Advice On New Graphics Card

Okay, here's the deal - I bought Deus Ex: Invisible War yesterday and it seems like my GeForce 4 MX 440 isn't up to scratch for it :(

Am I going to take it back? F*** no - I'm just going to buy a compatible graphics card for it :D

I've got around 60-80 to spend, but at a pinch it could go up to 110-130. Below are the chipsets that are compatible - The question is what's the best card to get with that budget, and where can I get it at its cheapest? :)

COMPATIBLE CHIPSETS
ATI Radeon 8500
ATI Radeon 9 Series (9000, 9200, 9600, 9800)
nVidia GeForce 3 Ti Series (No MX supported)
nVidia GeForce 4 Ti Series (No MX supported :angry:)
GeForce FX Series

Graphics card must support Pixel Shader

I'd personally recommend the R9600XT because its cheap (depending on where you live) and it delivers great performance for its price.

If you havent already noticed bigdawg made an awesome graphic card guide, so read that and then tell us your status

:cool2:

I'm looking at new graphics cards at the moment, and I'm on a similar budget, maybe a bit lower than yours. Bookmarked so far are...

Mediamax/PowerColor Radeon 9600 PRO 128MB DDR ATI TV-Out DVI-I Retail Box
Nice and cheap at £76, but not quite true 9600 Pro speeds.

Gigabyte Radeon 9600 Pro 128MB AGP VO
Pretty nice for £100

GeXCube Radeon 9600XT 128MB DDR AGP DVI VO
Also £100, but again not true XT speeds and I've never heard of the brand.

Abit GF FX5700 Ultra 128MB DDR AGP D/VO
£94, just to throw a Nvidia in there.

Asus ATI Radeon 9600XT/TVD 128MB & Half Life 2 Bundle - Retail
Bit pricey for me at £127, but nice card and Half Life voucher too.

Hightech ATI Radeon 9600XT 128MB AGP x8 Platinum Retail Box with Half Life 2 Voucher
Nice card again, £122.

Not much advice, but maybe some suggestions for you. Let us know what you choose and how it performs, cos I won't be getting mine for about a month yet.

edit: Oh, and if you or anyone else finds something nice between that £76 and £100 mark, it would be nice to see.

If you can, wait for the new cards from nVIDIA and ATI.

1) They may offer a new budget card :)

2) The new cards are going to ram down the prices of the current cards :)

My two cents, expect a 1-2 month wait though :(

The HIS 9600XT is supposed to be the best 9600XT going.

If you don't need VIVO or DVI, you can save (quite a lot of) money by avoiding cards with those features.

No point in buying features you aren't going to use when you could spend the same money on a higher spec gpu.

i have the GeXcube r9600XT which is suppose to be the lowest end of the r9600xt's . but i havent experienced anything bad with this card. its great

Ya my dumb ass friends mom (the one who wouldnt let me build the comp some of u may remember..lol) had some guy build them one with a faulty msi board, 512mb offbrand memory, Athlon 64 3000, and a 9800Pro and a thermaltake case which is a waste when on a budget lol...900 bux..with no HDD or optical...everything I listed is what it came with...they got there asses ripped off..and i told them to wait cuz ati is comin out with new cards and everything will go down in price alot and theres fixin to be a new case format (BTX) and everything..but they wanted to get advanced technology...when they got it a couple of months before new stuff comes out like pci express and new cards...dumbshits haha

Quote:

---

The HIS 9600XT is supposed to be the best 9600XT going.

---

that's what I have, and i love it!
500 core clock speed, very nice to look at, w/ blue led heatsink and fan
ram heatsinks on both sides of the card, VIVO, Svideo, the works
performs very well, and stays quite cool as well

Quote:

---

Originally posted by bigdawgfoxx@15 March 2004 - 23:10
Ya my dumb ass friends mom (the one who wouldnt let me build the comp some of u may remember..lol) had some guy build them one with a faulty msi board, 512mb offbrand memory, Athlon 64 3000, and a 9800Pro and a thermaltake case which is a waste when on a budget lol...900 bux..with no HDD or optical...everything I listed is what it came with...they got there asses ripped off..and i told them to wait cuz ati is comin out with new cards and everything will go down in price alot and theres fixin to be a new case format (BTX) and everything..but they wanted to get advanced technology...when they got it a couple of months before new stuff comes out like pci express and new cards...dumbshits haha

---

i remember, it pisses me off too. i hate that. lots of people are like that its just cause your young they think you cant do it. just forget it and when your older you can rip people off too haha. j/k dont rip ppl off its not nice.