Best video card under $200 for Oblivion

[Hot Sizzle]

Gettin ready to build a new system and wanted to know what video card to get using PCIe, specifically to play Oblivion. Budgets a little tight, so something under $200 would be good.

Also would this chip be good for Oblivion, AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Venice 2000MHz HT Socket 939 Processor Model ADA3500BPBOX - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16819103533

[Dr Mario Kart]

It looks like newegg has quite a few varieties of 7600 for under $200.

[UnderwaterMadman]

Is it an option for you to go socket AM2 instead of 939?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103633

The AM2 version of the 3500+ is only a little bit more and that way you would at least have a decent upgrade path for the future.

For Oblivion try to get an ATI Radeon instead of a geforce. They tend to perform better in oblivion, or so most people say. But if other games are important to you as well I would also suggest the geforce 7600.

[Americanpierg]

Is it an option for you to go socket AM2 instead of 939?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103633

The AM2 version of the 3500+ is only a little bit more and that way you would at least have a decent upgrade path for the future.

For Oblivion try to get an ATI Radeon instead of a geforce. They tend to perform better in oblivion, or so most people say. But if other games are important to you as well I would also suggest the geforce 7600.


the ati cards shows weird shadows...but i think the best card under 200 is the x1800xt 256mb...3rd/4th fastest card series on the market right now (7950gx2, 1900xtx/xt, x1800xt, 7900gtx) ...u can find it for around 190-210 if u put 10 minutes of searching

[Hot Sizzle]

Is it an option for you to go socket AM2 instead of 939?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103633

The AM2 version of the 3500+ is only a little bit more and that way you would at least have a decent upgrade path for the future.

For Oblivion try to get an ATI Radeon instead of a geforce. They tend to perform better in oblivion, or so most people say. But if other games are important to you as well I would also suggest the geforce 7600.

Oblivion is the game I'm focused on running, but I definitely want to play upcoming games like BF 2142. So would the x1800xt still be better than the 7600?

I plan on upgrading to a dual-core amd 1-2 years from now when they become more reasonbly priced. I see that the ones that are out now are 939 socket, but will newer ones be using AM2 as well?

[UnderwaterMadman]

Oblivion is the game I'm focused on running, but I definitely want to play upcoming games like BF 2142. So would the x1800xt still be better than the 7600?

I plan on upgrading to a dual-core amd 1-2 years from now when they become more reasonbly priced. I see that the ones that are out now are 939 socket, but will newer ones be using AM2 as well?


AM2 is the future for AMD cpus. I don't think there will be any new socket 939 chips ever. So in 1-2 years you might have trouble even finding a new (as in sealed/unopened) socket 939 dual core and if you do it would most likely be expensive (compared to the same AM2 chip). With that said, get an AM2 motherboard and processor, in 1-2 years the dual cores will be cheaper on it and hell by then there will be quad cores and countless amounts of other crazy shit out that you could upgrade to.

Also, Intel has some interesting stuff comming out next month, Core 2 Duo, that should outperform an Athlon 64 without sweating. However, it will probably cost about twice as much as that CPU you are looking at, not to mention the motherboard will probably cost more to, so it might not be feasible to even consider it.