best video card for $60 or $70?

[doraemonkerpal]

i'm looking for a "bang for the buck" vid card. i don't know much about them b/c i stopped working at computer shows about a year and a half ago, and i'm sure anything that was available then is outdated. i have an old school geforce w/ 32mb, and by old school, i mean the original geforce that came out like 4 years ago LOL!

any suggestions? thanks!

edit: here are the suggestions i've received so far:

Radeon 9200SE 128MB 8x AGP Video Card
Radeon 9600SE 128mb
Radeon 9200 (non-SE)

[PsyClerk]

You might be able to find a GeForce 4 for that price. Be sure to get the Ti, not MX. You can get a GeForce 4 Ti 128MB card for about $85-$90. I know it's more than $70, but not much and it's worth it.

[spidey]

Do you plan to play any newer games? If so, stay away from ATI's SE line.

The recent bang for your buck video card is the 9600 Pro. It's $130 shipped @ newegg.

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-291&depa=0

I'd suggest waiting till the new line of cards to come out for price drops on the old ones. It shouldn't take too long. The NV40 is going to paper launch tomorrow and the R420 will soon follow.

[EggViper]

if ur going to spend on a video card, don't spend on the SE series, they suk pretty bad. ur gonna b a lot better of just saving up a little more and getting the 9600 pro like spidey suggested, i have 2 of them and they work great.

[doraemonkerpal]

THANKS FOR THE SUGGESTIONS CAGers :D! i'll take it into account when i finally purchase one. i tried looking some of them up on tom's hardware, but could only find old reviews/articles. :(

[regisphilbi0]

What games do u plan on running? That will help people decide what video card to recommend. If u plan on running current games (i.e. UT 2004) save and get the 9600 pro mentioned earlier. OTher wise the game will run at maybe 8 frames per second. BUt if you just want to run solitaire, any video card will do.

[doraemonkerpal]

i just bought farcry and the minimum specs were "64mb video card." i can play it on my 32mb card, but it's really slow sometimes (and i'm running the game on low specs). i have 512mb of memory and an athlon 1800.

[SneakyPenguin]

go with the 9600 then. its supposed to be really good for the money (i myself have a 9800, and it rules) and i heard it can run everything jsut fine.

[doraemonkerpal]

ok, sounds good. i'll check it out this weekend :)

btw, do you have the same avatar as "joeboo" spidey?

[spidey]

I'm pretty sure I had the avatar first. I posted in the avatar thread when avatars were introduced.

I just don't post as much as I did before. :)

[Rich]

I just recently bought a 9800SE because I was too cheap to pay the extra $40 for the 9600XT, and quite frankly, it does suck. :) Still, worth the price ($149) alone for the dual monitor support. It does give good picture and all, but it seems to be eating my 512DDR RAM as I get Teamspeak (talk program) lag while playing Call of Duty and my FPS drops in a huge area. Aside from that and the random split second flicker, though, I consider it a pretty good card based on the money I spent. I'd recommend a SE for a true cheapass. :)

[redgopher]

Save your money and get a good card. I'm very serious. Don't waste your money with lots of little upgrades, go for the big kahuna and you'll save money in the long run.