vid for $100 or less

[mousepotato11]

My Vid card just went the way of the wolly mamoth....
I have an Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe mobo with name brand 480w power supply, I run 1 SATA2 320g HD and 2 IDE HD's and not much else that draws power (except when I fire up my 2 IDE/USB backup/storage drives)...anyway, I'm looking at a couple of cards (G-Force & Radeon) and see a lot of possable options.
What I'm wondering...would 2 cards in the $50 or less range with SLI be the same or better/worse than 1 in the $100 range??? Would my mobo care for the g-force chipset better than ATI???
And most important (bottom line) what do you folks think would best suit me for in the $100 range???
19" ViewSonic LCD monitor...not a big gamer but would like accepctable performance all in all....
(AMD64 4000+ SD core @2.8ghz w/ 2g DDR...)

Thanks in advance!!

[Midknyte]

don't even consider SLI if you plan on spending only $100. If you're not a gamer, then why would you think of getting SLI?

You could use either an ATI or Nvidia card on the board.

It's really a tossup when you are going for a cheap video card. what other features are you looking for, if not gaming?

[mousepotato11]

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec.hmx?scriteria=AA72708
...one that I found......any good????

[mousepotato11]

I like response...I'd like to have good video w/o "sluggish" response (like this Radeon 32m pci card I had to put in since my PCIe card bit the dust). I'm not big on the latest and greatest in gameing but I don't want to be totaly without the ability to play games. One thing I was thinking was to get a decent card and later match it up and then use the SLI function but since in about a year I plan on building a new rig I may just wait and spend the $ on that and just keep this on the cheap overall...basicly I just want the best bang for the buck right now and said $100...if someone has an idea of something up to around $140 - $150 I'm willing to listen!!!
....my next build will be for play more than work and THEN I'll be looking for a card in the higher ranges for sure...
For now I'll settle for nice not great!!!
P.S. Midknyte....THANKS!!!So there's no advantage to a Nvidia card since my Mobo has a Nvidia chipset?...always wondered about that....
Thanks again everyone!!

[Train]

See where it sits on this chart.
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/graphics-cards/3dmark06-v1-0-2-hdr-sm3-0-score,538.html

[Midknyte]

That's a decent card. On par with a 8600GT or so.

If you want to spend a bit more, you might want to look for Nvidia 8800GTs.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150278

There is no advantage to running an nvidia gpu on a nvidia board.

[mousepotato11]

also....think 512 DDR3 would be any better than 1024 DDR2? (on average that is)...
what I had in this was an ATI Radeon 128m (300 or 3000?) or there about....so there's a lot of better cards to choose from!!!!

[mousepotato11]

...ok....would the 8800 use much more power???...only a 480w ps ya know!!!
...also, would I have any issues with PCIe2??
......power usage is something I should be carefull with since I have 3 HD's running (actualy 4 since one has Linux SUSE & when I backup file from my "D" drive to my USB drives I have 6 going although they have there own power....I guess they don't matter after all.....)

[Midknyte]

480W should be fine for a 8800GT, as long as it's not some generic brand.

You can use PCIe 2.0 cards in 1.0 slots. no problem there.

[Rocketmech]

Going from an "ATI Radeon 128m (300 or 3000?)" to a 8600GT or HD2600 will be a shock ! seeing the expression on your face with the 8800GT would be priceless. :D

[mousepotato11]

...I've been wanting to upgrade for a while...guess my computer was reading my mind and REALY wanted a new card!!! :)

[mousepotato11]

...another one that looks good on the surface:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3584118&CatId=3670
...any thoughts???....better than the ATI 2600???
anyone know about heat / power on this one??
...want to order one tonight so I can get this puppy running good again!!!

Thanks everyone!!!...Rocket, I'll post a pic of my face!!...lol

[mousepotato11]

...frogive me but I'm drooling over a better card..↑↑↑...the card above (↑) won't work for SLI since it's a crossfire card but as a single it should be ok and when I build another system it should be cheap to match up for a crossfire board if I choose to go that route...anyway with the $60 rebate it looks like a pretty good deal to me. Since I'm not real up to date on video cards I'd realy like someone let me know what they think....Midknyte....that 8800gt didn't get good reviews from what I saw & the 2600xt got about ½ the benchmarks of this Diamond Radeon HD 3850 ruby edition....can anyone that's "in the know" about video tell me if I'm way off base or if I'm picking out a good card???...Rabbit, you've been looking at cards lately...any ideas???...Midknyte, you said that 2600XT was ok....think this 3850 is enough better for $20 more overall???.....
...Thanks (again) in advance for all your help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) :) :D

[Midknyte]

What are you talking about? The 8800GT got really good reviews. Where are you looking?
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-8800-gt,1714.html
We give the Nvidia GeForce 8800GT our Best Bang for the Buck Award.

Positives

* Excellent performance/price ratio
* Decreasing power consumption
* Silence and card's dimensions
* PureVideo 2

Negatives

* Why didn't it offer such a card earlier?


http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3140&p=1
Whatever the reason for the 8800 GT, we are glad of its existence. This truly is the part to beat in terms of value.


The 3850 is a much better card than the 2600xt for sure, but I would still try for an 8800GT if you can. The 8800GT is on par with a 3870.

[Midknyte]

Here are a couple more:
http://techreport.com/articles.x/13479

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTQxMCwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

[mousepotato11]

Train
Senior Member


Join Date: May 2007
Location: Elma, Washington
Posts: 637 See where it sits on this chart.
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/...-score,538.html

...I was looking at Train's post for the chart at Tom's...it shows a 8800gt OC above the 3850 and even the 3870 but the 8800gts is slightly below the 3850...realy they seem pretty close but what is the diff gt vs gts vs gtx?? also the core speed of the 8800 you linked to is 600mhz with a memory clock of 1400mhz and 256meg GDDR3...the 3850 I found = 725mhz core / 1800 memory core & 512meg GDDR3....am I missing something I should know about them???....is there a way to put them side by side???....what am I missing???

[Midknyte]

You need to really look at the specs. The OLD 8800GTS was a 320 or 640MB card. The 8800GT 512 will beat the old 8800GTS.

I've given you links to a bunch of reviews, so you can patch a comparison together. Basically the 8800GT will beat the 3850/3870 and the old 8800GTS. The newer 8800GTS would be a 512MB card.

This is the NEW 8800GTS 512:
http://www.techspot.com/review/79-geforce-8800-gts-512/

[mousepotato11]

...ok....you've sold me.....is it worth gettin this 512meg 8800:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3427124&CatId=1826
....that one's at the top of my price range (well, not mine but my wife will HAVE to get a good $300 worth of clothes and stuff to "call it even")...for the $20 or so more (and $60+ more my wife will need to call it even) think I should go for the 512meg???
...BTW....THANK YOU for your advice, I value your opinion!!!

[mousepotato11]

or how about this one???......
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3525668&CatId=2306

[mousepotato11]

oops...last one is a bit over budget....

....maybe this???:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3859433&CatId=3670
...or this???
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3441351&CatId=3670
or the 256 (not much less at $129.00...)
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3606193&CatId=3668

....they seem to be about par for price unless you know where there's a cheaper one???

:) :)

[mousepotato11]

....well...I ended up with this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125088 ...Thanks for the great advice Midknyte, that's the info I needed....for another $50 I got a card that's at least twice as fast as what I was looking at...looks like I'll be a happy camper again!!!!
Thanks again, everyone here has been a great source of quality information!!!
.....Thanks 2x to you Minknyte!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Midknyte]

Wow those were a lot of choices. I would have told you get the 512 anyway. Nice cooler on that card, and the rebate helps.

[mousepotato11]

Well I got my new card in and running....Rocketmech wanted to see my face when I saw the difference from my last card......
.....posted 3Dmark06 score here: http://www.sysopt.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1444951#post1444951
....any suggestions for better scores anyone???
and THANKS midknyte...you pointed me in the righ direction!!
.....maybe next upgrade will be a nice mobo/dual-quad cpu & DDR3.......when I hit the lotto!!!! lol