Want a new cheap video card - Any suggestions

[Devezu]

Well, title says all. But, i am picky and it must:

1.Have 256 TRUE vram (none of that hyper stuper vuoooster memory s**t)

2.Be nvidia and Pci-e (so it plays nice using the closed source drivers and compiz fusion)

3.be less than 100 dollars (<50 would be reeely nice)

4.Be able to play half life 2 (in windows) at at least 1024x768 with all details at extremes

5. Fit inside my HP Media Center m7250n nicely... i dont want it to be a big diy project, just a matter of cable swapping

Please do not flame and if you have a suggestion, a link would be very helpful

PS - no, i will not convert to a PS3 computer

[The Noble]

No. That card sucks, frankly. I have an Nvidia 8400 M GS, which kicks that card's ***, and it's a laptop card. Truthfully, I'd go for a 7600GT, as it will be able to handle anything out there, has great driver support, and is pretty darn cheap. For comparison, my card handles HL2 very well in linux, and would be maxed out in windows (never gave it a test, but wine has some problems and is stilll easily playable).

[artinla]

Buy this, don't even consider anything else.. Especially that wimpy 7200 you were looking at.

It is an NVIDIA 8600GT with 256M DDR2. It will kick *** on any game you want to play. With the rebate, it ends up costing you $73.

Newegg is a good place to buy from too.

If that doesn't work for you, don't buy anything less than a 7600gt. I have two of them and they are the minimum card that will run this years games such as UT3, ETQW, COD4, MOH:Airborne, Crysis (the toughest one).

Also, if you don't have at least 1G of RAM, you can forget running those games at a playable speed. 1G costs about $30.

Go buy yourself this stuff for Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa or whatever holiday you celebrate.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814122034
and
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146573

Cheers,

Art

[Devezu]

So then is it TRUE 256 mb? If it cant do the stated without the super memory buost s__t then its good

[mavsman4457]

What is the cheapest card that can run all the effects in compiz fuzion? I don't care about gaming besides emulation and AFAIK emulation doesn't require a good graphics card at all. I just want to run compiz fusion for as cheap as possible, any suggestions?

[cogadh]

Anything from Nvidia from the FX series of cards to today's cards will easily run Compiz with full effects enabled.

One question I'm surprised no one has asked, what bus do you need for this card? If your system is still an AGP system, you won't be able to get anything newer than the GeForce 7600GS/GT. All Nvidia cards newer than that are PCI-Express only, so if if you don't have a PCI-x system, you can't use them.

[artinla]

That is true, however the card that he originally referenced was a PCIX card, so it was implied that he was looking for PCIX.

To answer the question about the Video RAM, that is a true 256M on the card.

I doubt you will find a better deal considering how powerful the 8600 is.

If you want to compare different cards and see what the performance is like, google "vga charts 2007" and have a look at Tom's charts.

BTW, for those that have a little more to spend, Bestbuy was selling 8800GT 512M BFG cards for $247 last week. That is a steal for sure. They are near the very top of the performance chart for single video cards. I bought one and it is the real deal.

Art

[barney385]

You want a video card with at least a 2.0 shader pixel modeler.

3.0 is even better...

The 8000 series is capable, but I have a laptop that I game on and I'm hoping to get a 7950 preferably, or settle for a 8700m.

All Nvidia of course.

Happy Hunting...remember, the shader pixel modeler is very important if you plan to run new games.

:popcorn:

[Victormd]

Probably the cheapest you'll get is the Geforce fx 5200 (~$30,00) and works like a charm with compiz fusion. Plus, there's a ton of support for it...

[The Noble]

This man speaks the truth. The 8600GT is a quality card, in both windows and linux. It gets around 10,000 fps in glxgears, which is nothing to sneaze at. Jump on that deal as soon as possible.

[bufsabre666]

i have a 7600gt and on windows ir tends to spank my friends 8600gt, and on linux it has very good driver support, i havent checked the gears but still its very nice, and i picked it up for 90$, 256mb ddr3 ram, i really like it and am getting a second asap

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16814150185

now comes with a 20$ rebate

[timjayko]

just get a ps3 for 399.. theres an official linux distro (yellow) dog) for PS3, and As of Linux Kernel 2.6.21 There has been official PS3 Linux support and so no patches are required for it to run.. you wont have to worry about upgrading your PS3 hardware.. and you can pick up some ******* hot ps3 titles to come (metal gear solid IV, Haze, near future FFXIII).. not to mention current stuff out there.. ratchet and clank, UT3, Call of Duty 4, Assassins Creed.. the list just goes on..

[The Noble]

just get a ps3 for 399.. theres an official linux distro (yellow) dog) for PS3, and As of Linux Kernel 2.6.21 There has been official PS3 Linux support and so no patches are required for it to run.. you wont have to worry about upgrading your PS3 hardware.. and you can pick up some ******* hot ps3 titles to come (metal gear solid IV, Haze, near future FFXIII).. not to mention current stuff out there.. ratchet and clank, UT3, Call of Duty 4, Assassins Creed.. the list just goes on..

Then he might as well get an 8800Gt, which would kick the **** out of the PS3, on both price and gaming capabilities. The point of this is that he only has 100 bucks for a card, and the PS3 doesn't fit that bill. Rather he should get PS2 if he wants to stay under his budget.

[Devezu]

I dont have enough money to get the 8800/8600. Any other suggestions?

EDIT: I found this one! any good? (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127312

[bufsabre666]

the x500 nvidia series has always been a joke IMHO youre better off with a cheapo x600 series then a moderate x500

and you dont need a 8000 series card, theyre pretty mucht the same as the 7000 series except for the 8800's which are out of this price range

and even if you have windows vista also, dx10 is a joke

[artinla]

http://www.newegg.com/Store/Brand.aspx?Brand=1315&name=ASUS

That is the cheapest thing that will suit your needs. If you can't afford that one, you better just save your money and wait.

[khowe]

I found a good deal on an nvidia 7600gs 128mb card @ geeks.com

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?inv...HDTV-P&cat=VCD

Details on the web site are a litte off...

It has ddr3 instead of ddr2.
It has a heatsink and fan instead of giant 2 slot heatsink.

Some other details...

You can use "gottadeal" for a coupon code and get 10% off.
gpu is clocked @ 500mhz
ddr3 is clocked @ 500mhz (1000mhz effective)
gpu is 80nm g73-b1 revision introduced last January 2007.

I got 400+ fps in Quake3 @ 1024x768 with all settings maxed.
Plays Enemy Territory : Quake Wars much smoother than my old ati x1300 pro

[agtownz]

It is an NVIDIA 8600GT with 256M DDR2. It will kick *** on any game you want to play. With the rebate, it ends up costing you $73.
DDR2 for video cards is a big no-no. Only go with GDDR3, or else you can say goodbye to about half your video card bandwidth (at least).

[kolbycrouch]

well you could be cool and mod an xbox... or better yet a dreamcast, you might just be able to play solitare without any lag LOL

[heatblazer]

http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/02/04/best_cards_february_2008/

[tkmn]

Take a look at the new Radeon HD 3650.

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=985&num=1

[Devezu]

Ok. After much research, how is this one?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133197

Also: is gddr3 for the video card supported for my PC?

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/genericDocument?docname=c00503720&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN

HP Media Center m7250n Desktop PC - Product Specifications

[anjilslaire]

As long as the card will fit your PC (PCI-X, etc) the type of ram on th card is irrelevant as far as compatibility with your PC. Note I said compatibility, not performance-wise. I agree, good ram on a video card is important. But, as long as the card has a compatible interface with your mobo, you're fine.

[Extreme Coder]

Why not choose an ATI card?

[theproc64]

my 8500gt gets around 3000 fps in glxgears with a 3 ghz pentium 4. If I were you, I'd buy a 8600gt off of ebay for $50.00.

[Sammi]

Why not choose an ATI card?
Because Nvidia have the lead in Linux driver compatibility. If you want things to work in Linux, you use Nvidia.

This may change in the future, but why bet on it when you can get the sure thing with Nvidia.

[Devezu]

OK - i think i finally have it (after much searching).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814134039

Yes, a 8600 w/ 512 vram and gddr3. Perfect. Is this one decent enough to run HL2 maxed out at 1073 by (whatever)?

[Devezu]

I want to thank everybody who helped me choose a great video card. The suggestion help me get the best possible for my pc. Thank you. i ended up going with EVGA's 8600gt w/ 512 gddr3 vram.

[merlyn]

Gosh, I got to this post a little late.

This (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121069) baby here looks nice. Asus have a pretty good rep, & with the cashback offer is pretty good value.

Anyway, keep this thread alive and let us know how your new card turns out.

Cheers.