Best graphics card for $150-$200

[man]

What should I get? Haven't been keeping up with the desktop tech but I just picked one up that needs some upgrades.

btw specs

Pentium D 2.8
2gigs ram
nVidia 6800

[RandomGuy]

get a newer radeon 4800 series.... with ddr5.... you can get them cheap enough now..

and spend the left over money on a power supply...

Microcenter had 1gb ddr5 4890's for 129 a few weeks ago

that plus a 70$ power supply would cut it for you

[DemonEyez]

if hes running 6800 i dont think he has pci-e. I wouldnt spend 200$ on a graphics card. just save up more and upgrade everything

[man]

yeah it's pci-e

And do Radeons really stack up to nVidia cards or should I go for a 9800gtx or x285

[man]

ok, should I go with a 4870 w/ 2gb Ram or a 4890 w/ 1gb?

[guinness]

for the best output for the best price,you need to buy a 4770 abd crossfire it.it will cost you about $240 total for both of them,and it will perform better than ANY 9800and will cost what one 9800 will.i am guessingthat you are using a AMD chip and board,right?this card is also a GDDR5 pci express 2.0 x16 HDCP.by itself it's a great card,but when you crossfire it is when it out does anything else out there that is not a workstation raphics card.

[osiriskidd]

for the best output for the best price,you need to buy a 4770 abd crossfire it.it will cost you about $240 total for both of them,and it will perform better than ANY 9800and will cost what one 9800 will.i am guessingthat you are using a AMD chip and board,right?this card is also a GDDR5 pci express 2.0 x16 HDCP.by itself it's a great card,but when you crossfire it is when it out does anything else out there that is not a workstation raphics card.

that'd be great.
except the headache and hassle from game support would far exceed the cool factor.

SLI & Xfire have huge problems. WoW just fixed theirs, and that game's been out for almost 5years

[ironchef]

for the best output for the best price,you need to buy a 4770 abd crossfire it.it will cost you about $240 total for both of them,and it will perform better than ANY 9800and will cost what one 9800 will.i am guessingthat you are using a AMD chip and board,right?this card is also a GDDR5 pci express 2.0 x16 HDCP.by itself it's a great card,but when you crossfire it is when it out does anything else out there that is not a workstation raphics card.

You might want to read his original post where it says he's running an Intel CPU.

[man]

for the best output for the best price,you need to buy a 4770 abd crossfire it.it will cost you about $240 total for both of them,and it will perform better than ANY 9800and will cost what one 9800 will.i am guessingthat you are using a AMD chip and board,right?this card is also a GDDR5 pci express 2.0 x16 HDCP.by itself it's a great card,but when you crossfire it is when it out does anything else out there that is not a workstation raphics card.

Except I can get a 9800 gtx for <$100 so i could get 2 of those

[Allshow97]

Except I can get a 9800 gtx for <$100 so i could get 2 of those

Why not just get a GTS250? It's much better than a 9800... Or if you want to go ATI the 4770 is a great choice. My fiance runs one in her rig and plays just about everything I do with decent frame rates.

[96Plumls]

HIS 4890

[guinness]

You might want to read his original post where it says he's running an Intel CPU.

i did and there are Intel boards that do support ATI/Radeon crossfire.if he wants to stick with Intel only VCs,then he can buy a board that supports 3-way SLI.only thing is that if you're bus is 3x1600,you're probably going to get output on the buses of 1600 on the first and 800 or more on the second and 800 or less on the third.then the other problem is the absolute ridiculous size of the SLI card versus the ATI/Radeon cards.even fitting two SLIs on a board doesn't leave hardly any room for keeping it cool or cooler and most of the SLI's fans don't do enough for the amount of heat they produce.if i was to do it that way,i'd run a liquid cooling system around the cards on top of everything else.you'd still come out better getting a crossfire ready Intel board after you had done all that extra stuff to the SLI board.the only reason Intel wont produce or allow to be compatiable with alot of crossfire setups is because Intel is the CPU Mac uses in their machines and Mac is lie the best-friend of NVIDIA.doesn't mean they don't make them or that they wont work,it's just that they don't like it.better performance for better price.Macs are expensive,i know because i only use Mac,and they are because they are hardware specific.

[man]

HIS 4890

I might get this card

[BB1_Luda]

pentium D? wow.

what ever you decide... check the on min spec processor requirements.\

MY buddy just bought a gtx260 and when he boots he gets a black screen because his processor is an old single core it aint working. (I think requirements where atleast a Intel core2 or AMD x2 architecture)

I have the same gtx260 but I have a Intel i7 processor @ 3.8ghz and it runs flawlessly.

[YoTa_BoX]

iv got to be honest, iv been through a lot of video cards and ati's are still pieces of shit that just mess up all the time. Maybe i just have really bad luck or something.

For a long time Ati had real bad problems with driver support but i think they are past that now. But i swear to you, every Ati card iv gotten has had problems. Why do i keep getting them you might ask, because they are cheap and im always after a bargain..Iv had my fair share of Nvidia cards as well and my next video card purchase will be one.


im currently running an ATI 2600xt -_- it over heats every time i have a video full screen.

[guinness]

iv got to be honest, iv been through a lot of video cards and ati's are still pieces of shit that just mess up all the time. Maybe i just have really bad luck or something.

For a long time Ati had real bad problems with driver support but i think they are past that now. But i swear to you, every Ati card iv gotten has had problems. Why do i keep getting them you might ask, because they are cheap and im always after a bargain..Iv had my fair share of Nvidia cards as well and my next video card purchase will be one.


im currently running an ATI 2600xt -_- it over heats every time i have a video full screen.

well,the fan on that model is not what that card obviously needs for it to work at the correct speeds,temp.,or peak performance.if i'm not mistaking,that card is an enclosed unit,right?the new ATIs are not and therefor allow for more air to run and flow across and/or through the card.NVIDIAs are enclosed also,but i will say that they do at least give it a good enough fan for it to work better than the enclsed ATIs.

[man]

pentium D? wow.

what ever you decide... check the on min spec processor requirements.\

MY buddy just bought a gtx260 and when he boots he gets a black screen because his processor is an old single core it aint working. (I think requirements where atleast a Intel core2 or AMD x2 architecture)

I have the same gtx260 but I have a Intel i7 processor @ 3.8ghz and it runs flawlessly.

I have never heard of a graphics card not working because of too old of a processor... but I'll keep that in mind

[TheProfiteer]

Id get a GTX 260 Core 216

they are like $150 now and are pretty badass.