 for 220.

What.. none of these nerds replied?!

The SE can\'t compare to the Pro for gaming.  I can supply more info after some  sleep.

[§ôµÏG®ïñD]

Thats because they are tired of saying the same thing. If you want a crap card get one.. If u want a high end card you have to pay the cash for it.

aye, you get what you pay for

i wouldnt buy anything right now, the next generation in cards is right around the corner

and when next gen card come out, 9800 pro will be around 149$ wich you\'ll make the best deal out of it.

simply not a good time to buy a vid card, else you\'ll be pulling your hair out when next gen card are out.

[Kurt Angle]

If you want to play Doom III then wait for the next gen.

Yeah, wait for the next generation.. which\'ll be out within the next 6 months. Today\'s high-end cards, which have already dropped in price, will be cheaper. You don\'t want to upgrade for yesterday\'s games..

Makes sense. Ive just been MIA in the pc gaming world for a little while and wanted to get back into it. Doom and HL got me thinking about it again so i guess the next gen is the answer.

[Living-In-Clip]

When is the next generations scheduled for release? My computer will be finished within the next three months and if any of the next gen cards will be out then, I\'ll put one in. If not, I\'ll buy one of the current "top of the line" (which are dropping in price) and just upgrade when the next gen cards come out.

Maybe it\'s just me, but the vid card industry isn\'t as volatile as it once was.  My friend who bought a 9700 Pro soon after it came out is still enjoying great framerates in modern games.

I bought a GF4 4200 for $100 in December  2002, it broke exactly 1 year later.  I looked up the prices for another 4200 and they were the same.  Not fluxuating more than $10.

I think you\'ll be safe whether you purchase now, or 6 months from now.

9800pro came out about last november. if you count 6 month, next Gen card will be out within a month.

The market as been stagnent because there asnt been any advencement i technologies since the 9800 and its Nvidia conterpart.

9600 and 9700 didnt improove much in between. the jump from 9700 to 9800 didnt do that much in between either. from 9600 to 9800 though you notice a nice leap.

thats why price for 9600 and 9700 asnt go down much in the last year. when 9800 came out, it was high price where the other product were lowered down.

The same thing will happen to 9800pro. when next gen is out, they will be rougly 149$ for a 256meg. while the newest card will go for 500-600$. the best deal will be to buy a 9800pro. if you have a p4 2.4+ 1gigram it will be plenty enough to play HL and doom3.

Originally posted by Nolaws
9800pro came out about last november. if you count 6 month, next Gen card will be out within a month.

The market as been stagnent because there asnt been any advencement i technologies since the 9800 and its Nvidia conterpart.

9600 and 9700 didnt improove much in between. the jump from 9700 to 9800 didnt do that much in between either. from 9600 to 9800 though you notice a nice leap.

thats why price for 9600 and 9700 asnt go down much in the last year. when 9800 came out, it was high price where the other product were lowered down.

The same thing will happen to 9800pro. when next gen is out, they will be rougly 149$ for a 256meg. while the newest card will go for 500-600$. the best deal will be to buy a 9800pro. if you have a p4 2.4+ 1gigram it will be plenty enough to play HL and doom3.

I have to disagree... When the 9700 was on the market the 9500 was the model that was priced below it.  The 9600 wasn\'t even around and didn\'t come around until the 9800 came out.  The main difference between the 9700/9800 and the 9500/9600 is the rendering pipes - 9700/9800 have 8 and the 9500/9600 have 4.

Nicon, stay away from the 9600 SE - in benchmark tests the GeForce 440 MX beats the 9600 SE.

Originally posted by GigaShadow
I have to disagree... When the 9700 was on the market the 9500 was the model that was priced below it.  The 9600 wasn\'t even around and didn\'t come around until the 9800 came out.  The main difference between the 9700/9800 and the 9500/9600 is the rendering pipes - 9700/9800 have 8 and the 9500/9600 have 4.

Nicon, stay away from the 9600 SE - in benchmark tests the GeForce 440 MX beats the 9600 SE.

ouch. heh. will do.

Yeah it used to be pretty brutal buying vid cards because as soon as you got one a new one came out and your card couldnt hold a candle to the new ones on the new games. *remembers the voodoo days* How far we have come.

Why is the 9700 Pro not sold anymore?  I just started researching for computers since we might get a new one soon and I was wondering why it wasn\'t while it clearly beats out the 9600XT.

The 9700 essentially got replaced by the 9600 and 9800.

It was the introductory R300 chipset. Nowadays, companies tend to release either one or two next-gen cards.. then soon follow up with lower and higher end pieces of hardware.

The same thing happened with the GeForce3.. they released the initial GF3 (which I have) and soon-after released a slightly weaker Ti200 and slightly stronger Ti500. It can get confusing.

Most of the time the company tries to lower emphasis on the initial offering, in this case the 9700.