Best Video Card <$200?

[Lars]

... and where to buy?

 

[Gunslinger08]

Get the Gainward GeForce 3 ti200 from newegg.com

$170, and with a little tweaking, it'll outperform pretty much everything out there.

Josh

 

[Rand]

The best video card varies DRAMATICALLY depending upon what your using it for. The best video card for one person may be absolutely terrible for another depending upon their usage requirements.

Voodoo5, GF3 Ti200, GeForce2 Ti, Matrox G400, Matrox G550, Radeon 7500, Radeon 8500, Radeon VE, etc etc.
All of those cards are available under $200, and all of them I would feel totally comfortable recommending depending upon what the person in question needed. And those are only the consumer level graphics cards.... I havent even mentioned professional level graphics cards.

The "best" under $200 totally depends upon your uses.

 

[MustangSVT]

geforce3 ti 200, lots of them are having no problem being overclocked beyond ti 500 speeds.

 

[Quetzalboat]

Rand was right,
If you need a card for gaming purpose, you'd choose : Radeon VE, Radeon 7500, Radeon 8500 or GeForce2 Ti, GeForce3 Ti200
[GeForce3, GeForce3 Ti500 are approx $270 - $320]
But if you need a card for CAD and 3D works, you'd choose : Matrox G400, Matrox G550 or Voodoo 5, Synergy2000 Quadro2 EX.
[Cards with Quadro2 MXR, Quadro DCC or Quadro2 Pro are approx $300 - $ 725]

 

[darktyco]

The Radeon 8500 OEM is less than $200 and is definatly faster than anything else you can get for under that amount.

 

[ZenOps]

Radeon 7500 is pretty good, you can get a retail 8500 for just a little over $200, oem under $200.

I've got a retail box 7500 for $200Cdn (about $125US) 290core/230memory. It overclocks to 324core/270 memory, but I get no performance increase by overclocking because framerate is limited by my CPU, a Celeron 800 overclocked to 1032Mhz (129fsb & Sdram cas 2-2-2)

I prefer retail box when buying ATi because you get a ton of goodies. DVI to VGA adapter, S-video cable, S-video to composite adapter, composite RCA cable, and a form to get an extra ferrite for your monitor cable. You can never have too many ferrites.

The 2D is crystal clear, 3D is great (but not as good as a 8500 on the newer DX8 games) pr0n Divx movie playback quality is the best, as is DVD.

To realize the full potential of a Radeon 8500 or Ti500, you really need a 1.5Ghz processor or better, preferrably with DDR ram on the mainboard.

 

[Jethro666]

"To realize the full potential of a Radeon 8500 or Ti500, you really need a 1.5Ghz processor or better, preferrably with DDR ram on the mainboard."

LOL

Where did you get that piece of ridiculous misinformation? So, are you saying I'm not realizing the "full potential" of my GF3 on my 1.4GHz Athlon XP 1600+, even though it's faster in every game but Q3 than a P4-2GHz?
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1543&p=10

Oh woe is me! I don't have a 1.5GHz cpu! I'm only a little faster than a P4-2GHz! My GF3 is twiddling it's thumbs, waiting for polys from my feeble cpu. :*-(

 

[ZenOps]

Ok, but just remember you are benching your processor/video card with Quake...

Have you even tried RTCW yet? Come back and tell me your results then.

And yes, Anand started at 1.5ghz (or equivalent AMD too) there is no point going any slower.

 

[Lars]

<< The "best" under $200 totally depends upon your uses. >>



Sorry. I surf the web, work on web sites, work with photoshop + write a lot most of the time,
BUT I also play 3D games quite often (RTCW, DayOfDefeat, + whatever new is out there).


P.S.
My PC is a T-Bird 1GHz, 512MB RAM but will upgrade to ??? in January.
Right now I have a Radeon LE.

 

[Rand]

<<

<< The "best" under $200 totally depends upon your uses. >>



Sorry. I surf the web, work on web sites, work with photoshop + write a lot most of the time,
BUT I also play 3D games quite often (RTCW, DayOfDefeat, + whatever new is out there).


P.S.
My PC is a T-Bird 1GHz, 512MB RAM but will upgrade to ??? in January.
Right now I have a Radeon LE. >>




Given the above with a budget of $200 I'd go with an OEM Radeon 8500 or a GF3 Ti200.
With the PhotoShop work and the like I imagine you'd appreciate having good 2D, so I'd lean towards the Radeon 8500 personally plus it should yield you a bit better gaming performance then the GF3 Ti200.
If your willing to spend a bit more then $200 you can get the Radeon 8500 retail boxed, which is locked a bit higher then the OEM R8500.

 

[Jethro666]

Zenyoda:
If you would have bothered to follow my link, you would have seen that my 1.4GHz XP beat the 2GHz P4 at RTCW, and all the other games except Q3.
As fas as there "being no point in going any slower" you are on crack. I got pretty excellent performance out of my GF3 with a 1 GHz Athlon.
You're basically talking out of your a$$ with no link(s) to back up the nonsense you're spouting.

 

[ZenOps]

Are you assuming I like Intel over Amd or something? or are you just trying to pick a fight.

Where is anands benchmark under 1Ghz on the page you mentioned http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1543&p=10 Oh that's right... There isn't one, because its moot point to go that low. Better email anand and tell him exactly what you told me, and ask him to add those benchies too. He will probably laugh at your ass.

n00b

 

[Lars]

Thanks for the replies.


(and calm down, there is absolutely no reason to fight about computer hardware opinions)

 

[Jethro666]

"n00b"?

LOL Jr.. I was in arcades gaming before "Space War", the first video game, came out. I was gaming when "Pong" was as good as it got. And I've been gaming on every PC from the Commodore VIC20 and Apple2 forward. So if by "noob" you mean "guy that's gaming since there have been games", I guess I fit the bill.

So I reiterate zenops, wisened advisor, where do you get the 1.5GHz cutoff "To realize the full potential of a Radeon 8500 or Ti500, you really need a 1.5Ghz processor or better, preferrably with DDR ram on the mainboard"?
I assume you can point us at some links which show the R8500/Ti 500 being severely cpu limited by any cpu below 1.5GHz? How do you define "full potential" What is that supposed to mean? Can you point us at a link where the R8500/Ti500 became the limiting factor?

Or do you just call people names and make baseless claims?

 

[Jethro666]

Zenops:
"And yes, Anand started at 1.5ghz (or equivalent AMD too) there is no point going any slower. "
Really?
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1442&p=5
So a guy with a GF2/Athlon 1GHz is better off running his hi-res Q3 at 43fps than he would be with a GF3 at 70 fps?

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1442&p=6
Or the guy with the Radeon VIVO/Athlon 1GHz is better off running his MDK2 at 86 fps at 10X7X32 than he would be at 151fps with a GF3?

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1442&p=8
Or how about the guy with the V5/Athlon 1GHz running Serious Sam at 37fps 10X7X32 when he could be at 64fps with a GF3?

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1442&p=11
Uh oh. Looks like the 1GHz Athlon owners only chance to play Aquanox at all is with a GF3.

Hmmm. So let's see: We've got four games tested on an Athlon 1GHz, all offering good performance on a GF3, in fact much better than previous generations of vid cards. And yet you state that you need a 1.5GHz processor or better to "realize a GF3s potential".

nOOb