PCI Express Video Cards.Too many to chose from!!?

Question

I need help deciding on a video card for my home desktop.I am looking at ATI cards at 256mb but i will keep my mind open.Something under $200.00.

Answer 1

For 256MB you can find a decent card under $100. But aim for the highest memory you can in your budget, but dont sacrafice quality for numbers. Dual DVI can be good for a cool dual monitor setup for extreme multi-tasking, while both DVI and VGA ports on a single card increase your connectivity options. TV Out is nice if you want to connect your computer to a TV to watch movies, while TV In would allow you to use certain software to record shows to your hard drive and watch them whenever like a DVR or to convert them to play on your portable media devices.

Here's a few that I think look good for your price:

DVI/VGA/HDTV Out
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2490606&CatId=0

Dual DVI/HDTV Out
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2317915&CatId=0

Depends on your needs but those two look good and are plenty for your budget.

Answer 2

I think the best budget buy currently is the X850XT if you can find them around. I got mine (a Saphire) from newegg.com for $125.00. Also put a Zalman VF900-CU on it (have to keep things cool). I play every game out there (Elder Scrolls 4-Oblivion, Call of Duty 2, you name it) at good resolutions and with plenty of visual detail options set to "max".
My specs: AMD 4400+ X2 on a BFG 939 nforce4 motherboard
2 GB PC3200 Kingston Hyper X
2x250gb WD SATA hd in RAID 0
1x120gb Maxtor SATA hd
X850XT w/ 256mb DDR3 PCI Express x16
Dual NEC ND-3500A dvd burners
Coolermaster 600 watt psu

Also, check the video card table at tomshardware.com
You'll see that for the X850XT literally smokes the X1600 for less money. Only things you miss are HDR and PS3.0. And you get MUCH higher frame rates.

Answer 3

look at the pixle pipe lines and amount of ram and if it ddr3 you should at least get a 16pixle pipe and 256mb ddr3 for that price then look at the gpu mhz if your running media center ati seem to run better after windows updates unless your running the better nf4 boards that cost $200 or more

Answer 4

Here are some links that may help you decided.. Several are caomparison sites and also one link takes you to a "How to Buy a Graphics Card site" :

http://www.gamegiants.net/forum/viewforum.php?f=13

Answer 5

You could get ATI X1600 PRO for about 175 dollars.It has 512MB

Answer 6

Don't complain. If you lived in Africa, Albania or N. Korea you won't have this problem. Thanks for capitalism huh??