Budget card advice?

[fendel]

I'm looking for an inexpensive (sub-$100, preferably sub-$75) video card and would greatly appreciate your advice... my needs are
(1) DirectX9, Vista-ready
(2) AGP 4X
(3) Passively cooled
(4) DVI

I know my price range is awfully cheap... but I'm not a gamer. Basically I'm upgrading two systems -- system B will get my current GeForce2MX from system A, and system A will get the new card. Neither system is used for games, just web surfing, email, etc.

I've narrowed it down to a few options on Newegg, but on the budget cards there are some tradeoffs involved. Can someone advise me on what priority/importance the following should have, for a non-gaming system:
* Amount of RAM (128 vs 256; will be DDR)
* Memory interface (64-bit vs 128-bit)
* Chipset clock speed
* Chipset (Geforce 6200? FX5200? Radeon 9600?)

Someone in another thread recommended this card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814121542
(GeForce 6200, 256MB DDR... Looks great to me except for the 64-bit memory interface. But how much practical difference would that make for a non-gaming system?)

Other ones I'm looking at are:
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16814102295
(256MB, 128-bit, but Radeon, which I don't know how to compare to nVidia's line - not familiar enough with it)

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16814130165
(256MB, 128-bit, but FX5200 - is 6200 better for my purposes??)

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16814164024
(128MB, 64-bit, the cheapest option - is it enough for what I do? Will it struggle with Vista next year?)

thanks for any guidance!
fendel

 

[mwmorph]

if you dont game, the rosewill fx5200 will be fine at $36.
the 9600 is about as fast as a fx5500/5600 and it's not a bad buy.
128mb, 64bit is enopugh for 2d. i mean ,all vista aero glass adds is transparency and shadoy effects on the windows.

 

[1Dark1Sharigan1]

Get the 9600

Forget about nvidia FX series . . .

Actually get the 9600 Pro:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814131308

 

[imported_Rampage]

I'd get a Geforce 6200 or 6600GT. Depending if you game heavier (6600GT), or less (6200).

 

[feelingshorter]

Originally posted by: southpawuni
I'd get a Geforce 6200 or 6600GT. Depending if you game heavier (6600GT), or less (6200).

he said he doesnt game, so i would say get a radeon 9800 pro as its cheap nowadays.

 

[jotosuds]

i second the cheap 5200.

 

[imported_Rampage]

I read that, but seems strange hes really that into which card he uses if he doesnt ever intend on even booting up a demo at all.

I'd say 6200. You get your DX9C support, the best chance at having the best Vista GUI acceleration due to being SM3 compliant as well.

Nvidia does the best at accelerating GUIs, at least thats the reality with XP's Luna interface. I expect a repeat with Vista. So I'd hedge your bets there.
You can tell a large difference in OS responsiveness.. esp as your CPU ages and new OS's are released. I could tell a very large difference in GUI response time from taking out my old 9800 Pro and putting in my GF2MX.
Here are some benchmarks illustrating the care to detail Nvidia puts into their drivers that results in such differences.
Link

The 64bit/128bit differences wont make any difference if you dont game. The biggest differences will be with Vista acceleration to have as close to DX10 support as possible.
The 6200 is the cheapest card with the most features for aeroglass.

Also you get Purevideo with the 6200. Nongamers can put that to use.
Read about it on Nvidia's website.
General 6200 page.

If you needed PCI, I'd say 5200 all the way. Either one of those two will be cheap, the 5200 is DX9, the 6200 is DX9C.

$66 AGP Geforce 6200 128MB
$28 AGP Geforce 5200 64MB AGP (5 left, brand new)
$32 AGP Asus Geforce 5200 64MB (this one might have cheaper shipping, you'll have to check)
All passively cooled.

I would take the 6200 for the DX9C support and Purevideo. The extra 64MB of memory won't hurt with Vista aeroglass either.
Actually, if you do plan on running Windows Vista and using Aeroglass (the pretty GUI interface with transparency ect), you will probably want the 6200.

Aero Glass will require a DirectX 9-compliant 3-D graphics processor with at least 64MB of RAM, although Microsoft will recommend 128MB to 256MB of RAM.

source

 

[fendel]

Hi all -- thanks very much for your replies.

southpawuni, you make a good case for the 6200. I appreciate all the Vista info. I will want to be running it with all the visual bells & whistles, so I want to err on the side of overkill... at least, within my ridiculously low budget.

feelingshorter and 1dark: unfortunately if Newegg's photo is correct, the 9600 pro has a fan on it (I want to keep this PC as quiet as I can, within reason)... and the cheapest 9800 I could find at Newegg was 119. I'm OK with spending $70 instead of $40, but unfortunately $119 is just out of my budget range for this.

southpaw asked why I care... I guess it's habit -- I'm used to researching parts for a good price/performance ratio, so it's against my nature to just go buy the cheapest card I could find... and I don't want to regret cheaping out when Vista arrives (assuming I can stomach the price tag when the time comes).

I'm leaning toward getting the 6200, but maybe I should also pick up the cheap card for computer B. That way I can toss out my GeForce2 MX card with the fan on it and have a silent card in both PCs. I'll have to sleep on it... probably place an order tomorrow. (Still time for folks to throw in their 2 cents if they want.

Thanks, everybody, for your advice.
fendel

 

[impemonk]

the 6200 is a good deal. It has a good gpu accelerator and if you run graphics intensive programs like PS or PSP, etc, it will come in handy.

 

[pkme2]

Just got a super deal on eBay.
ATI Fire GL X1 FGL 9700 AGP 8x DDR Dual DVI 256MB 8x DDR Dual DVI 256MB Video Card
Item number: 8702479200
We do Creative Suite, and no games. Sometimes, if you patient, you can find deals out there.

 

[Fingolfin269]

I'll be selling my Radeon 9500 Pro in a few days.