Which Card?

[justinwb]

Im building a gaming computer and have come down to three cards.

Choice 1: Sapphire RADEON 9200 256mb $64

Choice 2: Geforce FX 5200 256mb $78

Choice 3: Geforce FX 5500 256mb $78

Please tell me what you guys would buy and why.

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: justinwb
Im building a gaming computer and have come down to three cards.

Choice 1: Sapphire RADEON 9200 256mb $64

Choice 2: Geforce FX 5200 256mb $78

Choice 3: Geforce FX 5500 256mb $78

Please tell me what you guys would buy and why.

You're building a game machine using those cards? All of them are crap. Aside from their anemic cores, they also come with 256MB of memory, which is a total waste on a core that slow.

A 6600GT will give much better performance, but its going to be around 200. A 9800 Pro will also be between 150 and 200, depending on the sale and brand.

Take a look at these, they are not too much then the cards you were looking at yet yield far superior performance.

eVGA Geforce FX 5700 $127

Gainward Geforce 5700LE $89

Alternatively, you could also search eBay and such for a GF4 card, which will give decent performance in today's games, it'll just lag in tomorrows.

I'd still save my cash and pick up a 6600 GT though . . .

 

[fibes]

What kind of games do you plan to play?

 

[Rage187]

None of the cards you listed are suited for todays games.

 

[fibes]

If you are planning to run today's games, I would suggest this card.... bare minimum

9600 PRO


Tell us your computer specs, your budget, and what games you plan to play. :beer:

 

[Feep]

spend the extra money and get a decent card. The 6660 series should be good in the $200 range. But there cards you listed are just worthless.

 

[SneakyStuff]

Yep, all those cards = worthless. The 256MB of RAM doesn't mean a darn thing. Get this, and be happy.

Radeon 9600XT For the low low cost of $137 it will obliterate any of the cards you mentioned, and by a huge margain.

oops, forgot my proof VGA CHARTS III find the 9600XT on there, and find the cards you mentioned on there

 

[ZobarStyl]

Another poor victim of the 256mb marketing BS. The 9600Pro/XT or if you can wait the 6600/GT would be your best bets. The 5200 is the worst thing to happen to video card consumers in a long time...nV would be been better off pumping out more 4200's and selling them instead of the 5200; that card is the reason why my all my friend's new comps still can't hang with my 2 year old aging rig in any game. If you are going to skimp on the single most crucial part to gaming, don't even bother calling it a 'gaming computer.'

 

[Cawchy87]

9700np or pro for the price of a 9600xt.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: Rage187
None of the cards you listed are suited for todays games.

 

[justinwb]

Originally posted by: ZobarStyl
Another poor victim of the 256mb marketing BS. The 9600Pro/XT or if you can wait the 6600/GT would be your best bets. The 5200 is the worst thing to happen to video card consumers in a long time...nV would be been better off pumping out more 4200's and selling them instead of the 5200; that card is the reason why my all my friend's new comps still can't hang with my 2 year old aging rig in any game. If you are going to skimp on the single most crucial part to gaming, don't even bother calling it a 'gaming computer.'

What is the 6600? I might wait for that if its worth it. Yea you right i fell for the 256 mb bs lol.

Justin

I play Joint ops, Unreal tourney 04

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: justinwb

Originally posted by: ZobarStyl
Another poor victim of the 256mb marketing BS. The 9600Pro/XT or if you can wait the 6600/GT would be your best bets. The 5200 is the worst thing to happen to video card consumers in a long time...nV would be been better off pumping out more 4200's and selling them instead of the 5200; that card is the reason why my all my friend's new comps still can't hang with my 2 year old aging rig in any game. If you are going to skimp on the single most crucial part to gaming, don't even bother calling it a 'gaming computer.'

What is the 6600? I might wait for that if its worth it. Yea you right i fell for the 256 mb bs lol.

Justin

I play Joint ops, Unreal tourney 04

None of the cards you listed is suited for UT2k4.

The 6600 is Nvidia's upcoming line of mainstream GPU based off the Geforce 6 core. AT's review of the 6600 GT is here

And FS did a few tests with them, here and here.

Problem is that both 6600 models will be PCIe only at first, AGP models are supposed to hit the market around November to December time frame.

ATI is also preping their answer to the 6600s, the X700, but I have yet to see a reputable site take a look at one.

 

[nycxandy]

I wouldn't spend money on any of those three.

 

[iversonyin]

gaming rig with these low budget card?

go for at least 9600pro/XT

 

[Delorian]

Text
I wouldn't get any card not listed on this benchmark to play UT2004, look how much the XT chokes at high res w/AAxAF. There are a lot more demanding games than UT out right now and they will be that much harder to run even on a 9600 XT. Your strongest bet right now is either a 9700/9800 pro or going to the GeForce 6 line of cards. The 6600's shouldn't be too much higher than your budget but the 3d power in between the 3 you mentioned and the 6600s is phenomenal. Good Luck.

 

[imported_obsidian]

I'd take a Geforce4 ti4200 or ti4600 over any of those cards. You can get a Geforce4 for ~$50 off ebay. The guys seems to be looking for cards under $100. I don't see the point in suggesting him $150-$200 cards.

 

[Delorian]

Originally posted by: obsidian
I'd take a Geforce4 ti4200 or ti4600 over any of those cards. You can get a Geforce4 for ~$50 off ebay. The guys seems to be looking for cards under $100. I don't see the point in suggesting him $150-$200 cards.

Yes he does, but he also said "I'm building a gaming computer" which means to game anything current demands at least a $100 or more vid card. I wouldn't suggest getting a GF4 right now unless you were only into old games and not anything past this year. If you want to go the ebay route, the 9600 XT is about 100 bucks on there too. He said he'd be interested in a 6600, which they will retail around $200 or so, well over the 100 dollar mark, but well worth the extra investment.

 

[fsstrike]

Originally posted by: justinwb
Im building a gaming computer and have come down to three cards.

Choice 1: Sapphire RADEON 9200 256mb $64

Choice 2: Geforce FX 5200 256mb $78

Choice 3: Geforce FX 5500 256mb $78

Please tell me what you guys would buy and why.

Those are all horrid gaming cards. If you MUST go cheap, go GeForce4 Ti at the very least. I would recomment a 9600pro - 9800pro if you can afford them.