DescentBB

The twist is it has to be LESS THAN $100

Thanks in advance for the help.

Pricewatch lists a Radeon 9700 Pro for $99. Didn't look who made it, but I've had my 9700 Pro for 2 and a half years now, and it still runs the latest games decently.

Why not $100.05? Or $101.00?

Placing restraints on your top price isn't that smart. You might get something which costs $106 and will pull 25% more frames than something at $99.00

Saying that however, I have no recommendation, seeing as my Gigabyte, passively cooled X800XL just cost me $630.

MO do you act stupid on purpose as some kind of joke or can you not help yourself? Your self righteous crap is unwelcome.
For future reference people in this situation would normally say "I recommend X but for a few dollars more you could get the much better Y".
Posting without adding anything to the proceedings is what "isnt that smart".

You can get vanilla Geforce FX 6600 cards for around $100.00 pugwash. Check it out.

Mobius wrote:I have no recommendation

then why did you even post?

Best place to look:

http://www.pricewatch.com/mn.aspx?i=37&f=1

I see a RADEON 9800 128MB for $102.

I was kinda hoping not to have to go and figure out whether the 9800 is better than the 6200 or the 8512 or whatever. I was hoping someone here had read those reviews and comparisons already and could help me out.

Topher, I always start on pricewatch but I always seem to finish at Newegg.

9800 is a very good card for the price. It supports PS 2.0/DX9 and will run most effects in most games.

I have a 9800 PRO 256 meg (so faster and more ram, but the same features) and it runs great.

LOL Pugwash - same thing happens to me! Start at pricewatch, end at newegg.

[edit]
Useless banter ... forgive me plz ...
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Iceman wrote:I can only hope that someday God will use me in this way so that I too can help save my brethren from the despair that is so prevalent in the absence of God.

Iceman wrote: Can you not just STFU unless you have something constructive to add or is there some reason why you are unable to chill out?

Out of the same mouth procedeth blessings and cursings . . .

Or you could all STFU and get back on topic.

I'll second the vanilla 6600 since I like nvidia drivers.

If you purchase a 9800, make sure that the memory has a 256bit-wide bus, and not a 128bit-wide bus. It's one of many manufacturer's favorite ways of reducing the cost of that board, and it really hammers performance. The built by ATI 9800s all have 256bit memory, 3rd party boards are the ones you have to watch out with.

I don't think anyone ever messed around with the 9700 Pros specs to reduce price, and they perform pretty much the same as a vanilla 9800, so that could be a nice buy if there's really one for $99.

They did mess with the 9700 specs, it's called the 9500 Pro

Vander wrote:Pricewatch lists a Radeon 9700 Pro for $99. Didn't look who made it, but I've had my 9700 Pro for 2 and a half years now, and it still runs the latest games decently.

Same here.

<3 u guys, thanks for the advice.

the 9800 is an SE? does that eliminate it? and which is the best outta these three?

9800: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... ideo+Cards

9700pro: http://www.imagestore.us/product.asp?pf ... 700%2D128P

6600: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... ideo+Cards

ps just found a refurbed 9800pro for $99 what about that as an option (Ive always had good luck with refurbs but never tried a refurbed vid card before)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814102286

of those three, the 6600.

9800 would probably beat out a 6200 (depending on the 9800 model - haven't read up on it much) any day of the week, but a 6600 is better still...

If you can go a little higher this one has 128-bit memory.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814121197

I have the 256Meg version and it beats my friends 9700 pro by a good bit.

DarkShadow wrote:If you can go a little higher this one has 128-bit memory.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814121197

I have the 256Meg version and it beats my friends 9700 pro by a good bit.

FWIIW, I would second that one.

You can compare the performance of all three in this review. While a full 6600GT will consistently outpace the 9800 and 9700 Pro, the vanilla 6600 bounces around a lot in the scores.

At any rate, if you go with a 6600 definetly get the 128bit 6600 over the 64bit 6600(it's a 128bit in the review, the 64bit would perform worse).

No, the 9800 we ment is not the SE. The SE cards are the Sucks Edition (though I'm sure the marketing department has better words for the acronym). If you want a 9800, then it should say just that. Radeon 9800 and no other suffix. Neweg doesn't seem to have any regular 9800s, but if you can wiggle the budget there is a full blown
$120 9800 Pro

6600 GT. a smidge better. Runs all the new games reasonably well. Better if you have the CPU.