Video card choices
 

I know this is a pretty lame/general question but bleh.

I have around 200 dollars.

What's the best video card I can get right now for that money? I'm just looking for a few opinions here.

I've gone on sites and read stuff, but frankly there's just too many choices out there and it all starts getting confusing. The one I have now is a
9600se, and it just doesn't do what I need it to do (to play games of course :D, Titans Quest and Oblivion to name two).

Thanks in advance.

1. Do you have an LCD or CRT monitor? And what resolution do you run it at?

2. You need to pick an AGP card?

3. Answer these questions and I'll help you pick a card!!

Double Post:
BTW- ATI always has great refurb products available. This X800 XL is a dang good AGP card for $120. These cards do come with manufactors warrenty as well. I got a x800 XT-PE that way... and runs Oblivion well at 1360x768 w/ Bloom and 2xADAA and 8xAF.

1. Yes, AGP

2. 18 inch LCD :D

Thanks for the help!

And if you wan't the best for 200$ GeForce 7600GT will be the way to go.

Except that is a PCI-Express card....

So I would go with what I recommended above (x800 xl), or look on NewEgg/ZipZoomFly for ATI X800-X850 cards. Try to stay away from the GTO cards. PRO cards are ok, but XL and XT are probably the cards to get. I assume you run your monitor at 1280*1024? If so, these cards should work well for you, even in Oblivion.

Cheers

7600GT will be released in July for AGP, strange enough. I guess with the 7800GS and this, AGP still has some life (and bandwidth!) left.

The nVidia 6800GS should be a direct competitor for the same price. I would prefer it to ATI because I'm not in favor of their lame drivers. (What do they need MS Framework installed for??)

That is strange news... This might be something to hold out for.

MS Framework is really not a big deal. It is for the CCC and the "fancy" box and stylings you can have with it. MS Net 2.0 is really not an intrusive piece of software, it facilitates #C programming and window stuff for easier programming.

I'd go GeForce line, I'm not too fond of Radeons. Anyways, the 7600GT whenever it comes out for AGP is a very good choice. I'm not sure about Titans Quest, but Oblivion doesn't need all that much. My 6600GT plays that. I'm not sure the rest of your specs though.

Heh thanks for all the replies guys. Took note of all the cards you mentioned so I'm gonna just research em a little more and make a decision..thanks again for the help ^^