I am getting ready to purchase a video card and wanted to see what input everyone has. My new setup is:

AMD XP2500+ Barton - OC'd to an XP3200

512mb DDR

440W PSU

I want to be able to play the newer games - AA, Doom 3, Battlefield, ect.

I don't want to pay more than $150-$200 for the card.

What are your suggestions and why?

easy, radeon 9800 pro 128mb it's the best for its price, but probably a good brand will be up from $200.

if not 9700 pro or 9600 pro will do the job. talking about that price always ATI

im gettin ready 2 build a new 3Ghz & im gonna put a 9600XT w/ 256MB DDR $200 canadian (about $175 US)

maybe u would like that 1?

Depending on what you want to play.

IF you want to go all out and play Doom 3 and HL2

Id really reccomend like a 9800xt, x800 or a 6800 or 6800ultra

I have tersted alot of cards recently and on high (not ultra high) most of the high end cards choke up...

SO like i said be aware of what you are gettign into being a gamer isent cheap

If your just looking to get by, the evga 5500 is not bad or the ati 9600xt.

they are much more budget..and will definatly show some lag ans jaggies and stuff of that natre... bvut you wont have to shell out an arm or leg

jsut my 2cents

|Drew|

i can play graphic intense games (like battlefield vietnam) with VERY little lag on my radeon 7000 (64mb ram) all settings are on high/full

I'd have to say same as MCT. Back when the GeForce 4 were still new, I bought a Ti4600, and I still can't see a difference from the pre-radeon-era Rage Fury Pro 32mb card that was in the box before... (it's also my first-and last GeForce card)

NVIDIA GeForce FX5900XT is a good value card. It uses a 256-bit memory architecture comapred to the 128-bit one on the similarily priced FX5700 Ultra which I happen to use.

Also NVIDIA Drivers are great in my view, you can enable the built in overclocking utility and it supports application profiles, allowing you to specify seperate graphical driver settings for any chossen game/app which are automatically applied when the app is run.

NVIDIA GeForce FX5900XT is a good value card.

No arguments there, I'm using that card! You'll be a lot happier with Nvidia, than ATI. If you can afford it though, I'd suggest getting one of the 68000, you'll get all the latest stuff (pixel shaders 3.0, etc.)

lol he said $200 not $500 for a 6800 u'd need more than 200. and a pci express supported mb

do u upgrade your components often?

if so just buy a cheap 128mb 9600xt or 9800 or nvidia 5700 or better. or well I don't know I'm quite confused what to buy too

should I wait for pci express to develop further. should I get a pc4400 ram? if so which mb should I get. if I get a new mb I should get pci express vga card? then I'd also want to get a sata wd 10000rpm hdd.

should I get a shuttle pc and get rid of the big box?

should I rob a bank and let go off my expensive hardware needs problem? can someone assist me when I'm robing the bank, I need invisiblity hack.

Take a Raddy 9800XT will suite you, if you got plenty of bucks then consider X800, i myself don't favor nVidia, not many tweak to try and the performance (my opinion) is not comparable to ATI.

Take a Raddy 9800XT will suite you, if you got plenty of bucks then consider X800, i myself don't favor nVidia, not many tweak to try and the performance (my opinion) is not comparable to ATI.

i agree, nvidia cards are generally hoootter and hiiigh power consumer.

I'd take nVidia any day - wide availability, and at various price-points too (which are worth the price you pay at mainstream/low-end sections of the market). And they are the technology leaders anyway, so you have no way of them falling backward.

for a 6800 u'd need more than 200. and a pci express supported mb

OT:

Where did you read/hear that?

NV40 is AGP and PCI Express(through HSI) chip according to my sources.

on-topic:

9600XT, 9800pro, 5700 ultra3, 5900xt are viable choices.

9800 pro > 5900(XT) > 5700 ultra3 / 9600XT in terms of performance

well yes I know it supports 8x but then what's the point of buying it if its not going to work at 16x?...

well yes I know it supports 8x but then what's the point of buying it if its not going to work at 16x?...

Looks like you have been victim of some mis-information......

There's NO AGP 16x - and no proposals of one either. The AGP slot peters out at the v3.0 standard (which is 8x). All graphics cards beyond that will have to move to PCI-Express.

The PCI-X standard used on some Intel-based servers have a very high bandwidth slot (x16). That's what you are confusing with the graphics....

LOL, I'm gonna steal your line now XtremeMaC :

You need a good vacation (been getting confused a lot recently). (just kidding, no offence meant)