Help me choose a vid card

[iknowjohnny]

I recently bought a Gforce 5200, but i decided to take it back and get a better card. I want something thats close to state of the art as possible w/o spending an arm and a leg. What can i get that is without a doubt a very good bang for the buck card in the under $300 category? i'd prefer to pay $200 or less, but if another C-note is gonna get me a lot better i'm willing to spend it.
I'm new to gaming and not expecting to get deep into it like most of you. But i just figure i may as well get a card that will be considered good for a few years and will run even the most intense games with ease. Don't care if it's ATI or Nvidia as long as the most important consideration is there........"Bang For the Buck" ! For example, a $200 card that is 90% as good a 3 or $400 card would be the ideal senario. Or to be more precise, a card that is at the highest point in the lineup before the point of diminishing returns. Thats the card i'm looking for.

[King Mango]

http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/20031229/vga-charts-03.html#unreal_tournament_2003

[radio667]

WoW , Very Cool :D King Go !!!

[iknowjohnny]

Nice chart ! From looking at that chart and looking at whats available from Circuit City where i'll be returning my gforce to buy a better card, it seems the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro At $249 after $50 rebate is probably the best deal. Any thoughts? Or would i be better getting a lower model ATI in the all in wonder series?

[NLA*Madison]

Get the 9800 pro.

[Creeper]

9800 Pro.. as you mention.. best bang for buck, and darn near best bang period. :rockon: There's quite a few of those cards with Playground members, for that very reason.

[iknowjohnny]

But when you say 9800 pro, are you guys refering to the radeon or the all in wonder? There are 9800 pro versions of both, and the all in wonder is $100 more. ($150 more with the $50 off on the radeon)
And whats the diff between them?

[deutschmaschine]

Yes! Get a 9800 Pro! Works fine on UT2004! Maybe from MSI (http://www.msicomputer.com/). There are rumors the "MSI Radeon Pro Plus-TD128 (http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=RX9800PRO-TD128&class=vga)" uses the R360-chipset of the "XT"-Series. And maybe someone smart finds a way to activate dynamic overclocking?!

[Creeper]

The AIW (all-in-wonder) varients have more video in/out options.. PVR functions, tv tuners, etc etc. As for gaming.. they both work the same.. but if you do a lot of video editing from multiple sources, the AIW is the way to go. Otherwise, save some $$, and get the regular Pro version.

[Ghosty]

9800 Pro. Can be found at 200$ (250$ at best buy + 50$ mail in rebate), that's a really good deal!

[iknowjohnny]

Yea, i know i can find it cheaper, but i'm stuck buying it at CC since thats where i bought the gforce i'm returning. And they told me if i return it for refund instead of upgrade there would be a 50% restocking fee since it's opened ! If i upgrade there won't be one. So the restocking fee would be about as much as i'd save if i bought it at best buy.

Anyway, a 9800 pro it is........thanks for all the advice.

[King Mango]

I'm sure that's not the way it was meant to be played :p

I was this close to buying a 57/5900 twenty minutes ago... But I can't really afford it... :(

[Bot_40]

Yeah, btw dunno where you live but if it's anywhere like the uk if you buy the AIW card it has a tv tuner -> means you legally need a tv license (important if you are a student like me :p)

[King Mango]

wtf? You need a license to watch tv?

[Kingster]

They tax TVs in Europe.

[tr@xtandn]

saw a 9800 aiw for 300 in the Fry's ad this past weekend

[Bot_40]

Yeah, with reg. tv we get BBC1 and 2 channels which are completely ad free which are paid for by the license money :) (and dunno, some of the other bbc channels might be too if you have digital or whatever, but at home we don't have that :|)

[Idle Idol]

i need to upgrade my vid card soon i think..runnin GF3 Ti200 in the main rig, and the old chat box is still with the Riva TNT2 ultra. heh. I may upgrade to a 9800 and slide the GF down to the old rig, if it can handle it which i'm not even sure about...heh. old p3 550 abit mainboard, think it can :)

too po' to do a total upgrade.

--Idle, donations can be paypaled to enigmaticsomeone@aol.com

[Methuselah]

I got a geforce fx5900 and it really rocks, but I payed alot for it. I kindof think I should've got the 9800, but I also got the invidia nforce drivers on my motherboard so it all works together quite well, but i agree with the posts here about the raidon card and most people I talk to have the 9800 pro.

Best of luck to you :D :beer:

[Mickey Blue]

Yeah the robbin' government!! it's £116 in the UK, thats just to fund the BBC. The other terstrial channels are payed for in advertising, however the BBC don't have advertisments so we the overtaxed public have to fork out!!

Get this for 'rip off britain' .......... even if you are registered blind, you only get 50% reduction on your fee!!

A friend of mine had a Black&White TV as it's a cheaper license. However, when the licensing authority called on him they slapped him with a fine cos he had a video recorder!! they said because his video recorder recieved colour transmitions he was supposed to have a colour license!!

Rant over!!:)

[Mickey Blue]

Yeah, with reg. tv we get BBC1 and 2 channels which are completely ad free which are paid for by the license money :) (and dunno, some of the other bbc channels might be too if you have digital or whatever, but at home we don't have that :|)
What he said lol

[TexasGtar]

How do they know you got a tv or do they just tax everyone? Or is the tax collected on new tv sales? Interesting. When I was in england 1977-1980, yes there was tv (choke/cough) BBC1 ....AND BBC 2..AND!!! ITV Independant. Anyway when i was told we were moving to england i thought oh great..All the monty python I can stand but it wasnt even on anymore. The best thing on was the ..get ready,... the Dart Tournaments where professional dart throwers(yes they got paid) would throw darts with one hand and have a pint of lager in the other. Thats when I decided I wanted to be an athlete. Anyway there was that on...and the other best thing was all the horse and rider jumping contests which was different for a month or so but the excitement wore off pretty fast and then there was reruns of ...yup Charlie's Angels. Okay yeah benny hill was on always. But three channels and two of them being the same basically was rough on a teenager.
And don't get me started on the radio...yup BBC1 BBC2 AND!!!! BBC3. The Friday night Rock Show was great tho and the Sex Pistols were just breaking out..Was a wild time living there back then.

But I was so happy to get home. Still I had some great times overseas. I guess I do miss some of it.What were we talking about? oh yeah video cards. I don't know anything about them much. These guys seem to know whats best.

[-=[Dg]=-]

How do they know you got a tv or do they just tax everyone?
They have "Detector Vans" that drive around finding the offenders. Then you're rousted from your home and shot! (although it may just be a flesh wound).

http://www.sterlingtimes.co.uk/detectorvan.gif

[Mickey Blue]

=-']They have "Detector Vans" that drive around finding the offenders. Then you're rousted from your home and shot! (although it may just be a flesh wound).


LOL, that they do!! not so many now though, when you buy a television now the seller by law has to ask you to fill in a form to declare if you have a licence or not! If you refuse they must refuse the sale, however, you are not bound by law to fill it in correctly. so you could say you were called Daffy duck and live in some daft place and the shop can't do anything. But they have on record all households with and without a licence, so if you don't have one they will normally send a letter or a rep around to check you don't own a TV. You can go for years without one or you could go a day or two, the risk of fine is to great for most! And Tex, you are right.......english TV sux!! Sky TV ain't so bad but it's very repetative. repetative. repetative. very repetative, repetative I say!!

[Spiffness]

Most important thing to remember when buying a video card is that ATI is canadian, Nvidia is not :p

[TexasGtar]

=-']They have "Detector Vans" that drive around finding the offenders. Then you're rousted from your home and shot! (although it may just be a flesh wound).

http://www.sterlingtimes.co.uk/detectorvan.gif

Detector vans....lmao...those things look very strange. Kinda like a hertz with a funny thing on top. Good ole england always thinkin up new stuff.

[Jacob Smith]

Never forget www.pricewatch.com lol...I built a lot of my computer off of the retailers listed there. Watch out though: most if not all of the stores are in the US, so int'l shipping charges could mean trouble :(